I am moving to the San Diego area shortly. I have been in the process of applying sheet metal around the outside, but nothing blocking vision and the like (“armor”… purely aesthetic reasons, no delusions that it will actually function as such). My family tells me the police in the area, particularly in La Jolla, are likely not going to take to this. So, I reviewed the California vehicle laws, and found this extremely broad law that seems intended for allowing police to make judgment calls, V C Section 24002. Reads as follows:
Vehicle Not Equipped or Unsafe
(a) It is unlawful to operate any vehicle or combination of vehicles which is in an unsafe condition, or which is not safely loaded, and which presents an immediate safety hazard.
(b) It is unlawful to operate any vehicle or combination of vehicles which is not equipped as provided in this code.
I don’t believe my vehicle is actually unsafe, however, I don’t know what the implications of this law would be regarding immediate procedures if they pull me over. So if anybody knows how proceedings go in California with this sort of thing, that would be most helpful. Basically, how lenient are the courts on giving police discretionary powers?
And if anyone happens to know how likely a cop in La Jolla or San Diego is to pull someone over for the modifications I described (obviously, as an estimation) that would be great too, but the first question would be adequately helpful.
I can do that, though it will be cell phone pictures since most of my stuff is packed. Obviously it is mostly unfinished, though I was on a different aesthetic approach previous to starting the armor.
A friend of mine mounted an enormous pair of moose antlers on the front of his car, and the police made him re-mount them. It was legal to have the antlers, but the mounting had to be “break-away,” so as to snap free in case of a collision.
Your armor plating doesn’t look like it extends much beyond the ordinary outline of the car, so might not fall under the same rules.
It won’t either, even when it is done. I don’t think they have a leg to stand on in this regard, the concern is more about whether the courts in California are lenient enough on the police that they feel sufficiently protected to make my life miserable (fines, impounding forcing court time etc) if for some reason they see the car as problematic for other reasons, even if what they do doesn’t stand up in court.
OTOH, If your intention is to make the car look like it has truly been armored against gunfire, then prepare to be stopped periodically by SD cops (who also have beats in LJ) who want to make sure you are not planning an LA-style bank heist with your (“mind if we check the trunk?”) trunkful of AK47’s. Once they get used to you on the beat and understand who you are and what your intentions are, they may back off a bit…until some rookie cop needs to be “broken in” by his training partner, at your expense.
PS This is definitely NOT the car to loan to your dope-using, doobie-dropping friends.
Well, your fake armor looks very much like very shoddy body repair. Like you replaced your whole driver’s door sheet metal with a piece of tin siding or something. Consequently that makes it look like it could be unsafe. Plus just *looking *too unsafe can cause rubbernecking of other drivers, which is in itself unsafe (even if, structurally, it’s not!)
Police have a lot of leeway in pulling you over for stuff like this (regardless of what a judge has ruled safe) and police certainly vary in their tolerances of creativity, so, don’t have or do anything that skirts the law while driving it!
Yea, the initial attempt at attaching the sheet metal didn’t work quite like I intended, so it does look pretty shoddy. Doesn’t matter if it is cut perfectly to me, but better than it was would be good.
I’ve never thought about (or even heard the term) “rubbernecking” before. Of course, I realize it will cause some people to look twice-- which I suppose could be much more dangerous in California than Colorado.
If they only have to check the trunk a few times, I guess I’m okay with that. Mostly interested in avoiding baseless tickets that I have to waste time in court with.
Agreed. Not to spit on your dreams or anything, but that looks incredibly ghetto and ugly (you’re doing it for aesthetic reasons? Really?). La Jolla is a pretty tony neighborhood so you probably will attract police attention in that, but not because of it violating some vehicle safety law. The cops will be watching you because they will think you are some kind of gangsta thug who doesn’t belong there.
Yes I am. Aesthetic reasons doesn’t imply “pretty” or anything in that arena. The initial attempt at cutting the sheet metal really didn’t work out as I had envisioned, granted. The door handle came out okay though.
I don’t care if they watch me. They can watch, figure out where I live, and move on. The violation of a safety law is not the reason I believe they would pull me over, but rather, that such a violation would be the easiest law to use to ticket me, or even impound the vehicle (thus claiming that was the reason they pulled me over). I have no doubt it will attract attention, but the question is, what they can viably do with it.
FYI, no need to worry about the La Jolla Police. No such entity. La Jolla is actually part of San Diego, albeit snootier. Back to your car, other than a few strange looks (especially in La Jolla), I doubt anyone will bother you. Those sharp edges, however, could be a liability in certain situations.
Yes, it seems like they could declare the sheet metal hazardous. I imagine they would just ask you to remove it. How are you attaching it? Will your car be full of holes if you have to remove it?
I should mention that, in parts of San Diego, particularly like La Jolla, people can be fairly protective of their neighborhood; if the vehicle you arrive in looks like a junker, you, or whomever is hosting you, may well get complaints from the neighbors if your car is left out on the street.
One man’s art is another man’s eyesore. Eyesores bring down property values. And La Jolla is very much about property values.
It doesn’t look very safe to me. Here are a few reasons to stop this madness:
The added weight of all this sheet metal will change the engine performance, braking, suspension, etc.
Rust. You’ve created all kinds of small voids that will gather dirt and other gunk. The dirt and gunk will hold water, accelerating rust. The body panels underneath will rot and the sheets will come flying off when you’re on the highway.
It could be more dangerous in a crash. By creating more rigid body panels, you have changed the path of crash forces. Body panels should crumple, it absorbs force.
It looks terrible.
You will be constantly harassed by police. Police pay close attention to junker cars, especially ones in a nice neighborhood.
How about sharp edges? There are lots of laws on pedestrian safety when it comes to car design. If you have any sharp edges sticking out, a light brush against a ped that would have led to nothing except an angry stare could end up ripping out a chunk of flesh.
What you are talking about is called an “art car,” and there are lots of them in California. They tend (unfairly) to attract more parking tickets and moving violations than less attention-getting cars. I doubt that you would have a ticket just for the modifications you’re making (there are much more extreme examples out there), but what you’re doing is really rather subversive in a car culture, because you’re challenging the aesthetic values and thus the meanings and broader values associated with them. People react to this on a gut level, most of them thinking it’s really cool and some of them getting angry.
As far as San Diego specifically, remember that La Jolla is just a neighborhood of San Diego, and it does not have its own police force. La Jolla cops are San Diego cops. I would think the car would be better in La Jolla, which is used to character, than in some of the blander suburbs, e.g. Rancho Peñasquitos, or the really wealthy enclaves like Rancho Santa Fe.
This would be my concern; sometimes in parking lots and such it’s necessary to walk next to a car. I would not appreciate getting injured due to someone’s “art project.”
The sheet metal is fairly sharp. It should hug the body panels, but there are some problem points in that regard. It is attached with pop rivets. So, if it comes off there would be holes, but those could be plugged with pop rivets. That don’t hold anything. Still, taking it off for the time might be the best choice.
As for anybody saying it looks horrible: this is irksome and I didn’t put this on here to be judged on its aesthetics.
