Hi Everyone,
I am looking for some 1914 CA license plates for my '14 Speedster. About 3 - 4 years ago I bought a pair of '14 CA plates from Dave Hindman (a plate collector in Vacaville, CA) for $350. They were in good condition and with a little TLC they turned out like this:
I called Dave about getting another pair, but he said that they are now so expensive or in such poor condition that he has not been able to find any that are acceptable. A further search has located three pairs of '14 plates ranging from $450 (pretty rough) to $525 (need some work) to $700 (need very little work).
Do any of you have any suggestions where to look for some of these plates?
The market on these plates (the FIRST CA state-wide plate produced) is just going through the roof. The ones that are for sale now for $700 are just like the ones that I got 3-4 years ago for $350.
I can post some pictures of these plates, but what I really want to know is there anyway to find some for a bit less denero?
Jon
Mark Hanna, local Long Beach club member has many early plates and attends our swap meet selling what guys want. Of course the prices are high.
Just think of it as how much your first investment has grown.
PM me if you like his phone number.
I always thought that '14 was the fist year of California state issued plates. They were black-on-yellow porcelain on steel similar to the ones pictured above except for the color difference. I have a set of 1914 California plates.
They were produced by the Ing-Rich Company in Pennsylvania.
Well DUH! Guess I should have read that post a little more carefully. I was thinking of the 15's.
Geeze! I really need to get to bed a little
earlier than I have been lately. Sorry guys.
I wish I had known 50 years ago what I now know. When I was a kid working summers on my grandfathers ranch, he had an apricot orchard. I'd help with the process of picking, cutting, sulfuring and drying them.
Once they were dry we'd stack the trays with the dry fruit on them. Then we'd scrape the trays to loosen the dried fruit so we could box it for shipping. We had 2 scrapers, a red one and a yellow one. They were California license plates, one red one just like the one in Jon's picture and one yellow one. They each had a piece of 1" X 2" wood bolted through the top holes so you wouldn't cut yourself on the edge, sort of a handle.
They were probably just thrown out when he retired in 1963....
I have a single 1915 CAL plate. Is it worth much?
Califunny inspects and only accepts matching pairs of plates, even the early ones. Singles sell for much less than half a pair. In the past year, I have seen singles at swap meets for about $100 in fair to good condition. Pairs about as Jon A has said.
The other fly in the ointment, is that to use them (legally) on a car, the plates have to pass a number "availability" test. If I recall correctly, five numerical digits are iffy because they are common on motorcycle sequence and unless Califunny rules have changed, cannot duplicate. I ran into that one about twenty years ago. Many plate dealers check their stock regularly. Most individual sellers do not.
I, too, would like to get some '14 and '15 plates and pairs. However, they are not in the budget at this time.
Drive carefully, and enjoy, W2
I have a singleton.
Rather than YOM, which may have vehicle use restrictions, you can get a vanity plate with the numbers, and just hang the expire tags above.
That's what I'll do if I get the Speedster back together. To hell with the front plate.
I am thinking that what I will do is go with the middle-priced ($525) plates that need a little repair, but are not too bad.
Here is a picture of them:
The guy selling them is in the process of getting a higher res. picture of front and back.
If they look good in higher res. I guess I will just bite the bullet and get them.
I don't know if any of you have tried to restore porcelain plates. (Any suggestions welcome.) What I have done is to fill the chips with J.B. Weld and then flat sand them. Then you can paint over the J.B. Weld. The hardest thing is matching the paint.
Jon
I bought my 14 Ca. Plate for my 14 T Runabout at the Bakersfield National Swap Meet in 2004 for $75. I hardly see any early California porcelain plates there anymore. The couple I see are really ruff.
I have a nearly perfect set of very early issue {4 digit} Cal plates like above. I have not seen another set in quite a while.
http://porcelainplates.net/california_archive_2.html
The California DMV will not only check to see if the number "clears", but will physically inspect the plates and forward a xerox image to Sacramento for final approval. Mine took about 4 1/2 weeks before I received my stickers and "wells" in the mail.
California, unlike other states, places NO restrictions on vehicle use with YOM plates. Historic Vehicle plates are another matter.
I hope you find a good deal.
For what its worth. I have not yet done much porcelain restoration. About ten years ago, I tried talking to a business that advertised porcelain restoration. They basically said that they did not want to do anything like license plates (or antique signs) and recommended epoxy.
I have an original Paige/Jewett sales and service sign I want restored. I tried mixing enamel paint with slow drying clear epoxy. It looked promising, and nearly a decade later it still looks promising. However, I did not experiment enough to give good directions.
I will mention, that white does require some small amount of blue mixed in to make a decent match. Also, I laid the sign flat and allowed the epoxy/paint to flow naturally to fill level with the original remaining porcelain. That is about as far as I got. A license plate in decent condition should be fairly easy.
Some day, I would like to finish the sign. It is the only one I have ever seen.
Drive carefully, and enjoy, W2