This questions is for all you fellow CA residents. I was told that you can somehow get black plates for your classic car. When I purchased my truck, it had the new style plates on it, and I would prefer to have the black plates. Has anyone had experience with trying this change-over? I would greatly appreciate anyone's help with this, as I am registering it soon and would like to be able to take care of it at one time.

Thank you very much in advance.
Chris

 

Good question Chris ... I have Black Plates but only have one. Can I piggy back a question to that and ask if someone loses their original black plates can they get replacements?

Jeannine

 

I have a matching pair of black plates, I think they are from 1964 or 65. I've also seen them for sale on Ebay. Appearantly some are worth more than others as I saw a pair go for over $100 and another pair go for $30.

I have no idea of how you would go about registering the plates to your truck but there must be a way.

Bobby

 

Well, I have found out a couple thigns so far. You can purchase them on eBay, but they must be for the same production year as your vehicle and have a clear DMV title. You can then take them down to your local DMV and have them assigned to your vehicle. I called the DMV as well and they are sending me a form "REG352" which should allow me to get reproduced plates of the original production year. I will wait until the form gets here to see what it entails. I might just get some off of eBay in the meantime, we will see.

I just though I would share the info.

 

How can you tell if they are the same production year?

 

The plates I have are stamped with the year. Usually in one of the upper corners (I think)

 

This might help:
Up to 1963 the CA license plate was yellow background with black letters. The black plate with, what they called yellow chrome letters, was issued from 63 - 1970 vehicles. From 70- 82 they changed to the blue background and yellow letters. Then in 1982 they issued the White background with blue letters, later adding the illumination white and scene.
You can still get a set of the plates which people have and have them issued to your vehicle by DMV. If you have a 56, for instance, DMV will not register Black with gold letter plates because that is not what was issued on that year vehicle.
I know some people have been slick and those that only have one plate have ordered the custom plates with the same numbers as the original plate. Then instead of placing the new custom plates on the vehicle, they put the old one on. When police officers run the plate, it shows as a current registered plate and they don't know if it is original or a custom plate. Custom plates run about $45 plus $30 renewal fees. Don't know if there is a penalty for doing that? Haven't heard of anyone getting caught so far...

 

I have a real nice '62 Cal. plate if anyone is interested.

 

I have 2 1956 yellow plates with black lettering -1 with a sticker also 1959. They are 2 separate plates. I got them from my father in laws 56 in California. Bill

 

Hi, TRUE, If your interested, google, " calif dmv yom " when listings
pop up, click on the third listing, [ ebay guides DMV clear etc. etc. ]
Its about year of manufacture license program in calif. Should give you
all the info you ever wanted and more. lol
Let me know if it helps. Gary

 

I've researched this issue. Here's what I've found and confirmed with the DMV.

You can register any matching pair of plates up to 1963, as long as they're clear. You do not need a title to go with the plates. This is called YOM (year of manufacture) plates. The year of the plate needs to match the year of the car, i.e. 1937 plates w/1937 vehicle, 1952 vehicle with 1951 plates w/a 52 year tag, etc. To find out if the plates are clear, you'd have to call the DMV. I've done this when I sold a bunch of matching pair 51 plates.

In 1963, the plate size was changed to what it is currently, thus most previous plates were required to be switched by the DMV. Currently, DMV will not allow you to register post 63 plates on any vehicle. However, I've read that there's proposed legislation to allow the extension of YOM plates to 63-68. Who knows when and if that will occur.

Furthermore, if you buy a vehicle that has black/yellow (63-68) plates attached to it and can support it (title or old reg), the DMV will register and title your vehicle with that plate, even if you only have one. However, you have to be alert when at the DMV. When I bought my 37 Airflow a few months ago, it came with a pair of 63-68 plates. The clerk at the DMV wanted me to switch the plates to current style. I told her no way that I'm going to do that because the vehicle was previously registered and titled with those plates. I had the title and old reg to prove it. She had me fill out a statement of facts form stating that the plates came with the car and that I'd like to retain them. Then, as long as they were clear, the DMV will register/title the car with the plates. I was successful.


As far as reproduction plates, you can have repro plates made from the 56 model year. However, I couldn't find anything prior to 56, but the vendor that I bought mine from states that he's working on them. I know that there's someone out there who reproduces earlier plates (like 51 and up), but I don't know who. I've seen personalized 51 plates recently at a car show, but the owner was reluctant to devulge the information.

I currently have personalized plates on my 51 and 52 Panel trucks. I recently had repro 63-68 plates made with the same personalized message as the current plates.




Each plate cost $75 to make. I only bought one plate for each truck for now. Once both have current reg, I'll order the front plates for each truck. As mentioned earlier, when cops run the plate, as long as it comes back registered and clean, they won't know the difference, and most don't even care.

Lastly, if you have badly damaged or used 56 and up plates, you can have them reproduced with your number sequence.

I'm hoping that the 51 plates will soon be available in reproduction.

Ilya

 

That's wierd '51. Both our Desoto and 60 have black plates and they have said nothing to the effect of changing any of them. But then again we always use AAA and try to avoid the DMV like if it we're a Chevy ...

 

Thanks to 51panelMan I also have the black repro plates. I ordered them with my personalized plate number. When they arrived, I affixed the new month and year stickers and mounted them on the bumpers. That was in October 06 and so far the cops have left me alone. I keep the original personalized plates in the trunk just in case an officer cares to see them. Jag

 

There is a company that remakes black plates from plastic. In CA, you have to run two plates, if you are missing one and get pulled over, you will have no choice in order to clear the ticket to replace those black plates with a pair of new (ugly) ones. The company that reproduces black plates has ads in Hemmings. Going the personal plates route, duplicating an existing black plate number as personal plates is the only way you can (somewhat legally) install black plates. You use the stickers from the personal plates on the black plates. A friend from a local car club is a manager of a local DMV office. DMV and law enforcement are only concerned that the license number matches the registration.


Black non commercial plates, btw...can be traced to the DMV office that originally issued them. Knowing what three letter prefix was issued where is the key. Examples: IME/IMH = Santa Monica; JLG/JLJ = Culver City; GPF = Inglewood. The first letter of black plates was only issued in certain areas. "A" plates were issued in Lassen and Siskiyou Counties, B plates...etc. While black passenger car plates only were used thru 1968, the commercial version was still being issued in 1970.


There was a 1965 Mustang being sold on ebay last yr for megabucks. The owner said..."notice the 'original correct' black plates." They weren't...they were W plates, issued in 1968, not in 1965.

 

A friend just bought a 55 Olds that has current style license plates and it had the old black/yellow plates (pair) in the trunk. The PO has owned this Olds for the last 50 years and has had the black/yellow plates on the car. However, the car sat unop'd for a few years. When he went to the DMV to re-register it, he was told that he needed to change out the plates to the current style.

So, I wasn't the only one told to change out the plates. DMV sucks!