I recently finished the arduous registration process for a new build here in CA and I thought I’d share it with everyone that may go through it as well. I read a lot about this process on-the-line and I had a general idea of what it was going to entail, although some of it's recently changed. Some background: I started a 1932 roadster using a new chassis, a Brookville body and an 8BA flathead. I started with no VIN to speak of. Because I had no VIN to start with, I had to register the vehicle under the SB100 guidelines for a specialty constructed vehicle. Throughout the registration process, I received a lot of advice so let me summarize everything: Use a 3rd Party Registration Service: I contacted 5 of these services and none of them were able to process this unless I had a VIN to start with. Use AAA: I contacted my AAA office to see if they could help process a new registration to avoid the DMV. They were unable to do this as I had no VIN to start with. Buy an old Title and use that VIN: Apparently stamping a VIN into your frame is illegal in CA and if the DMV or CHP suspect you’ve done it, they’ll immediately impound the car (as indicated to me from a CHP friend). I didn’t want to take the chance after the time and money spent on this. So, after a lot of research on the process, I got together my paperwork and went to the DMV. I knew this was going to be excruciating, so I went in with a smile knowing I was going to kill the day by being there. 11/24/20 – First visit to the DMV to start the registration process. I took the following documents: REG343 – Application for Title REG256 – Statement of Facts REG5036 – Statement of Construction REG352 – YOM Plate Assignment Receipt for the Chassis Receipt for the Body Receipt for the Engine Receipt for the Transmission A general summary of how much the other parts on the vehicle cost. Photo of the vehicle They started the registration process and I paid my fees. The lady at the counter was nice enough to tell me to write on the Statement of Construction that taxes have been paid on all purchased parts so I didn’t have to pay them again. I asked if I could get my SB100 Sequence number and she said they can’t do that now, until a VIN is assigned by the CHP. For those of you that don’t know what a sequence number is, California provides up to 500 vehicles a year that, if the engine is considered vintage, are exempt from smog. The next day, I called the CHP and was able to get an appointment. 12/30/20 – CHP Visit I took my documents and the car to the CHP in Santa Ana. The DMV gave me a few operating permits so I was legally able to drive the car on the road, that day, for the purpose of inspection. They did a general inspection of the car and engine, looking for any trace of serial numbers that may have been ground off (indicating something was stolen). Not finding any and 45 minutes later, the guy brought back a VIN plate and riveted it to the door jam. He also gave me a document for the DMV indicating it was ok to process the Sequence number. 12/31/20 – Back to the DMV Back to the DMV to get my sequence number. The sequence number is needed for the next inspection at the BAR station. 2 hours later, I left with my number. I was there on the last day of the year, and my sequence number was 202. I guess they don’t give out that many per year anymore. The DMV indicated I now needed the BAR (smog) inspection and a Brake/Lamp inspection to finish this. 1/2/21 – Bureau Automotive Repair (BAR Appointment) I called the BAR to schedule an in-person inspection to verify the year of the engine and that it does or does not need smog. They said their new process is to do an over the phone interview then once approved, the in-person inspection. I thought this was stupid, but realized it made sense later on in that if I went to the inspection and was missing some paperwork, they’d send me back empty handed. I was able to get the earliest over the phone interview for the end of the month. They also said I need my Brake and Lamp inspection completed before the interview because I would need to submit those documents. 1/18/21 – Brake and Lamp I used one of the Operating Permits to drive the car to a State Certified Brake and Lamp shop that did the inspection. Basically, they take your drums off and verify everything is within spec. For the lights, they check that the required lights are on the car, are working, and are aligned. They asked what year this was and I said 1932, so they inspected the car based on what a pre-1940 would’ve had (i.e. headlights, high beams, tail lights, license plate light). Turn signal or backup lights were not needed. 1/28/21 – BAR interview For the BAR interview, the guy asked some general questions about the engine, make, year, specs, etc… He then emailed me a list of things I needed to submit to him, basically everything I provided to the DMV, in addition to photos of the engine. He also said even though it’s an old engine, it needed a PCV and vented cap and photos proving it. I submitted the information to him via email and a week later, I received another email saying I’ve been “approved to make an in-person appointment”. A call back to the BAR and I was able to get an appointment mid next month. 