Y.O.M. original California plates...I have questions.

56 custom;; you can get the stickers on eBay separately. Or I've seen them at Pomona swap meet. Get the plates and add the sticker. Cheaper than 1600$$$!!!

 

How does it work... you have the year sticker in the top middle of plate then that tab on the top right with the month sticker ?

 

Where do the new years sticker. Go? Therw isnt a metal tab that bolts on to the upper right?

 

^Like that, then many people get a pair of tabs that attach to the top or bottom of the plate for the current year and month stickers.

 

they have a metal tab that you can get at DMV that will hold the month and current year sticker, or you can run two of them, one on each side, or top and bottom.

You can also get a frame like this from a guy in Santa Ana

 

Is there any way of not using current tags

 

38 bones a year extra for personalized plates, 10 for YOM. My annual DMV bill is bad enough already (work truck, wifemobile, trailer, RV, hot rod, motorcycle) I gave up on extras.

 

Not if you want to drive it - although that said, I have a buddy who has been running a 39 plate for years with NO tags - hasn't been stopped yet, but i reckon it won't be pretty when he is.

 

And here's a kicker to throw into the mix......YOM, at least in my case,was to run a "correct" plate,although with a tag topper=47-50 plate with a 50 tag.Car was in "non -op" for a few years since entering the system. Got the renewal notices that said just disregaurd if leaving in non-op. Figured no biggee,let it ride till I was ready.
So- having a YOM plate,and this is what I had a severe discussion with the DMV gal, the YOM plate also get's tagged a fee yearly-like a pesonalized plate=fee. This is NOT included on a renewal notice! It was an aditional $10 a year. If I new I had to pay for the plate yearly,ide've done so.They forget to mention that on the notice.. So after what seemed like days in the DMV,I had to fork over more coin.
I walked out with my reg,but beware of they're BS. Just be knowledgable goin in. Not a **** stirring post,just facts stated.All legit now,and hard to keep cool when they can ruin you in a second.Gotta love(not) them.

 

In about 63 California went with black with yellow lettering and the yellow/blacks were all turned in or supposedly destroyed .... that makes them alittle scarce. I have a 59 Chev wagon and a 60 F-100 and run the black/yellow on both. They look like my avatar but the truck has commericial lettering/numbers''.. I like the looks and since they came with the car when I bought it used, they don't hit me with additional fees.

 

Ok, I didn't read all the posts so here's my input. 1956 commercial plates look like this:



You need to call the DMV on EVERY pair to make sure they are clear. You can buy them for around $50 but that's going to ALL swapmeets and it will take awhile. You don't want to get ones in real bad shape because the DMV won't accept them, so middle of the road is good. You can find un restored ones with some of the license plate dealers, but you'll need a sticker if it isn't a 1956 truck.

Some dealers will give you a guaranty that the plates are clear, I bought mine for $25 but that was in the early 90's.

 

What kind of plate is this:

 

So, when you find plates at a swap meet you obviously have no idea if they are DMV clear and have NO way of checking right at that moment. Do you just p*** up a good deal, or will the plates eventually work with a little extra effort? Does DMV "clear" mean that there aren't other plates with the same number? And if that's what it means, didn't the DMV increase the number of digits to avoid that scenario? I could see a personalized plate potentially not being clear, but isn't just a matter of a few hoops to clear an old plate?

 

Trailer plate, first configuration (later ones were two letters/four digits).

 

Numbers are being used for new plates, so if you wait long enough they will be clear again. With the '56 and '63 plates it's a **** shoot, with the older plates there's a few tricks to put the odds of the number being taken on your side. If I find plates for CHEAP I'll pick them up and hope for the best. With the 6 digit plates the numbers are being used in the 70's-80's...90's??, but remember the numbers are being used for motorcycles, cars, trucks, trailers and government exempt plates.

 

You can not reliably clear plates online because it looks in only one database and when you phone them the smart clerks enter several separate codes to check multiple databases. This week for a test I went online and put in the numbers on my 32 YOM plates and it showed them as available. You need to phone them or go to the office.

Warning> once a set of plates is used as YOM plates it locks in the year for those numbers, so the guy selling you the 51 plates he had registered to his 54 car is selling you a set that can only be used for 1954.

 

The reason it is harder to find clear 51 plates is that California has started reusing the 7 number letter combination that was used on some 51 automobile plates.
Seven figures with a letter in the second position,
As in - 1A23456 -
Some 51 plates used 6 figures with a letter in the second position,
As in - 1A 2 345 -

 

Sobare you saying if I buy a set of 1956 commercial plates for my 60 and they were registered to lets say a 57 but are clear, I cant register them to my 60?

 

it's goofy but that is how the DMV works. it is best to find plates that have not been a part of the YOM program previously.

 

There is no possible way of clearing that? Also do I have to do the Y.O.M program?

 

If you want to run Year Of Manufacture plates then yes.

 

I would much rather just registee the plates to the truck but not Y.O.M. so when I decide to sell the truck I can use them on another year.

 

That's cool. I didn't get the metal tabs, and the plate had a space that seemed right for the tags, but not indented for them, so I just stuck them on...

 

That's kind of what happened with us on the 65 TBird we had, except it still had the original plates on it. DMV just transferred the ***le and plates over to us, no drama, and they weren't considered YOM plates so no extra fee.

We just sold the TBird out of state and kept the black plates, so now I am wondering if or how I can YOM those onto our 68 Olds.

FWIW, I have a little 1946 utility trailer that has a 63 Black and Yellow plate on it, when CA went to the permanent trailer plate, DMV asked me if I wanted to keep the plate I had or switch to a new plate. I kept the old plate and now have to run a tag on it that say Permanent on it. Probably doesn't seem to big a deal to most, but I thought it important to keep the plate on the trailer, it's been on it since my dad first bought the trailer back when I was a kid in 68 or 69.

 

Because you can not just use YOM "63" black plates on 1950 truck in my case, I tried and Sacramento denied it.

 

Exactly!

 

This may be a dumb question, but I'm not from California. Does the year on your plates represent the year the plate was issued or the year the plate expires?

 

Ahh, didn't realize that you weren't trying to use the right YOM plate. Makes sense

 

The year it was originally produced, AND the year it expired
For instance the Black and Yellow plate came out in 63 and it was good for 1963 (back then all registration expired at the end of the year, the individual months expiration came later). For 64 you would get a sticker that went over the 63, and so forth.

In the early days in California, plates were good for one year, and you would get a new one each year!
1914 was the first year California issued license plates. 1914 and 1915 were new plates each year. 1916 was a new plate, but then for 1917 they issued a metal tag of a bear (the state animal), 1918 a metal tag of a Poppy (that state flower) and 1919 a metal tag of a star. 1920 was a new plate again, as was each year until 1942. In 42 there were new plates OR if you had the 1941 plate then you got a metal strip that went across the top and said 1942. For 43 you got a tab that was White with a red V (for victory from the war) 44 was weird - a piece of paper that you put in the windshield. 1945 was one plate only due to metal shortages during the war. 46 got a tab for the 45 plates. 47-50 was the 47 plate with a metal tab each year. Same idea for 51-53, then 54-55. In 56 a new Plate came out again and starting in 57 the Sticker was used for the first time instead of the metal tab.