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tahoe healey

tahoe healey

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I obtained a nice pair of 50's-60's black California license and went to the DMV to change mine out. The DMV informed me they could not do this because my 1964 BJ8 is too new. It needs to be '62 or earlier. There was a bill to make it do-able but it was was voted down last year. Don't these people have better things to pick on? The state is in financial difficulty and they could have my money (we pay more each year for any personal plate each year). This effects no one negatively. Does anyone know how I can effect a change here in California?
 
Thanks, but here in CalEEfornia you have to be rich to be DA GOV 'cause the pay check could bounce and I need the money for car parts.
 
I think you should get a 2nd opinion. My 65 BJ8 came with black plates and I have seen plenty of Mustangs with them. Try AAA also.
 
I'm assured that this could be done with a little work on your part. Visit the DMV-california website. A reliable source recently told me that the website has instructions how this could be done.

What you need are matched plates (black in your case) that do not carry current registration. I'm going to embark on this very soon with the assistance of a helpful contact recently made at a local British Car Event.

Let's continue this discusion. GONZO - Yeah parked next to you at DIXON /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/patriot.gif
 
In New York State you can put on original plates from the date of manufacturer if the car is at least 25 years old. I put a restored 1956 plate on the car (only one plate was used that year -- actually a 1955 plate with a 1956 tag). It looks great and gets a lot of looks. I've been stopped by the police a few times. They weren't up on the rules for historic plates. The trouble is, the plate is oversize and so I can't find a frame that fits. Anyone know a source..
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/driving.gif
 
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/savewave.gif
Yeah Tahoe Healey, there is another one of those bills up in Sacramento that you better hope gets voted down, because it seems that those people don't have better things to pick on other than the old cars. Plus DMV or AAA can't help you .You will be forced to run for Govenor or get active now!---Keoke
 
The post-1962 cars running around with old plates on them have probably been registered continuously in California since they were new. As I understand the law, you get plates when you register a car and can keep them as long as it remains registered, so if you registered your Healey in 1965 and kept the registration up, you can still drive around with the plates issued in 1965. If, however, you restored an unregistered car, or moved from out-of-state with a restored car, you can only get YOM (Year of Manufacture Plates) if it is 1962 or older.

I make no apologies for California's Department of Morons and Vandals. Most workers there straddle the fine line separating animal an vegetable. My first choice for a plate (before I found YOM's) for my TF was "FWK-TF" it got rejected as being obscene (I already have FWK-S4 and FWK-Z3). My 90 year-old mother's ID kept getting turned dwon because they had her birthdate and social security number wrong. I finally got her an ID by calling Sacramento and telling them if they didn't want to recognize her as a resident, it was OK, because as a non-resident, she wouldn't be paying taxes here. The ID came the next day, but was marked "M" next to "sex". Not only does the DMV have trouble telling a "3" form a "5" but they apparently can't tell a woman form a man (and no, this wasn't the San Francisco office).
 
I just sent my drivers license renewal to Sacramento. Let's see if they can get it right.
With apologies to Rene' Descartes, their motto should be, "I think, therefore I am......overqualified!"
Jeff
 
Talked to DMV in Sacramento today and the said that '62 was the cut off. No reason or logic. She suggested I contact my congress person. Yea, like they listen. Maybe I can get all our California British Car Forum members to contact their congress persons. But I guess only those with cars 1962 or later would be interested.
 
[ QUOTE ]
...She suggested I contact my congress person...

[/ QUOTE ]

Since this is a state law the Congressperson will definitely be of no help.

In Arizona YOM plate are available if the car is more than 25 years old -- though the plates became generic in 1980 (I think) so beyond that date there will probably be no interest anyway.

If anyone wants details on the AZ process (since even the MVD is usually unaware of it) feel free to p-mail me.
 
More on YOM CA License Plates

I took my 1954 plates over to the DMV office to get a YOM registration for my TF. I found out some more about the YOM program.

As stated, it you have a 1962 or earlier vehicle, all you have to do is come up with a set of plates from its year of manufacture. In the case of my 1954, any plate issued in 1951-1954 will work, as they were all stamped with "51" in the lower right hand corner. Annual validation was by means of a metal tag that had a tab that was bent over the right side of the plate, and was held by the lower right mounting screw. These carried a two-digit year number and a distinctive color (the 1954 tag has a white "54" on a red background).

If your car is later than a 1962, you can't just get any YOM plate and register it. If it has been registered continuously, it should still have its original license plate (in CA the plates stay with the car, not the owner) and you can continue to use it. If the car is unregistered and you can find the original registration plate, plus documentation showing that plate was on that car, you can register it under that number. The trestrictin here is that the car could not have been registered under another number after the original plate.
 
Re: More on YOM CA License Plates

Since finding the original plates is impossible, and the car was registered in Idaho before I got it, and it's a '64 I'm SOL. My problem is that I don't understand their reasoning. If black plates were for that time and I have a set, where is the problem. It is just like a personalized plate. And they get more of my money. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif
 
This will blow your minds. I friend of mine was detailing his black licence plated 64 Porsche 356 that he's owned for a year and he removed the plates to polish the brackets, only to discover that the plates were PLASTIC reproductions! To make matters worse, one of the plates broke in half as he was removing it. Someone somewhere is manufacturing black plate repros of current plates and putting current registration stickers on them. I have no idea of the legality of this practice.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Someone somewhere is manufacturing black plate repros of current plates...

[/ QUOTE ]

I recall seeing an ad in Hemmings for a place (in Florida I think) that would reproduce any plate, any state, any year, any numbers/letters. Don't know if they were plastic.

In AZ for YOM plates you have to present one plate for inspection prior to registering for YOM -- they want to be sure it is legible. I doubt they (or California) would approve of a repro (especially a plastic one!) but a prior owner may have replaced a rusty original with a nice plastic replacement. Once is is on the car with current year stickers it would be very hard to detect.
 
They had a huge mess in Ontario when they started the YOM plate policy there (within last four years or so).

It turns out that they had used the same sequence used for most years of the old licence plates for contemporary trailer licence plates.

So... when you purchased a set you were taking a chance. If they were currently registered for a trailer you were out of luck and had just wasted your money. There were people who had novel ideas to get around this - if you were at the flea market eye balling a set of plates, you had a friend down at the licensing office confirming whether or not the plates were valid to use.

Nothing like that here in Alberta, they do issue vintage plates with different numbering than normal plates, I've seen them around but I'm not sure how they work. However, they only issue one plate (for the back of the car) so if you can track down a plate that's the year of your car you can put that on the front end.

However I think for most of Canada - by the 1970's - it was all generic plates.
 
[ QUOTE ]
...if you were at the flea market eye balling a set of plates, you had a friend down at the licensing office confirming whether or not the plates were valid to use...

[/ QUOTE ]

For my cars I called a dealer in Massachusetts who gave me a list of all the plates he had in stock with my state and year, noting condition. I then checked with the MVD/BMV/DMV and found out which ones were clear. I expect most MVDs (or AAA offices) would do the same.
 
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