MICK’S WORKSHOP

CHECK THE NUMBERS, PINE O CLEEN, 253 V8, AND DATTOS

We’ve just had a bit of a nasty shock in the workshop. A customer dropped off a really lovely V W Beetle project and asked sked us to apply some finishing touches to o get it running right, then give it a roadworthy. orthy. No problem. Or not usually. We like working on Beetles and they’re pretty simple things to sort out.

Then one giant problem raised its ugly head d when we went to fill out the roadworthy certificate. The e numbers on the car were wrong.

It’s not that anyone had done anything illegal. gal. It’s just over time this thing has been built up using bits its from various cars and, when we get to finishing it off, ff, discover there is a whole mess of numbers that don’t match. We have a chassis number that isn’t matching the e compliance plate that isn’t matching the build tag.

This is more common than many people realise. alise. You come across it a lot, for example on old Chevs hevs and Holdens, which have numbers stamped on the e chassis. One-tonners are a good example: someone decides ecides to replace the rusted-out body with a better one, but the chassis is still good. What they forget to do is keep the correct tags

This really needs to be sorted out when the work is being done. If you can’t transfer across the tags, you need to contact your local rego people and talk to them, so there’s some sort of record of the change-over.

In the case of the Beetle, we’re going to have to approach Vic Roads (our local rego folk) and have a chat. They’ll need to see the car and it’s possible they’ll hang on to it for while. I have seen previous cases where ‘a while’ is six months!

So the moral to this story is don’t rush in when you’re buying. Okay you see a project sitting in a shed that you like the look of and you’ve negotiated a fair price. Before you go handing out the readies, do your homework and check the numbers are what they should be. If there’s a number on the chassis, does it match what’s on the ADR plate? Is the ADR plate there at all?

Now it might be the car has been rebodied and the plate you need is somewhere in the shed or even in the back paddock – make sure you get it.

I’d also be chasing down any evidence of the car having been registered before. You’re also looking out for evidence that the engine may have been swapped – which is fine, but was the local rego mob notified and is it appropriate to that car?

None of these issues need to be a deal-breaker, if you can gather up the elements you need. But it’s a lot easier to sort it out before you buy, than to discover your car is impounded for months while the local authorities decide its fate.

TOM’S MONARO

Work progresses on Tom’s mighty Monaro, the massive project build we’ve been working on. As you can see in the pic at top right, we’ve found some ‘jeweller y’ for the running gear at the front of the motor. That was harder to find than we expcted.

You might recall the powerplant is a GM small block that we’ve taken out to 427. We found the kit we wanted through a Street Machine mag advertiser, Australian Rod & Custom Components in Queensland. Looks good, doesn’t it?

Weirdly our next challenge has been finding a full set of short spark plugs, so we get plenty of clearance from the close-fit headers. Thanks to Covid, local stocks have disappeared and we’ve had to get them shipped in.