Any California smog check station can perform a smog check pretest. Just
make sure you specifically ask the smog station for a pre-test. Tell them
you are restoring this vehicle and you do not want to smog check results to
be held against you if your vehicle fails or doesn't pass the smog
inspection.
Here's what you should know about smog inspection pretests... Your car's
smog test results WILL BE sent to the Bureau of Automotive Repairs data
center even during the pre-test, however the results of the inspection will
not be held against you if the vehicle fails the smog test as a gross
polluter. So basically there is nothing that will stop the relay of smog
test data to the state. Getting a smog pretest is just a measure to stop the
DMV or BAR from using the data against you.
Consider this also... You can always have a smog station conduct a smog
inspection without using the smog machine in it's entire capacity as a State
smog inspection tool. You may simply ask the smog mechanic to use to smog
machine's probe as a tailpipe emissions sniffer looking for high emissions
which cause smog check failures; high HC, high CO and high NO.
