windsurfer said:
Sorry, I know I'm new to the scene but what's an 'M' plate? :?:
it's a learning curve isn't it :wink:
most of what i say take with a pinch of salt :roll: but remember that there ARE rules out there that have to be obeyed.
put an earlier set of wings on a volkswagen beetle and 'a' magazine will call your car a 'wrong 'un'
put a set of wheels on your volkswagen beetle from another marque and the same magazine will put you on the front cover 8)
*go figure*
or as i'm fond of saying *degrees of infinity*
now then, way back 'when all this were fields' there was something called 'buffing' and it had nothing to do with polishing paint or slaying vampires, but all to do with obsessive geekiness about your particular car... generally *the kids* would be at bug jam throwing water balloons at each other in their pyjamas, while the buffers would be at stanford hall comparing parts numbers on their windscreen wiper switches.
then something happened :shock:
i dunno what, my computer was broken, but when i got a new one everything was different... the pages were full of imported OG paint buses quietly rusting away on showfields, and bays, even little old bays, the dullard cousin of the splitscreen bus that nobody aspired to own had got an identity of their own, and a certain desirability... so long as they had indicators low down on their front panel. the other ones were still worthless thank god.
but with this rise in popularity came a surge of newly found knowledge... remember 'libraries gave us power' so imagine the effect the internet has had on the scene.
parts that would literally NEVER surface, or which you might only see once in a lifetime like a mechanical brigadoon were suddenly at people's fingertips via the miracle of ebay and thesamba, and whereas before people might have taken a lifetime to build their perfect ride nowadays we've entered the click... bought that click... got that fancy that... click... age where you can literally assemble your ride from the comfort of your own home, instead of having to trek to lithuania for a used set of spoon latches.
again... i've got a little distracted :roll:
your bus came out of the factory with a list of 'optional extras' which all had a code, and so theoretically (conveniently ignoring any changes by previous owners over the past 40 years or so) if your bus has Mxxx then it'll have a clock or Mxxx actually i can't think of very many, i'm not an M code buffer but the point is, and i've taken my time making it, and it's exactly the same as i made in the other thread about replica alloys; some might say if your bus doesn't have the M code for a certain item, then bolting that item on is creating a wrong 'un, the same way as bolting slopey wings onto a '72 beetle is nowadays considered a bit of a fashion faux pas.
this of course makes it even harder to create your dream ride, especially if you want something like deluxe trim, because surely you'll need a deluxe bus to start with, and they're rarer and thus commensurably more expensive.
most *normal* people who want deluxe trim just bolt a set on of course and to hell with the M plate (i've never even
seen mine) but i just thought i'd point it out to you because it's a fascinating facet of the 'scene' you're keen to learn about 8)
