my 914 has jumped around states a bit, so obviously it did not have the original california black plates (i think they went to blue plates a few years later in 72 or 73).

as i recall in virginia (where i went to college) if you can find vintage plates you can have them regged to your car. is there a like system in california? i would love to find some black plates for my car. and if you can do that, where would one acquire black plates? i have checked ebay and craigslist from time to time and not seen anything. i assume there are some junk yards / front yards full of em somewhere.

tnx

ebay has old plates

look at that...i swear i have searched there before...good to know, i see some nice 1970 plates...wonder what they will go for.

so does anyone know of the legalities / process of using them with my car?

My '70 914s both have blue plates. According to the attached site black ended in 1968 (my '68 Bug had black [XKV 183] purchased in August so this seams right).
Plates purchased from this site CANNOT be used in California.

http://www.licenseplates.tv/cat/california_147.html

I bought a pair of 1951 plates with 1955 tags attached at the Good Guys swap meet and was able to use them on my 1955 356. Be sure that the ones that you purchase have documentation guaranteeing that they can be used for registration in CA.



Dave

IIRC, California Assemby Bill 462 was passed in 1997 to allow using Year of Manufacture(YOM) license plates for 1969 or older model year vehicles and to 1972 or older model year commercial vehicles and pickup trucks.

Unfortunately, unless your teener is a 1969 model year, it is not legal to use original year of manufacture plates on your car, unless the car has been continuously registered with those plates since it's YOM.

Anybody have any updated information?

Here's the rule. ANY year appropriate plates on any 1962 or older car. As stated above, year appropriate plates issued to THAT SPECIFIC vehicle 1963 through 1969. If you have the original plates stashed somewhere, and the car's never been liensaled or salvaged, you can put 'em back on, subject to doing the paperwork with the DMV. You have to have BOTH plates to do this, and they have to be in usable condition. It's illegal to refinish CA plates, but they probably wouldn't say anything.

The Cap'n

My '69 Ghia used to be ZYMxxx. Prolly sold in '68 too.

bummer, it would be cool to have the blue plates on there. stoopid california.

I feel sooooooooooooooooooooooo guilty for making you live here. If you don't like it, go away. There are a lot of states with FAR worse vehicle laws than CA, and FAR higher reg fees, too. The Cap'n

I happen to love it here in California. But I still agree that California's License Plate law is "stoopid".

I've heard of a guy that had a car and wanted the blue period correct plates for his car. He purchased personalized plates at the California DMV then went to plate maker and had the period correct plates made to match the personalized plates.

The chance of a cop pulling a plate off of your car, that comes back in the computer as valid with a proper tags and declaring the plate bogus is PRETTY MINISCULE.

Vanity plates started in the blue plate era.....I have a blue plate vanity plate......I also have regular blue plates on my 74....they look pretty good, too.....

when I bought my car it had blue vanity plates

DICKU2

owner refused to let me take them.
i was totally bummed.

Not legal. Just another reason for some cop to vent his boredom on you. The Cap'n

heres a few little known facts, even to most car ca. guys:

1 black plates 1962 thru 1969 (i've seen a couple 70's). 've been told it was probably handed out leftovers at the dmv.

2 you can read if the plates are origanal (correct) to the vehicle by the year and letter it starts with. 1962 started with AAA 111, 1969 ran out with ZZZ999. for example my 67 mustang has "tty 890". i think latter blue plates follow this as well as the white plates in 87

my personal experiance keeping my black plates to my 67 was a nightmare, but i'm presistant
they wanted me to Y.O.M. the to original plates (car hadn't been registered since 79') but i finally found old documentation to prove the link to them. i was insistant because Y.O.M. has a yearly fee just like personal plates (dmv)

go for the original ca. plates even if you Y.O.M. them, it adds personality

mike

My newly restored plates.....

nice