Restoring the vehicle, first along the RDW

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When I took the photos of this Series Traction Avants, someone was also photographing because he himself was still working on a restoration. He didn't have a Dutch license plate on his car yet.

It cannot be written about often enough to keep the owners of all kinds of nice and special cars that they are going to restore from an ice cold shower! The car is ready but no license plate is issued by the RDW. The cars that participate in road traffic in the Netherlands must be provided with a license plate, also known as a license plate. That plate corresponds to the registration certificate for the car. A lot of people now know that when the car is imported for the issue of a Dutch license plate, an investigation by the RDW is required.

To obtain a registration you must be in possession of the original registration certificate and the car must have original type plates and a chassis number. This must be hammered into a welded, non-removable part of the chassis or body of the car. If there is no number in the car, it will have to be entered. You can no longer do that yourself !! To see whether a chassis number can be registered, the RDW is conducting a VIN investigation. (VIN stands for vehicle identification number). In this, the identity of the car is investigated. After all, they do not want to provide stolen vehicles with a registration number in this way. If you do not have the original registration certificate it can get tricky. Recently, the RDW offers the possibility to inquire with the official authorities in certain countries about the identity of the car submitted for inspection. If the car is known as not stolen and the information provided is correct, there will usually be no problem.

But what is needed if the car has a Dutch license plate but that is missing? Even then the corridor to the RDW is necessary to have the car examined. Even then they will perform a VIN investigation and you must also have your affairs in order. Provide as much detailed information about the car as possible. Show proof of payment or other information about the way in which you came into possession of the car and try to find out whether the car is still provided with original numbers that demonstrably belong to the car.

An acquaintance's Morris had been bought at auction and the papers were missing. There was a bill from the auction company. Fortunately, a British Motor Heritage certificate could be requested that contained a number of original numbers. There also appeared to be an older number in the chassis, but the RDW found that the number was in the wrong location because it would be too easy to remove. However, the paperwork turned out to be the rescue. A chassis number was stored in another place by the RDW officer. When the car is on the road again, the inspection required to get the "dormant" license plate back will not be a problem. Do you also want to restore or modify a car?

On the website of the RDW www.rdw.nl contains all the information you need under: private> car> adapt or restore> make changes to your car. This site also contains information about the one-day registration certificate that you need if you want to drive your car to the inspection instead of on a trailer.

Text and photos Jacques van den Bergh

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A reaction

  1. Do you know whether a Traction Avant from January 1950 still needs to be specially inspected at the RDW or does it only need to be inspected to get a license plate?
    It is an import car from Belgium that I want to import into the Netherlands.

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