SEMA alert------ California

Alert posted by SEMA today,2/23/04, that legslators in Ca. are trying
to repeal the emission exemption law for cars over 30yrs. old.
Sally Lieber(D)from Dist.22 is the sponser of the bill.
Get on the phone or write your congressman!!!!!
Jim

Just move out of that communist state... I lived there for 5 years and ran away as fast as I could..

Where I live I can drive anything I want, in any condition, with any engine and I don't have yuppies looking at me funny or Nazis at a smog station telling me what to do..

Sorry for the rant.

Jake lives where horses and mules don't require annual emissions inspections...

Jim, it would be interesting to read the text of the bill you refer to. If the intent is to get genuine "clunkers" off the road, I'm not certain that is a bad thing. If there are provisions in the bill for hobbyists and collectors, it might not be so bad. Can you imagine someone driving his Duesenberg into a smog station? I mean come on, get real! George, I believe large animal vets are the only ones who are interested in horse and mule emissions. Anyone else who is interested needs to be looked at with a more jaundiced eye.

Jake: You gotta gun rack in the back of your Beetle, too?

On the older car emmissions, my wife and I (OK, her, mostly) were part of a project at Hamilton Test Systems to install the first emissions testing system for the State of Arizona, way back in the '70's (we also did Orange County, California - sorry everybody). It was a dyno-based system and you ran the car at idle, 20 mph and 50 mph, testing emission levels all the time.

Older cars (older than 1968 at the time, this was in 1976 or '77) were exempt from the emissions test, and only had to pass the "smoke test", ie. was it a mosquito fogger in disguise.

A couple of days after we opened in Scottsdale, this guy comes in with a 1930 Ford Model A and wants to be tested anyway, "just to see what it's doing". The tech. asked if it would even DO 50 mph, and the now insulted guy said "of course it will!" We ran the test and it passed everything except the idle test, where it was running rich. We found that the idle mixture screw was rusted in place and the guy didn't want to force it and maybe break it so we left it alone. I also remember testing, and passing, a '67 Cuda with (I think) a 340/six-pack, hotter street cam making it go rhumpa, rhumpa and a bunch of other goodies. None of us could figure that one out (we tested it three times to make sure - identical results each time and you couldn't fool my gas spectrometer). This was the Federal/State emissions test level for 1975, which was pretty strict for that time.

another blast from the past from Gordon

We are required to have emissions testing once a year when we get the safety inspection. I find it ironic here in houston texas that the individual automobile driver is so highly scrutinized to abide by emission standards, but yet any night of the week I can look over toward pasadena texas where all the refinerys are, and they are belching all these toxins into the sky. I found out the refinerys do all there burn off of the towers at night so the general public who are asleep in their beds are unaware of it. I work nights so I can smell the horrible stuff as well as taste it. I'm sure a half hour of that stuff is probably a life time of my car smoke.

Once again the general public has to pay up while corporate america cashes in. Seems, I heard a long time ago that the emissions thing started because some politicians brother inlaw invented a smoke supressing device for cars. Not sure if that is just some folk tale.

There are some real oxymorons with smog and clean cars and on and on. My turbo, highly modified as it was, would pass the tests at all stages, but the visual check for all mandated equipment & components would kill me.

Woke up this AS.M with a greenish-yellow dust covering cars and yards and pooled up in moist areas of the walk. I guess Valero et all were burning off last night here in Benicia too.

Bastards.

I hope you Kali-fornyunzzz contacted your elected thieves.
P.

Most of the people who use these cars that are over thirty years old regularly, generally know where to "buy" a certificate of compliance when they can't get the car to pass a smog test.

California has a thriving market for clunkers. It's part of the illegal immigration syndrome. And most of the folks driving clunkers don't have licenses or insurance, either.

I think most of this political action is merely to create a market to sell smog testing licenses to mechanics and gain fee revenue from smog stations.

I really don't believe Ccollector's cars are a significant toxic problem, but I think politicians definitely are.

