MTFCA Forum

Posted: **Sun Aug 13, 2023 11:37 am**

I've been after an inspection sticker for my speedster. The local shop says "no fenders, no sticker..."
My friend who has a very nice '14 Reo touring car directed me to another shop.
Turns out those of us of the Speedster persuasion, don't need fenders in Massachusetts.
Pre 1949, no fenders required. Period.
So if you live in MA and run a pre '49 fenderless ride, fenders not required!

Posted: **Sun Aug 13, 2023 11:56 am**

It's so much easier for them to say "NO" than it is to learn, or to find out the facts.

They matter, you don't. Besides that, you're a nuisance. You're complicating their day.

Posted: **Sun Aug 13, 2023 12:41 pm**

TXGOAT2 wrote: ↑
Sun Aug 13, 2023 11:56 am
It's so much easier for them to say "NO" than it is to learn, or to find out the facts.

They matter, you don't. Besides that, you're a nuisance. You're complicating their day.

Pat, Those of us in Texas, won't have to worry about annual inspections after 2025, with the new law passed which does away with annual inspections after that date. Its great for people who have a vehicle meeting legal requirements, regardless of vehicle age, but going to be a pain in the Butt for us who abide the law who have to put up with the owners of vehicles that don't meet standards.

Posted: **Sun Aug 13, 2023 12:42 pm**

TXGOAT2 wrote: ↑
Sun Aug 13, 2023 11:56 am
It's so much easier for them to say "NO" than it is to learn, or to find out the facts.

They matter, you don't. Besides that, you're a nuisance. You're complicating their day.

Yes indeed!

Posted: **Sun Aug 13, 2023 12:44 pm**

Here's a copy of reg they use here.

Posted: **Sun Aug 13, 2023 1:29 pm**

I hope Texas carries through with eliminating the inspection nuisance. The "emissions" inspection requirement will remain in "non-attainment areas". Look for those areas to expand.

People who drive with defective equipment will probably be more aggressively ticketed, and they may face cancelation of registration, insurance penalties, credit rating reduction, or other penalites if caught on the road with defective equipment. Insurance companies will no doubt get into the loop.

If you watch the Cops shows on TV, you know that people who drive with defective equipment are often stopped by police, and a significant number of them have warrants, drugs, guns, etc in their cars, which are often stolen. If you are not a duck, it's best not to look like one. Just sayin'.

If you are involved in an accident, any defect in your vehicle's equipment may seriously impact the outcome of any legal proceeding stemming from the accident. Insurance companies may refuse or reduce claims, or take other punitive action, such as raising your premiums substantially or canceling your policy.

Anyone who is not equipped and willing to self-inspect their vehicle would be well advised to make arrangments to have a professional inspect it periodically, probably at substantially greater expense than has been the case with the state program.

As it stands, the procedure for registering a vehicle in Texas has been: (1) Obtain at least the minimum liability insurance coverage. (2) Present your papers and your vehicle and obtain inspection certificate. (3) Present your papers and purchase registration.

Obviously some changes are coming to this procedure.

They may prove to be quite expensive and inconvenient.

Posted: **Sun Aug 13, 2023 1:51 pm**

TXGOAT2 wrote: ↑
Sun Aug 13, 2023 1:29 pm
I hope Texas carries through with eliminating the inspection nuisance. The "emissions" inspection requirement will remain in "non-attainment areas". Look for those areas to expand.

People who drive with defective equipment will probably be more aggressively ticketed, and they may face cancelation of registration, insurance penalties, credit rating reduction, or other penalites if caught on the road with defective equipment. Insurance companies will no doubt get into the loop.

If you watch the Cops shows on TV, you know that people who drive with defective equipment are often stopped by police, and a significant number of them have warrants, drugs, guns, etc in their cars, which are often stolen. If you are not a duck, it's best not to look like one. Just sayin'.

If you are involved in an accident, any defect in your vehicle's equipment may seriously impact the outcome of any legal proceeding stemming from the accident. Insurance companies may refuse or reduce claims, or take other punitive action, such as raising your premiums substantially or canceling your policy.

