WA 5585 Retitle Success!

[SwiftDB4]

Just wanted to let everyone know the 5585 retitle barrier has been broken. Got a WSP inspection at Bellevue. Nice inspector, only checked the VIN and filled out form with year and met custom vehicle classification. Got my registration and temporary collector vehicle plates today at the local license office. Titled as 1966 Ford GT40. You do sign a form attesting that the vehicle is not a daily driver. This has been a very long road. Thanks to all of you!

[Darren]

Congrats!

Sounds like they are starting to get things in order. Glad to hear the inspection was a simple one.

[Butch B]

CONGRATS!!!

Nice going Dave, Job well done!!

[James460]

Congrats Dave,
did you "have" to drive the car to Bellevue? This is the closest inspection location?

Of course driving your car anywhere would be fun ;-)

[SwiftDB4]

Originally Posted by James460

Congrats Dave,
did you "have" to drive the car to Bellevue? This is the closest inspection location?

Of course driving your car anywhere would be fun ;-)

Hi James. Vancouver has an inspection station. Let's just say I'll let Newman deal with them. Trailering up to Bellevue went pretty well with good weather and the inspector was a car guy.

[Don N]

Way to go!!! I will go to Bellevue also.---Don

[Don C]

Dave:
Really good news for our northern brethren. Probably a good thing you got yours in and done before Newman goes in and screws everything up. Too bad it took so many gray hairs to get it accomplished, but what else would you expect from the govmint.
DonC

[Stu Spencer]

So what are the 'steps' needed to make this as easy as possible? forms, copies of the law...

Thanks for all the leg work on this. Maybe if Newman and I gang up on the Vancouver office

-Stu

[Chris Mann]

Kudos for your determination and success in getting the people who make the rules follow the rules.

[SwiftDB4]

Originally Posted by Stu Spencer

So what are the 'steps' needed to make this as easy as possible? forms, copies of the law...

Thanks for all the leg work on this. Maybe if Newman and I gang up on the Vancouver office

-Stu

Stu,
I went to my local license office first and got a 'Certificate of Fact' Request Form. Explain you want to retitle from kit car to custom vehicle. Not sure the form is necessary, but it asks the WSP inspector to verify year and make of replication. Call up WSP inspection station for an appointment. Take your car with current title and/or registration. The inspector will verify the VIN and the year and make. He seemed happy just taking 66' GT40 off the serial/body box on the registration. Take the WSP inspection form back to your local licence office and ask to retitle as custom vehicle. You have to sign a form certifying the car is a collector vehicle and not a daily driver. You will pay for the inspection, collector plate, and retitle fees (about $124). The Vancouver inspection station may be OK. The one inspector I talked to on the phone was 'intimidating'. There is more than one Vancouver inspector and maybe you would be OK there as more cars retitle.
Dave

[UrQ]

This is great news, I hope others follow

[caropepe]

Dave:

This is great news! Thanks for the hard work and leading the way.

Joe

[Thomas W]

Awesome news Dave. I'll be curious to see if it goes as smoothly for others at a different location.

Don N, please be brave and try at the Vancouver location. Someone needs to see if this is truly straightened out. Cheers.
Thomas

[JR Bennett]

This process was very frustrating at first. D.O.L stated I needed to set-up an appointment with WA state patrol for an inspection. After playing phone tag all afternoon I finally just went down to their office in E. Vancouver. The officer there said she had just got off the phone with Olympia D.O.L and was told this new law SB5585 applied only to first applications and that I could not re-title my cobra. She had 50 pages of loose leaf copies of the bill all mixed up try to find some proof that she was right. I ask for the name and phone number of the official in Olympia that she had spoke with. I talked with Bob Randolph (360)902-3713 and upon reviewing my previous title application (2008 KITV) he said no inspection was necessary and that it would be handled as just a name change and collector plates would be issued. He called the downtown Vancouver auditors office and briefed a supervisor as to what was going to happen and then called me back this morning with her name and that she was expecting me. The cost was $47 for everything.. Title now reads 1965 Ford rdster....Let me conclude that this was processed not as a custom vehicle but rather a 65 replica vehicle.

