[Healeys] California Legacy License Plate program

Bob Spidell bspidell at comcast.net
Sat Jun 27 21:11:03 MDT 2015


My BJ8 has the original yellow-on-black plates; DMV ain't said squat (they'd have to pry them from ...). Bought the car in '83. Wish our BN2 had black-on-yellow(?) plates; had to settle for vanity '1956 M' 

You left too soon, Alan; that's also about the time we got the smog check waived for pre-68 cars. 

Bob 

ps. Rohan, I've seen plate 'restorers;' IIRC there was one at the Pleasanton car show a few years ago. 

----- Original Message -----


I think it's fine, they made so many of us give up our black and blue plates, only a handful of very stubborn enthusiasts have been able to keep their original plates, I had to give them up on my BJ8 when my local DMV refused to renew them in the 80's. So now I can go get them again for a small fee. CA needs the money, so this is a good way for them to raise money without raising taxes. 

On Sun, Jun 28, 2015 at 7:41 AM, Rohan Marr < rohanmarr at mac.com > wrote: 



Apologies if this has already been discussed, but I found this today and as an owner of an original “black plated” California car. I have mixed feelings on this one. Firstly it is worth reading up on the announcement and links: 

Classic California License Plates to Hit Streets this Summer: https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/pubs/newsrel/newsrel15/2015_41 
CA DMV: https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/legacyplates/index 

So why the mixed feelings, well original black plates had some value and meaning - the car was an original California car. Unfortunately my plates have really deteriorated, and after a few steep driveways (you know how low our cars are) I have bent them in half one by one until they broke in half. I only ever had one plate on the rear and swapped it … the current one is hanging on by a thread. So I was looking to see if someone would reproduce them and I remember a link to someone who “unofficially” remade them published on this list a few years ago. These new ones will reportedly use the same dye press tooling as the originals out of Folsom Prison (not sure where I read that), but unlike the original these will have a modern reflective coating and more importantly be available for use on any vehicle, both old and new, or car, truck or motorcycles. I know how I feel about a Prius with black plates! 

So what I really want to do is replace my plates with the same number etc with an original look, or do I want to give up on that and bite the bullet for a vanity plate with the new black? 

What does everyone think of this? 

Rohan (aka Aussie) 
’56 Longbridge BN4 “Hellouise" 








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