Satellitecentral

A few weeks ago a buddy off mine here in Georgia , informed me I should get a Historic Licence plate for my 66 Dynamic 88.
He really hates the Plates the state issues for older "Hobby" Cars , he has about 12 Older Cars !!!.
So to cut a long Story Short , I went on Fleabay , and bought a Period Correct 1966 "Peach State" Licence Plate in nice condition , when it arrived we Clear Coated it after washing it well , to stop the Ga Humidity turning it to pure rust in 6 months .
I took it to our local Court House , and after explaining what I wanted , they were extremely helpful , and proceeded to register my New (Old Plate) to my car , and best off all there was NO CHARGE !
All I have to do is keep the Original plate they issued , with the documentation , in my Car so that it can be verified if I,m stopped by the Cops who are not aware that I can Legally run with my Old 66 Plate displayed on the Car

Just wondered do any of you Guys an Gals run a Historic Authentic Plate in your state ?

Bluevista

I've been running them for at least 15 years on my one car, haven't paid for plates since. Same deal, you have to have historical plates first and keep them in the car. The Vista has "hysterical" plates, just a one time charge too. The 1971 Ohio plates had a yellow background that's the same as the drunk driver "party plates" issued here after an offense and they look too much alike, I have enough problems.

wmachine

Yup. Pretty good deal here in Ohio.
Here are the ones on my 442s.

Satellitecentral

This is mine

2blu442

Kurt, how in the world did you find period correct plates with 442 on them

Really Cool!!!

John

lshlsh2

MD too. Have a set on my 71 conv. One time charge of 13.50

66ninetyeightls

Yeah perfectly legal in Ontario Canada as well. They just check to make sure the plate number hasn't been used for trailers first before registering it to the car.

wmachine

An interesting story. And a tribute to Steve Osnowitz. Steve passed away within the last year. He still had the '64 442 he bought new, and then restored in 1986, taking Best of Class at the OCA Nats. Could be the nicest documented '64 442 in the country.
The plates? Steve got "regular" plates in '64 when it was new. But starting in '65, Steve knew the gal that worked at the license bureau, and when she got to plate #442, she put it aside for him. This went on from '65-'71. And he kept the old plates, of course. Fast forward to the early '90s when the program to register old plated started. Steve told me about the plates he had, and I asked if I could buy the '66 plates. He said no. He *gave* them to me. Later I bought the '67, then '69 442s, going back to Steve each time. He laughed when he gave me the '69 plates telling me that I better not buy any more 442s as that was the last set of his old 442 plates he had left. Wouldn't take a penny for them.
I'm proud to have these plates that were all originally on his '64 442 now back on 442s.
(And "KZ" almost hit my initials KS!)

stevengerard

Awesome story!!!

2blu442

Wow! Thank you for sharing that Kurt!!!
John

ztim

Great story Kurt! Thanks for sharing.

Satellitecentral

Amazing story , thank you for that

oldsonharmont

Arizona has a similar program for antique plates, but I don't think it's very well known. Back in the day new plates were issued here every 4 or 5 years. So in the case of my 71 Cutlass SX, a '69 AZ plate would be correct and valid long as the number is not currently in use. I was lucky enough to find an old set and got them cleared for use. Now they're beginning to turn up at local swap meets. I think it's a nice touch for your vintage muscle car.

72 cutlass455

Have a set of california Blue plates from 64 on my ranchero. They just keep issuing stamps for them.

1969w3155

Michigan has a similar program. You photocopy the "new" plate and send it in with reistration #'s etc. and pay a one time fee of $35.00 for the trouble. One thing positive about this is, when registering with the year correct plates, it dropped my agreed value insurance on my two Olds from $390 a year to $220! so, some savings to boot!

marinus_

What is the cost involved in doing this in Canada. From what I understand it costs about $250.00 to register these plates.

I have a set of 1964 plates for my car but I will not pay that much to licence them to the vehicle so I just hang them up in the garage.

jaunty75

But aren't things a little different in California than for the rest of the country? In California, the license plate stays with the car (starting in 1963), no matter how many times it changes owners, rather than coming off and being replaced with a new one by the new owner each time. So as long as your Ranchero remains in California, it will have the license plate that was put on it in 1964, even if you sell it to someone else, as long as that person also lives in California.

That's why you sometimes read about a California car for sale still having its "black plates" or "blue plates". This means it has never lived in another state, which is a selling point because of the dry California climate (at least in the south).

So for you Californians, having a year-correct license plate on an old car is actually normal, rather than unusual or something requiring extra effort or fees to have.

bigoldscruiser

In New Jersey you buy a set of "QQ" (Antique) plates, pay just the one time and they are renewed free every three years. You are allowed to remove the front plate and use a vintage year or dealer plaque or whatever on the front and just keep the issued plate in the car.

rcorrigan5

My dad got lucky when he licensed his (no my) 1968 4-4-2 here in Washington State. Here's the plate that's still on it today. Randy C.

Oldsguy

Good thread that I missed earlier. In Missouri it is allowed as well as long as the numbers aren't already in use in a modern plate (always possible). I purchased a plate from ebay but later found the numbers were already in use on a commercial truck. That was a few years ago so perhaps now I can use it, should check again. Moving this thread to the General discussion forum for relevancy.

