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My wife sent me this website for reproduction license plates:
http://www.licenseplates.tv

They don't have all states, such as CA and TX, but they do make reproduction plates for most of the years of Packard in most states. I'm going to go see the Montana Highway Patrol to see if I can use them for my 51 Packard. The nice think is that you can customize them, so maybe you get some for the car shows only.

David, I think you can only use state issued license plates with which to have your car registered. These plates are for display only.

If you want official year of manufacture plates try Great American Plates. I have bought vintage plates from them and have them on my cars. I bought a 1955 Maryland plate from him for my 55 Clipper and a 1946-47 Nebraska plate and tag for my 47 Clipper.

Before this I had 1939 California plates on my 1939 Cadillac in California and 1937 New Mexico plates on my 1937 Packard in New Mexico.

Vintage YOM plates add to the appearance of our Packards.

(o{}o)

In Arizona we can use what is called "year of issue" license plates provided the plate is an original and the number in not in use. They won't register reproductions.

I bought my original 1922 plate (the official plate on my 1922 Model T Ford) on ebay and had to do body work on it and I repainted it. I had been bidding on several and managed to find a phone number to MVD to clear the number, they were not very helpfull.

There is a web site for Arizona that shows every plate style ever issued. I took my restored plate down to MVD and finally they allowed me to license the car with this plate. I have to have the renewal sticker in the upper right corner so I made a metal flag that mounts the sticker so it is touching the old plate (I call it mounted). The law doesn't allow covering any of the graphical material on the plate but nobody could tell me how to put the sticker on so it would comply.

Fortunatly Arizona doesn't require a front plate by law and in fact they don't issue one. The point being is that Arizona is the hot bed of license plate collectors and there arn't any to buy and the price is sky high, and finding a pair is impossible.

After all the drama I have been running the 1922 plate on the T and the cops always stop a car length behind and I figure they are running the number.

Arizona is also the home of RedFlex who makes all the photo radar cameras and all the police cars are equipped with cameras and computers which run all the license plates they can see. Frame are not allowed in Arizona because the camera has to see the entire plate.

I mention this because it is all coming you-all's way sometime soon.

Every time I stop someone asks what my car is even though the plate says 1922 and Ford put Ford on every part :)

My Packard has a regular issue license plate.

Jim

Calif will only allow you to use original plates (not reproductions) for YOM, and you better have two matchings ones (front and back). Also you have to have the "metal" year corner as needed and the plate number has to be clear (not in use by another vehicle).

They look great on a car when done, but getting a matching set of clear, original YOM plates and the metal tag can easily cost $500-$1000 from a plate dealer depending on rarity.

New Jersey has a rather curious situation. We are officially a 2-plate state, front and rear. So when applying for historic plates you get a pair, and the Motor Vehicle Division has not changed their requirements.

But our State Police have issued an "enforcement bulletin" that cars with historic plates need only have the official plate at the rear. They make no comment about the front plate so most of us use a year-of-manufacture plate so presumeably you could put anything there, or nothing. Nothing is particulary attractive on 1934 and back if you want to mount Trippe lights and typically the plate was center or near-center mounted. What's not understood is whether state and county police can still find you in violation of the MVD regulations so most of carry a copy of the bulletin for un uninformed. I enclose a copy for any NJ owners of qualifying vehicles that may not be aware of this, though it was issued in 2000.

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I bought my 1940 Oregon plates at a fall swap meet. $30 for the pair. They were in pretty sad shape, but the best ones I could find.

At the show, a fellow who lives on the Oregon coast, has a business of restoring plates. You give him your beat-up plates in the fall. He restores everybody's plates over the winter and in the spring they are returned looking brand new in the authentic colors at the spring swap meet. $60

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I wonder if the kooks at the NJ DMV realize that they are inviting racial profiling lawsuits and that a summons issued for visual reasons is like telling the court that you saw him smoking a marijuanna that he then threw off of a bridge.

In my front yard the cops put up a nuisance sign that they use to rough up people. They park in a no parking zone all day, run red lights, and pull people over for baloney.