'39 Oregon Plate

flathead 39

flathead 39

Member
Got my (ebay) '39 Oregon plate inspected, approved & registered.


'39 plate.jpg
 
Looks right at home there. I like how clean the back of the 1939 model is with the license plate centered on the trunk and the teardrop lights.
 
corvette8n said:
Wow nice and clean, Does your state have a front plate also?
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Oregon issued two plates. I think there may be a quirk in the law for using the year of manufacture plates. I think you need only one and once registered you don't need to renew.
 
corvette8n said:
Wow nice and clean, Does your state have a front plate also?
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Yes, but only rear plate is required on cars registered as "Special Interest', so the front will remain clean. Downside is the restrictions on use. If that gets in the way I'll re-register. I don't see any problems for my plans though.
 
flathead 39 said:
Yes, but only rear plate is required on cars registered as "Special Interest', so the front will remain clean. Downside is the restrictions on use. If that gets in the way I'll re-register. I don't see any problems for my plans though.
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I also have the antique plate only on the rear of my OR avatar. Although there are "restrictions", you can run the car for trips to buy maintenance items, warm it up to change the oil, car club business, charge the battery, get gas, etc, so basically you are pretty open to drive it. I have never been bothered by any law folks here. I had a State Trooper pull up behind me last year when I was parked on the shoulder making minor adjustments. He said "I just wanted to see your car and make sure you were ok".
 
Actually in Oregon you don't have to run a year of car plate.
If you bought a car new in 39 they would issue you a 39 plate.
The next year you would get a 40 plate and so on. You got a new
plate every year until Oregon came out with a metal year tab
that you secured to your plate. That's why there are so many
early plates around. So if you have a 28 model A you could run a
36 plate for instance.
 
50fordcoupeman said:
I also have the antique plate only on the rear of my OR avatar. Although there are "restrictions", you can run the car for trips to buy maintenance items, warm it up to change the oil, car club business, charge the battery, get gas, etc, so basically you are pretty open to drive it. I have never been bothered by any law folks here. I had a State Trooper pull up behind me last year when I was parked on the shoulder making minor adjustments. He said "I just wanted to see your car and make sure you were ok".
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Thats cool, I think the problem would arise if I drove it out of state..
 
Just get those rear bumper over-riders turned over and you'll be good to go.
Or are my tired old eyes deceiving me.
 
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I don't think the average police officer would waste his time stopping an old vehicle with old license plates, however, if the driver did something stupid, the old plates might give a policeman 'just cause' to stop the vehicle.
I have lived in California since 1956, one of my vehicles has a CA personal plate that I have had since 1987, it says '--IDAHO', the plate is a Yosemete plate, high snow covered mountains. I have the plate because I own property in Idaho, when I am in Idaho people think I am local, so they don't sic their dogs on me. I have only had one CA police officer ask me what the plate number meant. The locals in Idaho assume the plate is showing the snow covered 'Teton Mountains'.
 
flathead 39 said:
Thanks, I've always enjoyed seeing the old plates on these cars so it was the first thing I bought after I got the car.
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I have to agree with you on this. I have YOM plates on my '67 Corvette. It was harder than you would think, as Minnesota had a "3 year rule" back then, and I had to find not only a nice set of '65 plates, but ones that had the proper 1967 stickers. I finally found what I needed, but they had the 1966 stickers on them as well, which I was able to remove. I also had a set of perfect 1951 plates for my Ford, but a couple of years ago, I got a letter from the state saying that the number on them had been re-issued and I had to stop using them. To their credit, they also sent a set of "Collector" plates to use at no charge.

Every year I go to the DMV and try to get my '51 Plates re-instated. One of these years, I think the "new" plates are going to be scraped.
 
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