TheSamba.com :: View topic

Mon Feb 28, 2022 3:31 pm

Hi, I’ve recently bought a 78 Campwagon. That was imported from the states, 10 years ago. I have found a picture of the original number plate but I would like a replica making as I can’t get the original. I’ve looked on a few sites that I can from the UK. But I am struggling to find someone who can make a repro that’s embossed and not just printed on Ali. It needs to be a blue and yellow plate too.

Anyone able to point me in the right direction to a company or website who can make me some copy’s to send over to the UK. Thanks Jack

Tue Mar 01, 2022 8:12 am

https://www.licenseplates.tv/

This place is great. You can get damn near any plate from and country, The US and Canadian plates are even broken down into states / provinces, and have the correct colours for each year. The quality is nice too. Probably as good as original on the plates I've seen.
Hopefully they will have what you need.

Tue Mar 01, 2022 9:59 am

That site (licenseplates.tv) used to make superb replica California plates, until the State clamped down on them and they gave up making CA plates altogether. Now they only offer some fantasy California plates in a European size / shape that is nothing like real ones. It's too bad -- their plates were extremely well-made.

I don't know of anyone making proper replicas of the 1970s blue plates. I've seen some earlier CA plate replicas offered by someone in Thailand (IIRC) but not 1970s.

EDIT TO ADD: I see now that the Thailand seller is offering embossed steel replica 1970s plates with custom numbers. Not cheap, however -- $150. You can find him on eBay under tigerpl8s.

Sun Mar 06, 2022 10:02 pm

Try calplates.com

Tue Mar 08, 2022 9:28 am

Thanks for that link. That's very interesting indeed. I obviously don't know for sure, but I'd wager that this is some sort of offshoot of licenseplates.tv. Despite the fact that licenseplates.tv states clearly on their site that their plates are not for "official use," obviously people did exactly that. I've heard that California's biggest objection was that people were registering conventional new plates, then having those numbers stamped into ersatz YOM plates. If a cop ran the number it would be clean, but it wouldn't be for a YOM plate. Whatever the reason, the state was able to force licenseplates.tv to stop making copies of any and all California plates.

That meant, of course, that they had expensive dies for decades worth of CA plate designs that were suddenly useless. They may have sold them to another entity, or (as I suspect) set up a shell company in corporate-friendly Delaware to market them. It seems odd that a company would set up a mailing address at a tiny office in Newark, DE, just to make and sell California plates. You'd think that such a company would be California-based, since that's the primary market. But obviously a California entity would be more vulnerable than one in Delaware, which has very loose regulations for corporations.

There are strong similarities in the websites of licenseplates.tv and calplates.com, notably in the design and ordering pages. And the prices are identical.