Wife calls me at work on friday about a notice in the mail, dated the day before. My '76 is parked at the rearmost of my lot-length driveway (basically in my backyard). My 1930's single car garage can either house the car, or my shop tools, but not both.

After sitting under a car cover for a few years, and registered "non-op", the city decided to (or was prompted by a neighbor) to take a look-see, and let me know I have 10 (now 9) days to move the car into a covered garage, or get its registration current, or it will towed. City code check showed they have right to enter property to inspect, and tow/remove any unregistered/immobile/"Junk"/etc vehicle if they want to. Now I'm panicing!


City code states that the only acceptable situation for keeping an unregistered car on my property is if I keep in a fully enclosed garage (backyard with 6' - 8' fences don't count). (I'm screwed! Visions of chaining my car to a few spare boat anchors, engine blocks, and my house foundation in a desperate attempt to foil the tow truck driver are dancing through my head!)

I had removed the cover three weeks ago, and jacked up the nose to service the leaking fuel tank lines (all new now). I had made the mistake of leaving it on the jacks after I completed the job because I was refinishing the belly pan and hadn't reinstalled it yet (all the under coating was gone from the leaking gas). Since it was on jackstands, the roof of the car was visible from the street if you made an effort to look for it (after passing the boat on a trailer and a hedge!)

I tried to contact the cities "abatement officer" on friday, but could only get a voisemail. Panic heightened.

I spent the whole weekend and monday in a marathon thrash festival of digging up parts from dusty storage, degreasing/reassembling the engine, refinishing sheetmetal, replacing all hoses/seals etc. Pulled all the emissions equipment out of the basement, picking through my ebay purchases of '76 emissions gear to find good air pump, air injection-manifolds, anti-reversal valve, brackets etc (dropped the good pump and broke the cast iron pulley, thankfully had a backup on the "frozen" pump).

Finally, monday afternoon, the "abatement officer", called me back. A very sweet sounding woman explained to me that it was mostly a safety concern with the car jacked up. I reassured her that it was off the jacks now (why hadn't she called me back on friday.. it took all of 25 seconds to drop the car back down). I asked her what I could do about the "10 day timer" now, with only 7 days left (not sure if my new clutch is the right part as it was purchased for 930 engine to 901 transaxle). She said the "timer" was fully in her control, and don't worry about it...
She said she'd come out and verify the car was not a safety hazard any longer, and that she'd work with me on getting it up and running again.

The long and short of it.. I got 2 or 3 weeks worth of "evenings and weekends" out of the way, and hopefully will be smogging the car late this week. I thanked her for being so reasonable. I mentioned I had taken a day off work to get it done in time, and she was immediately apologetic (amazing, this is a city employee!), and said her intention was not to put THAT much pressure on me.


A little pressure can go a long way in motivation... I don't recommend this type however....phew....

You are a saint.

I am more like... like the Genghis Khan of personal rights.



M

glad it worked out in your favor...

in our nieghborhood, they've been getting more vigilant in enforceing the rules about the broken down vehicles in peoples driveways...in fact just a month ago my next door nieghbors truck got towed by the city from his driveway, guess he didn't believe they'd do it.....


think Zois turned you in, hahahaa

I knew there was a reason why Missouri was a better place to live than California. I just didn't know what it was. Now I do.
Thanks for giving me the reason. Seriously though, here in Missouri, if you left it outside, even under a cover for that long, you would need a shovel to pick it up with, and it would never again sit on jackstands without folding up.

Good luck with the government.

In my nieghborhood if you dont have a derby car in the yard (at least one the more the better) your an outcast . But then it pisses them off that I actually mow my yard more than once a month.

We must be neighbors!

Yea Im about 20 mins west of you . I think you met my driver from work the other day. He lives in Kearney and is a Harley guy.

