An inspector from the NC DMV came out and looked at our T this morning. Cars and trucks brought into NC from any other state have to be inspected before a title will be issued here. I should get my title in the mail in a few weeks. We were able to get a tag when we got the car, last October.

It's generous for NC to provide house calls. Here you have to take the car to the county seat for inspection.

That takes you one step closer Tommy

What happens if you fail, Steve? Do they impound it, or let you drive home.

That is great!!! You either have a speedometer on that T or you had an inspector that was aware of the fact that Model T's don't have speedometers and looked the other way. We bought a T from South Carolina and took it to the DMV. The inspector rfused to authorize the title because the official inspection code says it must have an odometer/speedometer. I setp a meeting with the assistant director of DMV and his people. They all agreed that the code book was wrong and I would have to go to my legislator to write a bill to change the error they made. I went to my legislator (David Lewis) three times with the words that the DMV gave me and he never did anything. GO FIGURE!!

Dunno, Hal. All they do is verify that the serial number you submitted is on the car. I don't suppose it's possible to fail that.

Steve Jelf--They do a lot more than that in NC. They crawl around the car and look at everything to make sure it is a real car. This issue started when a good friend of a politician had a KIT car titled as the real thing. I believe it was a 32 Ford kit that was later sold as a 32 and all hell broke loose when it was found out to be a kit car. Several people lost jobs and or had their hands slapped. They then wrote the inspection book and required inspections. I brought an original 1927 Marmon (CCCA first place award) to be inspected. It should have been obvious this was an original 1927 Marmon but this inspector went into everything including a computer search for information on Marmon before he would issue a title. Job security and/or authority!!!!

An inspector checking top and bottom of the car? The who thing based on a kit car? I guess it was a bits-a check.

Ah, they do that here, sorta. I thought you were talking about a safety inspection or something like that.

Yeah, I had to take my TT down to the courthouse because someone had registered it in another state with a 3 digit VIN on a homemade VIN plate. I didn't think I was ever gonna get all that straightened out. They didn't give us any crap about my wife's Mustang. It came from out of state, but had a bill of sale and a typical VIM number, so no problem.

When my youngest son was about 14-15, he and I built a wooden boat. It had to be inspected by the DNR. They make housecalls. Game warden pulls up, made a cursory look at it and stuck a serial number tag on it for us. Spent a lot more time shooting the breeze with us than he did inspecting the boat.

Registered my T in Pennsylvania in September. By December, no registration card nor title.
The tag place kept blaming the state DOT. Contacted my representative in Harrisburg on a Monday. That Wednesday, the paperwork had been processed and in the mail! So much for the privately run auto tag places.

I just bought a 04 Dodge truck about 3 weeks ago and aint got my paperwork yet either.When I got the titles done on other cars it was a week wait.

I know I am staring down the barrel of dealing with NCDMV myself to get my T pickup titled I have built from parts. But unlike alot of folks I don't care if it is titled as a kit,a replica,or whatever,just so I can get a tag and put insurance on it and drive it legal..

After reading these horror stories Pennsylvania is a walk in the park. Don't care for the privatized title and tag places. And it was a trip to get a drivers license also.

NC used to be an easy place to register a car. My Fiberglass hot rod is titled as a '23 ford, as it was when I bought it. They have since changed the laws now. The inspection is done by the theft bureau of the NCDMV. If after inspection, they are not happy, you have to get the car "bonded", costs about $500., and then will issue a new VIN number for the car. I am waiting now on the title for my '25. The inspection went well, so I am hoping that the title will be in hand in a couple weeks time.

I had to take mine to a weigh station. Pretty funny since the weight of the T was lighter than their scales permitted. I finally did it by having a heavy car drive on the scale with me and then I drove off ... to allow calculating the difference.

The DMV inspector that came to see my car was a nice young lady, about my daughters age, I guess. After she went right to the pad on the block, where the number is located, she told me that there is nowhere else to look because Fords only had the serial number on the block, prior to 1925. I was impressed. She probably Googled it before she got here. Nice experience with the DMV for a change.

I think the experience at the DMV is inversely proportional to the size of the town you live in. We've lived in 3 different places since we got married. Each one was a smaller town than the one preceding it. Each time, the ladies at the DMV have gotten nicer and easier to deal with.

While it wasn't the DMV, I had to go to the courthouse for something last week. I swear the lady in the office acted like she was glad someone had come in and relieved her boredom. Compare that to the lady at the DMV 20 years ago when we lived in AL, that was going to send me home to get some bit of information so she didn't have to get her fat behind out of her chair and go open a file cabinet. And all this after I had called beforehand to ask what all I needed and had what they told me on the phone.

I registered both of mine in New Jersey. All I needed was a side and front photo and I had my registration and title in 15 minutes

I brought my 16 Runabout from Arkansas to NC. The inspector was a fellow in his 50's and he knew where to look on the block. We had a good time talking about old cars and I had my title in just a few weeks. Small towns have their advantages.

I did my wife's the same as Vincent, here in Tennessee. I owned it for years in Mn, but just got around to working on it, and titled it, after moving here. The last one I did in Mn, was a nightmare!!!

Pat

Well, that's better than illegal....

Cheers,
Willis

At least they could identify it as a Model T. Last registration nightmare I had here in WI, the DMV folks kept insisting it was a "hot rod"...even after I sent them pictures of it.

In Delaware if you buy a antique car in a pile,the DMV will send a inspector to your home. You have to provide a bill of sale,if the vehicle does not have a title. When you get it restored you drive it to the inspection lane. You have to show proof of insurance. They inspect the vehicle and you pay for one year of tags. The DMV gives you a regular numbered licence plate that you put on the back and a Antique plate for the front. Delaware does not have a numbered Antique plate. From then on you do not have to pay for the tag, you just have to show poof of insurance.

Tommy, here in sunny Florida they also check the numbers on a vehicle brought in from out of state. They also will send an inspector out to check everything. The guy that checked my T just looked at the engine numbers. It would be obvious to anyone that knew anything about cars to realize that my T is a real one. I offered to pull the floorboards so that he could look at the frame stamp on it (a '27), but he said that before a certain year, Florida goes with just the engine numbers. It was an unusual pleasant experience with the DMV.

Here in Idaho they require a vin. inspection if the car comes from out of state. Any police officer can do it. At the time I licenced my 24 TT one of my neighbors who lived down the county road was a county deputy. He came over on one of his days off, filled out the form and drank a couple beers while we visited for awhile, a Pretty laid back process.

The simple reason a DMV inspector checks out a old car or antique car is to check the vin or engine no's is to see if it's stolen.
After the check or "inspection " is done they then go a data base to seen if the no's come up as stolen. They arn't interested if it's a T, U, V, or whatever. If it not stolen it's good to go.
The next step is to get it registered for whatever it is.

The "inspection". really takes place if you want to actually drive your vehicle and put it on the road as a daily driver.

You won't often hear most of us in Red New York give a shout out for Albany, but it's very easy to register an antique here, even to register using original YOM plates. All you have to do is fill out a form and include a rubbing of the engine number along with a photo of your plates. Mail it in along with the fee and in about 7-10 days you've got your registration in the mail. Once you have it, the annual renewal can be done online. The required annual safety inspection, which can be done at any regular licensed facility for $10, simply stipulates that all equipment that came on the car when it was new must be fully functional.