advice and help with my cars registration

[nickt241]

hi,im new here so youll have to excuse if i post in the wrong place.

for the last year ive been restoring my car,its a 70s fiat x19 that about 25-30 yrs ago someone has basically proffessionally mounted a ferrari 308 gts body shell on top of,so not strictly a kit as its the only one,plus it used genuine parts...my problem is the logbook as its listed as just a fiat x19,although to look at it youde be hard to geuss,i have all the old mots and the inspector has written on some of them "fit x19 kit car",but that dosent change the fact that the logbook says just fiat x19.
ive read through the dvla website,and my understanding is that my car is classed as a "modified car",rather than a kit car,and my understanding of this is that because they class it as this and because of when it was built it does not qualify for needing an sva,but as it nears completion i can see problems with the police on the horizon.
any advice would be gratefully recieved.
heres a couple of pics to give a general idea

[Bulldog Bri]

Hi and welcome to the club. :-)

What I would do is go and have a word with your local DVLA office explain what the car is, they will probably want to see the car (when you have it finshed) if it has already been on the road prior to you ownership, bring all paperwork and as many photo's of the rebuild with you to help your claim that it's a re-build and not a new kit, then they could be happy with just changing the V5 for you which would be great, though they have been tightening up the rules of late. As the car has used the original chassis (I'm guessing) an IVA shouldn't be nessesary,  as all it is is a body kit. If not, then they might say an IVA is nessesary 

['The Gaffer']

Hi and a warm welcome to our club.

Seems Bri has given some good advice there, hope all goes well.

Please feel free to post some build pics and dependent on where you are we may see you around sometime.

[Dixie]

yep, no IVA required because you have used a "un modified" chassis.

But car will need to be inspected and you will need to alter the V5.  Lots of Cobra owners now suffering from having a Cobra that has used a Jag XJ6 or XJS and the log book still shows origional car.

Police starting to take a very dim view of it.

M

[nickt241]

thanks for your comments,youve kinda confirmed what i was already thinking...one thing,my chassis,the car was near snapped when i bought it,the choice of using a fiat x19,whilst it perhaps aids authenticity a bit,it also gaurantees a car made from steel that wants to rapidly returning to the earth!.....so whilst ive kept very similar lines,ive actually replaced the complete floorpan using galvanised steel,and added box strengthening in the sills(which cant be seen),and box down the centre that doubles as the water pipes,will this effect any decision by dvla do you know?

ive basically rebuilt the car from the ground up,when i got the car the only non ferrari part that was obvious was the original x19 rear roof section,ive actually replaced this with one that is correct to its lines,and lifted it as well to enable the correct fitting of the targa roof(an x19 targa roof actually extends and covers the rear section of its roof,a 308 does not),i have also replaced everything "as new",adjustable konis,poly bushes,suspension,nearly everything new,ive literally hundreds of pics that ive taken as ive been doing it,far to many to post on here,but il add a couple more to give a better idea
this is the car when i bought it exactly a year ago and prior to any work



this is the car as ive started stripping it,ive also cut the bulkhead and screen surround out as they were rotted

this is the car as of 2 weeks ago,since these pics ive now finished stripping the whole car of its paint(it had been painted 6 times!!,i have the blisters to prove)
and its now down to its gelcoat with a light coat of primer to give a guide to the repairs i need to do,which,in fairness,isnt a lot

[nickt241]

the car is running a stage 3 uno turbo engine...i have files of reciepts for the car,even the original reciepts for the body panels,at the time that it was built it was used for excibitions by the company that built it and was the subject of more than one magazine article,some of which i have,others i dont,and believe it or not,the car was actually built by a company in bristol!,i have their name somewhere,god knows if theyre still in business?

[nickt241]

['The Gaffer']

Sweet

[peterw]

Looks the BIZ

[nickt241]

just a couple of update pics if anyones interested

i made my own grills in the end,pretty chuffed with them,especially when a guy i know that has 2 real 308s couldnt tell the difference!

car has had 5 ltrs of primer applied in 3 stages,first 2 stages were flated with 180 dry then 400 wet,im halfway through flatting the last coat right now which ive done 180 wet and now 600 wet as the final surface,door shuts,engine bay and anywhere else awkward has already been topcoated twice,the car will have 2.5 ltrs of topcoat over the rest of the body some time this week,the finish should be impeccable and mirror

[stupott901]

Looks good those grills are impressive

[fullpint]

  I'm liking the 'Yellow' colour. Will keep an eye out for further up-dates mate. Nice tidy work..

