Street legalizing.

-
Asktoro

Asktoro

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 21, 2011
Messages
630
Reaction score
7
Location
Montana
So my girlfriend was nice enough to say It'd be cool if i could use her garage to convert the cuda i'm selling to street legal or restore a car. I was going over information I found on the net and a quite bit of stuff will have to get changed. If nobody decides to grab my car when snow hits, I'm probably going to have my dad help me haul it to her place and fix all these things.

Specifically blinkers need to be turned back on/wired up again, needs parking brake re-installed, it has racing harness and seats... i dont know about that but im prob gonna swap those back to stock bucket seats, needs a bumper and the motor/trans I'm running definitely isn't street legal as it'd probably get too hot, plus i couldn't fill up at gas stations... need to put the wipers and motor to it back on and get that working..... re-install the original dash and door tag... =/ might get weird there as there's no proof that the car originally had those tags/vins cause the engine bay was cut out which usually has the codes stamped, right? I think that about covers most of what i need to do.... so, if the car doesn't sell, the engine/tran/racing bits are gonna be put up for sale/trade to fund converting this to street legal...

*not complete list, but what ive found thus far...

  • Horn – the horn must be audible for at least 200 feet. Can it play "Dixie" like the General Lee? Doesn't say it can't. You can get kits to play audio files through your horn. Presumably you'd want to use the regular horn blast for safety. Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" might not have the desired effect. Or it might.
  • Engine hood – you need one. Hood scoops or air intakes can't be more than 4 inches higher than hood surface.
  • Windshield – gotta have one. Tinting must allow 70% light transmittance. Tinting of front driver's passenger's windows must allow 43% light transmittance. Rear window must not have metallic or mirrored tinting/film.
  • Windshield wipers – need them. Inspect for function.
  • Mirrors – minimum is driver's side and interior rearview. If window tinting is present, a passenger side mirror is also required.
  • Steering - inspect for function and excessive wear and/or maladjustment of the linkage and/or steering gear. Butterfly steering wheels aren't allowed. Circular wheels must be 13 inches outside diameter.
  • Seat belts – need them, use them.
  • Brakes (including parking brake) – inspect for function, wear and defect.
  • Tires - inspect for wear (you need 2/32nds tread depth), damage and proper inflation. Rear tires must have top 50% covered by mud flaps on any vehicle modified from original OEM specs. If you want to mount fat racing slicks or gargantuan off-road tires, you'll probably need those mud flaps.
  • Wheel Assembly – wheel spacers aren't allowed. Wheel adapters are.
  • Exhaust system w/muffler – muffler cut outs, bypasses or similar devices are verboten. Fail if a passenger could be burned by any pipe or other system part on entering or exiting the vehicle. Excessive or unusual noise prohibited. Localities may have stricter ordinances.
  • Exhaust emission system – inspect for function.
  • Hi/Lo beam indicator - mandatory.
  • Headlights, tail lights, stop lights, turn signals – must be DoT approved, bulb and cover. Headlights must be at least 22 inches above ground. You can't alter the color of any lights (pdf). You can't obstruct the lights with grilles or impact barriers. Neon undercarriage lights may or may not be approved.
  • License plate – must be lighted. You can't obstruct view of the plates (two required in Utah), which must be visible from 100 feet. So be careful with brackets and tinted covers.
  • Reflectors - side and rear reflectors/lamps. Amber on the side, red on the rear. You can't alter the color. You'll get busted for aftermarket taillight covers.
  • Bumpers – Roll pans won't cut it unless there's a functional bumper equivalent beneath/behind the roll pan.
 
It depends where you live/ i know my local police would never be that strict. If the steering wheel was 12 inches nobody would notice. But michigan has no safety / smog inspections for passenger cars.

So right about the motor. our local roads have many green turn arrows, they stick. Each light is red longer than its green. Your engine needs to idle for a full min then maybe go 1 mile and stop again for another full min--repeat a few times to go 10 miles
 
dodge freak said:
It depends where you live/ i know my local police would never be that strict. If the steering wheel was 12 inches nobody would notice. But michigan has no safety / smog inspections for passenger cars.

So right about the motor. our local roads have many green turn arrows, they stick. Each light is red longer than its green. Your engine needs to idle for a full min then maybe go 1 mile and stop again for another full min--repeat a few times to go 10 miles
Click to expand...


not only all of that but here in detroit theres only about oh, 1 million, (give or take a few) hot rod/classic cars and the police would never have the man power in the motor city to enforce it
 
Unless you have a couple of buddies that do inspections. Wink Wink :thumrigh:My dart is very safe, but not exactly street legal.
 
