I need my old california plates to be brought back to life. I remember I read something on here about people doing that but i dont remember where and i cant find it in a search. If anyone does this, let me know. Better yet, what paint color to buy. Thanks. Scott
I THINK it's technically illegal to paint California plates. BUT I know of many people who have done it. Which ones do you have? The yellow with black numbers or black w/ yellow?
black with yellown numbers. '48 plates. I think its black with yellow anyways, i dont have the car in front of me right now. I'm not worried about it being illegal ... the cops here h***le me a ridiculous amount and having painted plates is the least of my worries. Today the cops told us that if they get complaits about us peeing in our backyard again, they will arrest us. It was my roommate that did this, but i mean its completely ridiculous, its not like anyone could see anything but our backs. When you come home drunk at 3 am the toilet is the least of your concerns. Anyways, yea maybe i'll just go to the hardware store and find the closest match if no one has the name of the paint they use onhand. Scott
Here is a Kansas 1932 plate i did the other night.It was a ugly rusty thing. Sat down with a beer (or 5) and sandpaper,painted it some odd color that I had,painted the letters black by hand.Fun little project.. Black is black and yellow? say Krylon school bus yellow. Nobody will notice if the tint is off.
Okay, about the peeing........ can't help ya there. For the plates.... take them to the store, find a shade of paint that resembles the base color and sand any rust off, then spray the whole thing. (I used flat black on my 60's style plate). Then I went to a crafts store and got one of those paint pen things in yellow and sat down and painted the numbers. Looked fine when I was done.
Here's how it turned out.... to be honest it started out as a blue 80's plate. I thought it looked dumb so since it had the same number of letters and numbers as the black 60's style ones, I went ahead and messed with it. someday I want to get YOM ones, but they sell for a pretty penny.
Believe it or not,there is a club that collects/trades/buys/sells and restores license plates.Type "alpca"(American license plate collectors ***n.) into your puter and it will take you to the site.Some of the members are professional restorers and some are amateurs.So of course some charge a lot and some do not.
well thanks guys i think i'll just head down to the parts store and get some semi flat paint in a rattle can and some yellow crafts paint or something. im sure i have some around the house. Thanks again. Scott
http://www.mojoartworks.com/ their website says 60 bucks a plate. I would like to paint the white ones on my car black myself, but they are newer plates. They have the raised numbers but not the "California" on top. It has those letters just painted on in cursive. I heard someone mention vinyl letters before also. (?) Cesar
Like this.............. Paint the entire plate, the number / letter color in lacquer (black in this case). Then paint the plate the base color (yellow), over the first color Then rub out the characters. Takes a while, but TV ****s anyways...........
I've painted around 6or7 sets of plates.If u want to paint the base color, i can do the parts that stand off,with one shot enamel. for 60.00 for both.If ur interested let me know i'll send u some pics.shanesflames@msn.com
I just started and finished this project tonight. Used some duplicolor gloss black for the background and some 1shot for the raised yellow ( i didnt have any other paint. Here are some before and afters. and the finished product and my brothers art for good measure (lip tattoo tonight) Scott
There is a guy here in Texas that restores plates for $40 a piece. I didn't want to pay $80...so I decided to give it a go myself. The yellow on my plates is actually more of a mustard color than yellow. I took the old plate to Lowe's and had them scan the back (good original paint still on it) and they mixed me up a quart of paint that almost exactly matches. I wire wheeled the plate and sprayed the yellow with a cheapo HVLP gun and then did the letters with One-shot and striping brushes. The rubbing out the letters technique above is interesting....how do you "rub" out the yellow to reveal the black and leave a clean line? Cool idea! Nick
One of few I've done for myself. I painted several of the bright 1932 plates on the wall. I did mine the old fashioned way perfected many years ago on model cars.
Try "Darryl's", this is absolutely a top notch plate restorer 570 451-1600 or online at darrylsplates.com I've seen a set of these restored plates get California DMV blessing with no questions asked. They do a spectacular job.
i did this one about a year and a half ago... it was/is a newer issued plate,,,never had any problems with johnny law ...YET!
Dante at Black Widow Kustoms knows a guy in LA that doesn them for a good price. maybe he'll chime in!
Here is a method I have used to good result. Prepare the metal as you would for any painting job and prime it for laquer. paint the plate the number/lettering color with laquer. Put on a couple three coats, have a few barley pops and let it dry, If it's noon and the sun is shining, put it in the sun for a while but best to let it dry overnight. Then with enamel overpaint the whole thing with the field color. put on a couple of wet coats and let it get tacky dry. Then with a soft lint free cloth on your finger, dip it in enamal reducer (paint thinner, terps, denatured alch, min spirits etc) and whipe the field color off of the raised numbers and letters. Here is a test plate I did colors aren't correct but this was testing the technique above. My prep work was shoddy as I was hurrying the process for paractice.
To bring an old post back from the dead, is there a special kind of paint needed for an old plate? I know some of them had some reflectivity to them. Thanks.
There is a guy named Larry Mahachek in Spring TX(?) that sells license plates and State-approved reproduction Texas Safety Inspection stickers for 50s and 60s cars. Sorry, don't have his number.
I have used Larry Hoeft in Nebraska (ldhoeft@aol.com) Her are before and after pictures of a pair of 1940 California plates that he did for me The colors on the restored pair are correct. Tom Smith, Goochland, VA tomvsmith@aol.com
Anyone have a pic of a 1962 Texas plate? HI...the plate is black with white numbers... Tom Smith, Goochland, VA YOM plates for sale!
Just my .02 - I think it's always better to leave it to a professional. Some of the plates I've seen stand out like a sore thumb. Wrong color, too many characters for that year plate, blurring of characters, etc.... Then people blame the "man" for h***eling them.....
I'll agree about the quality of the plate refinish can be all over the map. I've heard a lot of good things Larry Hoeft and his work (and resonable pricing). I've used Dan Landino in Michigan and he's done a great job on my stuff. These are the '62 Michigan plates he redid for me. The '64 date tabs were NOS that I picked up at a license plate show. Before And after These were decent plates when I bought them. It's like buying a car, buy the best you can afford.
I strightend and painted the originalblack plates on my California Lark, and then took them down to DMV for new stickers. Only thing the guy asked me was if the car looked as good as the plates.
Here's a 62 plate. This website has pics and info on all texas plates http://www.thebolthole.com/texas/p***/history.html
Hello guys, I have Michigan 32 plates and wondering Which colours are correct Black and yellow or white?
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