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Can I repaint my lisence plates?


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So I live in oregon and my wagon is 32 this year and its paint is showing its age. Im planning on painting my car this summer. I have the original yellow/blue plates but my rear plate is pretty much silver almost all of its paint is gone. Is it illeagal for me to repaint it if I use reflective yellow and paint it its original colors? The dmv wants a ton for new plates so im not wanting to go that route.

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So I live in oregon and my wagon is 32 this year and its paint is showing its age. Im planning on painting my car this summer. I have the original yellow/blue plates but my rear plate is pretty much silver almost all of its paint is gone. Is it illeagal for me to repaint it if I use reflective yellow and paint it its original colors? The dmv wants a ton for new plates so im not wanting to go that route.

 

I only had one plate (drove around for 7 years no issues) and in co we need both front and rear i said they were lost... paid about 5$ and got 2 brand new plates! with tags

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Hmm.

Excellent question, one that is the first time I have seen anything like.

 

short answer from what i can find is...

 

yes, you can. unsure of the details about when however... looking forward to seeing other results on this! Lookup "restoring license plates/repainting license plates" on google and there is quite a bit of info.

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Ill have to do that, im sure im not the only person to have their plates fade and lose thier paint. I know its illegal to just paint the plates what ever color you want but i would think if the person matched the original paint it would be ok. Or at least it seems like it should be.

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By 1980 most states had incorporated a reflective coating over the paint. I can only speak as to the rules in Washington: In order to legally "restore" a plate from that era, you NEED to have that correct reflective material over the paint. That said, as long as you get your colors real close to what they are supposed to be, I doubt you will find many officers that will give you a hard time.

 

In Washington, before 1972 or so, the plates had no reflective material. Because of that, as long as you have a steady hand, and can find close to correct colored paint, you can have at it.

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I thought about just painting the plate anf then roughing it up a bit maybe hit it with a preassure washer a little so it appears aged and if I get pulled over for it I could just play dumb haha. Or just leave my plates silver since its been two years that I have been driving it and no troubles from the cops. Knock on wood...

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If they haven't given you a hard time about them being silver with all the paint missing, I can't see why they'd give you a problem having them re-painted.

If you're doing your own thing, not harming anyone. Cops usually don't care. If you get pulled over for aggressive driving, they might also give you a hard time about your plates.

Cops have bigger things to worry about than some guy who properly restored his license plates.

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Illegal to repaint or alter plates in any way in the state of Oregon.

 

Good news is, unless they are COMPLETELY mangled they can't make you get new ones.

 

Uhh.....you do know plates are only $27 dollars?

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I like the look of my old yellow and blue plates and the dmv lady wanted to give me the oregon mountian ones. They do have the blue/yellow avalible here again but she said it would cost more every time I renewed my tags after that with those plates. Either she was loading me some bs or the government just found one more way to rip people off. Either way im not super worried until I paint the car then my unpainted plates will probably stand out.

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I like the look of my old yellow and blue plates and the dmv lady wanted to give me the oregon mountian ones. They do have the blue/yellow avalible here again but she said it would cost more every time I renewed my tags after that with those plates. Either she was loading me some bs or the government just found one more way to rip people off. Either way im not super worried until I paint the car then my unpainted plates will probably stand out.

 

A standard replacement plate (tree) costs $27 bucks. A plate transfer (if you have plates on something else not being driven) costs $6.

 

Anything other than the standard plates, you do have to pay a bit extra for each time you register. it's like $20-30 bucks extra for 2 years.

 

This applies to Vanity plates, Crater lake plates, Cultural trust plates, OSU or UO Alumni plates, or the "classic" blue and yellow ones.

 

I personally think the old style ones only look good on truely "old" vehichles 70's and older ya know.

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A standard replacement plate (tree) costs $27 bucks. A plate transfer (if you have plates on something else not being driven) costs $6.

 

Anything other than the standard plates, you do have to pay a bit extra for each time you register. it's like $20-30 bucks extra for 2 years.

 

This applies to Vanity plates, Crater lake plates, Cultural trust plates, OSU or UO Alumni plates, or the "classic" blue and yellow ones.

 

I personally think the old style ones only look good on truely "old" vehichles 70's and older ya know.

 

here in CT they were charging extra for vanity plates etc when renewal time came.. people got mad, and threatened a class action lawsuit because of the extra fees at re-reg time. now, you pay a little extra when you purchase them, and the re-reg fees are the same as passenger plates.

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Buy a set off ebay, I did a search and they have all sorts of them, or, if you really need a set that bad, I have an extra set that's not in to bad of shape that you can have for free ..

 

here's the ebay link to a set of plates:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SET-OF-2-1970s-ERA-OREGON-LICENSE-PLATES-SALE-BENEFITS-BLIND-CATS-100-/320857817808?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ab49dc2d0

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