Do you have a safety inspection and smog test in the county the car will be registered?? Where I live there is none. So a lot of the things on your list are kind of optional.....so to speak.....
 
Our SS cars are street legal...

as long as the car has a un cracked glass, all you lights are working, wipers, and horn.

its fine...
 

Attachments

  • DSCN1371.jpg
    105.3 KB · Views: 321
  • DSCN1369.jpg
    121 KB · Views: 314
Where did you "find" all this? Your avatar says you are in Montana, but you mention Utah.

To drive the car with Montana plates, you need to research Montana law. If you are going to transport/ sell it in, say, California, AND AND if that car still has to pass smog in CA, then you might need to get into a tizzy.

In Idaho, NObody inspects squat, for smog or anything else, except in one or two southern counties, where there ARE smog checks

You mention the hood? You sure Montana requires a hood, and the limit on hood scoops? Where did you find that?

Basically, you need good tires, brakes, tires properly "fendered" stop/ tail/ turn/ headlights that all work. I don't know if Montana requires a working license plate light. Idaho no longer does because of reflectorized plates.

You need a windshield and wipers.

There may be limits on how low or high the car can be

You cannot go wrong with "factory." If your restore the mechanical safety equipment to "factory" function, there's not much "they" can say.
 
67Dart273 said:
Where did you "find" all this? Your avatar says you are in Montana, but you mention Utah.

To drive the car with Montana plates, you need to research Montana law. If you are going to transport/ sell it in, say, California, AND AND if that car still has to pass smog in CA, then you might need to get into a tizzy.

In Idaho, NObody inspects squat, for smog or anything else, except in one or two southern counties, where there ARE smog checks

You mention the hood? You sure Montana requires a hood, and the limit on hood scoops? Where did you find that?

Basically, you need good tires, brakes, tires properly "fendered" stop/ tail/ turn/ headlights that all work. I don't know if Montana requires a working license plate light. Idaho no longer does because of reflectorized plates.

You need a windshield and wipers.

There may be limits on how low or high the car can be

You cannot go wrong with "factory." If your restore the mechanical safety equipment to "factory" function, there's not much "they" can say.
Click to expand...

for Ca you its 1975 and older dosn't smog...

they do require two mirriors
 
805moparkid said:
for Ca you its 1975 and older dosn't smog...

they do require two mirriors
Click to expand...

Ya, my attempt to point out the differences in states

In Idaho, there's only a couple of counties that require smog. Up here "there was talk" some time ago because of the air drifting in from Spokane, but I haven't heard that lately

The thing is, in some states, and I "think" Idaho, there seems to be no exclusion for older autos

The whole concept of requiring smog checks for anything more than 10 years is ludicrous on several counts

First, how can a state seriously expect you to bring a vehicle up to "new" running standards when the manufacturers themselves have abandoned support?

Second, by 10 years, MOST cars are either off the road, or being driven less and less as second cars, and certainly don't make up the "masses" that drive 50 miles a day to work.

Third, depending on the state, it's even questionable that this "pays." Some states make a racket out of smog checks, requiring repairs even though the repairs don't correct the problem, while still others probably operate smog checks at a financial loss

The State of Washington surprized me lately when they predicted via "the news" that in a few years, WA state would probably DROP smog inspections because "air quality has improved" throughout the state.

This does not affect me directly, until you want to buy/ sell a car across the WA state line.

Well, we'll see.
 
How can they be required when on earlier cars they were optional - for example early As?
 
65 Dartman said:
How can they be required when on earlier cars they were optional - for example early As?
Click to expand...

well i think ALL cars had the rear view and i think only the passenger side is optional...

i know the SS dart and cuda's had drivers delete's...
 
65 Dartman said:
How can they be required when on earlier cars they were optional - for example early As?
Click to expand...

Easy--"they" (that's "the thems") just write a law

In CA (I spent 6 years in the Navy down there) older cars, I think clear back to '55 were required to install PCV systems

So an older pre smog/ pre PCV car would come in, and here would be this huge ugly bolt-on fitting hogged onto the air filter housing, with a hose going to the breather. It all probably leaked more oil than it caught

When I was at Miramar in the '70's CA started requiring older cars (back to 60?) to install a thermostatic vacuum valve, usually in the top radiator hose, and painted the same lime green as my '70 RR, which essentially UNHOOKED the vacuum advance until the car started to overheat. ALONG WITH that requirement, you were supposed to have your timing retarded from factory, and adjust the idle screws "lean." In the kit was some green plastic caps which you were supposed to put over the top of the carb idle adusting screws.
 
