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what a great asset to have on the forum! great that you will openly assist with advice

i would actually like to know what the process is to become able to certify mods? i have a mech. eng. degree, so wondering how much more is required? (the only thing being i'm in Vic so it's potentially not the same process)

For the purposes of the rest of the forum it would be great to limit the number of PM's to Matthew so we can all learn something from peoples questions.

It will be invaluable (for you NSW guys anyway) to have Matthew on board helping with some of the more tricky conversions.

Would love to give the job of inspecting my wagon to you when the time comes but its a long drive and there is a guy somewhat closer.

Hi Matthew, once again thank you for your willingness to help us through the engineering certification minefield . if i may pose the first question, 'a' pillar reinforcement/strengthening in a ute body , i'm resisting using the word 'roll cage' for obvious reasons but what is your angle on this? I have collected a number of pictures of damaged and crashed road cars over the time i have been building my project ute to get a pattern of 'a' pillar deformation and the fact that the 'a' pillar corrigates and the body folds in the middle , is this a legitemate arguement for the addition of material to the 'a' pillar

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  crashed ute3.jpg (59.21 KB)

I think this thread will have many pages....


I have a car that is engineered in N.S.W but has been unregistered for close to 10 yrs. Does it need to be re-engineered to be registered or is a blue slip sufficient?

This seems to be a hard question for Engineers in my region.

Those photos suggest the crumple zones work perfectly well in protecting the driver.

I'm ok with controlled deformation , but we all know how little the drivers cabin space is in a ute ,I'm not comfortable with any or very little deformation of the drivers space , especially in the head space and foot well, remember the screens are not bonded in like a late model car so they don't offer any strength to the occupant cell . Also remember the doors don't have the level of side intrusion that later cars have either .

Crumple zone is ok, boxed bent tunnel about 70mm to drivers side, front wheel bent wheel well 120mm toward passenger but we all walked away
http://datsun1200.com/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=18428
http://datsun1200.com/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=18427

What do you think Matt?, hope we haven't overwhelmed you already