Show Me Your Vintage P Dealer Plate Frames.

[LongRanger]

422/108/1
Four J Motors
6000 Pacific Blvd
Huntington Park, CA

From the Aug '68 PDL

Dark blue lettering on semi-gloss grey

You'd never know this outfit sold Porsches . . . and as un-attractive as it is anonymous.

Rick

[LongRanger]

426/031/1
Atlas Volkswagen
2922 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA

From the Aug '68 PDL

Another Vee-Dub franchise moon-lighting in P-cars --- this time in SF. One of three dealers in The City, this one not so fancy-schmancy (maybe) . . . in The Mission District.

(The Carlsens --- Stan and Carl --- had their stores up-town . . . on 19th, Van Ness, respectively)

Dull white on med blue, flash chromed.

Rick

[DutchmanPhotos]

Scored this one the other day...

[LongRanger]

. . . Scored this one the other day . . .

915/201/1
Brumos Porsche (P + A from '70) Corp
1444 North Main Street (10211 Atlantic Blvd fr '70)
Jacksonville, FL

From the Aug '68 PDL, again . . .

Brumos still makes these . . .

http://www.brumosporscheparts.com/pr.../tag-frame.htm

But, compare . . . the little ball on the end of the loop of the 'J' --- plus the odd slant on the outside edges of bottom mounting tabs . . . looks to me like yours is an older, bit-more-elaborate version.

Very nice, Dutch . . . .

Rick

[LongRanger]

Not sure how widespread the practice was --- or for how long . . . but some Dealers apparently issued their frames as pairs.

Now, that's not that surprising --- cars have two plates, after all . . . 'cept the frames in these sets were not the same.

The pattern/convention seems to've been to have the Dealership's name in the upper position for the front frame, then in the lower for the back, with the location in the opposite. Example below.

Production of these 'front-&-rear' sets seems to have discontinued by the mid-to-late 60s, leaving only the 'rear' pattern (location-over-Dealer) seen today.

Rick

[LongRanger]

423/022/1
Pape'-Cross Volkswagen, Inc
20 Coburg Road PO Box 1971
Eugene, OR

Looks to've been white lettering over black (on top), white-over-red (bottom), nicer chrome frame.

I try to watch Antiques Roadshow, on PBS, and there are a couple of furniture appraisers on the show --- twins, the Keno bros (Leigh and Leslie) . . . and they are a riot. Get really really excited about furniture --- construction, materials . . . and most of all --- finishes.

Me, too.

You may've heard/read of Keith Martin (SCM) and his car grading-system: 1-to-6 . . . one being perfect, etc. If I applied that kind of scale to frames --- and keeping the Keno Bros in mind . . . grade 1 would be NOS. Period. The best restored-anything could never be better than a grade 2.

And 3 and 4? B!tchin' used . . . and more-used.

5 = nasty/krusty/tweaked/clean breaks.

6 = shattered/un-mountable . . .

. . . or badly/ineptly/criminally re-finished . . . hosed.

Like this.

Rick

[mfitton]

Here is a picture of Seinfeld's Porsche early '65, don't know the dealer plate!
Attachment 207059

[Jens]

Mike, Cabiglio is the master of Seinfeld's Porsche domain.

[oscillon]

Does anyone have a picture (and maybe an extra) Trans Ocean from Pasadena? My really well documented and original '66 912 with it's black plates is from there.

[LongRanger]

915/207/1
University Volkswagen, Inc
5730 North Pensacola Blvd PO Box 12190
Pensacola, FL

From the Aug '68 PDL

The most common name among Porsche Dealerships?

University Volkswagen --- five total, all in different states

Dull white letters, blue back-round --- very little left. Another <2000 lb ('D') std pass FL, 50 = Washington county