I know a lot of places ,including Mi wrote the law to say a vehicle must have 2 unobstructed mirrors one of which must be the drivers side , the rear view is useless when towing a tall trailer so you must have the passenger side in that instance , at least thats how it was explained to me when I lived there .
 
Were these "rules" really matter is if you have a serious traffic accident and people get injure or killed. That is where the cops can be picky and starting talking reckless driving for having a hood scoop so high up that you could not see the other car coming at yours.

Or your brakes went out or partly out and cops start saying reckless again for driving with no emergency brakes (like it would had really help, lol)

Yea its mostly all "cool" until you start driving like an animal or people start getting injured, then your public enemy number 1, ha ha
 
There used to be hood scoop laws that were enforced but back when the police wore helmets not seatbelts. Too high and your car could be impounded cause you could run over somebody on a bicycle, etc

We had tire laws also, about 235 was the widest tire a car could have, any wider would be a safety hazard in the rain. Skinny tires hydroplane less then wide tires. Now today every sports car has wide tires, lol

Now some pd are fussier then others but chances are the cop is too young to recall how the cars were back when they were new.
 
dodge freak said:
There used to be hood scoop laws that were enforced but back when the police wore helmets not seatbelts. Too high and your car could be impounded cause you could run over somebody on a bicycle, etc

We had tire laws also, about 235 was the widest tire a car could have, any wider would be a safety hazard in the rain. Skinny tires hydroplane less then wide tires. Now today every sports car has wide tires, lol

Now some pd are fussier then others but chances are the cop is too young to recall how the cars were back when they were new.
Click to expand...

A lot of things have changed over the years. to the OP look up the laws in your state that is your safe bet.
 
ok...I am in Montana as well,,, and my Dart would never pass CA. Inspection or many other states to be street legal.... I have never been stopped or questioned.... It is loud and not exactly stock and not a bit of smog or emission on it.. Montana has very lenient laws or very liberal enforcement as long as you dont get caught racing in town.....wink-wink
 
dwgibbs said:
ok...I am in Montana as well,,, and my Dart would never pass CA. Inspection or many other states to be street legal.... I have never been stopped or questioned.... It is loud and not exactly stock and not a bit of smog or emission on it.. Montana has very lenient laws or very liberal enforcement as long as you dont get caught racing in town.....wink-wink
Click to expand...


Well if your dart is 74 and older there is no inspections or smogging it in cali.......


and I only have a rear view mirror and a drivers side door mirror
 
The reason im up with this is I'm not getting positive results from possible buyers. Most people want something street legal, even I do. So... I got a quite bit of work to pull off. The B&M racing shifter I have isn't the easiest thing to work for someone inexperienced with a ratchet type shifter (me) atop that the engine seems to be wired up in such way that if it idles and you don't keep tapping the gas at a stop light, it'll either stall or explode.... Maybe I should sell the engine+trans... It's just a pain in the *** to have a fast car nd not be able to drive it except at the strip.

Edit: I know Boise, Idaho HAS a smog law. Every time I'd travel there the sky would have this thick hazy look and you'd see testing stalls up all over town.
 
"the engine seems to be wired up in such way that if it idles and you don't keep tapping the gas at a stop light, it'll either stall or explode.... "......huh??? how would wiring have any thing to do with this????
 
I don't know.. im not good with how drag motors are config'd a member told me that with how the distributor and pump were wired.... that it wouldn't be good for idling/stoplight stuff too long....i dunno what im saying i guess.....
 
Just went back and re-read your for sale thread. That car is street legal, it's just not mild manned. Your not going to turn that car into a mild mannered car without spending a ton of counter productive money. The front end is glass, which tends to flex, crack, and flake paint off on the street(thanks to the semi tubular front end you wont get metal back on). The fenderwell headers murder the turning radius(reason #1 why mine got a sawzall taken to them and sent to scrap) The interior would cost you a small fortune to piece together. Sell it the way it is, its rough times and thats a niche car, its not going to sell quickly.

Take this how you will, I mean no disrespect I love the Fish, but that is not a 10k car. Its rough, its nowhere near stock(read: buyer doesnt have a choice in what direction to take the car, its a drag car period) and though it's set up for drag, it has zero pedigree(Read: you don't have time slips). It's not selling, in my worthless opinion, because its grossly over priced.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top