Safety Decal on Cars (how much, buyer, community college)

[hotzcatz]

Originally Posted by Jungjohann

The extension is part of the license plate bracket, just a few inches of extra metal to the right of the rear plate. Never had a problem with the cops here on Maui about it, I don't think it makes any difference as to where the safety sticker is on the okole of your car, it just has to be current and visible. My cars an Elise, gets too much attention as it is.

Aloha and okolemaluna

You named your car "Elise"? Shouldn't it be Elisa?

They may sell the license plate with safety sticker spot at an auto parts place or do they all have to be custom made? I think I've seen some folks have a bracket attached to something underneath the car as well.

The stickers are slashed with a razor blade to keep it from being stolen since it won't come off in one piece but they don't have to be slashed. If you keep your car locked up in a garage it probably wouldn't be a problem so it wouldn't have to be slashed.

We have ratty old beater cars, nobody messes with them and they are really easy to take care of since polishing them is never on the "to do" list. They don't have names, though, maybe they will get fancier if we give them a name?

http://thefiftiesandsixties.com/CarsWeDrove.htm You might like this website, they are old cars but they got fun music!

[SkyBob]

The model name is Elise, manufactured by Lotus.

[hotzcatz]

Yeah, a small flat car that can't go off road or carry much. It could still be named, though, don'tcha think?

It might be a good choice for Oahu or Maui but where would anyone drive it on any of the other islands? Our highest posted speed limit is 55 so what's the use?

[SkyBob]

To many people vehicles are a fashion statement, practicality be damned.

[hotzcatz]

Well, guess they can make a fashion statement although I'm not sure who's gonna be around to appreciate it. That would need an audience, wouldn't it? Most folks drive to the feed store and the grocery store although the classic car folks occasionally gather together and drive about in groups. My dental hygienist's husband had some fancy flat cars but he sold them to someone who shipped them back to the mainland since there wasn't anywhere to drive them around here or anyone to appreciate them properly here. They are usually rather expensive and don't have enough ground clearance. We get a LOT of rocks falling on the highways and one rock under a low car can cause a lot of grief.

We got a fashionable car earlier this year, if a '53 MGTD even counts as a car although it doesn't seem hardly big enough to be a real car. At the moment it is more of a project than a car since it isn't running yet but I think that is fairly standard for a vehicle of that variety. It has metal bumpers though so once it gets to where it can go out on the road we will have a place to put safety inspection stickers. If and when it runs we will drive it to the grocery store and the feed store and maybe the classic car folks will let us run along on some of their trips but I think it may not be quite their cuppa tea since it is British instead of Detroit steel. Oh well, everyone needs a foolish thing now and then.

[Jungjohann]

Come on now, the Lotus is just a little POS English car, so what??????? Speaker grills fell off in the first week, then the shifter almost broke, speedometer sometimes registers 10-30 mph, WHEN YOU'RE SITTING AT A STOP SIGN!!! (now thats fast!!!), stuff falls off on a regular basis, rattles like it's about to fall apart, standard Lotus quality........ No big deal to me, just a lot of fun, go-cart on wheels with a SC. When I go to Foodland for groceries I never buy much, nowhere to put the stuff, so it saves me all kinds of money. Now, a 53 TD, there's a real car for ya!!!!!!! My good friend upcountry has a 52 TD, took it all the way down to the wood chasis, rebuilt absolutely everything, car is literally better than new, doesn't even leak oil from the main seal anymore, not much anyways. The bracket for the safety sticker/reg can probably be had through the Audi dealership on Beretania over on Oahu, at least they would know where to get one.

Aloha and okolemaluna,,,

[hotzcatz]

Do Lotus' have their electric systems by Lucas, the Prince of Darkness, like the MG's? They are both Brits.

Oahu has a British car club, our friend belongs to it and he has an assortment of MGTD's, MGTF's and such. I'm not sure if any of them will survive to the end of a parade, though. He generally ends up being towed home. I think it is because British cars run on smoke and mirrors and he keeps letting the smoke out. The MG we have is "tupperware" so it's fiberglass on a VW chassis so it will hopefully survive the length of a parade if and when it ever runs.

