DVLA – Body change – V5 – Q plate?

[Chad speed]

Can anyone offer any clarification on the current situation with the DVLA and cars that have had a body change? I’m particularly interested in cars with a separate chassis where all major components are original and retained but the body has been changed.

It seems to be the case, but is unclear on the DVLA website that even pre-war cars, where body changes were common in the day, may lose their original registration mark to be replaced by a Q plate if the modification was done less than 30 years ago?

A change request on the V5 from saloon to open tourer could trigger the loss of the registration mark as could a change from 4 seats to 2 seats. But if the body is changed without changing the body type or number of seats it’s OK?

From what I can see there has been little help from car clubs or the VSCC etc in clarifying the situation?

[Chad speed]

Riley Blue said:

Might be worth contacting the FBHVC: http://www.fbhvc.co.uk

Thanks for that, e-mail sent and I'll let you know when/if I get a response.

[Chad speed]

Thanks Morrisboy that's useful and kind of rings true with the DVLA's guide lines on 'Rebuilt Vehicle's and 'Keeping a Vehicles Registration'. The FBHVC by the way have responded saying the appropriate person will reply to my e-mail in due course.
My interest is there are a number of unfinished specials coming onto the market, mainly at auction, where the original builder is bailing out before putting the vehicle on the road, clearly they haven't followed the rules, unclear though they are. A couple of cases in point
http://richardedmondsauctions.com/catalogue-new/?l...
https://online.handh.co.uk/m/lot-details/index/cat...
The Alvis didn't exactly go for peanuts, I'll watch the Triumph Gloria with interest

Edited by Chad speed on Tuesday 12th March 16:29

[Chad speed]

The Alvis also has a modified chassis so presumably a world of pain there too as well as the chassis number being different to that on the register. Of course if the new owner only intends to use it in VSCC off road events then no problem and they will probably have great fun.
The V5's on both cars have details of the original vehicle and not as they stand now so presumably the time when the DVLA would start to ask questions would be when the V5 was submitted with the correct information?

[Chad speed]

Astacus said:

All this really is a complete nightmare to people wanting to build specials out of the remains of old cars, which, after all, is the root of some of the UKs best loved car marques.

I wondered what would happen if you changed over the body type (which looks to be not an issue for retaining the reg number) but in later years decided you needed some chassis mods (strengthening for example). Do you suddenly forfeit right to keep your reg number?





By the way Chad (and I hate to do this!) but how's the restoration going? I'd love to see an update when you have a moment.

Hi Astacus
The Ghibli is coming along slowly. I've just sold a pre war car that was diverting my attention so after a couple of domestic projects are out of the way I should be back on it.