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MG MGA - Inspection Woes

Well, bureacracy rears its ugly head again. A few weeks ago, I had to take m A to the vehicle registration office for new license plates as the status of the car changed. A normal procedure.

What is supposed to happen is that you go through the line, pay the fees, pop the new plate and safety seal on, sombody comes out and checks it and stamps your paperwork and off you go. Again, this is what is supposed to happen.

I get to the end of the process and the inspector comes out. He checks your VIN and the plates and that's it. Well, he checks the VIN. Of course it does not have the correct amount of numbers. It's also missing country codes, safety codes, blah, blah. Of yeah, on no place is the VIN actually stamped on the car--only a plate. Ditto for the engine. This created a scene, and me, the 6' 2" American was in the middle. Don't worry, I smiled alot, held my composure, and politely disagreed with just about anything.

Let's forget the fact that a mere three years ago, this same office put the car through the rigors and it passed the inspection. SOme leway had to be given as a car built 50 years ago cannot meet the requirements of today.

Anyway, as the deliberation was going on (I was there for 5 hours), another inspector decided to ding away at the car. rear bumper sticks out-fail, wing mirrors have sharp points on the mounting stems-fail, no reflectors in taillights-fail, no reverse light-fail, spinners-fail, speedo-fail, no three points-fail, no head rests-fail, and on and on. They even threatened to impound the car right there as it was not legal for Japanese roads. I told them no modifications had been done since the last inspection (true) and that they were out of line. If these were issues, they should have been resolved during the initial inspection in 2004. They disagreed.

There is something to be said for not being an ugly American. OK, I don't mean physically. I'm not too pretty. But we came to at least an interim solution. They placed a special stamp on the engine and body, made a rubbing, took some pictures, and made the car legal. For now. I have been forwarned about the upcomming inspection as my car is on 'the list'.

I have some solutions. Stickers on the speedo, I have an old pair of mirrors and I'll just grind down the points, the bumper I have no idea what to do, and as for the spinners, can I just use some octagon ones from a B or something?

Such is the life of a 50 year old foreign car owned by a foreigner in a foreign country. Did I forget to mention that I had to also pay a $200 recycling fee for when I junk the car?
Tommy

Sounds like a lot of problems for a junk car, so I will give you $250 which is 50 more than they will. When will you ship me that junker.
JEFF BECKER

I need a zip code before it can ship. You have it all wrong, you have to PAY to get rid of a car here. Make it $300 to cover the costs.
Tommy

Tell you what Tommy, as a special favour I'll give you $100 for the dash and steering rack! Now you're in profit!

LOL

Neil
Neil McGurk

I don't believe anyone makes 12TPI octagon knockoffs. They were made for later MGB which are 8TPI. You may have to modify some eared knockoffs for inspection unless you want to replace all your hubs with 8TPI so you can switch between eared and octagon spinners.

For a reverse lamp, just find any old accessory lamp and attach it to the rear bumper or license plate bracket. There was a very nice Lucas unit which was popular on MGAs back in the day, and they come up on eBay now and then. I've even seen people use a later MGB license plate bracket with the lamps turned backwards, but I'm not sure if they will be bright enough to pass your inspection, and I'm not sure if your plate will fit the bracket!

No ideas on the bumper and I'm not sure what their problem is with the stock unit. Maybe get a second bumper complete with mounts and shorten both, so the bumper sits closer to the car and sticks out to the sides less?

Put some reflective material in the lower part of the tail lens as MGB did and you may get through that part. What a pain.

There must be some sort of special classic car allowance that these guys either don't know about or don't want to tell you about. Know any rich guys that collect cars over there? I bet they know how to get past the red tape.
Steve Simmons

Tommy, have you contacted this guy? (taken from the image gallery)

This Car No.is:GHNL2 102912. Engine No.is:16 GCU 2687. I bought the hardtop for Nagano Olympic.It is very GOOD! Hope we can keep in touch through the Net.
Masao Nakata. Nagano, Japan. nakata@aie.or.jp

I don't know how old that post is but he has a nice looking Mk2 roadster (with eared spinners),

Neil
Neil McGurk

Weren't some of the euro-spec MGA's shipped with non-winged knock-offs? I'm sure they can be found somewhere, if not thru the MGA suppliers.

Chuck Schaefer

Stranger in a strange land! There always seems to be a Governmental killjoy in any beaurocracy! I hope you find ways of getting around the BS. Cheers, GLenn
Glenn

As for the bumpers, just take them off for inspection!
Have a good day!

John
John Progess

Sounds like I have competion, so make it $400 and all you problems are gone.

The reverse light is Lucus 494 and can be fitted with a toggle switch under the dash.

What would James Bond do with his car?
JEFF BECKER

Since October 1958 (car number 57500) all wire wheels in Germany had to have the octagonal knock-offs for safety (?) issues. Later also in Swizzerland.

They are now available at www.lbcarco.com:

200-310 WHEEL NUT, L/H, octagonal knock-off

200-320 WHEEL NUT, R/H, octagonal knock-off

Robert

Robert Mueller

Tommy

In such situations, I find it often pays to take along a local who knows the system, and let them have a quiet word with the idiot in question.

I had one such idiot try to fail my car on the safety test because there was a 1 inch tear in the hood (it was raining hard when I went to th test centre which is about 1/2 mile from home). A quiet word from me had no effect, from a swiss colleague requesting the boss, all was suddenly fine!

Another time, a different idiot failed the car on multiple accounts (much as you are experiencing). I just went back for a retest the next day, having done nothing, and received a pass from another inspector.....
dominic clancy

This thread was discussed on 08/03/2007

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