Anyone who is not equipped and willing to self-inspect their vehicle would be well advised to make arrangments to have a professional inspect it periodically, probably at substantially greater expense than has been the case with the state program.

As it stands, the procedure for registering a vehicle in Texas has been: (1) Obtain at least the minimum liability insurance coverage. (2) Present your papers and your vehicle and obtain inspection certificate. (3) Present your papers and purchase registration.

Obviously some changes are coming to this procedure.

They may prove to be quite expensive and inconvenient.

Pat, I see 'pros' and 'cons'. I agree with you that for every vehicle owner in Texas that has a legal vehicle, eliminating the annual inspection, which can be a way for inspection stations to 'bilk' you out of money for repairs you don't need, or repairs that you could do yourself, is good, but I don't see law enforcement of non-compliant vehicles happening. Maybe in small Texas towns and cities where the police eat donuts and drink coffee all day because they have nothing more important to do, but in the larger towns and cities, where law enforcement is stretched very thin, a car with loud mufflers, no muffler at all, or a broken tail light will be the least of their concerns. I live in a city of 35,000. My house is the second house off of a major thoroughfare. After 5 years, I am so put out with all the racing and vehicles with loud or no mufflers disturbing the peace, that I am read to move, and would if I could. My other option of sitting on the sidewalk along the street, with a shotgun, and letting every vehicle that passed by with a loud exhaust get a dose of Texas justice, would get me moved alright; to the Texas prison system !

Posted: **Sun Aug 13, 2023 2:10 pm**

Professor Fate wrote: ↑
Sun Aug 13, 2023 12:44 pm
Here's a copy of reg they use here.

20230813_124054.jpg (52.8 KiB) Viewed 2192 times

So the first part is a specification for vehicles after Model year 1949 but does not mean that vehicles before that don't need them. The next part applies to EVERY PASSENGER motor vehicle under 10,000 lbs. shall be equipped with flaps or suitable guards (fenders?) to reduce spray or splash to the rear or side. I'd say the first inspector was correct if you didn't meet that criteria. You may not need "fenders" per se but it does say you should have "suitable guards"

Posted: **Sun Aug 13, 2023 2:12 pm**

The local shop says "no fenders, no sticker...

Several years ago I was told at paint stores in Carson and Gardena that they don't sell lacquer thinner anymore because it's now illegal in California. Later I went into a Home Depot in Torrance and found a shelf full of quarts and gallons of guess what — lacquer thinner! Sometimes when people tell you what the law is they're dishing out baloney.

Posted: **Sun Aug 13, 2023 6:52 pm**

The store with the thinner may not have been in compliance.

Defective lighting/signals has sent many a drunk driver to jail, and not a few drug offenders.

Jurisdictions will be looking to replace the revenue stream lost when inspections are no longer required. Enhanced enforcement and increased fines may be one route.

Garage people may hesitate to inspect vehicles strictly for safety due to liability concerns.

I inspect and maintain my own vehicles, but many people have no time or inclination or know how to do that.

I don't know how much feedback the newest vehicles give the driver concerning failed lighting, brake issues, etc, but it's certainly more than older ones.

AIMobile:

"Mr. Jones, you're sloppy drunk, your brake lights are out, and your right front tire is half flat.
I'm grounding you and alerting the police. This vehicle is now fully disabled and securely locked down. Do not attempt to flee. The doors are locked and your restraint harness is locked. Sit quietly, please. The officers be in contact with you shortly."

Posted: **Sun Aug 13, 2023 7:38 pm**

Here in our province in Canada, inspections intervals were changed a while ago to every 2 years from every year. I see a lot more "marginal" vehicles now on the road. My local mechanic tells me that it hasn't worked out well for him or his customers. Previously, he could advise a customer, after an inspection, that his brakes should be checked in 6 months (for example) and schedule a re-visit. Now he is getting panic calls from customer's "my brakes have failed, I need them fixed tomorrow", and similar. When I started out in the business in the 50' we had no provincial "safety inspections" and there was a lot of "junk" on the road. We would see log trucks with ball joints (60's GMC) almost falling out and cars and trucks with a brake line pinched off with vise grips so the vehicle would retain enough fluid to brake the other 3 wheels. When I was a kid, the door post rotted off in my 49 Ford Tudor and the local garage welded a piece of angle iron from the post to the frame. A guy I knew died and his girlfriend was in a wheelchair for life because they went parking in the winter with a piece of flex tubing in the exhaust system. She managed to open the door and fall out into the snow before she lost consciousness. Lots of horror stories but the point is that even with the faults and inadequacies of the provincial and state inspection systems, it is better to catch at least some of the potential dangers before they cause real human miseries.

