Lots of good reading material on this topic but wondering how the cars get through inspection. I have one and looking for guidance on getting it through.
I have been wondering that myself as a move to Vancouver Island is in my future plans, and I'll be bringing my fenderless T RPU.
requirements by province, from another forum... http://www.canadianrodder.com/forum/showthread.php?t=51
A good source of information, but it will be nice to hear directly from owners living in BC who have first hand experience. I know we have at least a couple members here who live on Vancouver Island. In Alberta the regulations are there, but there are plenty of fenderless cars that encounter no problems getting to or out on the road.
Here's the straight goods fellows. I called and had a good chat with the head of the CVSE (Commercial Vehicle Safety & Enforcement) when I wanted to run fenderless in my 32 just a couple years ago (the fellow was very accommodating and answered all my questions regarding this subject). In order to pass a MVI (Motor Vehicle Inspection) in British Columbia fenders are required. After the vehicle passes the inspection he told me that I would not get hassled running without fenders as long as I never drove the vehicle in the rain. He also said that if he ever caught me driving fenderless in the rain he would stop me and throw away the keys. My buddy loaned me a set of wire and cloth fenders he made up for his 32 and I bolted them on for the inspection then drove home and took them off and have been going fenderless ever since. I only ever drive my car when it's nice out anyways so all is good.
Sort of limits your use when you gotta run and hide whenever rain is in the forecast. I recall when I lived in Vancouver way back it rained every day for 6 weeks straight till bout the end of April, damn it rains a lot there..almost as much as it snows here.
The fender law is alot like the hood law? Vague? Your right, if your driving safely on a dry day, the authorities have more important things to do. But all it takes is one cop to make your life miserable. The hood law is another one. The reason for a hood i was told, is if you blew a radiator hose and you were at a crosswalk, a pedestrian could get burned. I heard through the grapevind though, that a fair weather law ( read no fenders) is still in the works!
You will need fenders to get the car through the provincial safety inspection, which will be MANDATORY when you bring it in from Alberta. Once its through inspection, well, then its kinda up to you and the cops... From what I have seen, if you dont drive the car in the rain, AND dont piss off any cops, you are ok. It helps that we are getting older too, I was stopped in a road block with 9x30 slicks and 3 1/2" bullets on an O/T car, I told him I was just driving it back to my shop, he just kinda looked at me like "Oh SURE you are" and waved me through. If that had happened twenty yrs ago, I would have probably been towed.
Well I guess I will design and build as part of my build a set of removable cycle style fenders that once unbolted will leave no evidence of their previous existence That should do the trick As far as living on the Island and not getting caught in the rain ? We all know it is going to happen, who are we kidding? I won't get bent out of shape on it. Well see officer it was sunny when I left home
I have not driven my fenderless car for a few years but did get hasseled a bit when I did. We had a crankey old CVSE guy where I am over in the Kootenays. Hes retired now so I was thinking of driving my Modifyed this summer. I had the original title for the car so I never had to get an inspection.
The rain thing is a bit overdone here. Its part of our west coast shtick. It does rain a LOT, but its generally pretty predictable (or it is if you have lived here for fifty + years anyway) Really, most sunny days are SUNNY, and stay that way, and the summers are pretty good. The main difference is, most of the days that it snows in AB, it rains, and I mean RAINS here. You can pretty well right it off from mid october to the end of march. Trust me on this, if you have an open car, fenders aint gonna matter one way or the other. If you are gonna drive an open car at that time of year, you may as well just leave a bar of soap and a towel under the seat, cause your getting a bath.
I can handle that, and the soap can stay at home. Parking the hot rod is fine with me, at least I won't have to shovel I have my motorcycles too and really good rain gear and other waterproof riding gear so there we go.
A fellow named Jim Winters and others have been working tirelessly to get a fair weather no fender exception in British Columbia. It is not an easy process, and does require an amendment or addition to the motor vehicle regulations - so if you live in B.C. and have a chance to acquaint your local MLA with our sport, please do so. Then eventually it may happen. As it is now, your ride must have fenders. For those who think they can put fenders on for the inspection, and then take them off after, consider that by doing so you may create insurance complications for yourself in the event of an accident. Worse case scenario is that ICBC will not cover you, and you are liable to the other driver. Always best to stay legal.
I don't believe insurance would not cover you. It has never been an issue that I know of. Besides hot rods don't have fenders I'll remove them after inspection and run with it when the time comes. Lots of fenderless cars out here in Alberta and for the most part no problems.
Having lived and insured daily drivers, HAMB friendlies and 60's OTs in both BC and AB, I'm inclined to be wary of assuming anything with ICBC. Just an opinion...
From what I understand, Victoria gets a lot less rain than the lower mainland anyway. Man, when those clouds back up against the Golden Ears and start dumping, they can park there and PISS down for 7-8 days straight. I think SS34coupe is from the Victoria area? Maybe him or Retrosteel can give you a better idea of the weather there than I can.
Yes, as I understand it, the act has passed third reading in the legislature, it's caught up in icbc's upgrade of their computers, should be here anytime now. I'm waiting too.
It is about time. Logging trucks with duals will chuck out a rock the size of a baseball. A hotrod won't pick up much of a stone
I'm pretty sure the General Duty police officers(first responders etc) don't care at all whether your car has fenders or not. Most Traffic police officers(99.9%) also don't care whether your car has fenders or not (yes you might run into that odd cop). But if you drive your car like an idiot, or have a horrible driving record, you will run into a lot more trouble. I would be MUCH more worried about insurance. If you go through an inspection and get a collector plate, the modify the vehicle to where it would not pass an inspection, and get into an accident, you may not have insurance or ICBC could void it. Something to think about.
I live on the east coast of Vancouver Island. It doesn't rain as much there. My model A does not have fenders on it and I run it in good weather. No problems so far. Both of my hot rods had B.C. registrations when I bought them as projects. Complete frame off builds on both cars and then I walked into the insurance office to insure them and guess what? No inspection required! If you are re-registering a car that is already in the system, you just pay the money and you are insured. I told them that the cars had been completely disassembled and rebuilt but they didn't care. When I decided to apply for Collector plates that was a different story. A detailed inspection was required. I didn't get the collector status for the fenderless A because I knew it wouldn't pass with no fenders or hood. As soon as I find some decent steel rear fenders, I am going to finish the car as a full fendered car with a hood and then I will apply for the Collector car status.
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