http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic...&highlight=

Saw this thread over on the Samba. Anyone here ever do this? Which paint did you use?

Particularly interested in blue plate paint. TIA

Had mine done with a company listed in Hemmings Motor News out of Pennsylvania....however, think it's illegal to paint a plate in Kali

Lou,

Long time man!

Anyway - most of those plate places won't ship to cali or do cali plates.

My plates look like shiz, so I'm kinda stuck. Thanks for the warning.

Just try which Rustoleum, Krylon, Testors, etc. spray paint matches your CA blue best - same yellow as noted in the Samba link should be the same yellow on all CA plates to way back.

Rather than using the vasoline suggested in the article, do this (I posted it there too) -

"Painter's "Masking Fluid" is a better choice, since you can remove it by simply peeling off the dried rubbery mask when done painting.

It gets brushed on & then dries as a rubbery coating to protect the underlying color. You can use a rubber eraser or rubber cement pick-up (looks like a square eraser with bumpy top/bottom also sold in art supply stores/aisle).

You can usually buy it anywhere painting supplies are sold.

Then there's no need to risk either of taking off too much of the letter/number color of the paint with acetone, nor of later paint bubbling as the acetone soaks into the underlying color over time."

BTW - I know that residual acetone will eventually bubble up the paint, cuz that's how I cleaned 4 oversprays off of my plates & labels & VIN sticker, by lightly coating it & letting it sit overnight, then working it off the next day gently with a Q-tip.

My quest to restore my 80's CA plates on my 2 DDs will be much harder, since they're the reflective white, so I don't know if it can be done, nor if there are any reflective white rattle can paints out there which are close.

Good Luck!

Did you hear about this program to order new color correct plates?

Mark & all -

Those are new flat plates - no old school stamped numbers & use reflective blue paint. It's generally aimed at classic car owners lacking their original plates with newer cars are not eligible for the the DMV's YOM (Year of Manufacture plate reassignment program up to 1969 MY).

There is also an annual $45-50/yr extra charge to have them - over & above what it costs for your "regular" plate's annual fees/taxes.

So - if somebody has an out-of-state classic car/914 or one lacking it's original CA blue/gold or black/gold (1969 reg only) plates, then this is an excellent route to get near-vintage look repro type plates which are actually legal in CA.

If you still have your correct plates originally on your car/914, then you're better off sticking with them & cleaning them up, touching them up, etc. to get them to look newer.

I've done a bunch of research on this to re-assign YOM plates to our "new" 1960 Avion T20 travel trailer, which came from NM.

There's a guy at Pomona Swap meet doing it. He usually has a booth in the middle area near the Pink's Hot Dogs...he does them and you can't tell other than it looks brand new.