Hi Ken. Nice to hear another LBC is going to move to
the santa cruz area. (I live in Aptos)
I'm not an expert on smog law, but I've had some dealing with them.
You can call DMV, and after about an hour of frustration with their
automated phone system, you might reach a human. Said human might
or might not know anything. You could also visit your local office
and spend that hour standing in line instead.
There's one in capitola and one in Watsonville, and I have found that
the people in watsonville to be more helpful(= less stressed out) than
Capatola.
I think that if a car is smog exempt, it is exempt. They might require
a VIN verification inspection if its not on on their computer (but maybe not
if it had valid registration in another state). They did
with my spit, but that was a california car had not been registered for
so long it was not on the computer. Anyway, the inspector was not
concerned by the fact it has a Datsun 210 motor, so your headers
should be OK. It might depend on the individual inspector.
Ken Key wrote:
>
> Hi Folks,
>
> This is a regional question about California - those who aren't
> interested might want to skip over the message now. I've been off the
> list over 4 years, hopefully my post isn't too out-of-sync with the list.
>
> When I moved here 4 years ago, I had to leave my 1973 TR-6 behind. It had
> just had an engine and trany overhaul, but the trany overhaul was not
> successful (read, I need someone else who knows *Triumph* tranys to look
> work on it). It has headers and a mild Isky cam, so at the time I would have
> had to do a fair amount of work to bring it into the state and make it
> legal.
>
> Now, Calif. has SB 42, which makes '73 and older cars exempt from smog
> restrictions. While the car's been back in Tennessee, it wasn't run regularly
> and hasn't been fired up in over 3 years now. Needless to say, it's
> non-operational and if I bring it in, it's going to need some help.
>
> Can anyone give me clues to what grief I'm going to run into if I try to
> bring it into the state, register as non-operational, fix it up/get it
> fixed up, and then try to get it registered as road-worthy?
>
> Amoung my concerns:
>
> Are my headers and cam still legal under SB 42 even though I'm bringing a
> car in from out-of-state or are those only for cars already registered
> in the state?
Probably (as above)
>
> What is involved in going from registered as non-operational to operational?
>
Pay fees.
> How can I road-test the car for repair purposes without being registered
> as operational? (and if a test is required for being registered
> operational, how can I test the car beforehand - catch 22!).
>
You can get 1 day moving permits at DMV for free. I'm not sure they have a
'testing'
catagory, but there is something like 'moving for repairs' and 'moving for
inspection'
etc.
> Does anyone know of a part of the state govt that I can ask these
> questions of? Some branch of the DMV? CARB?
>
> Lastly, any recommendations/warnings about shops in the Santa Cruz/South Bay
> area? I want to make sure my TR-6 is a safe, legal, fun ride to go up and
> down (what's left of) Hwy 1.
>
I don't have direct expirience with any of them. I'd be interested to
hear other peoples recommendations.
BTW, I grew up on the other end of highway 1 (near Hearst Castle) and there
was one particularly surprising hairpin that the local caltrans
workers named 'Jaguar Jump'.
> many thanks for any info and warnings!
> Ken Key
>
> PS. In years past, I have considered my choice of vendors for parts, in
>order,
> as The Roadster Factory, Moss Motors, Victoria British. Is that still
> the conventional wisdom?
> --
> Ken Key (key@network-alchemy.com)
> Network Alchemy, Santa Cruz, CA
--
Reed Mideke rmideke@interbase.com
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