Austin David

better than trying to calculate the odds of a fixit ticket vs. impound!

it took a 2nd opinion; my preferred office again said "no way" so I went somewhere else, and they did it. I finally have a plate!

SCDMV has field agents, I talked to one today. By coincidence the paperwork sent to Columbia also came back today. The agent and the letter both said the same thing: I need form 400 (straight title app) and the MCO. The "chassis number" is VIN format and Agent + DMV-by-mail both say that's to be the VIN. Planning to drive all that down to the office tomorrow and try the expedited process, again. The agent left me with his card and two forms 4038 + TI-021B, verifying the chassis number on MCO matches what's etched on the car.

Boot carpet: all the panels are *slightly* too large and may need some minor trimming. I am probably not going to install the triangles in the bulkhead, but did the rest. The forward corners under the roll bar) tuck in pretty well, and taped up. The back corners needed about 1/2" trim from the forward edge, and the lower edge I flared up against the deck. A little nipping to bend around the corners. The carpet went behind and under the cover for the fuel tube. I did not disconnect the tube per instructions, just cut the lower part of the ring in the carpet to slip it under the tube, and all that is under the cover. Those side pieces were all secured with carpet tape. The deck piece just laid over top of all that. I did not trim it to go around the fuel door, there's a little extra over there but with gravity and the other panels in place it mostly tucks down. Tonneau cover is going, but not yet done. I guessed wrong on the boot cover and have a replacement set of gypsy snaps arriving tomorrow. I have not yet drilled holes, I think I'll need 2 in the scuttle and a 3rd in that body panel (per side), kinda holding off on those. No plans for half doors so I don't think I'll have to worry too much about precise placement of those body snaps.

my blinkers are louder than the horn(s), no chance I'm forgetting that's on. Those switches look great; now I just gotta find someone who will sell me just a few...

I've previously noted there are a LOT of switches on the dash, many are redundant or won't be used in my environment. Has anyone rearranged or changed these? I'm specifically looking for any gotchas, and ideally a source or description of the plastic-cover / toggle used. 1) the blinker is on the right / center, which is odd. not necessarily a top priority. (on-off-on, sideways) 2) there are 3 headlight switches: a rocker for off/park/headlight, an off-(on) (top-bottom) for highbeam flash, and off-on for highbeam. 3) there's another rocker I haven't tried to figure out yet, plus stuff like the windscreen washer which would 1:1 map to features I may eliminate. Before I start re-arranging and/or rewiring, anyone got a source (or name of) replacements?

catching up: 10/24 thread repair kit ($20 or less) gets 10/24 threads in the mirror stalks. Hot rod mirrors work well, 4" round / convex. Matches my chrome headlights. LHS tail light flipped, now symmetric -- flashers are outside, brake lights to the inside. Also the 360 wet sump dipstick needs to be adjusted by shortening the tube. I changed the oil, added the right amount (4.75 qt), shortened the tube after mostly disassembling the plenum to get at it. The tube has about 4" of room to adjust up/down, I needed to take out about an inch. Confirmed the reading when hot & idle at level. Consulting with some other enthusiasts, I driveway-aligned the front to 2mm toe, erring toward neutral. It rides straight, and the stickers on the tires aren't wearing down much even after 60mi; no scrubbing evident, so I think it's pretty neutral. Once I finish with the DMV will get a professional alignment. Still to-do: - nose cone badge - tonneau cover (critical) - aeroscreen (need fall/winter, not critical) Also, for safety I added black retroreflective tape on my black roll bar. It is not invisible, but I put it there and I can't really see it. At night it turns white/bright, and is much more visible -- especially from the sides where there's very little light.

I have a VIN and MCO, but this is a brand-new CKD kit, never titled. It's "only" been 6 weeks, I thought you said it took 3 months?

