[TR] TR4 / 4A Commission Number Plates -- LBS or KILOS?

Geo Hahn ahwahneetr at gmail.com
Sun Jan 30 09:00:22 MST 2011


Thanks for the many replies.  For the benefit of those who are not
also on the British Car Forum, here is what I learned and also the
backstory to my curiousity:

It appears from my informal poll that cars to the States had plates
with LBS and those bound for the continent and home market used KILOS.
Also appears that LBS were stamped with the weight (2660) and KILOS
left blank.

But... it was a small sample and many plates have lost their paint or
have undocumented origins so there may well be exceptions. Indeed my
TR4 is one such exception as its original plate said KILOS though it
was despatched to Standard Triumph in L.A. The rest of the story...

My commission # is CT36536L but there is something strange about that
number... it is 6500 higher than the engine and body numbers, yet all
are correct as per the Heritage Certificate.

When I removed the original and (nearly bare of paint) commission
plate I found a second set of holes where apparently a prior plate had
been drilled out and new holes drilled for a replacement plate. That
part of the mystery may never be answered though there are some other
clues that the car may have been built 6 months earlier and then
'warmed-over' at the factory prior to finally being despatched to the
US.

It appears that when the vehicle was re-commissioned (sounds better
than warmed-over) they used a KILOS plate -- perhaps reaching for
whatever was at hand or taking one meant for a home market car that
was never built.

Andy's Herald site shows an example of a Herald commission plate with
KILOS (which appears otherwise identical to a TR4 plate) so perhaps
all Heralds showed KILOS and I need to find a source for a replacement
Herald plate?

So my question: Does anyone know of a source for a replacement 'KILOS'
plate in the U.S.?  I found a source in the UK (Rarebits' Herald
plate) but wanted to see if there was a domestic source.

Thanks for all the info and any suggestions on where to find a
replacement for mine.


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