Joys and Frustrations of Kit Cars: An Overview

Do you love a good kit car like I do?  Maybe building your dream ride from scratch is your favorite way of unwinding on the weekend.  Maybe you want to rev the engine on something with classic lines without worrying about the next old part that you are going to have to replace.  Building and ripping down the road in a Factory Five coupe is 100% on my list!

(Side note: nothing gets under my skin like a bad kit car.  To protect the innocent, I’m not going to name or include any here, but you might find a “bad kit car” Google search entertaining if you’re into this kind of thing.)

Anyway, kit cars come with joys and frustrations.  The joys are probably easy to imagine: getting those parts to come together just right.  The big moments like when the engine turns over for the first time.  Some of the frustrations might surprise you; they vary based on the kind of kit car that you are building, but they mostly stem from the fact that the world of the DMV is designed to title and register mass-produced automobiles, not passion projects built by people like you in their garages.  Remember: if you ever want to drive a kit car without legal entanglements, you need to get title, registration, and insurance similar to what you need for a mass-produced car.

Don’t worry!  Here at Dirt Legal we’ve seen it all.  Read on for some scenarios involving titling and registering kit cars for street legal use along with strategies to navigate each one.  With our help, you’ll be zooming (at the legal speed limit) right past local law enforcement in your kit car.

Your New Friends at the DMV

In all kit car situations, you will need help and info from the DMV - maybe more than once.  See for example this experience that a car builder had in Pennsylvania.  He had multiple communications and in-person visits from the DMV over the course of two months. It took a commenter nearly four months to get their kit car titled and tagged!

Not everyone who works at the DMV is familiar with the detailed regulations for kit cars, or has experience bringing a kit car through the registration process.  You might even have to ask a question more than once, in case you’ve gotten incorrect information.

Even if you don’t accomplish a goal on your first trip to the DMV, express your gratitude for the support and wisdom of the clerks.  Getting them on your side might just be the key to working through a tricky point in the process.

Scenario 1: Your Kit Car Is Built Frame-up From Scratch

If you haven’t started your build yet, you have the advantage of not having done or bought anything that your state and local regulations don’t allow.  Get those regulations before you do any buying or building!  It didn’t take too much Googling to find this fact sheet from Pennsylvania and this resource from Maryland.  Chances are, your state has very similar materials.  Wouldn’t it be great to know what the rules are right at the start of your adventure?

In most states, you will have to provide receipts for everything you buy, and Manufacturer’s Certificates of Origin (MCOs) for all parts that issue them, like the engine and the transmission.  States need this documentation both for their inspection processes and to make sure that parts aren’t stolen.  Once you have satisfied states’ individual regulations, including those pertaining to safety and emissions, then a VIN will be issued, and you can continue the titling and registration process just like you would for a factory-built car.

Scenario 1-B: You’ve already started your build

If you’ve already begun your labor of love and don’t have your state regulations handy, then maybe pause for a moment and get those regulations.  If you don’t have receipts for everything you’ve already bought/built, then you should consider going back to get them when you can.  If you are purchasing parts from a private individual, you might have to make your own receipt, and something like this auto parts receipt template might be your best bet.  (For person-to-person purchases, you might be on the hook for sales tax later on during the titling process as well.)

In this scenario, you might not be able to get a receipt for every part you’ve already acquired, and this is where your good relationship with the folks at the DMV will come in very handy!

Scenario 2: Your Kit Car Uses a Donor Chassis

The world of kit cars is pretty varied and includes some unique projects, but this scenario may well apply to you. The VIN that comes with the donor chassis makes this scenario much easier for the kit builder.  As long as the VIN plates are still on the chassis, you are A-OK to use the existing VIN when it comes time to title the car.

It might not be a bad idea to run a check on the VIN to avoid surprises, and our VIN Check Service makes the process quick, easy, and cheap.

You will still need MSOs and receipts for other parts, and you will still need to pass emissions testing based on your local regulations. Even in this scenario, it’s probably a good idea to make friends with the folks at your local DMV; even a “more standard” kit car might be unfamiliar to the first clerks you run into when you go in to get registered or inspected.

Dirt Legal Can Help!

By now, you hopefully understand:

• How different types of kit cars present different challenges for getting street legal

• The importance of knowing local regulations

• The role of the DMV and the importance of working with the DMV

You might be thinking “Huh… and here I thought that all the work was going to be building the car.  I didn’t sign on for a long back and forth with the DMV.”  If this is the case, then Dirt Legal can make the process easier.  Our Replica & Kit Car Registration Service is designed just for you.  We can register your kit car without inspections or even a trip to the DMV.  You provide your chassis’ VIN and pay sales tax, and we take care of the rest.  With our services, you even get to register your vehicle as the year, make, and model that it is replicating, not the name of the kit company or the year that the kit was built.  (You will have legal documentation that you own a Shelby Cobra, etc!)

Next thing you know, you will be on the road, street legal and enjoying the fruits of your labor!

Additional resources:

“Kit Car Registration Roundup” Car and Driver (article is from 2004 but still contains some useful information)