To be abundantly clear, what I'm looking for here is some experience with the "normal" process (which appears to be a kafkian maze of bureaucrats who don't understand, or creatively interpret, the rules) -or- trying to find a professionally-managed, legit service who can help. The last thing I want or need is a registration that will cause more grief. But holy heck is it ever frustrating. My wife joked that she thought the hard part would be *building* the car.... Also FYI: 401-A is apparently needed because the vehicle doesn't exist in the state and needs a serial number. I'm unclear on how that interacts with the VIN. I moved 2 from Cali and it was NOTHING like this process. 4038 is needed also, possibly *before* 401-A, to confirm that the vehicle does, in fact, exist. In CA this can be a cop signing the paperwork in your driveway, hopefully I won't have to trailer the vehicle across town just to have someone look at it. But 400 doesn't indicate the need for 401-A., and 401-A doesn't indicate the need for 4038. ... I do appreciate everyone's experience and perspective. Thank you!

SC is super slack, generally. Trailers don't need license plates at all, no emissions testing or requirements, etc. I even sign a form saying I'm responsible for the vehicle being road-worthy. But that bit about "intelligent, caring people across the desk" kinda lost me ... haha. Something about that desk seems to change people. Great point about insurance co shenanigans. I'll check on that. Right now my plan of attack is #1 find $1k under a rock somewhere, and #2 do the thing, then with out-of-state plate+title+reg in hand, proceed to "import" the vehicle to SC before my year is up. I'm still gonna poke around to see if there's a sub-$1k option.

Hi everyone- I'm still one-sided-struggling with SC DMV. I can't penetrate the system, but I've "only" been trying for ~ 6 weeks. While working that on the side, I found dirtlegal.com and called them, plus googled around a little. Has anyone used that service? Alternately does anyone know a good way to exchange $cash for reasonably certain plates so I can get on the road? $699 (ish) and 2-4 weeks gets a South Dakota plate; SD doesn't have a residency requirement. $199 and 1-2 *days* gets a 90-day temp tag $299 up front, 119/yr after gets an LLC registered in SD which can own the car and work around a state's curiosity about an out-of-state plate living at your house. SC claims to care after 45 days, it's unclear if that's "enforced." Finding out may cost a misdemeanor and $75. .... and I believe / assume that after I have SD plates I could "move" the car to SC for year 2, mod any impact fees or duplicate taxation. The Internet(tm) seems to think dirtlegal.com is legit, if a little weird. Anyone have direct experience? (for completeness I have talked to the DMV, the local tax office, my own insurance company, and Hagerty's; they're all approximately equally useful, and I got a 3 different answers and a couple "I can't help you"s).

Spare tire carrier -- I haven't found any builds with this, had to puzzle through it but I got there. There's the carrier, a wishbone, two extra lugnuts, a fancy long bolt + LONG spacer, and a separate pack with two unused bolts, a shorter spacer (about 3"), and a fibre washer. Plus the license plate light, which I assume is common across all kits. 1) the carrier itself mounts directly to the frame. The license plate wire (black/red) was zip-tied to one of the mounting holes. Cut that loose, then bolt up the carrier. Two 13mm nuts can be tightened from underneath, open-end wrench only. 2) there's a nut behind the fuel tank, inside the skin. You can access it from the boot / under the carpet, but I didn't have a large enough open-end wrench to secure it; it's bigger than 21mm. Adjustable didn't fit. I used pliers to hold it still, and ran the long securing bolt + oversize spacer to spin the bolt-side from outside. This bolt secures the tire hold-down to the frame, through the aluminium skin, so I assume it's pretty important. 3) the 5th tyre: mount the wishbone w/ 2 extra lugs, run the fancy bolt + shorter spacer into the wishbone, then CAREFULLY set the wheel in the carrier. Add the fibre washer, then the bolt can pass into the mount on the body. Snug up the bolt, then use a lug wrench to snug the two lugnuts (securing the wheel to the wishbone), then tighten up the longer bolt to secure the wishbone to the body. I didn't crush this down, just don't want anything rattling loose. Most of the weight is borne by the carrier, but this wishbone assembly keeps the tire from rolling loose or rubbing on the body. When it's all done I have about 1" clearance to the paint, tire resting on the carrier. Still plenty of room to install the plate and light. 4) the light has a single red/black wire tucked under the frame, and plenty of slack. It's got a plastic sleeve already there. There's a grommet on the RHS of the carrier. Feed the wire into that grommet, and it will easily snake its way through the frame to the back. There's a roomy hole in the top of the frame, behind where the plate will eventually go. I was able to fish the wire out with tweezers, there's room for needle nose. 5) the light came with a ton of wire, I just tied all that up. A ring terminal on the black wire / light side, and a spade between the red and the red/black from chassis. I added heat shrink and tape, this is all exposed to the elements. Sand off the RHS mounting hole a little, that's our ground. Remove the cover for the light (single screw). Terminal goes there, bolt through the terminal from the back, then the nut on. Connect the reds, test. 6) for cleanup, I added a nylon wire clip on the LHS mounting bolt to hold that bundle of wire. Zip ties to keep it tidy. The worst of all this is that the hot wire comes up from the bottom of the frame, but it will be pretty well obscured behind the license plate, eventually.

