so here is the deal. i bought a car back in 2013 and it broke down. and the reg expired.
the car is a 78 so it needs to have a smog. and some other work to get in running order i went to the dmv to get a moving permit so i can get it towed to the shop. the car has no plates so the tow places wont tow it unless it has a one day moving permit. and the dmv said i have 700$ in fees. so i left wanting to pay this week… here is the issue. i looked at the dmv site and it says you cant get a non op after 90 days of reg expiring…
its been 3 years… i cant reg it with out a smog… so i need to bring it to the shop for the carb and muffler. but i cant get it there without a one way pass!! what do i do? 
so how the hell am i going to get the car moved?? can i pay the fees and put it on non op even though its 3 years after? thanks
i am in ca
Well in any normal country your garage could put it on a low loader (not tow truck.)
But in California who knows?
Yes, a flat bed “tow” truck is not that much more expensive, I’d guess. Since the car is completely off the road on the back of the truck, I don’t see how plates would be relevant for that sort of transport. It’s the transport of choice for decent distances since otherwise (esp. 4WD) you need to disconnect all sorts of things to tow.
Have you asked the garage that’s going to do the work about bringing it in? They surely have contracts with people who do this.
If you have $700 plus large garage fees plus tow charges on a 78
is it worthwhile?
What car is it to be worth so much?
Yes it is worth it. The car is worth $12.000. It’s a 78 Lincoln but it’s a special edition. Only 500 were made. My friend had one also and he sold it for 11.500
I live in the country far away from the city. So the shop is far away. I have triple a. But they will only tow with the permit
If you pay the back fees, you should then be current, and good to go. If you ever hope to get this thing on the road, you’re gonna have to pay them eventually.
Now, if you had a friend in neighboring Nevada, who owned a tow-dolly. you could “sell” them the car, pay them a small fee to tow the car home (out of state cars need a VIN inspection), title it in Nevada, erasing the back fees.
When that friend gets the title, you “buy” the car back, wander into your DMV and say, “Hey! I just bought this great car! Let’s register it!”
Buy where would you find this hypothetical Nevada friend with a tow dolly? 
(Should still work, but with all the new computerized stuff, don’t know what California does)
78 Lincoln? Better be a “Heavy-Duty” tow dolly, and a big-ass truck.
Not sure about this but one thing that comes to mind is ‘dealer plates’ where it’s a special plate that allows interchangeability between unregistered, ‘unplated’ vehicles that new and used car dealers use to move cars around in that condition. Around here it would be common for a shop to use such a plate for the purpose you state (not sure that is a legal use of it, but it is a common use of it)
Well I just got back from the DMV. And got a temporary registration. And they cut the fees from 700 to 350 so that was awesome. Thanks for replies
I see OP got taken care of. But for everyone’s information: The above suggestion does NOT work in California. It’s explicitly included in the list of things you CANNOT do with you car if you’ve registered it for non-op. You cannot transport a vehicle upon a public road, period. Even if you have all four wheels off the ground. Even if you ride a bicycle and carry the car in your backpack.
You’ve got to get that one-day permit. Even that’s very restrictive: It specifies the exact day you can transport the vehicle (you can’t get a one-day permit for just any day you happen to get around to it), and it specifies exactly where you are moving the vehicle from and where you are moving it to.
Note that the OP solved his problem by simply talking to someone at DMV and they somehow worked something out for him. I’ve had that happen a few times too over the years – have some problem that appears to be an impossible bureaucratic clusterfuck, but the clerk at the front desk calls the supervisor and somehow the supervisor can make it all work out.