Is Elisa a convertible? There's more room if it's a convertible, then you can buy things like grandfather clocks and drag them home from yard sales.

So where is Elisa's safety sticker? Directly on her bumper?

[Jungjohann]

"The Prince of Darkness", I love that one, why did your MGTD stop running, "I let the smoke out!", aka, fried wire harness. Of course, the all time fave, "Why do the Brits drink their Ale at room Temp?".........Answer, "Lucas makes the refridgerators",,, the list goes on, and on, and on, and then fries itself!!! Elise has a removable hardtop, which they highly recommend, in the owners manual, that you don't try to install while driving, just can't be too careful,,,I think there's also a note in there about not trying to change a wheel while driving as well!!! First car, over here, on Maui, in 1976, was a 68 or so Plymoth Valiant, complete with the "pushbutton" tranny. The car had been on the windward side for a long time, as a result, rust had more than taken its toll. The previous owner, one of them anyways, must have been a roofer, in order to stop the rust, the car had a pretty liberal coating of roofing tar, all over, but not on the rear floor, which was gone!!! Car was ugly as sh##, but, it never failed to start, and run, in it's own fashion, I miss that car, had a lot of fun in it, but, that was 32 years ago....

I think I've seen that "Tupperware" TD around, has it been here for a few years???? The twin pipes, and the VW sound, are a dead giveaway, I think the one I used to see here, South Maui, was green.

Aloha and okolemaluna

[hotzcatz]

Yeah, Dodge Darts/Plymouth Valiants are the "perfect" car - with lots of room for safety stickers, too, not that anyone would care about putting one on their huge chrome bumpers and then slashing it with a razor so it wouldn't be stolen. I had several Dart/Valiants and they all had a 226 slant six engine, three on the tree tranny I think was in it, solid enough to walk across the hood or roof without denting it, four doors and a trunk big enough to stash dead bodies in. I used the newer one, a '75 Dodge Dart, as a construction truck to build a house with once. It had roof racks and I could haul sheets of plywood on it and then stand on the hood of the car to push them up onto the roof rafters. That car had holes in the floor, too, but that let the water drain out when it rained. It had air shocks on it, too, since the roads in Hawaiian Acres were a bit rough at the time. Great car.

If Elsie has a removable hard top, shouldn't there be a soft top and tonneau cover to go along with it? Maybe they weren't able to figure out how to instruct folks in their use so they weren't able to add them in as options.

The Tupperware TD we have we picked up as a project last spring and I don't think it had been running for years before we got it. It is incredibly cute, though, bright "arrest me red" with a white interior and white top. It had gotten smushed in the front so we've been having to straighten it out a bit and it needed new grill parts so our friend with the real TD's sent us a couple of his spare parts. I think it has been a Moku Nui (Big Island) car for the past few years and not running so it couldn't be the one running about on Maui.

Is Elsie red?

[Jungjohann]

My rusted out Valiant had the trusty slant six, I swear, you could do just about anything to that motor and not hurt it. I knew I was low on oil when making a turn, the engine would start to knock just a little, kind of the Plymoth version of an oil pressure gauge. It was one of those cars that you could leave running, keys in it, in front of the Maui Correctional Center, (that being MCC the county jail, not to be confused with MCC the community college, well, sort of not anyways), during a massive prison escape, gaurens the convicts would run right past it. It was stolen once, when I was living at the Outrigger Hotel on Keawakapu Beach and tending bar at the restaurant, walking down to the Bar to go to work, I noticed that the trusty Valiant wasn't in the lot, kind of thought, "Oh well"........few days later.........IT'S BACK!!!!!.Some thieves just don't know quality when they steal it........I finally gave it away after buying an E250 Ford van. After a very short period of time, the auto tranny went out on the van, fortunately the fellow I had given the Valiant to let me borrow it while my Van was being repaired. Of course, the slant six, a truly legendary engine that was virtually bullet proof, was discontinued, but, for Maui, and the time, I couldn't have had a better car. The Lotus does have a soft top, I've never put it on, just the hard top so I can run the AC, which does work.............sort of......

Aloha and okolemaluna