A couple of Donor Car Questions

[petee]

Hi all,

Just looking to get a couple of points clear while I'm looking for my donor car.

1. Are there any problems or difficulties using an imported Eunos as opposed to an original UK spec MX5?

2. What effect would using a CAT C donor have on the IVA? (there is one on Ebay that was written off due to having paint poured all over the car).

Thanks in advance
Pete

[Stiggy]

Hi, no probs with imports, they often have less rust too. You may need to wire a rear fog if it's not been done already. You need a V5 or you will be stuck with a Q plate. Cat C car may need a VIC test before it is given a V5.

[casesensitive]

Cat C / D jobs are often bodywork only, making them great donors in my view. My ST170 went pretty cheap because the guy who'd owned it had tried to do a 'brushed' look on some of the panels with 80 grit paper. Ruining it as a car, but making it an Ebay bargain for me.
Our regs are a bit funny, so I'll be targeting an age-related plate anyway, saving myself > €10k over 5 years ownership in tax, but it'd be worth looking into for a new plate build.

[petee]

So does the kit still carry the cat c or d record or is it lost/wiped at the IVA?

[mawdo81]

Cat is registered against the chassis. You have a new chassis at the end of the process so your fine, it's just if the old one is scrapped then the engine number turns up again that it can get tricky.

I've not scrapped my donor yet to be safe.


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[petee]

Thanks for the replies so far all, much appreciated.

Another question please, how do the regs stand on airbags if using a later donor car (that had airbags fitted when sold new)?  Can the car go through IVA OK if the airbags are no longer present, or should I aim for an earlier car that didn't have airbags as standard?

[Stiggy]

air bags are not permitted for IVA, steering wheel will need to comply so the centre will need to have a shore 50 rubber pad as the air bag plastic cover can be considered too hard.

[nitram]

Stuart is, of course, quite right but the padding is only required if the centre boss is above the level of the steering wheel rim. The wording in the IVA manual Clap 14 under "steering wheel construction" says: The centre boss should be padded or recessed below the level of the rim. I think different steering wheels are fitted to different years/model of donor. In my case, I was lucky and my factory fitted ND Nardi Torino steering wheel has the top of the airbag container (the boss) about 0.5mm below the rim, using a straight edge. All I had to do was remove the airbag and sand off the airbag label on the boss. When it came to IVA, the tester asked me to remove the cover to show there was no airbag hidden away and he then, with the cover refitted, put a straight edge across the rim to show the boss was recessed, just. He said he was happy that the airbag label had been removed.

[mawdo81]

Will see if I can do that with the focus wheel. Thanks for the tip.

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[R2S]

Sept 23, 2014 13:51:16 GMT nitram said:

Stuart is, of course, quite right but the padding is only required if the centre boss is above the level of the steering wheel rim. The wording in the IVA manual Clap 14 under "steering wheel construction" says: The centre boss should be padded or recessed below the level of the rim. I think different steering wheels are fitted to different years/model of donor. In my case, I was lucky and my factory fitted ND Nardi Torino steering wheel has the top of the airbag container (the boss) about 0.5mm below the rim, using a straight edge. All I had to do was remove the airbag and sand off the airbag label on the boss. When it came to IVA, the tester asked me to remove the cover to show there was no airbag hidden away and he then, with the cover refitted, put a straight edge across the rim to show the boss was recessed, just. He said he was happy that the airbag label had been removed.

Hadn't realised this about the steering wheel really useful for those of us yet to undergo IVA particularly Replicar where the wooden wheel (I'm sure everyone will fit wood for road use) can't be used for the test but original (without airbag) can. 

[casesensitive]

I'm not sure how it'll fly for the IVA, but I can't see anything that precludes a 'neutered' airbag from passing. So I've removed the airbag from mine, filled the empty gap with nice soft stuff, ground down where it used to say 'Airbag' and filled in with Sugru.
I'll post back in a year whether it was ok or not :-)

[petee]

A question regarding the registration please. In the end I'm using our mk2 mx5 for the donor having bought the mrs a mk3 now. If possible I'd like to keepmthe original registration insted of a new number at IVA time, is this possible?

[mawdo81]

No, the reg belongs to the chassis, which you are replacing, unless you can convince the dvla to change it to a cherished plate but I don't even know if there is a process for that...

[martinw]

petee - if you want to keep the reg, you'd need to formally retain it first (have a look at form V317 on the DVLA site - has a bunch of useful notes with it too ).

DVLA form V317

One of the notes says that to retain a reg, the vehicle to which it relates must exist and be registered at DVLA - hence the need to retain BEFORE you get into the strip down stage imo. Looks like there is a fee of £80.00, but that covers getting it onto the Exocet too. You would just need to ensure that you get an age related plate at the point of registration so that you can then transfer the retained plate on. Transfers are not allowed on Q registrations.

I tried to register my Sonic directly with a personalised plate, and I found that DVLA weren't capable of doing 2 things at a time - hence the transfer post registration. (......if truth be known, in my experience, you're lucky if they can do 1 thing at a time correctly )

Martin