I just read the proposed law change for California and it does not require smog check on older cars.
HTTP://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/bill/asm/ab_2651-2700/ab_2683_bill_20040220_introduced.html

Currently, cars 30 years and older are exempt from smog inspection in CA. So this year cars prior to 1974 would be exempt. Next year, cars prior to 1975 and so on. The proposed change freezes the year to 1975 and older, it does not require smog inspection on older cars.

This doesn't affect the hot rod, custom or replica car crowd at all.
-=theron

The problem with passing more stringent smog laws for older vehicles is that, for many, or most, of these vehicles, the smog device parts needed to make them smog compliant, if they are not, are no longer available. It is also questionable whether it would be profitable for a parts manufacturer to start producing them. I,m pretty sure we're talking about a large number of different parts.
California legislators have written similar bills in the past without success. Hopefully, we can stop this one as well.

Joel,
You really need to read the law proposal, it DOES NOT create new smog rules for older cars. It only freezes the smog inspection year to 1976 and newer, instead of the currently rolling 30 year rule.
It would immediately grant all cars built 1974 and 1975 smog exempt, currently they are required to undergo smog inspections. It DOES NOT add any smog inspection requirements for older cars.
-=theron

Where do you get smog parts for 1978 cars? That's my point.
Joel

I guess I better elaborate. I've been playing with older cars in Calif. for a long time.(Bay Area Native) and have been dealing with the smog situation for a while. A friend with an automotive business just stopped doing smogs(Oct. 1, 2003) because the Bureau of Automotive Repair mandates that shops install a dyno to perform smog tests now. From my understanding, older vehicles(1976 and up now I guess), meaning those that still have to pass smog tests to be registered. If they fail a smog test, the owner needs to spend at least $400 trying to get it to pass the smog test to register the vehicle. The vehicle doesn't have to pass the test, just that dollar amount must be spent trying to get it to pass to register it. Many times the auto technicians are unable to get the parts necessary to make the vehicle pass the smog test, therefore, the $400 rule. The State of Calif. recognizes You can't always get the smog parts you need for older cars. Boy I'm tired after all that.
Bottom line, just play with smog exempt cars!

John, You ever work for Enron? :-)
ed

John,

As we speak there are probably about 100 individuals already doing that. Another stupid piece of legislation that gets passed on the the consumers that don't have a professional lobby group to protect their interests.

It is probably just a matter of time before the Replicar Market gets addressed specifically by some states.

Please God, protect us from our legislators!

Bruce

Maybe we should set up a shell company that has the sole purpose in life of collecting the $400 fee for producing a boiler plate document to be given to owners who have failed the test. Administrative costs would be kept to an absolute minimum and net proceeds would become a donation to Speedsterowners.com. wadya tink?

Ed, no, the closest I have ever been to an energy company is when I stop at the gas pump or turn up my thermostat at home;) Bruce, perhaps your comment has given me cause to think that there is a good reason to belong to a national organization like the National Kit Car Club. There is power in numbers of like-minded individuals, or at least that's what the American Motorcyclist Association has believed. We have to start somewhere, I think.
John H
ps. Ya'll come and join us in Tennessee where living is good, prices, sales taxes excepted, are lower and legislators move at Tennessee speed, which is slowly.

John,

If you promise to introduce me to V.V. I'll move ASAP.

Bruce

John, with a little luck, I''ll be in Lenior City around the 4th of july, buying dangerous fireworks among other things.
ed

We were there last 4th on a boat on the lake for the fireworks. Great show.
ed

Bruce, you're on your own buddy, I've not met the lady yet. I hope to talk her and Greg T. into meeting sometime this Spring/Summer for lunch somewhere midway between K-town and Music City. Y'all heah that?

Ed, If you are anywhere around Lenoir City on July 4th and you don't come to the Farragut Parade, I'll be very disappointed. Sarah, Alibi (our Cocker Spaniel) and I were on the front page of the local throw away last year after the event. Somehow, the Speedster and all American dog must have made an impression on the editors.