Show Me Your Vintage P Dealer Plate Frames.

[LongRanger]

. . . Z may have started out as Klickitat County (plates were assigned alphabetically from A to Z starting with the most populous county. King County/Seattle was A for example), but by the early 70's the Seattle area had grown so much that they had run through A and were also using "O" and "I". Since there wasn't much demand for plates in Klickitat County there's a good chance this plate was issued for a vehicle in one of the more populous counties . . .

'. . . Washington has 39 counties, and from 1935 through 1981, all passenger car license plates could be distinguished based on their county of issuance. Through 1957, the county was identified by a one or two letter code. There were 40 codes used: one for each county, and a special code for mail-order plates from the main Department of Licensing office in Olympia.

Starting with the 1958 base plates, the passenger car numbering format was established as a three letter, three number combination. Most counties retained their same letter code, with a few exceptions. The system worked well, and was used again when all license plates were replaced statewide in 1963. Things held up until the late 1970s, when King, Pierce, and Spokane counties began to exhaust all their allotted letter assignments. It could be seen that the whole county coding system would not last much longer before becoming hopelessly complicated, so the state elected to cease manufacturing specially coded plates around 1980. Most of the remaining stocks of county coded plates were used up by the middle of 1981. By that time, plates were being manufactured in various alphabetical combinations that had not been previously assigned to any county's letter bloc . . .'

http://staff.washington.edu/islade/counties/index.htm


Also . . .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicl...ington_(state)




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[CraigF]

Finally found a frame from the Tom Carstens dealership in Tacoma where my car was originally imported to. I had it powder coated and I painted the letters myself. Not original but will look nice once I mount it on my car...

As Purchased

[LongRanger]

. . . Finally found a frame . . . Not original but will look nice once I mount it . . .



. . .

Excellent plate, too!



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[Chris Romney]

That's a very nice plate. If it was an original '63 Tacoma (Pierce County) plate it would probably start with a "B". "C" would be for Spokane if you care.

[CraigF]

I wish it was a real plate! We can run display plates from year of manufacture in TN as long as we carry the antique plate assigned to the car inside. Provides lots of opportunity for cool plates...I run several different options from time to time...

Currently

At Trissl's Uberfest a couple of years ago...

Just after the restoration was completed...

[CraigF]

That's a very nice plate. If it was an original '63 Tacoma (Pierce County) plate it would probably start with a "B". "C" would be for Spokane if you care.

It's a display plate. I was going for my initials... But now that you think of it I can come up with one that starts with a B... :-)

[LongRanger]

. . . from the '68 thru '70 PDLs . . .

422/042/1
Estes-Zipper Motor Co
9130 Wilshire Blvd ('68-9)
8423 Wilshire ('70)
Beverly Hills, CA 90212

Matt-black finish (over some surprisingly-intricate detailing) w/all lettering in gold, makers' name defaced (?); plate = std CA pass, etc

Odd frame. In several ways. 1) = apparently recently re-finished (kinda krudely, actually --- still de-gassing when I got it!) with 2) some sort of grinding taking place on the back --- to remove the Makers' ID, perhaps? . . . but --- who would do something like that. I mean --- why bother?

Anyway, I gave this one a loooong look before I got it. What finally drew me to this was 3) the appearance of 'Porsche + Audi.' Zippers I've seen . . .
https://www.early911sregistry.org/fo...l=1#post535390

. . . and Estes-Zipper frames do appear from time-to-time --- but 4) I've never seen/heard of any w/makes on them . . .

. . . which this one does

But even though it's apparently been seriously messed-with, 5) all the details --- though they're mostly hidden by what looks/smells like rattle-can . . . are wonderful


Wonder what this looked like originally?


Anyway, Estes-Zipper disappears/becomes Beverly P+A sometime after ~70 . . . so could've been a 1-year-only frame (?)

Both locations are in the middle of BH, so I can only imagine what that kinda real estate is worth. The 9130 address is an office tower, these days, while the other is still a dealership = O'gara Coach



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[NorthernThrux]

Original selling dealer of the car in Dallas.

[BrentF]

Saw this today:Attachment 540049

[LongRanger]

. . . from the '70 + '72 PDLs . . .

Traynor Porsche Audi, Inc
2269 Post Road
Fairfield, CT

Pale blue (guessing) on what looks to be more-than-slightly barbecued pot metal; no Makers' marks/ID (that I can tell); std CT pass plate, etc

Jeez --- from looking at this frame? . . . imagine what kinda shape the car 's in


Was a Hyundai dealership --- 'available office/retail space,' now . . .
https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/2269...d-CT/19925299/




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