SS100 “replica” Project Car

[arizonian]

Originally Posted by CaddmannQ

Please understand this was not a particularly expensive car And everything is usually based on what you pay for the car. This is the least amount of money I have spent on a car since 1988.

There is no particular fee for this as a special car. I paid the same taxes and registration as any other private (non-commercial use) car that cost $9000, which was the sales price.

But there were some penalties because I paid the fees 16 mos late.

It cost $1468 for tax, late payment penalties, various minor fees, and registration for two years. Over half of that total was the sales tax. About $789 as I recall.

I didn’t buy any special vanity plates or collector car plates from the state. They cost a bunch of money plus you pay an extra 50 bucks a year to keep them. It will cost about $100 a year for my license plates now.

Compare this to my 10 year old Toyota Tacoma pick up truck, for which I paid $299 this year. Because it is a truck I paid the commercial rate. Also the truck is worth over twice as much as the SS.

AZ has a waiver form for late fees if the vehicle has not been used on the road after the tag has expired. I've used the form many times, on my buggy and on my wife's other car. Saved me a bit of cash. I don't believe AZ has a sales tax on vehicles thru private parties.

[toprecycler]

In Michigan, as I understand it, the cost of yearly registration is based on the MSRP when the vehicle was new. It never depreciate due to current value of car.

And they collect 6% sales tax each time the car registration is transferred based on current selling price, or value of car if they think you wrote down a too little declared selling price.

Taxes are waived if transferred between immediate family members.

And I think dealers are waived from the sales tax, since they can reassign the title like three times.

And you are supposed to pay late fees after 10 days of sale. I try to make sure that that date never gets out on vehicle I buy, and only put it on when I am ready to put the vehicle on the road.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CaddmannQ]

Originally Posted by arizonian

AZ has a waiver form for late fees if the vehicle has not been used on the road after the tag has expired. I've used the form many times, on my buggy and on my wife's other car. Saved me a bit of cash. I don't believe AZ has a sales tax on vehicles thru private parties.

You can get one here too but you have to file it in advance and I bought this as an out-of-state vehicle delivered to my door. That changes things a little bit.

I was in a pickle because I couldn’t drive this gasoline soaked car with the wiring shorting out under the dash. I had to take it all apart before the DMV ever got to see it.

California gives you a “non-op” permit. They used to cost $10.

That saves you paying all the back fees but the car had to be registered here in the first place to be eligible, and mine was not. I could be wrong about the technicalities of this but I never filed an non-op on that car while I have them filed on two of my other cars for many years.

Also I was not strictly allowed to have a non-op, because I drove the car around the block one time before I put it in my garage.

I think this would be completely different if I bought a car while I was in South Carolina and drove it back myself, but it’s possibly true only if my California car broke down there and I was forced to buy another car.

Anyhow the laws are a little complicated and I knew I was in violation technically, so I just paid the fine.

[CaddmannQ]

Originally Posted by toprecycler

In Michigan, as I understand it, the cost of yearly registration is based on the MSRP when the vehicle was new. It never depreciate due to current value of car.

And they collect 6% sales tax each time the car registration is transferred based on current selling price, or value of car if they think you wrote down a too little declared selling price.

Taxes are waived if transferred between immediate family members.

And I think dealers are waived from the sales tax, since they can reassign the title like three times.

And you are supposed to pay late fees after 10 days of sale. I try to make sure that that date never gets out on vehicle I buy, and only put it on when I am ready to put the vehicle on the road.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If I sell you my vehicle in California I have to report it to the state within three days. I have to report who I sold it to & their license number.

When you go to register that car they will know when you purchased it and what you paid because I’d be required to tell them.

Some people do make shady deals in this manner, but if you get caught it can cause you a lot of trouble. They can access a big fine and if you can’t pay it in time they will just sell your car, They will sell it cheap on the wholesale market and send you a bill for the difference when you still owe them money.

I think the tax is almost 8% when you buy a car. The value of the car depreciates with time and so does the cost of your license tag. There is an assumed certain minimum value so there is an assumed certain minimum tax, for any car that can be legally driven.

[CaddmannQ]

Before and after shots when installing the plates.

Blue tape hi-lights the area to be trimmed and shaved.

The “After” shot shows the snaggletoothed fender tips, now trimmed straight.

[CaddmannQ]

This dress-up plate that I made from aluminum covers the ugly hole in my fender where the steering shaft penetrates.

It was a big pain to install. To remove the steering column, I had to cut the steering shaft while it was in the car, due to a broken screw that was in the spot I could not drill. The shaft had already been cut before and spliced back together but I drug up the torch and spliced it again.

It’s not pretty and it’s not straight but if you don’t open the hood you can’t see the ugly part of it.

[CaddmannQ]

I got brave and drove the SS replikar without front shocks. I drove it to the local VW shop Wednesday, to buy more parts. The car ran better than ever, but I didn’t drive over 10 miles. I bought a new manifold, a rag joint, and an air filter.

They didn’t have the shocks I wanted.

On the way home I lost a wheel cover somewhere. Custom wheels were always on my list, but now I am much more motivated.

The brakes felt soft at first & there was a spot of brake fluid on the floor when I got home.

Today, I went back in the truck & bought a new master cylinder, as the old one was suspect from day one. It finally blew out some DOT3.

[CaddmannQ]

I reversed my engine hoist, threw a bunch of counterweight junk on the back span, and proceeded to lift the front body off my hobby car.

I used a piece of 1.5” conduit as a crossbar, and I used the front bumper of the car as the spreader bar because it was very sturdy & very handy.

I got the body upon the cart. And I can roll everything around and work on it as necessary.

[CaddmannQ]

Well I got the bill and it will actually cost me $218 to renew my license plates in April.

Photo #1
This car has a frame extension on it which bolts between the frame head of the backbone and the Volkswagen front beam axle. It increases the wheelbase 13.5”.

Photo #2
I string out the frame preparatory to chopping it off.

All of the Volkswagen pan outside of my strings got chopped off because it all stuck outside the body. This was a stupid design guaranteed to channel any water from under the fender directly into your carpet. It also looked stupid on close examination because you could see some of it underneath the fenders.

Photo #3
After trimming the pan, I started mocking up potential frame rails with a fender.

Photo #4 & 5
There was lots of rust perforation on the edges of the backbone tube, and I opened it up here with a screwdriver so you could see the damage clearly. Some of it in other areas had been welded up long ago by a well-trained chimpanzee. With bad eyesight. And a serious booze habit. Most of it had just been ignored or covered up with body sealer and black paint. The whole front end of the backbone is garbage. It needs to go, and this all needs to be welded into one frame.

[CaddmannQ]

It has been 18 mos since I last posted in this thread. I literally lost track of it.
I will try to bring this up to date, but much has happened.

One thing is, I had to set this car aside for almost a year after I stripped it. The reasons aren’t important, but it just sat around. When I started to work on it again, I had forgotten this thread existed. I have a thread similar to this one on 4 other forms that I belong to, and evidently I have spread it too thin. My brain, that is.

When I resumed work, I started posting in the “what did you do today” thread. But I work on this almost every day. It’s almost all I do, by choice these days.

Anyhow, when I left off here I had hoisted the body up on to some rolling carts, which I had built from old engineering plan racks.