Ahhh.…. That sounds like mine. They FIT as long as you're not too picky about the holes lining up. I haven't drilled mine out yet. Honestly I think our experience is similar. I spent several days with the diff trying to see how to get it in there. Good times. By now I'm mostly waiting on the DMV.

Josh confirmed picking issue; the outers should both be glossy plastic. The inner (rearview) is matte too, but not as bad as the ginormous plastic windscreen mirrors.

Mirrors: terrible. Per instructions you have to remove the mounting screw to remove the mirror post. WHAT THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW: that screw holds down a metal cup, spring, washer, and backing nut. Once you let that go, they're all loose inside the mirror housing. Press out the glass, reassemble the stuff to the new mirror post, then hop online and look for better mirrors. I'm in that step right now. I think 4" round chrome would look good, complement the headlights. If that fails I'll reassemble the mirrors and use them until I find something better. My aeroscreen mirrors are much nicer, but they don't match. Asking about that now. LHS is carbon (nothing on my car is carbon), RHS is shiney black.

Wait, your knee plates fit? How much bending did you do? Are they tucked under the dash, or hanging out?

Whoa. Looking forward to more photos in a week or so!

That sounds exactly like what Josh relayed. How did you screw them on? I think he said bolts through the top into the stay, with stainless + neoprene washers? I'm planning to use 3M 5200, which is generally considered "don't use this unless you never ever want to remove it". The fast cure version only comes in white tho, so I'll either top it with slower-curing black, or (and?) will undercoat the fender. It's already painted, acetone took up some of the paint when I was prepping for the adhesion.

My kit came with this: looks like (and feels like) about 2kg. I also just printed a c-spanner which weighs approximately nothing and so far works well. Happy to send some around if anyone has Bilsteins... or with some photos and measurements, probably just make a specific one.

fair. I'm specifically after the newer Bilsteins, which have 6mm holes. My VMAXX spanners don't fit.

Toe is adjusted by rotating the steering rods (which AFAIK is very standard). The flats are hiding under the boots -- nip the installed zip tie, push the boot back, there's room for an 11mm wrench. But not a lot of room, my stubby did fine. The boots don't move *except* when adjusting toe. One of mine was kinda sticky so I put some grease on the flat and slid it forward/back, then finished the adjustment. There's a groove (past the flat) where they sit while tied. Apparently for track cars, or any application where you're making several adjustments per day, it's a thing to just not re-apply the ziptie.

Any recommendations for the C-spanner (or whatever it's called) for adjusting the coilovers?

Fender blinkers, ya. I'm splicing the ground through, and the first time I have to remove it, I'm gonna splice the signal wire too. Sleeved all the way and the terminals tuck into the stay just fine. Esp if it's not molested with a ground screw.

How do you wire the indicator lights? The book has them grounded to the wingstay, and the hot/signal wire snaked through and tied across the wishbone. Did you splice in a disconnect? Or are you not using it at all, because racecar?

I have the fibreglass / painted wings, a LOT of texture on the bottom. I'm actually spending more time lining the wires to pass through the stay. Looks like I'll be able to start glueing this evening.