Your lucky! I had a similar thing happen and it was not looking like it was gonna end in my favor so I moved my car. However, they only bothered me about the car that was uncovered, not the two rusting away under crappy tarps. The officers typically only work on mon-thurs. My officer said that she had to see it run or it was going to the crusher if it stayed

914 fire,
Yes I did have a nice chat with a fire guy with a harley in a gas station. The DE car was on the trailer and I was gassing up for a DE event.
We will have to get together one weekend soon, and admire each others cars..

AFAIK in Calif. you can still file a "NonOp" registration (non-operation on public roads) and then you're fine to park or operate the vehicle on private property. It used to be pretty cheap too, like $20/yr or so.

That should get the DMV off your back; however, you still can catch flak in many areas for having "under restoration" vehicles parked in the driveway/yard for long periods...

Personally I have had a "needs work" VW Cab parked in our driveway for a couple years and it's move about that many times since, no grief yet but I finally tossed a cheap car cover over it a few weeks ago -- mostly cuz I was sick of looking at it myself.

Similar neighborhood thread in the VW Vortex (Home Improvement forum). My story:

QUOTE

originally posted by corpsedub » get really drunk one day and sit outside in a lawn chair... let your inabitions go i lived in a rough neighborhood(hunters point /bayview) san francisco). i always had people eyeing me up and down and looking at my car all the time..i eventually got a little tired of the disrespect and decided that every friday i would sit outside in a lawn chair and get drunk. it was great. eveyone thought i was crazy and didnt want to walk on my side of the street. after awhile i took it too far and i would sit with my mossberg 590 strapped to my bandolier across my back blasting deathmetal through a small boombox. sometimes, you just gotta go one up. sometimes you have to go 10 orders of magnatude up.

LOL!!!
Best frickin' advice! My story:
My neighborhood is 1960's suburbia but pretty nice. It's the God-damn old farts that are my hell! One temporarily parked, ratty looking air-cooled VW and suddenly I'm visited by the Sheriff with a tow tag Talk to me in person? Noooo. So, since I'm "allowed" one junk vehicle in my yard (can't be on the street) I pushed it in the yard and didn't mow for about two weeks

I actually had a friend look for a fridge and couch so we could dump them on the lawn. Yes, I made that sign the same day the VW went on the lawn and it stayed there the whole time! My friends & family were aghast and couldn't believe I 1. Put the sign up and, 2. Left it there for a couple weeks. But it's MY home and an enthusiast has to do what an enthusiast has to do, even if it isn't popular

Since that day I simply ignore the pricks. They wave, I ignore. No acknowledgement whatsoever. On their evening walks if I happen to be outside and they say something (which, funny, have actually been compliments since I've been landscaping) I'll say "thanks" and keep on working, no emotion, no conversation and no eye contact. They leave me alone now. But it's funny because there are seven kids in the neighborhood and they ALL wave to me and say hi and talk when I'm out and I'm equally friendly back. I'm on very good terms with the parents as well (well, I've worked on everyone's car one way or another since I'm the neighborhood mechanic ). And all this happens in front of the old farts


P.S. The little pink/red rectangle on the drive side window it the 'move in 24 hours of we'll tow it!' tag

There are LOTs of old cars in my neighborhood, so I generally don't worry about, or get grief about, the cars. My lawn, however, which is mostly hidden by a fence, wasn't cut for a couple of weeks while I was out of town, and I get a nastygram from the city stating that grass more than 12" long isn't allowed!

HA!!! that picture is priceless!!!!!


don't even get me started on california codes re. 'abandoned vehicles'....

Remind me never to move by Toby.... I'd have to kill him.

Hey, I'm a damn good neighbor. But behind-my-back tactics and wimpy, holier-than-thou attitudes don't fly with me. Those neighbors that hassled me also hassled other neighbors and they are the ones in the minority, believe me. They didn't even confront me 1-to1; had they I would've explained the situation (car would be gone w/in two weeks) and asked for leanience at most, move the car to the side yard at least (it was NOT easy to move, it took three of us just to push it off the tow dolly).

And my place isn't a shit-hole:

That is Christmas 2004. The property is clean, maintained, and houses a 914 in a very clean, neat and tidy garage. Me and my surrounding neighbors get along just peachy