So I just got off the phone with a supervisor in Austin who laid it all out, all the while conceding that the state is *&^%$ up and inconsistent. Generally speaking, the process madmaxx and SSSammy detail is correct:
1. If you have a finished kit that you bought brand new from a kit supplier, you better have the MSO/MCO. If you don't, then you will need a bill of sale for all the sub-components and will have to follow step #2 below. Their sole goal, besides being a pain in the ass, is to be sure you aren't using stolen parts.
2. If you build a car from absolute scratch or assemble it from subcomponents (like a frame from one builder and a body from another,) you will need receipts for these large items as well as the engine, and you need serial # pencil traces from each, if they have them. You then complete the forms noted above, have it inspected and weighed and apply for an Assembled Vehicle Title and the year of the vehicle will be whatever year you apply. Unless you have something to substantiate that its a replica of a Cobra (such as the insurance card and/or safety inspection green receipt,) then there will be no reference to "Cobra" on your title. The VIN will likely be whatever is pencil-traced off of the frame. If there isn't one, TXDOT will generate one for you. If your pencil trace is CSX 3040, then that will likely be your VIN.
3. Effective as soon as TXDPS can start enforcing it, all of these kit cars are going to have to go to a waiver station for inspection if you are trying to register it in an emissions county. In other words, they are trying to stop people from being able to inspect them at a Kwik-Lube or "Pappa Joe's Inspections Inc." The waiver stations have been advised to inspect it as the year for which it is a replica, in this case a ''66 or '67, and to do a safety inspection only, making it exempt from emissions inspection.
4. If you buy an assembled vehicle from out of state, Texas will title it exactly as it is titled in the other state. So for example if I am looking at a Superformance in Ohio that is titled only as a "2007 Assembled vehicle," that is what Texas will use. They will not add any Cobra reference unless its already on the title.
4. For those of you who have a replica titled as a real Cobra, meaning not as an assembled vehicle, they are going to try and chase you down and make you get your car retitled. That should only take them about 50 years or so.
Regarding taxes:
1. If you buy an existing built kit that is already titled, you will be charged 6.25% sales tax on the selling price by the DMV when you title it (unless you buy it from a dealer, in which case they will charge you tax at the time of sale.)
2. If you assembled the vehicle yourself and apply for a title as such, regardless of whether you bought it from a kit maker or gathered up the parts yourself, you do not pay TX vehicle sales tax because as Francis stated, its assumed you already paid sales tax on the items. If you buy the items out-of-state, all the better for you. So if any of you paid TX vehicle sales tax at 6.25% when you titled your car, you got boned.
Now I think all of this BS is withstanding the diligence of the person sitting in front of you when you show up to title it. My position now is as madmaxx stated, get the insurance as a '65/'66/'67 Cobra, get it safety inspected at a waiver station as the same (or at your local inspection station if they will do it) and then apply for an AV title, and you should be able to have the replica year/make/model notated on the title without an argument. But if you are asked to concede to an emissions inspection, run like hell to a waiver station because they know not to require emissions on a replica, regardless of the fact that their website says its now required.
I am already tired and I haven't even started turning a wrench on my car yet....
