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I found a guy here in Calif that restored my YOM plates for my 51. He did a great job but did not do any body work to them. Just stripped and repainted them. Cost was $100.00 each. I wanted to use the plates I had mostly because they were the original plates issued to the car in 1951. Found them in the trunk. How many 60 year old cars still have the first plates ever issued to them?

Whether you restore your plates yourself or buy them from a restorer depends on whether you enjoy that type of work and get satisfaction from it when finished, or whether that's not your cup of tea and want to save your energies for other tasks. I sort of enjoyed it, though in the end it wasn't as good as a pro with regard to painting the raised letters and numbers. I used a hard roller.

Thanks everyone for the instruction. I think it turned out well for a first time doing something like this. I do enjoy projects like this.
Here's to the good old fashioned way! (shh...my husband won't miss the extra grill brush that I used to help strip the old paint off)

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Alburton, nice work! Besides, what is one sacrificed grill brush in the restoration of a fine artifact such as your year of manufacture license plate. My wife (our Packard is largely her car) and I love your tenacity in working on and understanding your car. It is refreshing to see young people that simply "get it" when it comes to what's important and preserving an original car.

Keep up the good work! And please continue to post here.
Jim

My congratulations, very, very nicely done. Would you share with us the method you chose to paint the raised surfaces?

Thank you. First I had to tap out the dents in the #5. Then I started the stripping process with a gel like stripper. Did a lot of scrubbing with the bristle side of the grill brush and just as much scraping with the edge side of it. I did some sanding (a 100 grit filing block worked the best). Then I wiped it down with acetone and then washed it. I primed it with a Rustoleum Suede primer. Then I sprayed 2 coats of the white coloring on it. I hand painted the large raised surfaces using a small brush that you would find in touch up paint. Then I trimmed the edges in and finished the smaller lettering using an old round flat tip sable (acrylic nail) brush. I did tape off the outer edge to get a smooth line since the plate just slopes without any real definition of where to stop. I still have to put the UV protection clear coat on it. So thank you for the instruction Owen_Dyneto.

Thank you for the compliment about keeping my car original. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Alburton, looks like a very nice resto job that you've done!

I'm envious that you guys can get such interesting plates of various types. Here in Australia things are changing now, but back in the 50's you got a plate like 'BCX 289' which was yellow with black letters. The next guy had to take 'BCX 290' and so on, for the next million plates! Anyway, we eventually (1970's??) got to have a few choices and personalised plates (at first just with initials of your name, not much else . . .), but for our nice old cars there are virtually no 'fancy plates' like those you have, unless you go back many years and get a very old and expensive (but plain) three-digit plate from the early years.

I reckon I'll buy a couple of USA plates sometime and fit them to my '51, then just hang the club plates over them on outings. It will add a lot of character

I wish you luck with finding plates for your '51. Some of the gentlemen who posted earlier on this topic seemed to know some people who had them. Or of course e-bay, craigslist, etc... I found mine at a garage sale.

From my own experiences it's generally no problem at all to find old license plates, restored and in the raw, with the exception of the very earliest years, perhaps the teens and back. It seems nearly every automotive flea market I attend has at least one, often several vendors selling old license plates. They tend to have the best selection for the state they live in and show at.

It's good to remember that not every vendor to the hobby uses the Internet for sales, larger old car flea markets often have a wide selection of goodies and often at terrific prices and they shouldn't be forgotten as great sources of parts, tools, literature, etc. Around here the two-day flea market at Rhinebeck NY is one of the best, covering perhaps 10 or more acres of vendors. Plus wandering a good flea market is a hobby experience not to be missed.