California Task Force Question - Yellow License Plates

[Dan in Pasadena]

For you California guys:

I remember (I think) my Dad's purchased-new '55 Chevy two door hardtop Belair originally had yellow license plates with black letters. Six letters/numbers Later, it had black plates up until he sold it in 1974.

I've found yellow 1956 California plates that have "1956" embossed into them, so what is the correct, original 1955 California license plate? Does anyone know FOR CERTAIN?

[capnduane]

1954 and 1955 Calif plates were black with yellow letters. 1956 thru 1962 were yellow with black letters. My 55 pickup has the original plate, black with yellow letters. My '55 Chev sedan that I had in High school also had a black plate with yellow letters.

[Dan in Pasadena]

So you're saying from '63 thru ...sometime later, they went BACK to black with yellow letters again? Were the '54-'55 ones the larger plates with rounded corners?

I know for certain my Dad's '55 carhad black with yellow letters but the smaller, squarer style until he sold it cause I drove it all through high school. My '55.2 truck has them also.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Ok, so I don't know why I didn't find this Wiki article before but it does show the larger, more rounded plates from '51 thru '55 using the metal corners by year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle..._of_California

The plate on the back of your '55 truck looks much more like a '63 and newer plate. In fact, I have that same style plate on my truck and I'm certain it's the '63 and later plate. Nice, but I'd love to find the original

[capnduane]

Dan, I think you are on to something here.... I must have somehow gotten the '63 style plates for my 55 sedan when I first built it about '63 or '64, and the same style plate was on my '55 pickup when I got it. The Calif DMV has a pdf file stating the colors and years but no pictures. At least I got the colors right! I don't remember the plates with the rounded corners at all, but then that was a looong time ago! Now that I think about it, I do kinda remember those little year corner plates.

[Highsider]

Wow, Dan, that is cool.
Never knew about the World's Fair colors or the rounded plates.

I am a '52, so my "plate world" began with the '56 black-on-yellow plate!

Thanks for the link.

[mr48chev]

You did get truck plates rather than car plates? You also have to make sure that the numbers are cleared by the state according to the Cali guys on other forums.

I'm not a fan of YOM plates except on show room stock restored vehicles so the plates match the year they rolled off the assembly line. Can't see the point of it when guys run 22 inch billet wheels and a late fi engine under the hood though.

[MARTINSR]

What kills me is it's a new law in California, I believe you either have to run the plate year that your vehicle came with OR the current plate (UGLY). So my '48 pickup will have to run the ugly new plate or a 48 which is the larger one that really doesn't fit the "theme" of my truck which is fifties, it's very odd.

And it sucks because I have an pair of NOS "56" plates still in the DMV envelope!

Brian

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally Posted by MARTINSR

What kills me is it's a new law in California, I believe you either have to run the plate year that your vehicle came with OR the current plate...

Maybe I'm misunderstanding this. Do you mean if you're registering a truck that hadn't been registered in awhile? My '55 wasn't registered from 1998 to 2010 when the guy I bought it from bought it from the very elderly original owner. I bought it from him in 2011. It has the '63+ black plates on it.

[iowaboynca]

I have a set of black plates that came with the truck ('50 GMC), but it hasn't been in the system since '97. If I can't get DMV to acknowledge those, i was going to sign up for the legacy plate program their promoting.

[Yewhi]

Originally Posted by Dan in Pasadena

So you're saying from '63 thru ...sometime later, they went BACK to black with yellow letters again? Were the '54-'55 ones the larger plates with rounded corners?

I know for certain my Dad's '55 carhad black with yellow letters but the smaller, squarer style until he sold it cause I drove it all through high school. My '55.2 truck has them also.

The 51-55 were all oversized, black with yellow lettering and rounded corners. Basically they are all 1951 plates with tags issued for the subsequent years (52-55). Here are mine. The state only requires a tab on the rear plate so my fronts show the "1951".





Definite improvement over the previous plates...

[capnduane]

Yewhi, awesome truck! those plates just look so correct! My '55 was first sold in '56, so it probably had the yellow with black plates when first registered. Somehow it ended up with the '63 black ones. Dan, this is turning out to be a very interesting thread!

[Yewhi]

Originally Posted by Dan in Pasadena

Maybe I'm misunderstanding this. Do you mean if you're registering a truck that hadn't been registered in awhile? My '55 wasn't registered from 1998 to 2010 when the guy I bought it from bought it from the very elderly original owner. I bought it from him in 2011. It has the '63+ black plates on it.

I am certain that if the plates you have are already licensed with your vehicle there is no issue. Even if the vehicle hasn't been regsitered in a while as long as those plates are still connected to that vehicle in their system they should still be valid. The YOM laws should only apply with licensing a vehicle with a new set of YOM plates. It this case you are expected to have the correct style plate with the correct tags for the year of manufacture. They photocopied mine with the tags when I registered them and sent the copies to Sacramento for approval which took 3-4 weeks.

[Yewhi]

Originally Posted by capnduane

Yewhi, awesome truck! those plates just look so correct! My '55 was first sold in '56, so it probably had the yellow with black plates when first registered. Somehow it ended up with the '63 black ones. Dan, this is turning out to be a very interesting thread!

Thanks!

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by Yewhi

I am certain that if the plates you have are already licensed with your vehicle there is no issue. Even if the vehicle hasn't been regsitered in a while as long as those plates are still connected to that vehicle in their system they should still be valid. The YOM laws should only apply with licensing a vehicle with a new set of YOM plates. It this case you are expected to have the correct style plate with the correct tags for the year of manufacture. They photocopied mine with the tags when I registered them and sent the copies to Sacramento for approval which took 3-4 weeks.

Exactly, I have a whole different problem, a lapsed registration, lapsed for 25 years! Sooooooooo I can't register it with my previous plates. It's when you are starting over OR if you have a 51 and you want some 63- plates on the truck you are out of luck. It's 51 plates or 2014 plates, nothing else will be allowed.

Brian

[Dan in Pasadena]

For anyone that doesn't know there is a great site for replica license plates called
licenseplates.tv. Doesn't help us California guys anymore as I just found out they no longer offer replica California plates! But they used to offer EXACT replicas.

On my OT '76 Porsche 911S I pulled a shady thing and ordered new, personalized plates with the numbers, "1976S" when I found out they were available. Then I ordered a plate with the exact same numbers from them in the yellow on blue plates that were correct for 1976 car. (Fortunately, 1976 was the first year for personalized plates)

When the DMV notified me my new personalized plates had come in, I went in and traded my old plates, got the new ones with the new stickers, but stuck the stickers on the replica plate and mounted it to my car!

I can only admit to all this now because when I sold the car it went to The Netherlands.

PS: YES, I know it's because of what I did (and a lot of other people too) that they no longer offer the California plates.