2/19/21 – BAR appointment I took the car to the BAR station, which apparently is only located on a few community colleges in the area. I took mine to Fullerton College. I didn’t have another Operating Permit, so I had to trailer it there. The BAR Referee had all my paperwork already and asked a few questions about the engine. He said he didn’t know much about flatheads, but asked about the PCV and he was satisfied with it. I didn’t need to pull it off the trailer or run it for him or anything. An hour later, he printed out some paperwork, and put the sticker on the car. 2/19/21 – Last DMV appointment (I hope) Straight to the DMV from there with all my paperwork to finalize the registration. 2.5 hours later, the registration was complete. Unfortunately, they were unable to register it with the YOM plates I wanted. They said I could submit the whole package to Sacramento and they can process it, but it’ll take 3-4 weeks, or they could issue the standard white plates for now, and I can come back in a few weeks to get the YOM plates transferred to the car once the registration is in the system for a bit. I don’t know why that would matter, and he didn’t know either, he just said that’s how it works. The other option is to use a third-party service for this so I don’t have to go back to the DMV. I opted to take the white plates so I can at least drive it now and I’ll deal with the YOM plates later. It’s finally done and street legal. So overall, I started the process 11/24/20 and finished it 2/19/21. Almost 3 months to get it registered mostly because every appointment I could get was 3-4 weeks out. It wasn’t a hard process, just extremely time consuming. The big takeaway from all this, I should’ve started with an actual 32 frame that had a VIN. If I had the VIN, I could’ve used one of those 3rd party services to reproduce a title and I could’ve bypassed all this. At the end of the day, it’s registered as a 2020 SPCN (Specialty Constructed Vehicle), not a 1932 Ford. Ehhhhh, I don’t mind what the title says. It’s a mix of old and new parts anyhow, kind of a mutt. It’s my baby, and I’m looking forward to some open road airtime!
The end justified the wait for you. I’m surprised you’ve been out of it long enough to post so soon after getting it on the road!
It is good you did it this way....Could save you some legal trouble when you sell it and down the road someone try's to pawn it off on someone as a genuine 32 Ford roadster....
I haven't registered my '36 Ford coupe in Kentucky, yet as it's still being built. We did register my wife's o.t. convertible which only had a NYS registration (car was 'pre-title' in age. We arranged transfer of insurance ahead of time and then drove her car the local DMV and presented the paperwork. The clerk said we had to get it inspected, threw on her sweater and followed us out the door and down the street to the parking lot. She looked at the odometer, noted the miles and checked the windshield to make sure there weren't any cracks or large chips in the glass and checked the VIN number. We all walked backed to the DMV office, she did her thing with paperwork, took our check and handed us a set of 'Historical' plates & temporary permit and out the door we went, changed the plates and drove home. Entire process took a little over an hour. About 3-weeks later, we received the Kentucky title in the mail. After N.Y.S., I just LOVE it here in KY. !!
“Just asking for a friend”but would like to know just what kind of “plate” would have been used by the California CHP IN 1970? Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Nice! And congrats on dealing with the beaurocracy. I've never dealt with this always started with a car with a title. Building the "Whatever" from scratch here in wonderful NYS. I'm still wondering what it's going to tale to make it legal. BTW I worked for government agencies, both federal and state for 30 years doing research, so I could tell stories about how things work from the inside, but it gives me headaches now that I am retired.
I'm under the impression that you can't get YOM plates on a SB100 registered vehicle. Hopefully for you situation I'm mistaken.
It's interesting that they required you to run a PCV system on a flathead, and yet running a PCV system was not mandatory until 1967. Anywho ... good job, man. You have/had a great attitude in overcoming the speedbumps and landmines that were waiting for you. Enjoy your ride
One of the best posts yet! Thanks for the info. I think it's going to help a lot of Californian's with the process. I'm also surprised about the PCV. I'm glad I have one. Now I'm curious as to what they do if you don't have receipts for a few parts.
That’s the main thing, doing things properly isn’t the “fast track” in most cases, but legally done, the OP doesn’t have to be thinking about worries later on.
I think this was about 1972. Attached to the drivers side door jam of my 1931 RDPU. The engine had been changed and they refused to use the number on the replacement engine telling me this was what they were going to do for all cars when the engine was changed. Note a couple of numbers blurred out. Charlie Stephens
Congrats - Thanks for all of the info - fortunate that you started the process before the Pandemic really affected doing business "as normal"
I left California early '68 - it took way too much time then to get anything done, & they treated you like garbage. ....
