Registering Your Car Under California – SB100

[camoit]

Below is a copy of a .PDF document I found off the net.
The information is correct but it does need a little updating. So here is my 2 cents to add to his story. One big thing that has changed since the introduction of SB100 is with the dreaded SMOG Referee. Not only are they looking at just the SMOG of the car they are now going further then just the emissions of your car.

They are also looking at safety item.

#1: If you do not have the windshield and the wipers in place, you will fail.

#2: If you are missing any lights, you will fail.

#3: If the PVC system is not a "Closed" system, you will fail. Meaning you must have a hose that runs from the air cleaner above the carb or throttle body to the valve cover and one more that runs from the PCV valve located in the valve cover to the correct place on the carb or the throttle body. An open system or even a semi-open system you will fail.

#4: If you have the certificate of sequence number like I do then you may not need to take it off the trailer to be run on the dyno.

#5: AND THE BIG CHANGE. After passing the inspection you will not be given the exemption sticker on the spot like the way it was done before. After the inspection they will take pictures of your car. Front, back, odometer, VIN number, sides, and under the hood. Next they take copies of your paperwork including the statement of construction you filled out at the DMV. All of that including the pictures are sent off to a district manager of the BAR. From there it gets sent back to the DMV for review, (what ever that is). Then DMV will send it back to the BAR regional manager. Then down to the district manager who will call you at some point to let you know weather or not your car even qualifies for SB100. If they say yes, then you will need to make another appointment with the SMOG referee to take the car back to them. If they say NO you don't qualify under the AB100 law then all of your work and time was for nothing and you will be forced to go another direction. But if you do get the green light from the BAR then you will take your car back to them and they will issue the exemption sticker and then enter all the information into the BAR computer system, as the referee is the only person that can add information into there data base. Once that is done you are nearly ready to go back to the DMV. Before heading off to the DMV stop by a local place that has a truck scale and a certified weighmaster. Get your car weighed. They will want the VIN number and other information from your registration paperwork. If you don't get a weight on the car from a weighmaster the DMV will send you over to get one, so beat them to the punch and have one ready when you go back. So now you should have all the paperwork you need and be ready to head back to the DMV. Please read below to help you better under stand how this ties into the SB100 article.
Good luck to you. Just be persistent and you can get it done.