[SwiftDB4]

Way to go John! Great to hear you got by without the inspection. If anyone else has problems with WSP inspectors not believing 5585 retitling is legal call Sheila Hadden at DOL (360) 902-3718. She is the one that initially missed Section 5 in Bill 5585. After I contacted her she acknowledged retitling is legal and supposedly WSP was informed of that. The WSP inspectors in Bellevue know, but apparently Vancouver wants to be difficult.

[Nate]

What paperwork do you need to take to the dol?

[SwiftDB4]

Originally Posted by Nate

What paperwork do you need to take to the dol?

Did you get a WSP inspection Nate? John Bennett got his retitle wthout one. It's worth calling Bob Randolph at DOL. (# in John's post) to see if he would do the same for you. Anyway beside the possible WSP inspection form you'll need your current title. I would print out a copy of bill 5585 too and note Section 5 if anyone at your license office doubts retitles. John got the license office to take his year (1965) from the existing title under the ser/body box. If the licensing agent asks you what the make is say Ford. There may be other choices in the computer like Shelby, but probably not AC or Cobra. Definitely don't let them keep 'kit' on as your make. Let us know how things go.

[bobcat]

warning to anyone trying to make the change at the Shelton DOL-these people are still confused even after what 5 months-even after they talk to Randolph (who gives a different story than posted here) they still don't understand how a title can be changed.DOL is just another broken system in this state.

Bob

[SwiftDB4]

Originally Posted by bobcat

warning to anyone trying to make the change at the Shelton DOL-these people are still confused even after what 5 months-even after they talk to Randolph (who gives a different story than posted here) they still don't understand how a title can be changed.DOL is just another broken system in this state.

Bob

What did Randolph say? Bob I agree that some of the DOL system still is uninformed (like Vancouver WSP and Shelton DOL). However John and I had no problem with Vancouver DOL, BattleGround DOL, or Bellevue WSP. Some confusion exists over whether WSP inspection is necessary for retitles. John got thru without one. I got one and it was smooth sailing after that. My advice is try a different DOL if your local office is clueless or call Sheila Hadden at Olympia DOL.

[bobcat]

the Shelton DOL office supervisor talked with Randolph-then the supervisor called me-she couldn't understand how to change the title legally. then she couldn't understand 1965 Ford roadster -she only understood custom car on a title. this is the same people that last November told me to drive to the state patrol in Shelton (i hour away) in 39 degrees weather for a vin inspection-then I would get retitled-then the state patrol was confused so no inspection.If I can locate an office where I can just show up with my '63 plate and title (and not need the vin inspection) I'll gladly make the drive at this point.Geez, I even supplied them a copy of HB5585-was I supposed to read it to em too?

Bob

[SwiftDB4]

Boy, Bob the Shelton office sounds like doofuses. I would either call Randolph or Hadden yourself or just go to another licensing bureau. Even though my local office (Battle Ground) had never done a custom car registration they were aware of the new law and it went smoothly (but I had a WSP inspection).

[bobcat]

I think I'm in the middle of crazy town with all these 'modifications' to the requirements-depending on which DOL auditor you talk to. Shelton (mason county)says get VIN inspection but my original 1963 plate is fine-Port Townsend (Jefferson county)says don't need a VIN inspection but plate won't work-gotta buy theirs. Bob Randolph called me today-before this latest info, great guy and he knows his cars too-he's helping 'educate' these auditors who for some reason never read updates in the law. he did suggest carrying a copy of hb5585 and also the regs on collectors plates as most cops/state patrol will get confused if they see a collector plate-maybe not see it listed on your title (in car) and guess what happens next? assume the position SIR!!!

