Quote Originally Posted by Glacier 73 View Post
Im sure you guys have heard of stories of tags going missing in panel shops so why would you risk leaving them on the car
when they are gone the car is worth a lot less and it has happened many times
im not saying its legal to take them off but i know plenty people who have them in storage including me


And Playwe no i didnt study law because there is enough smart arses in the world
Fair points. We've all heard horror stories of some less than carefull panel beaters and mechanics alike. One of the reasons they are made of very light aluminium these days is that ANY sign of tampering or removal immediately raises concern and further investigation. Some are now actually a plastic transfer (bar code type with non-UV stable treatment underneath them that shags the paint or becomes very apparent if they've been removed) that will only end in tears if they have been even attempted to be removed. The older ones such as fitted to our old beasts are deemed to be tampered with and investigated even if they are even torn slightly in NSW.

That said, if they are damaged and the numbers still align with the chassis number then there should be no other questions other than a passing "what happened here mate....?"

I had my eyes opened for me by an unfortunate incident in the early 90's where a licenced mechanic working for me forgot to properly tighten a pair of front strut attach bolts on one side of a Camry front suspension. Car got about 3-400km.... You guess the rest. Was going to cost plenty in an insurance premium hike so I got active and sat down with the MTA (of the time) and actually ran through the regs with them as to what I could and couldn't do. I ended up with a pile of NSW DoT rules and regs on my desk that took me about two or three weeks to wade through, but that was enough to get the insurance company off my back. The context of this example was that contained within those docs was a short blurb about compliance plate removal and re-attaching (obviously relevant to that time) but the rules may well have changed nowadays but I doubt it.

I understand the motives of those who do remove them for all the right reasons but all you need is some officious little twit to come on heavy and you'll end up in possible hot water. We see too many of that type these days... In 2005 I had one knock me back on a pit inspection in Darwin on my HJ due to a half inch split in the stove pipe off the exhaust manifold to the air cleaner..... Living in the tropics, no real need for the quaddie's choke to really even work... B*@@er me....

Dem pwiks is everywhere....