Posted: **Sun Aug 13, 2023 8:48 pm**

Maybe a staple gun, a printed certified copy of the book's statement, and the officials forehead might get you a sticker! Just thinking out load on the easiest solution. The local nazi's strike again.

Hank

Posted: **Sun Aug 13, 2023 11:06 pm**

GM had brake pads with a wear indicator that would give out a screech when the lining wear was getting critical. They worked well as I recall.

I had a GM upper ball joint separate on a 1 ton Chevrolet truck. It was a clean, older truck and it ran well. It happened to let go while we were going about 15 MPH, and no harm was done. We had some chain and a comealong, and I was able to rig up the chain and comealong to hold the stem of the ball part of the joint against a small notch in the outer end of the upper control arm. We made it about 23 miles back home with that arrangement.

There are a number of parts in your vehicle that you bet your life on every time you drive it.
It's a good idea to take a critical look at that stuff from time to time, or have someone do so who is competent and honest.

Posted: **Sun Aug 13, 2023 11:08 pm**

I often see cars, including some late models, running down the open road at high speed with one or more visibley underinflated tires. That's very dangerous, especially in hot weather with a load of people in the car. Then there's the telephone operators...

Posted: **Mon Aug 14, 2023 4:38 am**

About California and the bizarre restrictions they have - The lacquer thinner thing used to be statewide, now it's county by county. Thats why some have it and some don't. The stores in certain areas can't even ORDER the stuff from their warehouse, to make sure the chain doesn't get busted and shut the whole chain down (we had that issue ordering things for the bridges -you can order xxx in Solano county (Carquinez Bridge) nope, sorry you can't buy that... but Contra Costa county (Benicia-Martinez bridge) "How many would you like?" (I was raised in such a county - younger, it was no problem, MEK, Lacquer thinner, acetone, meh. Pay and go. Then when I was old enough to start practicing shooting lacquer on my own, CARB (the "Air Resources Board", tho I swear sometimes it stood for California Agency to Restrict Business - wait, maybe it still does

) said "Noooooo, that's more volatile than water" and rettricted all of it.

The inspections (for in this case "special construction" vehicles were the same way. If you went to one CHP office, they'd thumb through the receipts, glance at the numbers, and Bam, Here's your new VIN sticker. 20 minutes in and out. Others would get out the coveralls and the halogen lights and creeper and pore over everything, inch by inch, and THEN go through the papers you supplied, line by line, taking notes to try to "Catch" you, looking for a reason to deny you. Same state, different state offices.

If it were a true SAFETY inspection(like they do on large commercial vehicles), then great! Get the garbage and deadly stuff off the road. But a willy nilly inspection that does nothing but generate money for the local tax coffers?...

Posted: **Mon Aug 14, 2023 7:35 am**

A couple very good studies only a few years ago found that states with inspections have no more nor fewer traffic accidents caused by equipment malfunction than those states that have no inspection. The inspection was always just a way to force people to the commercial garage where they could be easily fleeced. Follow the money!

Posted: **Mon Aug 14, 2023 8:00 am**

Many people these days take their vehicles to drive through oil change businesses or car dealers for service once or twice a year or more. That's a great opportunity for someone with at least some undercar experience to get eyes on the car. But in today's viciously idiotic lawsuit culture, would anyone, no matter how qualified, dare to offer opinion and advice to a customer, or allow a customer into the pit to see a problem?

Some major tire retailers offer tire inspection to customers.

Some people think they can't afford to maintain their car, or have it maintained.
In fact, they cannot afford not to. Very few vehicles are actually worn out. A great many are abused and neglected past the point of usefulness.

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