　
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From The Bench Dave Martin
Registering you Kit Car – SB100
To most, registering your kit car is probably the most frightening thing you can think of short of
taxes. In California, all new construction vehicles are registered as "Specialty Constructed Vehicles"
(SPCNS) which includes hand built, kit cars and replicas built for personal use (see DMV definition at
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d01/vc580.htm ). Registering your car is not that difficult but
the key for those of us with performance in mind is in the classifying of your vehicle by the Bureau
of Automotive Repair (BAR) with regard to the smog requirements. Fifteen years ago when I
registered my last car, a Cobra, the smog requirement was set by the State BAR Referee based on
the year of the motor which for me at the time was a 1969 Ford 429ci. With that year motor I had
to meet all requirements for 1969 which included passing the sniffer and a visual inspection to make
sure all equipment pertinent to that year motor was in place. For 1969 it was basically detuning the
motors timing and installing the factory air cleaner with the hot air tube. I purposely didn’t build the
motor "hot" so I had no problem doing this every other year and being perfectly legal while also
enjoying my ride. Of course this doesn’t work with "hot" motors or most of the crate motors from
today’s performance builders like Smeding, Rousch, or any of the Car Manufacturers. Back then it
was common to "skirt" the law and the number of ways to do that could be a book in itself, with
some as radical as having a spare motor that was installed every two years just to pass smog!
All of that changed with the passing of Senate Bill 100 in 2001. With SB100, owners could now apply
for one of 500 SPCNS Certificate of Sequence issued yearly which would allow the owner to "smog"
classify their vehicle based on either the model-year of the engine used in the vehicle or the vehicle
model-year as represented by the replica year. One off customs that cannot adequately be
classified as above will be assigned a 1960 year designation (http://www.dmv.ca.gov/vr/spcns.htm
). A note though… on a given year the state of California does not need to issue the total of 500
Certificates allowed in the bill. The number can be anywhere from 0 to 500 and they are usually all
issued by noon on the first business day of the year. Having an SPCNS Certificate of Sequence does
not alter the normal registration process – it only affects the assigning of a smog designation.
SPCNS Certificate of Sequences can also be used by existing registered cars to change their smog
status. So a Meyer’s Manx registered in 1984 could re-apply with a Sequence number and change
their smog designation today, so for those people swapping engines every two years to pass smog it
would make their life so much easier.
Ok, hopefully you’ve been saving all the receipts for the major components of your car AND
received a Manufacturers Certificate of Origin from the maker of the kit you bought. The
registration process starts on the first business day of the year in which you expect to have your car
drivable. I didn’t say 100% complete as our cars never seem to get there but drivable.
On the first business day of the New Year that the Department of Motor Vehicles is open you will
need to be there to secure one of the precious SPCNS Certificate of Sequence numbers. They are
assigned on a first come, first served basis and all come out of Sacramento. The personnel at you
particular DMV call to Sacramento to secure the numbers so the idea is to be there with all your
paperwork first. I actually was at the DMV at 4:30AM on January 2nd to await the doors opening at
9am. Needless to say I was first in line. There were six other people with me that morning with the
last guy arriving at 8am, and he got his number with no problem so use your best judgment on when
to get there.
Be prepared! You will absolutely need the following items for your trip to the DMV.
1. You will need the following receipts from your build.
a. For the Kit which hopefully included the frame and body (otherwise you’ll need
separate receipts for each)
b. The Motor. If from a private party than a Bill of Sale with the persons address and
phone number.
c. The transmission
d. An idea of the base value of the car – the DMV uses this for determining the yearly
registration fee and in some cases the state tax to charge you if you bought it out of
state (this later part seems to be random based on who at DMV does your paperwork
or possibly some other variable I don’t know about). I brought my expandaflex file
with all my receipts and a spreadsheet that totaled the major stuff. The DMV loves
paperwork. If you try to lowball them on this they will catch you eventually – See
Boyd Coddington vrs the State of California problems.
2. A filled out "Application for Title or Registration" – Form DMV REG 343
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/forms/reg/reg343.htm
3. A filled out "Statement of Construction" – Form DMV REG 5036
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/forms/reg/reg5036.htm
4. Manufacturers Certificate of Origin
If you’re there with everything filled out and ready it goes fairly quick. The DMV personnel will
initiate a registration for your vehicle giving it an identity in the database. They will assign the
Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) probably based on the kit’s serial number – this might get
changed by the Highway Patrol later. You will be asked to take a seat – don’t worry; your name
didn’t come up on a "wanted" list or anything – while the clerk starts calling Sacramento to obtain
your SB100 number. They will collect the first year’s registration fee based on the value of the car
that you give them plus the normal DMV fees and will then give you final instructions to complete
the registration process along with a temporary operating permit. You’re home free once you have
the number and you have the entire year to complete the registration process. The official SPCNS
Certificate of Sequence comes in the mail about two to three weeks later – guard it with your life!
To complete the registration process you will need to survive the three "trials of mechanism" which
will test your will. More on that next time as you need to start figuring out what time to get up on
January 2nd for the immediate future.
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On a side note, if you read this and think all of the certificate of sequence number are gone on the first day of the year you are may be in luck. It has taken time but now they are available until July. But this can vary from year to year depending on how many people apply for the exemption. I was able to get mine in April. At that time there was 178 out of the 500 left. It took some doing but there is 1 person that is in charge of them and knows how many are left. He is located in Sacramento. Thats about all I can tell you, but you can call them and ask them to find out how many are left. They will find the person in charge of the certificate of sequence numbers and that person will call you back in a day or two with the amount that are left.
The place you will find the information is with the Chief of the Registration Policy and Automation Branch in the DMV.

[camoit]

It's update time again for all the people on the web.
After standing by the phone for about two weeks a person from the DMV called back on the SB100. They wanted more paper work. (Thats what the DMV is all about, paper work.) So the paper work they wanted was the paper I used when getting a VIN number. So a quick 10 page fax over to them seems to taken care of what they wanted. Then another 2 more weeks go by weighting for that call from the BAR to tell me I can reschedule a SMOG appointment. Well the call finally came back and it was bad news,,, The BAR told me that the DMV was going to deny and revoke the SB100 exemption. WHAT, WHAT... Then they told me I can still drive it just it needs to be 2010 SMOG compliant. Ah, Ok so some one needs to be "trained" on the law and how to do there job. All I could get from the BAR was, because I used an OEM cab and doors it looked like the production truck it was before. I don't think so,,
What do you think? I know it does not look like a production truck or even close to what it did before.

ride_heigtht_2238.jpg !cid__01-30-13_1619.jpg

So I made a call to the Chief of the DMV registration department to see if he can get this squared away for me. (Same guy I talked to 3+ years before.) So I explained to him what I had and how it was built. He asked what the chaise was? I told him there was no frame or chaise. I built it, along with everything else. So he asked me to send him pictures to him. That was easy enough. So off they go and back to sitting on my hands wile the fate of my build rests with some higher up political person in the DMV. Well one more week goes by and I get another call from the BAR. The person tells me that the DMV is retracting there last decision of revoking my AB100 and is now telling them that it's all good and they are granting me my SMOG exemption.
So the moral of this story is to have persistence, call the top and let the trickle down theory to work it's magic.

