LWB has no issues with IVA as long as the chassis is completely standard including the floors which can be replaced but only with stock replacements.

When you send the V627/1 form off to get the description changed you may have to use a little 'poetic license' when it comes to some of the answers.

This is how I send one off recently, they took 'Beetle 1300' off the logbook altogether and changed saloon to convertible so it's just down as VW convertible, correct but nice and vague as well, result!

£450 for an IVA test ?

£450 for an IVA test ?

Yep

How does the car tax work out on an IVA registered ( Q plate I'm assuming ? ) buggy   

IVA....   Q plate which cannot be changed. No MOT for 3 years per new production vehicle. Car Tax.... very good question and to be honest I have not thought of this and I do not know what criteria applies here.

If you decide to go down the IVA route do your homework thoroughly. Vosa test station just down the road from you at Blyth. 

IVA....   Q plate which cannot be changed. No MOT for 3 years per new production vehicle. Car Tax.... very good question and to be honest I have not thought of this and I do not know what criteria applies here.

If you decide to go down the IVA route do your homework thoroughly. Vosa test station just down the road from you at Blyth.

there's a Test station showing at sandy lane Gosforth , which is very close to me   

How much should I pay for a donor vehicle or do I shop around for the parts , donor cars seem as rare as hens teeth and certainly not cheap , what's the best road to go down ?

A lwb on facebook beachbuggy.info 80% completed £2750 ono in Wales.

LWB all day long for me. No IVA or other issues. MOT exemption is lost as classed as modified so from when you build it and change the V5 to something other than beetle you'll have 30 years to get MOT exemption back. It's still tax exempt unless its put on a Q plate (SWB)
LWB seem to behave better on the road and no issues with chopping cables down or geometry issues with the front. Maybe i'm biased as i love my LWB but it causes a lot let problems and you have room to take stuff in the back if needed

LWB all day long for me. No IVA or other issues. MOT exemption is lost as classed as modified so from when you build it and change the V5 to something other than beetle you'll have 30 years to get MOT exemption back. It's still tax exempt unless its put on a Q plate (SWB)
LWB seem to behave better on the road and no issues with chopping cables down or geometry issues with the front. Maybe i'm biased as i love my LWB but it causes a lot let problems and you have room to take stuff in the back if needed

Thanks , starting to come around to LWB , it does seem a lot less hassle

IVA....   Q plate which cannot be changed. No MOT for 3 years per new production vehicle. Car Tax.... very good question and to be honest I have not thought of this and I do not know what criteria applies here.

If you decide to go down the IVA route do your homework thoroughly. Vosa test station just down the road from you at Blyth.

Apologies   Gosforth it is not Blyth...

A bit of advice learned from  experience......  From the donor vehicle keep and re-use as many original parts as you can. Anything left over keep for the future or put on ebay.....

Having built at least 4 swb buggies and 2 lwb buggies completely from scratch I know that at my advanced age, if I started to build an IVA compliant swb it'd never get finished and would never make it onto the road and I'd get damned annoyed at putting unecessary stuff on the car just because the government says... demisters, really!?

Conversely I could put a good, solid,  basic lwb car together and on the road in a week or two as long as I didn't have to rebuild the engine and the floors were good.

I'm with cunningstunt on this one these days I'm afraid.

I see the IVA test as a way to slowly remove modded, home built and low production cars from the road by discouraging new builds as it gets tougher with every amendment added and the older cars will get laid up or broken so off the road, we will end up with a few specialist kit firms like Caterham selling complete or nearly completed cars with parts to pass the test.

From things in the past I understand some production cars which are certified and have vin numbers would fail an IVA test.

As David says re-bodying like a lwb buggy is the easy option to something different.

If I were starting from scratch I think I'd go for an existing buggy that needs a re-body/refurb. If you started collecting odd parts you can really get bogged down by little missing bits and pieces, especially as there are so few autojumbles and grass roots shows these days, forums have gone quiet and eBay ain't what it was.

My other credo is when starting out keep it as standard VW as possible, don't feel you automatically need a big motor, four wheel discs etc. They can come later but are by no means necessary.