Hello, and some legal questions/guidance

[olNick]

Hi all,

New guy here from Greece and I've a few questions before I even bother with a conversion.
How do you guys (UK) drive around all these cool old vw's, modify/improve the poo out of them, and convert them to diesel.

I can see it if a vehicle has it's original plate (road tax etc.) so mods are ok if can pass MOT. Is conversion to diesel permitted in the UK?

OTOH, I'm sure you have a alot of vehicles that didnt have plates (barnfinds for example). Do you get "antique/historic plates from the national FIVA registry? If so I was under the impression that FIVA, at least judging from the "classic" guys here only permits firstly "unmolested" vehicles, and second has real limitation on when and where you drive the car. Again here it's only to official events, the mechanic, and to shake it out once in a while.

There's two camps here in Greece... the purists that abide to the above, and the others that dont. The purists have almost become nazis in that they are reporting "offenders", and in general give you poo if they see you on the road.

Reason I'm asking is I have a few ACVW's, a 65 DD split (finish guys died and just left it here to a friend who sold it to me), a 78 Bay (panel with no plates from a friend)and a 63 notch (saved from the crusher) that I cannot put on the road (except for FIVA), as they all don't have registrations. In Greece, once the plate is turned in, bye bye car. You cannot put it back on the road. If I could, I'd have no problem paying road tax and insurance, so it's not (only) a money thing. Road tax for a 2 liter is 650 E/year. I'd pay that but I cannot afford 20 mpg at 2Euro/liter as a daily driver. I could the 45 mpg with a diesel conversion...

I want to put a pug motor into the Bay and drive it daily. I have no plates and diesel conversions are supposedly not allowed.

Any ideas outside of moving to the UK, which with the way things are going, might not be a bad idea.

I read some of the threads on the legislation page, and if this post should be there, sorry....

regards,

nick

[olNick]

bump...

[Griff71]

I am not that knowledgeable on EU legislation but i believe it has been suggested on similar things happening here. My understanding of the whole German Look modified bug scene was that if you were modifying a car you had to modify every part of the car and that all tolerances and upgrades had to be equivalent to that of a new vehicle. So brakes would have to be upgraded as well as all other fittings in order to perform as well as a modern car would and therefore be deemed safe..........hence the German Look has evolved into big motored/brake bugs with modern wheels, etc. I may be wrong!

On the other hand if you do not wish to go this far and spend the £'s that go with it you have no alternative other than keeping relatively stock and driving your car very little and only when legislation tells you you can. I picked up a 60 bug from Belgium a few years back and this was certainly the case. We were advised to be off the road before dusk as the cars 'licence' did not allow driving after hours! No MOT was needed as the car was rarely driven however it also had 4 bold crossplys, no brakes and a rotten spare wheel well.

Our MOT over here in my opinion is not the best and more of a case of how knowledgeable/opinionated the MOT inspector is. If they don't understand old cars then they don't often understand that they won't perform as well as a modern car and that tolerances may differ significantly. I have had a fully rebuilt/restored bug fail an MOT here on brakes! (Uprated to discs with a better master cylinder) Yet i have seen a bug with 12mths MOT with a rotten frame head/beam and fillered/botched sills!

I know it's bugs and you have a camper but a few of these guys have fitted Subaru motors and type 4/porsche 4 pot engines. May be worth asking a few questions as to whats involved:

http://www.latebug.com/index.php/german-look-gallery.html

Good luck and keep us posted.
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89 Crew Cab (Subaru 2.5na)
71 Drag Bug (1955cc dual 40s)
65 Ragtop Bug (low & stock)