California YOM license tags

[Felix Macaluso]

Many years ago I found some '59 yellow plates to go on my cab. When I registered them at the DMV I received a tag with the month and year on it along with a mounting plate so I wouldn't have to cover the original 1959 label. This worked until '95 when the car became "non-operational". Now I want to get it on the road again so I sent a form and money off to Sacramento for a current sticker. The one they sent was year only without a month. The Auto Club rep said that's all they have now and although she gave me a month sticker she didn't offer a way to display them. I'm sure I'm not alone here so any advice would be appreciated.

[Mike Wilson]

Felix: there are metal "tabs" you can attach to the upper left and right frame screws to place the month and year stickers. The month sticker can actually go on the upper left of the plate. The year sticker can go on the auxillary tab assuming you want to put a 59 sticker on the upper right of the plate.

I've seen the tabs on eBay.

Mike

[Peter Silten]

You can find the tag holders on eBay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2-NEW-VINTAGE- ... ctupt=true

I got mine free from the DMV.

[Jim Liberty]

Felix, I don't like the looks of the metal tabs sticking up from the plate. I put the stickers directly on the plate. I have a Yellow plate on my Fiat 750.Look at it the next time you are here.

.……………………………………………...Jim.

[ralph bauer]

Felix,
I have the metal tabs on my yellow plate 58. Like Jim, I did't like them sticking up above the plate, so I put them below the plate with the stickers on them. IMHO much less obtrusive.
Ralph

[Jim Liberty]

I buy my YOM plates from the "oldplateguy". I just registered a car with a Yellow plate. His instructions were to put the year tag, which he provided with the plate, over the raised date on the plate. His instructions were to put it on PRIOR to visiting the DMV, which I did. They issued the month tag. I put in on the plate next to the year sticker. Maybe this is a new regulation at CA. DMV.

………………………………...Jim.

[Ron Dohmeyer]

I have the yellow plates on a ‘59. Put the new month and year stickers on the tabs Supplied by dmv and then cut down the tabs so nothing other than the sticker shows. Still didn’t like the look so for the past few years they’ve resided in the glove box in case I’m stopped ( not yet!)
So now have the original vintage patinaed yellow ‘56 plates with the original 1959 sticker .... looks good!

[Harlan Halsey]

In 1963 California issued the yellow on black plates to all cars registered in the state. They continued to do so until 1969. Thus any 356 originally registered in the state (or brought into the state prior to 1969) should have a yellow/black plate. Unless of course it was a lemon and was not driven in that period. The yellow/black plate is not proof that a car is"a California car", with the connotation that it is more likely to be in good shape than those driven in the road salt areas of the country, because a car might have lived outside the state, even been first sold in the East, and then registered in CA prior to 1969. The correct plate for a California 356 is the yellow/black one.
Why anyone would want to put a pre '63 plate on a California 356 mystifies me. If the car isn't a California car I suspect that doing so borders on fraud.
FYI after 1963 the Von Neuman car ran yellow/black plates.

[Peter Silten]

Fraud? What are you talking about? I own two Porsches, a 63 California car, which I have owned since 72, and a 59, that came from out-of-state. Both cars have period correct license plates: the 63 has yellow on black plates, and the 59 has black on yellow plates. My 63 came with its original yellow on black plates. Over the years I had two different personalized plates made for that car, both of which were yellow on blue. About 15 years ago I went back to yellow on black YOM plates for that car. If I used the fact that my 59 has black on yellow YOM California plates to deceive someone into believing that the car is, and has always been, a California car, now that would constitute fraud. But, IMO, that would be a stupid thing to do because it is something that can easily be proven to be false. Trying to make our cars look the way they did when new is for many people what the Porsche 356 hobby is all about. YOM plates are a nice feature.

[Mike Wilson]

I agree, Peter. My car was originally sold through Competition Motors, Culver City; no dealer listed on the Kardex. The car has never left California. When I acquired the car, it had the blue/yellow plates. The original owner lived in Santa Ana and, doing some research, I found the alpha/numeric sequence that would have been issued to the car in his area. I found a set of unrestored black plates with an alpha/numeric sequence that fell within that range and hope to get them registered to the car. My goal is, as Peter said, to make the car look period-correct.

Mike

[Tom Wavrin]

In Oregon I am supposed to have the expiration sticker visible with the vintage license plate that is stamped with MAR and has the 62 sticker. I have kept the stickers stored away in the glove compartment and have never been stopped or questioned. I think our police are too overwhelmed with more important work to otherwise be concerned and I never think about it any more that the plate looks as if it is long expired.

[Martin Bruechle]

You can get one of these frames. They have them with space for the stickers above or below if you flip it;

https://www.ebay.com/itm/California-YOM ... Sw4VpcFAWh

[Daryl Bertram]

I've done the YOM program for several of our vintage cars brought in from another state. California charges a $10 Special Plate Fee yearly which is listed in the Fee section of the renewal notice. So there's no foolin' the next caretaker of a car with YOM plates. Jim and Peter, I wish I had a late 50's car so I could roll with the yellow background/black lettering plates. They really stand out and so far California hasn't offered a replica of that for new cars like they have for the black background plates...

[Harlan Halsey]

A few years ago the DMV conducted a referendum on issuing retro licence plates. They considered several time periods, including the late 1950s. Only the 63-69 black plate received enough interest. I'm sorry I was one of those who voted for the Black plate. I did it because the plate on my '63 SC had gotten pretty ratty. (Be careful for what you wish for) I thought that they were offering YOM plates under the existing rules. Not so. It turns out that for a small fee anyone can get one for any car, the black plates are now simply an alternative to the white reflective ones. So today, it seems that a large fraction of the Teslas to Toyotas run around here with black plates and the information which the color of the plate, black or blue, used to convey, namely that he car is a long time California car belonging to a certain time period has been obliterated.

DMV rules for the earlier plates require that the plate not be a reproduction and have its original sticker(s). But it also had to carry the current month and year stickers. So for the pre 1963 plates, I see the odd looking rabbit ears, shown above, sticking up above the plate. Certainly not as it looked in the day. You could just ignore the DMV rules and put the current stickers right on the old plate, but that puts you at the mercy of the cops and the meter-maids. And the new black plates are slightly different from the originals.

So unfortunately, a YOM alternative doesn't really exist here in California.

[Jon Schmid]

For me, the biggest challenge is finding the original red "month" stickers for my black/yellow plates. The one on the Roadster looks OK but the one on my coupe is getting a bit ratty looking.