Laws in regards to independent car manufacturing

[Porrari]

Question..... you see guys like Chip Foose and Coddington that build scratch cars and sell to the public....and for that matter.. kit car companies that sell "turn key" completed cars. How would they be able to manufacture and sell to the general public without having to meet Fed guidlines? Is it because they generally build cars that are representations of older vehicle built before all these laws were put in place?

[HardDrive]

Well in regard to the bodington cars, I believe those cars are actually based on an 'shell' car that has a valid title. Because these older vehicles do not have to comply with existing DOT standards, they are exempt.

I could be completely wrong, but I thought that to get a excemption, you had to import at least 200 cars per years. I have NO idea where I am remembering that from, so I could be entirely wrong....

[Porrari]

I understand that by building new cars on old chassis "resto-mods" they bypass the rules, but for instance turn key kit cars.....how do they avoid the legalities?

[HardDrive]

Geez....now you have me hooked....I want to know myself. I have always been curious how these Cobra reproductions get past that.

[emcon5]

A lot of it depends on the state.

There is a discussion of how it works in California here:
http://corner-carvers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=253256#post253256

That thread also includes a discussion of a raid of Coddington's shop, looking for evidence of fraud.

Tom

[Porrari]

Ah.