With the shutdown it probably only delayed me about 3 months. That was how long the DMV was closed for.
Congrats! You say it's a new chassis, so they don't come with a serial number or VIN? I wonder why, you'd think they would want a way to identify them.
I had the frame made by Classic Street Rod Mfg in Ontario. They didn't put any VIN on it that I know of. That might've been useful to know when I started down this route.
I'm happy you got the result you wanted. I seem to remember Boyd Coddington, who tried to register cars as "vintage year" tin, and was caught multiple times. His excuse was "Everyone is doing this. Why are they picking on me?"
Some chassis/frame builders do stamp their own serial numbers on the frame and most will issue a statement of origin. No state I know of uses those serial numbers though. In this state we have to have a certified welder weld our frame, have it inspected by a certified welder or have the paperwork from a frame building business. Reason being, too many scab welded things falling apart going down the road, Not only hot rods though. Back to Mangus13, congrats for getting it done right. Looks like the hard part was the wait for the next appointment for the most part. It's good to see someone actually explain the steps they went though as that may help the next guy Even though the car isn't listed as a 32 it is a 32 on everything except title and registration. To anyone who looks at it it is a 32 and not a 2o20 and so be it.
Cool you got it done ! Wasn't so much a hurdle - but my uncle did say it wasn't a walk in the park in 1949 when he did the DMV registration on his roadster build.
Great post. Thanks for sharing your journey through the CA registration process. I’m impressed with your patience with CA’s DMV. I too am curious about the inspectors PCV requirement on a flathead. Did they require one, did you modify your flathead with one or was the draft tube ventilation acceptable after all?
Did the same thing here in NC with my Brookville bodied 1931. Started in late Oct. of 2019. Had a VIN assigned within 2 weeks so I could register it but with Covid and a move of the DMV in the middle of this process the whole thing took me a full year. Finally got everything completed in Nov. of 2020. It shouldn't have taken this long as it was stated up front that they would send me a title within about 8 weeks, maybe a bit longer with Covid. They lost my paperwork twice! Thankfully I had made copies of everything I submitted. I sent everything registered mail both times and it still was lost! Finally got the name of a supervisor who was interested in solving my case and I scanned docs to email and sent them along with hard copies mailed to her directly. It isn't difficult to do just that you need to follow their process. I'll be glad to share that with anyone in NC who might have to go this route with their project. It is titled as a 1931 Ford Model A replica.
Pcm systems for California began in 1961 and retrofit was required back to 1950. I remember a friend that had a1956 Tbird and put tin valve covers on it because they would punch a hole in the cove to draw blowby into the PCV valve. Lots of older cars immediately began smoking because of all the sludge breaking loose and being fed into the intake. If I remember right all the first retofit kits were produced by Norris-Thermador and got their approval first because Gov. Pat Brown's son in law was the corporate attorney for them. I remember standing B&S Automotive in San Diego, watching the mechanic install a kit. He had a soup bowl looking device with a air pressure QD connector on it and he put it over the carburetor, pressurized the intake and then drilled a hole in the intake manifold to insert the elbow to hook the PCV valve to. Most of the wise owners got the installation paperwork, went to the DMV to register the car and home to pull everything off until the next inspection. Basically the system introduced a vacuum leak into a system not designed for it as no baffles to keep sludge from being drawn into the intake along with the blowby. Incredible mess for everyone except for the Norris-Thermador stock holders and installers .
You can get a pink for a car that doesn't come with one in CA BUT it does involve a process just as SB100 registration involves a process. I purchased a '54 Ranch Wagon with just a bill of sale. Luckily it came with a 1972 registration card. Thanks to info posted by @gimpyshotrods I knew that the original reg slip would allow me to use a bonded title service for the VIN verification. The private title service I used handled everything and I never set foot into the DMV. Once I got the title I then got an appointment with the DMV to register the YOM plates that I bought from HAMB'r @oldpl8s. This was just before the Covid thing so who knows what the process is now.
Great presentation. I was stationed up in Washington State in '68 and then down in Oxnard CA later that year. One of my Washington pals got out of the service and drove a '55 Buick back to San Diego. I remember him complaining that he had to get the '55 fitted with PCV system to register the car. Was surprised about the flat head requirement.
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