Hello everyone. I'm looking at buying a 1977 Spider without a smog certificate, which I'm well aware is dangerous territory. I've never had to go through the process as my daily is a 1967 Mustang. The seller claims he never even tried to get it to pass smog and the fact the engine doesn't even have an air filter is indicative that he's telling the truth.
My question to you all is how difficult and costly would it be to get this car up to snuff and ready to pass smog? The price is right where I can spend some money on the car to get it there but I want to know if it's even feasible to get her to where she needs to be. It's worth mentioning that I'm located in California.
My wife has a 77 and we're in CA. Unfortunately, we bought the car in Oregon and the PO had "stripped" all the SMOG items out! My biggest struggle was trying to determine all the parts needed! I found a local Fiat Guru (well...relatively local.... he's up in Napa). Fortunately, for us, he was a "one stop shop" - he knew which parts were missing, could order/install them, and is a CA Smog location.
Total cost for parts "missing" (in our case) was ~$350, plus his labor to install and tune was ~$150 - so all in, about $500. It passed SMOG (this year), but he also told me I would likely need to replace the CAT and exhaust "soon" (more due to age/wear than anything else).
As such, this is very "do-able". It's just a matter of identifying what parts are missing....
For the money you are going to invest, you might as well use it towards a pre smog car. small bumpers look better in my opinion anyway. Its probably not worth the headache to get the car registered when you could be out there driving one for the same amount of money.
I'm restoring a 77 right now (will post full album soon) and I'm facing a similar dilemma. I want to run the 1.8 with dual webers and a proper exhaust manifold but that surely wont pass CA smog. Is it possible to get the car registered as a historic classic and have it smog exempt?
I'd be concerned by the fact the PO didn't have an air cleaner on it, along with the smog stuff. Unless it was a screaming deal, I'd keep looking. Who knows what else he neglected?
Kirk
from your pic I see that the egr, evap and air injection look intact. The air pump mounts low in the right side, so it can't be seen in the pic. So it looks like a stock air cleaner, routing of vacuum hoses and proper tune is about all you need. Not a big deal in my opinion
BTW - one other consideration is California is you can always go to a referee. Check the DMV website for a location near you.
My wife's 1977 was a CA car, so other than having to buy most of what was missing (removed by PO), the cost was relatively cheap. Although the car was never fit with a Catalytic converter, my local mechanic is recommending that I install one in the next year or so - just added insurance to make sure it passes CA SMOG.
Ironically, I have to replace the exhaust now - so looking at the traditional/standard exhaust pipe and inline mufflers that appear to be available from Vicks. Allison's offers one too - but states that it's not CA SMOG compliant.
our header is not CA compliant, but the exhaust is as long as it's equipped with a CA legal catalyst if the car requires it. Technically it's not legal to add a catalyst to your car if it didn't come equipped that way. And the standards are much higher if the car doesn't require a catalyst
