# For California Doper Motorists: painting back faded letters/numbers on license plate **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 23, 2003, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-california-doper-motorists-painting-back-faded-letters-numbers-on-license-plate/163624 "2003-03-23T22:01:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-california-doper-motorists-painting-back-faded-letters-numbers-on-license-plate/163624/21 "2015-08-12T00:45:58Z")
Too late to edit, but this needs fixin: > [@Senegoid](#): > > They want to charge a fee for **damages place** replacements, and don’t seem to have recognized that plates may be defective to begin with. That was supposed to be _damaged [del]brain[/del] plate_ replacement, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-california-doper-motorists-painting-back-faded-letters-numbers-on-license-plate/163624/22 "2015-08-12T07:12:50Z")
> [@njufoic](#): > > But it still couldn’t hurt to call the DMV and ask them what the official ruling is. Ha! It will hurt you to the extent of taking an hour or two of your life! If you’ve ever actually tried calling the DMV for anything, you would realize that. Heck, it’d be about 20 minutes before you even get through the phone tree (“Press 1 for…”) to the point where you are put on hold for a human. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-california-doper-motorists-painting-back-faded-letters-numbers-on-license-plate/163624/23 "2015-08-12T13:21:08Z")
Here is one true story, although it was in NY state over 45 years ago. A friend spent a year in France with his American car with NY plates. Someone stole his front license plate. In France, license plates are not made by former governors (as in IL) but by commercial license plate makers. The government supplies the numbers and the artisan makes the plates. So he went to one of them asked if he could duplicate a NY plate. “Sure,” he said, and did, more or less. When my friend came back, he was driving somewhere in NY and a cop noticed something off about the plate. But it had the same number as the rear plate and was clearly not deceptive. My friend told the cop the story and the cop shrugged and said that, as far as he knew, there was no law against it. He did get new plates eventually, though. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-california-doper-motorists-painting-back-faded-letters-numbers-on-license-plate/163624/24 "2015-08-12T15:13:29Z")
I stopped at a car show while in California a few years ago. There was a vendor there that restored old California plates. Drop off your old plates, about an hour later you had freshly repainted plates. He also had a nice selection of restored plates for sale at $200 a pair. It appeared business was brisk for this guy. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-california-doper-motorists-painting-back-faded-letters-numbers-on-license-plate/163624/25 "2015-08-12T16:21:26Z")
[QUOTE=racer72] I stopped at a car show while in California a few years ago. There was a vendor there that restored old California plates. Drop off your old plates, about an hour later you had freshly repainted plates. He also had a nice selection of restored plates for sale at $200 a pair. It appeared business was brisk for this guy. [/QUOTE] The plates he repaints didn’t have Scotchcal or whatever retroreflective material on them. The black on gold and gold on black, and I think also the gold on blue plates were paint or enamel. The light gray background in use now is reflective, so it would be pretty much impossible to replicate in one hour. There is also a specific [allowance](https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/wcm/connect/766469ad-9709-48c9-bf55-3fc094a94183/app1e_ca_license_plate_data.pdf?MOD=AJPERES)for “Year of Manufacture” plates to be restored or painted. The official word from the [DMV](https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/?1dmy&urile=wcm:path:/dmv_content_en/dmv/pubs/brochures/howto/htvr11): **When to Replace Your License Plates or Stickers** License plates and stickers must be replaced immediately when they are lost, stolen, mutilated, or have become illegible. **Duplicate Versus Substitute License Plates** Substitute license plates are issued to replace regular series or special interest license plates that are not personalized. Duplicates are made to replace personalized and some special license plates. If both personalized license plates are lost or stolen, duplicates with the same configuration cannot be issued. You must apply for another configuration or apply for regular series replacement license plates. Fees for duplicate/substitute plates are generally $20, but special plates can be $35-73 to replace. They also have a 1960s Legacy plate that’s gold on black ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-california-doper-motorists-painting-back-faded-letters-numbers-on-license-plate/163624/26 "2015-08-12T16:39:14Z")
> [@SanibelMan](#): > > California doesn’t have a law requiring new plates every 5 years or so? I know Florida does, since the 3M reflective coating degrades over time. But I guess you don’t have the coating. There are 13 million registered cars in California. Can you imagine the logistics in changing 1/5 of those every year? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-california-doper-motorists-painting-back-faded-letters-numbers-on-license-plate/163624.md?page=1)