New to Forum, general questions
 

Hi Guys,
A little background, I am doing a full restoration of my 1994 V8 Land Rover Discovery however am going to fit a Ford KA body shell. I have seen a picture of a Ford KA shell on a 4x4 base before and love the look of it so have decided to build a V8 powered one.

In discussing this in passing with a guy today he has said that really I will need to pass a SVA test as I will be removing the rear section of the chassis past the rear wheels. Other than that the chassis should be un touched.

Now SVA tests have always run alarm bells for me, loads of paper work, hassles etc.

Are they really that bad? Especially when I will be placing a car shell that has already been produced and passed regulations (seat belt mounts, no sharp radius edges etc) and a structurally sound chassis etc.

Thanks for the help in advance.

Ian

Hi Ian,

Welcome to the forum.

Best if you give you local VOSA station a ring. You can speak to one of the testers and ask them. When I did the SVA (now IVA), they were really helpful giving advise. Even how to do certain things to help do, to pass that section of the test.

So use one of those ultra short base land rover chassis instead 88 or 90" save an Iva test

Problem is I have my disco already just with a dead shell and add to that the cost of a good 88 or 90 as they are becoming very collectable now.

Thanks for the advice on vosa I will give them a call in the next couple of weeks. I'm half way through the complete chassis \ axle rebuild at the moment.

SAMMIO builder have this problem with the rear out riggers on the Triumph Herald.
They simply left them on for the inspection and cut them off after receiving the correct registration documents.
As your build would be along the same lines there's no reason why you can't do the same :whistle:

Use a ford puma they look better and I believe are just about long enough to leave the chassis as is or maybe with a back bumper, a bloke used to have one that i saw often a few years back whilst off roading, plus you will get loads more money back when you break the puma, zetec engine desirable wheels etc. Ed

Here are a couple of links that may be of use/help with the changes you are thinking about:

http://www.the-ace.org.uk/rebodying-a-clarification/

http://www.the-ace.org.uk/chassis-an...-modification/


What you're suggesting with the rear end of the chassis is going to need to be investigated be on a make-by-make case. Although I'd advise you read up on it yourself as if you ask DVLA the reply you get will be completely dependant on who you ask!!

e.g. As far as the Herald/Vitesse chassis is concerned, there was a lot of investigation done a year or so ago about taking the end off of the rear outriggers (that used to be left on and then normally "fell off" when cars were on the road) and what we found was they are actually additional body mounting brackets/outriggers that are added to the main chassis for the Herald/Vitesse and they aren't there on the Spitfire. But there was a _lot_ of investigation around that and comparing to other models!

Sadly I can't find the big post that Paul and I wrote that covered this in more detail, sorry, as It may of been of interest.

So fingers crossed for you!

I would suggest a careful read of the IVA manual if you chop the chassis, you WILL be subject to it.
Just because your vehicle was legal before does not mean it will pass IVA.
When my cabrio went through IVA it failed because the chassis number was on the wrong side of the chassis (it has to be on the offside!). The examiner then pointed to a new Peugeot and said that it had it's chassis number in the wrong place for IVA but had passed type approval. So don't bet that because it was considered roadworthy before it will pass IVA.
The IVA takes about 6 hours to do, costs £450 with a £90 retest fee.