Restored License Plates

[Anteek29]

Originally Posted by garyjohn

Restored Plates are NOT allowed in California. Must be original paint.

My three antique cars have restored CA plates. Never had DMV refuse them.

[Rene R]

Originally Posted by Ivan in southeast va.

Does anyone know who does fiberglass recreations of your plates? In case you lose one or don't want to damage the originals.

I don't know about fiberglass, but licenseplates.tv makes aluminum replica plates that are very close to originals in size, color and fonts. They no longer make California plates due to problems with the state DMV, but I think they still do most other states.

A number of years back I bought a pair of NOS 1928 California plates and registered them to my car. They were, of course, perfect. But after a couple of years of exposure to the elements (despite being garaged) the paint deteriorated severely. They looked awful. I considered having them restored, but instead I bought a pair from licenseplates.tv (before California shut them down). They looked perfect. I figured the odds of being pulled over for using non-original plates was close to nil. Who would know? I think the main reason the state stepped in was that people were registering for conventional plates with modern number systems, then having "vintage" plates stamped with the new numbers. That is definitely illegal. In my case, the number on the replica plate matched the YOM registration. The only way to tell the replica from a restored original was to check the metal -- aluminum versus original steel.

In any event, when I sold the car I put the deteriorated but original plates back on.

[Chris Haynes]

Originally Posted by garyjohn

Restored Plates are NOT allowed in California. Must be original paint.

Take your OP plate to DMV for inspection. After it is done then you restore them.

[TerryH]

These restored plates were approved in Southern California by the local DMV