I have tried all kinds of ways to restore a license plate, and none of them
have worked very well, except painting the whole plate the background
color, then tediously masking off and painting the numbers with their
color. The old plates are a whole lot easier to restore than the modern
plates will be. Now many states have jumped on the bandwagon of having a
"tapestry" applied to their plates by a decal before the numbers are
stamped. Good luck to future restorers with those!
I am the 7th owner of my Midget, and have been fortunate to be able to
track down all of the previous owners. The original owner, who sold the
car in 1976, still had the original 1973 N.C. license plate, which he sent
to me in 1990. In N.C., an old plate can be used as the vehicle license
plate if the vehicle is 35 years old. In another 10 years, I can put the
original plate back on the car. Fortunately, it is perfect.
Steve Byers
Havelock, NC USA
'73 Midget GAN5UD126009G "OO NINE"
"It is better to remain silent, and be thought a fool
than to speak, and remove all doubt" -- Mark Twain
----------
> From: Alan Inglis <ainglis@bcresearch.com>
> To: spridgets@Autox.Team.Net
> Subject: Re: License Plate Restoration?
> Date: Friday, January 08, 1999 1:37 PM
>
>
>
> Is the lettering raised? I have heard that you can paint the plate black,
paint
> a sheet yellow, then lay the plate carefully on the wet yellow sheet and
then
> lift the plate off carefully. Alternatively you paint the plate yellow,
then
> black and before the black is dry you use a cloth with thinner to wipe
all black
> paint off the raised parts.
> By the way, I have so many thumbs I could not possibly do this myself!
> ---------------------- Forwarded by Alan Inglis/BC Research/CA on
01/08/99 10:33
> AM ---------------------------
>
>
>
>
>
> pasgeirsson@juno.com (Paul A Asgeirsson) on 01/08/99 08:30:11 AM
>
> Please respond to pasgeirsson@juno.com (Paul A Asgeirsson)
>
>
>
> To: Ajhsys@aol.com
>
> cc: tob@taltec.net, spridgets@Autox.Team.Net(bcc: Alan
> Inglis/BC Research/CA)
>
>
>
> Subject: Re: License Plate Restoration?
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, 8 Jan 1999 10:55:47 EST Ajhsys@aol.com writes:
> >In a message dated 1/7/99 7:54:28 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> >tob@taltec.net
> >writes:
> >
> < by the way is this legal? the CA DMV will not give you new "old"
> >plates. If you lose em you have to get the crappy new blue text on
> white
> >background plates. A new plate on an old car is not holy!
>
> When I lived in California they had started the plan of using the Year Of
> Manufacture (YOM) plates on cars. I'm pretty sure it's still in use.
> Any of the old plates that match the year of your car are useable.
> Hemmings Motor News has listings of individuals that refurbish old
> plates. Check them out. I have seen some that have been re done and
> they look just like they have come from the prison factory.
>
> They don't have to be the ones that originally came on the car, so you
> can also pick them up at swap meets. They are no longer cheap as they
> run pretty close to $100 for a near perfect set.
>
>
> Paul
> PAsgeirsson@juno.com
>
>
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