national safety law?

[jason at scirocco.org (Jason)]

Hey Ryan,
         As far as I know, there is no federal law on modifications to your 
car post-sale.  Individual states might have laws, but I doubt it.  Bumpers 
really aren't considered a "safety" item; while they do help cars meet 
frame to frame in accidents, their purpose is really for low-speed parking 
impacts and such.

         The FMVSS requires a certain strength of bumper when the car is 
sold to the end customer, but from what I know, once that happens, you can 
do anything you want, up to and including removing the bumpers (as many 
people do with S-10 pickups for example).  YMMV and your state might have 
different laws...

Jason



At 03:33 AM 7/25/2003, Ryan Schuermann wrote:
>I surfed around a bit, Abused google as best I could, but really
>couldn't find a repository of laws that pertain to automobile
>modification. Specifically what is or isn't against the law
>pertaining to automobile modification, specifically bumpers. I
>just assume because we live in such a safety conscious country that
>any slight change from the factory is automatically illegal unless
>the part and installation has been DOT ot NHTSA approved. But I
>know we routinely swap ours out for euro production, or make custom
>mods to lighten them. The average cop isn't going to know euro from
>american (well ok Meze would! ;P) But what about going more drastic?
>like installing custom bump stops ala Porsche design, or yanking the
>entire bumper concept and just runing 'naked'. Aerodynamics aside
>because I'm not talking about drag racing here, or trying to win the
>LeMans. I'm thinking purely cosmetics here, and what I could legally
>get away with, and what I would then know the rest fell under illegal.
>Ya know nothing is sexier than the Trans-Am champ 'rocco front :)
>
>thanx
>Ryan (remember me? hehe)
>81 1.8 8v
>85 1.8 8v for sale
>86 Rieger project
>
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