Bob

[bobcat]

has anyone in the gig harbor-olympia-kitsap county done the re-title and gotten or didn't need a vin inspection? and how long did you wait for the inspection? I keep having problems scheduling with wsp over here-their majorly overloaded-delays delays and now my tabs are set to expire soon-I'm desperate and almost ready to chuck the whole idea! if I don't need the inspection or the car there then I could just take the daily driver to that location with paper work.I've been on the road 3 years and don't even understand why the inspection now.

Bob

[Nate]

Originally Posted by JR Bennett

This process was very frustrating at first. D.O.L stated I needed to set-up an appointment with WA state patrol for an inspection. After playing phone tag all afternoon I finally just went down to their office in E. Vancouver. The officer there said she had just got off the phone with Olympia D.O.L and was told this new law SB5585 applied only to first applications and that I could not re-title my cobra. She had 50 pages of loose leaf copies of the bill all mixed up try to find some proof that she was right. I ask for the name and phone number of the official in Olympia that she had spoke with. I talked with Bob Randolph (360)902-3713 and upon reviewing my previous title application (2008 KITV) he said no inspection was necessary and that it would be handled as just a name change and collector plates would be issued. He called the downtown Vancouver auditors office and briefed a supervisor as to what was going to happen and then called me back this morning with her name and that she was expecting me. The cost was $47 for everything.. Title now reads 1965 Ford rdster....Let me conclude that this was processed not as a custom vehicle but rather a 65 replica vehicle.

I just got my car retitled, and the above was nearly exactly my experience. Before going to the DOL, I called Bob Randolph and talked to him about the process. He looked up my car in the database and was able to see the original MSO from FFR that I originally titled the car with. As the MSO stated it was a 65 roadster, no inspection was required, and I could go straight to the DOL. Once at the DOL (Issaquah), the agents had no idea how to do this, so we called Bob Randolph a few more times to straighten it all out. It ended up taking about an hour at the DOL, but it worked out. Collector plates should arrive in the mail in about a week. No more tabs or emissions inspections for me. Bob was a huge help and it wouldn't have been possible to retitle without him. Thanks also to the many people who made this possible and paved the way. The process seems to work pretty well now. If you're on the fence to retitle and were worried about the process, jump in, it works and it's almost summer!

Nate

[bobcat]

I finally did get my retitle a few weeks ago and posted on NW Cobra club-everything went smooth though I did have to get a vin inspection. I'm using a original 1963 plate with '65 tab. now when people are checking out the snake they are saying (besides if it's real) what great shape it's in for a 1965.

Bob

[caropepe]

Good job Nate!

My experience was almost the same (also posted on the other forum).

One thing that I'd highly recommend is exchanging a few emails with the DOL folks. This gave me a name of someone at the DOL I could work with, making sure they know about SB 5585 (and the associated RCW's), and helped smooth the entire process.

I even asked about the best (non-busy) time to come in. I printed the emails and handed them to the person, and 13 minutes later I was walking out with my temporary plate & registration.

A little preparation went a long way at the DOL! (Although I'm not sure all offices are email-savvy.)

Joe

[Darren]

Did this change affect anyone's insurance rates? I'm curious if it has any affect at all. I've been talking with people here and there trying to figure out if there is any way the insurance company could worm their way out of paying out if you were to have an accident and couldn't prove you were operating within the restrictions listed in 5585.

Example: You are alone on a 200 mile road trip. Yes, I'm paranoid

[CobraDVM]

Yeah - Darren - I think if you couldn't prove it, you're going to be hosed - feel better?

One question - are the restrictions the same as vintage plates for a car that is actually a 1965 car? I managed to get mine registered as a '65 - I thought about getting vintage plates, but since I don't have to smog it etc, I think I'll probably leave it as a regular registration.

[Darren]

Originally Posted by CobraDVM

Yeah - Darren - I think if you couldn't prove it, you're going to be hosed - feel better? .

Um, No!

[bobcat]

if your not registered as a collector vehicle your required to have a front plate-I never did-now I'm at least legal (as much as I ever will be)

Bob