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YOM license plates in CA

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tinman58

tinman58

Jedi Knight
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I bought a 68 TR 250 that had been sitting in a garage since 1987. I went to the CA. DMV to switch the title and pay the fees. At the first visit all went well. She gave me a form to fill out to keep the original black plates that were on the car. I also needed to have a peace officer for verification of the the vin number on the car. After all that was done I went back to DMV with the black plate in hand for verification the lady said that you can't use those plates because you can't verifi that they are "Year of manufacture". She said that if I can remove the sticker and find the sticker that shows 68 then that is proof of verification. The I can use the plates. I don't get it. Does any body have good info on what to do? She gave me a phone number to call on Monday. I really would like to have the black plates on the 250, It will be going back together pretty much stock.
 
There is a different provision to keep your original plates, not part of the YOM program. My local DMV office didn't know anything about it, even after I looked up the rules on the DMV web site and showed them a copy. I wound up having to fill out a "Statement of Facts" form which they sent to Sacramento (who let me keep the plates). There were a bunch of restrictions, like the car has to be collectible and you have to drive the car primarily to/from exhibitions. (I exhibit mine every day in the Art Museum parking lot, across the street from where I work :smile: )

https://www.dmv.ca.gov/vehindustry/vin_memos/vin2009/09vin20.pdf

PS, they also charge extra every year, for having a "custom" plate.
 
Dan - it may take some doing but if you can provide via Pink or other means that the plates are original to the car you should be OK. I ended up dealing with special services in Sacramento because my local DMV couldn't get their heads around it.
 
Along with Randall and Tom's advice, if you have any old registration documents, with the PO's address and VIN, you should be good. i know I would like to keep those black plates. When I got my TR3, I had a stack of old registrations, tying the car/ VIN to the plate.

If you're a member of AAA, they might help. I did the first car through DMV, the second through AAA, and kept the original plates both times.

Good luck, worth fighting for!
 
Thanks for the advice! I don't think that I will get any documents from the P.O. I will first try the # in Sacramento and go from there. I really would like to keep those plates. I still don't understand that if a person has a set of plates that are no longer on the DMV record and not reported stolen, why could you not register them to you period correct carl?
 
There is a new law that was just signed by Moonbeam which is going to have the DMV produce old plates for old cars. The rules are that they have to get 7500 requests by sometime next year, then the program is going to go forward. IE: they will but Black plates, but you pay for custom plates. I think instead of 6 digits, you might get 7.

Jerry
 
As noted, to keep the old plates, you have to "prove" that they used to be assigned to the car. However per the document I linked to above, a photocopy is acceptable proof, you don't need to let them see the original. A photocopy will hide a multitude of sins, in case your "original" happens to be phoney ... not that I'm suggesting you would do such a thing !
:cowboy:

As it was explained to me, the police don't like the old black plates because they aren't reflective, making them much harder to read at night. The DMV doesn't like anything that creates more work for them. So we can thank the legislature for the few exceptions we do have.

Note that the "new" black plates will be reflective, and most likely will carry 7 characters instead of 6. You pay an extra $50 up front, and although they haven't said so AFAIK, I'll bet there is an additional yearly charge as well. I'm thinking they won't get many takers, but I could be wrong.
 
tinman58 said:
She said that if I can remove the sticker and find the sticker that shows 68 then that is proof of verification.
Click to expand...
You know, there might be something buried under there... here's as far "down" as I could get on mine:
IMG_1062-1.jpg
 
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