California YOM plates (new info)

[pchmotoho]

I heard today from a friend and I did just verify it that YOM plates can be issued now to 70 - 80 model year vehicles (obviously yellow on blue only). For those Cal guys with 70 Bosses or Mach 1s this would be pretty cool (IMHO).

Bigfoot can get some for his Charlie's Angels Cobra 2 as well!

For those unfamiliar (discussed greatly in Forum 1) YOM plates are original old yellow on black (now yellow on blue as well) plates which were issued when your car was new. Not the new format yellow and black you see on every other Land Rover and many others.

[Side-Oilers]

I was able to get CA blue and yellow YOMs issued to my '70 (non-Ford) car several months ago.  Maybe I got lucky?

[pchmotoho]

It sounds as if they've been allowing it for a while then.

Today was the first I heard of it. Anyway I'll be at the DMV tomorrow 30 mins before opening getting mine.

[Side-Oilers]

Sounds good. I like the old CA blue and yellows as YOMs.  (Nearly as awesome as black and yellow YOMs, IMHO.)

I grew up in SoCal.  My parents bought a new 1970 car in Sept '69 and I was excited when the plates arrived and they were the "cool new blue ones."

[98SVT - was 06GT]

For those unfamiliar (discussed greatly in Forum 1) YOM plates are original old yellow on black (now yellow on blue as well) plates which were issued when your car was new. Not the new format yellow and black you see on every other Land Rover and many others.

It can be any original ones for the year. The plates were yellow with black letters before. Sometime in the 60s all the yellow/black got turned in and traded for black w/yellow letters. My 59 Studebaker has black plates from when the swap took place but if it had later plates and I wanted to go back I'd have to find a set of the yellow ones and pay an extra $40 per year as personalized plates (the new blk/yel plates also pay extra). Since they were originally issued to the car no extra fee.

[Side-Oilers]

+1 for 98SVT

I believe that the CA 1956-issued-series yellow and black plates were replaced on all CA cars when the black and yellow series came out in 1963. 

I recall our family's two cars (a 1960 VW and a 1962 Thunderbird) both getting the new black and yellows in about mid-1963.  My dad gave me the old yellow plates to put on my pedal car.   Apparently, you didn't have to turn them in to the DMV.   (At least, my dad didn't.)

[sd427]

My father had a Studebaker, Ford station wagon, and a Model A in 1963. He was issued plates GHT 460, 461, and 462. I dont remember the Model A, he sold it very soon after, before I was old enough to have memories, but a few years later, I see this Model A driving around with the plate one digit off the two cars he still had. When I mentioned it to him, he said yeah, that used to be my car. Over the ensuing years, I always thought about finding the Model A. In the '80s, I tell the story to a friend, and he says his brother is a policeman and can run the plate. The car with that plate was in the system, but had just lapsed current registration the prior year. He gave me the last known address, in Littlerock CA. I wrote a letter, and they called me back and left a voice mail, they knew nothing about the car. Oh so close.

[Side-Oilers]

sd427:  That's a cool story. Littlerock is still a really tiny town...in the high desert, off the path a bit from the 14 freeway that runs to Willow Springs Raceway.

My parents' cars got sequential black and yellows too....FYJ797 and FYJ798.

I remember quite a few cars in the neighborhood having sequential plates, back then. 

[pchmotoho]

For those unfamiliar (discussed greatly in Forum 1) YOM plates are original old yellow on black (now yellow on blue as well) plates which were issued when your car was new. Not the new format yellow and black you see on every other Land Rover and many others.

It can be any original ones for the year. The plates were yellow with black letters before. Sometime in the 60s all the yellow/black got turned in and traded for black w/yellow letters. My 59 Studebaker has black plates from when the swap took place but if it had later plates and I wanted to go back I'd have to find a set of the yellow ones and pay an extra $40 per year as personalized plates (the new blk/yel plates also pay extra). Since they were originally issued to the car no extra fee.

Yes, black on yellow as well, but the cutoff for non commercial vehicles is 1980.  For the yellow on blue they don't require a model year registration sticker on one of the plates prior to issuance.  Not sure why they required it for any YOM plates to begin with. 

[sd427]

For the yellow on blue they don't require a model year registration sticker on one of the plates prior to issuance.  Not sure why they required it for any YOM plates to begin with.

It sort of makes sense for the pre-1963 plates, to require the sticker or metal tag that shows the year, but I agree, for the 60s yellow on black, and now the 70s yellow on blue, since those plates can still be on cars with just the month and current year sticker, why require the third sticker that has to match the model year of the car? One plate vendor suggested putting the plate with the model year sticker on the front of the vehicle, and the "normal" looking plate with the month and current year on the back.

[pchmotoho]

Personally I wouldn't give 2 thoughts to the metal plate. 99.99% of police have no idea it's even supposed to be there.  The .01% would most likely be car guys and not even be concerned.  There's now way I would put the metal plate on.  I think it defeats the whole purpose of the vintage looks. 

[98SVT - was 06GT]

I believe that the CA 1956-issued-series yellow and black plates were replaced on all CA cars when the black and yellow series came out in 1963. 

Yes. I remember going with my mom to stand in line at DMV - got JEP 981 and 981 for our 59 Ford Wagon and 61 Tbird. Process went fast they had a table set up with stacks of plates. You gave them the old ones they wrote the new plate number on your registration and filed out a card with the old and new numbers and car info. A few weeks later new printed registration showed up in the mail.