So thank you, Andrew Conway, Chief of the Registration Policy and Automation Branch of DMV.

[lush90]

Glad to hear it worked out!

[camoit]

It has been nearly 30 days since I went to the DMV and played that game again. They took all of my original paperwork and gave me copies then told me it will be sent to there head quarters. So I figured I would give them a call today and see where things are at. 1:45 Pm. Of course there swamped with calls so the system will call you back. 2:21 PM they call back. The person on the other end told me my paperwork was sent to the special processing unit. They gave me the number so I gave them a call. When talking with them they told me that the BAR has declined my exemption this time. WHAT!!!! here we go again. So I call up the BAR and they tell me it's not them and explain the paper work I had should take care of any DMV problems. So I call back the DMV and talk with another person who sent me to investigations. They told me that the DMV is back to denying my registration through SB 100. Somewhere someone is trying to play God in reading how the law is applied to cars.
The law is simple and vague but you must be ready to put up a fight.

"...Section 580. A "specially constructed
vehicle" is a vehicle which is built for
private use, not for resale, and is not constructed by a licensed manufacturer or remanufacturer. A
specially constructed vehicle may be built from (1) a kit; (2) new or used, or a combination of new
and used, parts; or (3) a vehicle reported for dismantling, as required by Section 5500 or 11520,
which, when reconstructed, does not resemble the original make of the vehicle dismantled. A specially
constructed vehicle is not a vehicle which has been repaired or restored to its original design by
replacing parts..."

So from what I can see my truck DOES fit under the law. But there is some Junior person that is trying to hold me up once again. Time for more training. Now I weight to here back from the DMV. 3:34 PM We will see who wins this one.
4:16 Pm. I figured I would give a call to the Chief of Registration & Automation. The problem is that the lap top I use for E-mail has a bad motherboard and the parts won't be in tell next week. So with some Googling I found a real handy link to take you all the departments and phone numbers of the DMV. Lot's of internal numbers people don't want to give you. It would be like them giving you there Bosses direct line. So use it when you know you are right and they are wrong. http://www.cold.ca.gov/agency_display.asp?ATRID=MTRVHL

Time for some one to get there heads banged around AGAIN....

4:26 PM: Mr. Conway calls me back and guess what?? People are now trained on what to do with my registration. Now I hope the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation gets the order from DMV to have the prisoners stamp my license plate. From there the US Postal Service delivers it to me. But only time will tell if I need to use my inside contacts of the CDCR.
So here is what happened. The note from the Chief telling everyone to approve my registration was conveniently misplaced. He told me that the people I had talked to were surprised that I knew his name and had his phone number. It was strange how the small people did everything in there power to stop my registration.

[camoit]

Here is a .PDF File of all the requirements that CHP is going to be looking for when and "if" you decide that trying to build your own car or truck is what you want to do. It contains everything they will be looking for.

Cal-CHP-Requirments_for_SPCNS.pdf

[camoit]

OK so after all of the problems listed above the last thing I had to overcome was insurance. My insurance broker tried for 4 months to come up with an agreed value policy. The truck appraisal came in at $185,000.00 So you would think that some insurance company would look at it and say OK this guy is not going to destroy all the hard work he put into it. Well it turned out that the insurance was nearly the alkalies heal of the hole build. Every company and I mean every insurance company turned me down for every reason they could come up with. Some dud not even give a reason just a flat NO is all they said. Hagerty and other collector car insurance companies would not touch it with a 10 foot pole. The excuses ranged from It's for off road, It's modified. It's a mini truck. What does that mean?? Even the companies that would insure the Bugatti Veyron said no. So I finally found contacted Local Motors. The builders of the Rally Fighter. I contacted the agent they use. It took there agent 2 years and going all the way up to the VP of Progressive to convince them to build a policy just for the cars they build. Even my agent tried Progressive and they said no. But it seems there agent was able to pull the strings to get there cars insured, so I figured I would give him a try. Well after talking with him for nearly an hour I was able to convince him to try and get me insurance. So two days later he calls back with some good news and bad news. The good news is he was able to get Progressive to cover me, but the bad news was it would only be up to and agreed value of $150,000.00 That leaves me $35,000.00 short. But thats better then not being able to drive it at all. So I must thank the Premier Southwest Insurance Group for helping me out and getting me on the road.