[nickt241]

paint is on,3 ltrs of 2k...to be honest,after spending 4 days wet flatting with 600,im a bit dissapointed with the finish,my own fault for insisting on doing everything myself as i could have had the bodyshop next door put the paint on for a drink,its ok and i expect many would be happy,but i wanted it mirror and its not,which means a couple of days flatting and polishing which i hate doing even more than i hate spraying,haha

[nickt241]

['The Gaffer']

Fair play for trying paint yourself but looking at the close up shot, next door paint shop would have probably got the finish you were looking for. Sorry.

[nickt241]

agreed,but then ive painted lots of cars in the past so its not as if i dont know what im doing...i geuss a change of career a few years back has left me out of practice....no worries,ive decided to flat it all back and let the sprayshop paint it again,if nothing else then its going to have had lots of paint on it!,lol

['The Gaffer']

agreed,but then ive painted lots of cars in the past so its not as if i dont know what im doing...i geuss a change of career a few years back has left me out of practice....no worries,ive decided to flat it all back and let the sprayshop paint it again,if nothing else then its going to have had lots of paint on it!,lol

Look forward to seeing the results.

[nickt241]

fitting back up now

[nickt241]

i actually spent a week flatting and buffing it,suprisingly the paint came back ok,theres a couple of thin spots,but il get them blown in once the car is finished

[nickt241]

sexy huh

[nickt241]

getting there

['The Gaffer']

Keep the pics coming 

[Bulldog Bri]

Very Nice, Good colour combo.

[fullpint]

Thats some good progress you have made in 2 months..

['Mendip Wurzel']

Nice car

[nickt241]

thanks for the positive comments,the comment regarding 2 months work caused me to look back at the dates on the pics,when your doing so much,and you look back,it seems a long time ago that the car was at a particular stage,it suprised me to see it was only 2 months ago that i made a start on the bodywork!!,haha,it feels like its been going slow,but looking back i geuss it hasent.......at the mo im doing a lot of menual things,ie,making replica door handles,then making the mechanism work!,ive just ripped the engine loom out,theres two as it has seperate ecus for both injection and ignition,ii runs lovely but im fed up of looking at bodgy wiring looms that keep throwing up intermittant faults,so im putting together new ones,once thats done il fit the doors up completely,i picked up the weather strips i needed from MOSS yesterday,so doors are ready to be put back together now,after that im going to sort the dash,ive decided to use an MX5 dash,with the x19 clocks,making a replica shroud for the clocks to fit the mx5 dash then adding the 3 round demist vents to the centre top and redirecting the demist air so that they work correctly,another thing ive been looking at is the intercooler set up,i have amassed 5 different coolers plus a water/air charge cooler,i was trying to find one that fitted nicely under the bonnet vents,air being supplied from the side vents as theyre connected and functional,and all the while trying to cut down on turbo hose,but this hasent worked out so well,i think il be using a very long and thin BMW cooler that fits nicely behind the engine alongside the bulkhead under rear window,but this isnt ideal,so ive left that at the mo and hopefully i can return to it with a clear mind some time soon

[nickt241]

been busy sorting the interior and wiring,ive used an mx5 dash that ive chopped about a bit plus fitted original speedo into the pod to save on calibration problems

[nickt241]

as car is about 2 weeks from completion(windscreen,finishing trimming,carpets,small odds n sods),i thought id stick a couple of pics of the car as it stands today.......as its nearly finished and my next project is on the cards,the car is now going up for sale and is posted in the for sale section on here if your interested







nice huh

[nickt241]

well,the cars just about finished now and today ive driven it for the first time,and ive rapidly come to the conclusion that its totally unpractical for me to use on a regular basis,for the simple reason that its far far to small,im 6ft 2 and the stearing will is firmly in my lap,whilst the door shuts against my leg,i can drive it ok and it drives well,but im not sure if id get it round a roundabout without the window open for my elbow....so,im putting it up for sale at around about the price its cost me financially and am looking for something bigger to start all over again!