Texas inspection question

Nope, I'm not a lawyer...I'm retired from 26 years in law enforcement.

Laws and rules typically are quite open to interpretation, and, as noted in a post above, procedures followed at one inspection site may be significantly dissimilar to those followed at another.

A law can be interpreted in three aspects...by the intent, by the letter, and by the spirit. You'd think a chain of logic would exist between them, but it ain't necessarily so.

The intent of the wirecutter law was to deter livestock theft, but the letter of the law made a criminal of any honest man who forgot to take the cutters out of his pocket before going to town. A police officer with common sense would enforce the spirit of the law, that being to bring it to bear on those with criminal intent, not some obviously honest, but absent-minded, person.

Perhaps I should have clarified that I was presenting a worst-case scenario. In real life, I've never known an inspector to ask if the engine was original to the vehicle or inspect the vehicle by any standard other than the model year, but it could happen if you encountered an inspector with blind word-for-word application of every last requirement without regard for common sense.

BTW, Bbobb, you may be thinking about the "open carry" laws in New Mexico and Colorado that allowed one to go about armed in public, but that's been illegal in Texas, without permit or legal authorization, for well over 30 years.

You can walk around with a shotgun or rifle, but most governmental entities have ordinances making that unlawful on a local basis. The Lubbock ordinance is title "Rude Display of a Firearm".

 

I've had regular tags on my '57 Ford for the last five years, but opted for Antique plates when renewed last week. $50 for five years and no inspections is a pretty good deal. The form for the antique plates is pretty vague...parades, special events, club activities and driving to/from repairs and maintenance. I think the last two leave it pretty open ended. I was at the store on Sunday and a Plano police car drive by really slowly, then I saw him turn around and park right beside my car.

He walked into the store I was in and said,
"That must be your Fairlane" (I had on my Coollows jacket).

"Yep, sure is."

"I don't know what I like more, your car or your taste in music."
(I have a Rev Horton Heat, Dead Kennedys, Descendents and an All sticker on my back glass)

We talked about cars and music for a few minutes and then I went on my way......home from a club event and/or maintenance!

Back to the original topic, if your title has the VIN on it, that's all they care about.