MX442

I found this one at a swap meet last weekend!

agtw31

cops are on the lookout for historic plated cars being driven regularly here in columbus,i guess they figure people are trying to get over on the state.

couple years ago,lady cop got me coming home from dinner in the 31,gave me the "you can only drive to car shows with those tags" routine.

jaunty75

Well, uh, she was actually right, wasn't she? I've got those same tags, and right here in Ohio, too. Car shows, parades, occasional touring. That's what the lady at the county DMV office told me. That's all you're supposed to use the car for.

I agree with you that the occasional outing to a restaurant or something like that ought to be OK, especially if you're doing it in a 78 year old car, but it IS outside of the list of allowed uses as "touring" means out and back home again and not using the vehicle to transport yourself to and from places where you're going to get out of the car and leave it. Besides, the cop didn't know whether you took your '31 out to dinner once a week or once a year.

FATRATMATT

The State of Florida will allow you to use a period correct plate as long as it's not in use already. The 68/69 plate is red and white and dont look good on my car. But I see them all the time.

gearheads78

If there is no show going on to point to you are on the way to getting repairs done

gearheads78

nice score

jaunty75

That's what I'm always ready with. If I ever got pulled over and accused of misusing my collector plates, I would just say that I had just done a repair and was taking the car out for a test spin. I've never tried to use this excuse because I've never been pulled over, so I don't know if it would work. But how could the cop prove I wasn't doing that?

I wonder how the cop who pulled over agt31 even knew that he had driven to a restaurant. Did she actually see him pulling into or out of the parking lot?

MX442

Yearly tags are cheap in Idaho, so I don't mind paying every year. The DMV told me that lots of people come in for regular tags after getting pulled over for driving their classics. Since I'm always running errands in the 68, I figured I might as well get the yearly tags.

If you notice on the picture, two rare earth magnets will hold the "cool" plate on. I stick that on once I get to the cruise spot, but drive with the regular plates. I wish I would have had the new plate for the calendar shoot.

jaunty75

They're not too bad in Ohio, relatively speaking. It's about $50 per year where I live to register my family sedan. It cost me $30 one time to register my '67 Delta 88.

cutlassgal

When I got "the prettiest one" I didn't want to get historical plates because of the driving restrictions, so I got personalized ones... $90.00 a year to renew! OUCH! I would like to put year of mfg. tag on her, but in 1972, our tags were blue with ugly goldish/yellow numbers! They would definately clash with her beautiful green and white paint! Maybe I should get a historical plate...??

wmachine

Personally, I think they look great no matter what the colors are, because they are genuine. Exactly as there were then. Originality has a beauty all its own.

jaunty75

I've had the vanity plates, too, and yes, they get pretty pricey to renew each year in Ohio.

As far as the historical plate, the point is actually moot you get them anyway! When I registered a 1967 Ohio license plate for my car, they told me that that plate is just for decoration. I received a pair of Ohio Historical Vehicle plates as well, by mail, and they told me to keep these IN the car at all times and be ready to pull them out and show them to a cop or anyone official who asks for them. So you can't avoid getting a historical vehicle plate if you go this route as far as registering your car. The cost is the same (one-time $30 charge), as are the restrictions on driving. Interestingly, as I think I've mentioned elsewhere before, the regisitration card I received DOES show an expiration date...on July 1, 2050. So that mean that on July 2, 2050, I'll have to fork over another $30!

cutlassgal

I am leaning towards the year of mfg. plate, if i can find a nice one... Would the DMV have to look at the car again, or is this something I can do while she is stored for the winter? Guess I better do some research!

wmachine

http://bmv.ohio.gov/vehicle_registra...model_year.htm

jaunty75

They never looked at mine when I got the plates. At the time I was filling out the paperwork at the local DMV office, the carburetor was off my car being rebuilt, so it was certainly undriveable, and there was no way anyone representing the state of Ohio was going to look at it unless they came to my house!

As far as finding plates, antique stores are one possibility, but eBay is also good. I found mine on eBay. Two excellent condition, matching 1967 plates for $7.00, and the guy selling them happened to live about 25 miles from me, so I just drove over and got them from him directly. No shipping charges.

You don't actually need two plates to do this, even though Ohio requires two plates for normal registrations. For this purpose, one is enough. I like having two, though, because it's more correct (Ohio required two at the time), and because it decorates both ends of the car.

Bluevista

I already had the historical plates then I faxed a photocopy of the YOM plate to the DMV and they took care of the rest.
I just got pulled over by a cop and he ran my non-registered YOM plates and never said a word...so I found a nicer set at a garage sale?
He probably had no idea what to do and said to heck with it.

The F.O.P. card I got from my cop bro-in-law that I conveniently handed him with my license and insurance card probably helped a lot too.

cutlassgal

Thanks for the site, wmachine! Interesting! Bluevista, have I ever told you you're such a s**t??? You crack me up!

svnt442

I want to get personallized plates out here, but the price scares me.
These are the ones I had back in Illinois:

plates-1.jpg

Nobody gets it. They kinda look at me funny and go "what does it stand for?!?!???"

cutlassgal

DUH

TK-65

DSC07514.jpg

Original Cali plate. Note the 65 registration sticker.

itsdone-3.jpg