Anyone Restore a Licience Plate

[chargerboy69]

In 2007 in the state of Indiana, people are allowed to use old vintage licence plates on their classic cars. The problem is, that finding a nice plate from 1969 is next to imposable. I do not want to stick a rusty old plate on the back of my car. Has anyone restored a plate, and have any advise in doing this. Thank you.

[Skued]

You might keep an eye on this site http://www.pl8s.com/platestand-indiana.htm

Steve

[moparguy01]

ive found never used license plates for the state of kansas at swap meets for less than 25 bucks. so they're out there. try googling for a license plate collector in your area. youd be suprised what you can find.

[69bronzeT5]

I got a pair of 1969 plates. The plate number is like 69869 or something close to that. Gonna get customized plates for her but gonna put the 1969 plates on it at car shows. And there in decent shape. No rust at all..just a few dents.

[THE CHARGER PUNK]

My dads 68 has em (tho we have permits for car) also i was lookin in a shed beside our old house that my grandpa had built b4 my dad was born and i found a set of plates from 1966-1970 and a set of 68 dodge dog dish hubcaps just a lil story 4 ya , also why not just go to the company that makes old license plates? that guy with the ''official'' bullitt replica used em on his stang

[jaak]

I have an Old 69 plate too...
  Alabama uses a number system to ID the county your from, I live in Lauderdale County so the first 2 digits of my car tags is 41, Lawrence Co. is 42, Lamar Co. 43, Limestone Co., 44 and so on.
  I was talking to a guy that collected old dealer plates, and mentioned I would like to find an old bama 69 plate, well A few days later he showed up with one and gave it to me.... a regular tag and its first 2 digits are 41.... so its a Lauderdale Co. tag. I thought that was pretty cool. Its not rusty or anything just a few scratches and aged looking. I plan I putting it on the front of my charger in as found condition.

Jason

[Charger71]

Yes, I have restored a set of 1971 License plates.  The State of Ohio said they had to be repainted to match the originals. The 1971 Ohio plates had a "bus yellow" background with Navy blue lettering.  I matched them as close as I could tell.  I sprayed the yellow background. for the lettering, I put the blue paint in a shallow pan. I laid the plates face down in the paint to "paint" the raised areas on the plate.  Don't make it too deep for obvious reasons.  Lift the plate carefully so it doesn't run onto the background. After they were dry, I took them to the BMV to be inspected and registered.

I guess you can hand paint the lettering, or use a sponge to paint the raised portions.

Make sure you know your states laws about plates.  Ask your car club for advice, or if any members are police officers.  Get their advice.

Anyway, it worked for me.
Charger71

[chargerboy69]

Yes, I have restored a set of 1971 License plates.  The State of Ohio said they had to be repainted to match the originals. The 1971 Ohio plates had a "bus yellow" background with Navy blue lettering.  I matched them as close as I could tell.  I sprayed the yellow background. for the lettering, I put the blue paint in a shallow pan. I laid the plates face down in the paint to "paint" the raised areas on the plate.  Don't make it too deep for obvious reasons.  Lift the plate carefully so it doesn't run onto the background. After they were dry, I took them to the BMV to be inspected and registered.

I guess you can hand paint the lettering, or use a sponge to paint the raised portions.

Make sure you know your states laws about plates.  Ask your car club for advice, or if any members are police officers.  Get their advice.

Anyway, it worked for me.
Charger71

Thanks, Thats is what I wanted to know. Were certain techniques others have used. As someone stated earlier buy a replica. But in Indiana it has to be a real plate. I have located a few different people over the internet that does it, but I kind of wanted to do it myself.

[hemigeno]

If you want the name of a guy who "professinally" restores plates, I have had a set of 1930 plates for my Dad's Model A done down in Alabama.

However, the '69 Missouri plate I'm using on the Hemicar is one that I restored myself.  I painted the front of the plate with the letter color, then shot the background color over that and on the back side as well.  Then, I sanded down the background color off of the letters & border (revealing the color underneath), and finished the whole thing off with clearcoat.

Turned out nice, IMO

[bull]

Looks nice, Geno.

Google "license plate restoration" and you'll get quite a few hits. There's a place here in Oregon that does it.

I bought a nice era-correct set at a swap meet a few years ago that look almost as good as new for $125. Kind of steep but cheaper than a restoration.

[PocketThunder]

when i was looking for some Minnesota plates there were several to choose from on ebay now and then. 

[chargerboy69]

Looks nice, Geno.

Google "license plate restoration" and you'll get quite a few hits. There's a place here in Oregon that does it.

I bought a nice era-correct set at a swap meet a few years ago that look almost as good as new for $125. Kind of steep but cheaper than a restoration.

Thanks Bull. . . I actually have  Googled places like that for several days now. I just wanted to do it myself. Plus I wanted to save a little money, and a couple places I contacted were on a 4-6 month wait.

Geno, The plate looks great. Thanks for the tips on how you did it.

[bull]

If you don't use your own plates you have to be sure the plates you use can be re-registered. The Oregon DMV told me once that the plates must be brought to them and "cleared" if possible before they can be reassigned to another car. In other words, don't just grab some off a car in a wrecking yard and spend two months restoring them only to find out the car you got them off of is still registered under the name of Hazel Goodmeyer, an 88-year-old retired nurse who forgot she once owned a '69 Ford Falcon.

[41husk]

I got plates at an antique store for my 70 and 68.  I am having a student from art class, here at my high school restore them.  In Illinois, you can use plates from the year a car was made, but must purchase antique tags and keep them in the vehicle at all times.

[Neal_J]

Several years ago, I had my plates restored by Darryl's - its somewhere in Pennsylvania (http://www.darrylsplates.com).  I found him per an ad in Hemmings Motor News.   

The plates I sent him were toast:  rusted, bent, scraped, the works.  A couple of weeks later, my plates returned looking brand new.  Not only that, I changed them from the old CA blue with yellow numbers to the even older CA black with yellow numbers colors.  They still look fantastic. 

I later found a company at the Mopar Alley show that sold repop stickers.  So now, in the back I run the restored black CA plate, with 1969 tags on my '69.  (the current registation card and sticker are in the glove box, but I've never been stopped yet).   I later swapped out my restored front plate for a repop in the same color scheme that says 1969. 

Neal

[Mean 318]

I dont mean to hijack this thread, but where can I get the paint to restore my plates? The stuff they used is reflective. You can see the one in my sig.