The hub-ub is
that a car with black plates still on it means that the car is an original California car, which
pretty much means that it will have little or no rust anywhere, even
underneath. There are some cases where the owner lived right on the
seashore, so there are a few original California cars around that have some
body rust – but generally, it’s a pretty safe assumption that there
is nothing serious. My own 67 (written up extensively on the IML site)
had rust under the vinyl top, because the car was poorly stored from 1978 until
I got it in 1992- it was under a tree with all the leaf debris sitting on the
roof for 14 years!. That car had never been out of Los Angeles county since new (It was only
driven in town by a very elderly lady, and had 35,000 Miles on it). But it
still did have rust on it due to the vinyl top and lack of care.
From:
mailing-list-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:mailing-list-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Bogart3147@xxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, October 08, 2007
12:22 PM
To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: IML: California black license
plates
I've always wondered what the hub-ub was
about the black California
plates. I'm originally from Texas and
now live in Illinois
and they TELL you what plates you have on your car. You can either have
the regular issue plates that everyone gets or antique plates if your car
qualifies. Here in Illinois,
I had my 1965 Crown issued regular plates as the state has mileage restrictions
and such if you decide on antique plates and I personally couldn't/wouldn't
guarantee that I'd follow those rules. Several years ago, the state of Illinois changed the
look of the plates and forced everyone to get new ones, although, they allowed
you to keep the same plate number, if you so desired (which I did). I
still have the old white and blue plates for my 1983 Volvo stored in the back
of the car, but, it's illegal to use them, although the number is the same,
even if I had a current tag on it. For the Imperial, I had regular, not
antique plates, put on it and they look just fine.
Please forgive this topic if you are not
in California...
The deal with the original black license plates is this--They are still
usable, valid and transferable so long as the car is kept currently
registered and/or exists in the California DMV computer system. Once it
falls out of the system, and their computer returns a "record not on
file,"
they will issue a brand new license plate and will refuse to re-register the
existing old black plate, which they are trying to get out of circulation.
It doesn't matter whether you have the title and most recent registration in
hand. I had this battle with them when I wanted to start using my 63
Buick
again after long storage, back before they came up with the "Non-op"
program
which forces you to pay an annual fee to keep a car in storage registered.
The previous series license plates, i.e. the 1956 plates, can be used on
1956-62 vintage cars if you have a set of them, and if that set doesn't use
a letter and number combination still in use by a black 1963-present series
plate. However, those are part of the "YOM" program ("Year
of Manufacture")
which is a type of vanity license plate and there is an extra charge for
those and you have to find the plates yourself, such as at a flea market or
eBay. The black 1963 series plates are ineligible for the YOM program at
the present time because they are still a valid standard plate.
If a car has been in storage a long time and the registration has lapsed for
some years, then per the above, it will get a new license plate when the
registration is brought current.
Geoff
Monterey CA
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