Californians: Black Plate Questions?

[benfidar]

I live in Wisconsin now but I have experience with Black plate cars. Both of my last P-cars were. I got a '68 912 with blue plates and I bought a plate off of ebay. The car had not been registered in more than 3 years, so it was out of the system. I then asked if I could register the car with the plate. The answer was an unequivical NO. Only cars manufactured before 1964 could have them, either yellow and black, and black and yellow depending on the "Y"ear "O"f "M"amufacture. I then took the last pink slip and crossed out the plate number and wrote in the Black Plate number in Sharpie. I got a terse letter back from the dmv saying that I had to send them a photocopy of the plate. Sure...I can do that...I said to myself. Two weeks later the title arrived with the plate number in the corner. It can be done, I have done it. It takes a cheat though...

[Allen Henderson]

Benfidar,

That's interesting. Questions? The car had been not registered for three years OK. You bought a set of Black Plates, were they clean, never used or what?

You crossed out the Plate Number on the PINK Slip, that is the title. Is the Plate Number on the Pink, I guess so? But, I thought it was on the Registration-a different piece of paper. So the new title (which is no longer Pink btw) had your new-to-it Black Plate number on it? And, all because they bought the sharpie hand-written Black Plate number. Why?

New information, I tried bmedel's tip, a little up in this thread on the DMV web site with a couple Black Plate numbers I'm aware of. Guess what? It worked, not with all of them, but one, at least!!!

Thanks.
-Allen-

[bob tilton]

Funny..I just came from the Ventura show and I bought a pair of black plates from a reliable vender. These plates were on his Porsche and he moved to NY. DMV, CA said he COULD NOT put them back on his car. But he told me DMV said he could put them on another car. So I'm hoping I can put them on my 68 Porsche. I will know Monday when I go to AAA. I did get a $$ back guarantee

Curt - what was the outcome?

[69Sman]

I've owned a lot of Black plate cars. My 65 sc cab, still own it, was imported into California in Dec 66, after spending a year in Europe. Plate sarts with NKK ***. Back in the day, I had a '63 S Coupe, original CA car, and the plate was NRR 033 (anybody know what happened to my car?)

The plates were assgned in BATCHES by the DMV and assigned to individual Counties. If you lived in a County with LOTS of registrations, you could have a '63 with the first letter of your plate being N. If you lived in a small county, you could have a 65, with the first letter being N.

The first letter did not necessarily indicate the year of the car; it depended MORE on what county you lived in....it's true.

[curtisaa]

Curt - what was the outcome?

Bob...I went to AAA and they don't do these "type" transactions. I made an appt. with the worst run agency ( DMV) in CA and I will share with ALL here the outcome. I have a '68 squareback with the orig. black plate, I will also ask if these might be transferred to the Porsche. I'm just trying to cover all bases.

[benfidar]

When I wanted the black plates I was told that I had to send in an old registration slip to prove that the plate belonged to the car, or had at some time, which of course, it did not. The plate was well used, but in good shape. I only had one. When I sent in my paper work, I got a bug up my behind and simply crossed out the plate number on the reg slip and wrote the black plate number in, sent it in with my title. The DMV responded that I could not do that and would have to send in a photo copy of the plate as proof of the number. I received the title with the black plate number on it. I did not ask too many questions after that, I just ran with it.

[Allen Henderson]

...you dazzled them with paperwork He, whatever works!

-Allen-