VINTAGE DEALER, CITY, & NOVELTY FRAMES

FOR ANTIQUE LICENSE PLATES! 

ADD A TOUCH OF DISTINCTION AND INDIVIDUALITY TO YOUR CLASSIC CAR!  Whether running original or modern plates, vintage frames are cool and classy!  They're usually overlooked on a restoration, and not often used on a driver ... all the more reason to let your old car stand out from the next!  Antique license plates and frames take us back to a real place and time in the long-ago 1950's.  You can almost smell the coney dogs and root beer floats again!

THIS GUIDE WILL DESCRIBE VINTAGE LICENSE PLATE FRAMES, showing what was available during what time period, what to look for and what to avoid.  (Also check out my Guide to DMV Clear California License Plates!)

TWO IMPORTANT ITEMS WE SHOULD COVER BEFORE GOING ON WITH ANYTHING ELSE.

1.  Antique license plate frames are fragile!

They must be shipped in a box!  They're metal, but should be treated like glass.  If you try to ship them in an envelope, even a padded envelope, they will break.  Many, many of the antique frames I have purchased on Ebay are broken in transit.  (That’s one of the main reasons I’m writing this guide!) 

You may require insurance, and you may pay for insurance, but the Post Office will refuse a claim if the item was inadequately packaged.  They must go in an oversized, sturdy box.  (Especially important for the larger, pre-1955 frames!)

2.  If they're bent, don't try to straighten them!

Most frames are bent or bowed a little.  Just leave them as is, it's no big deal.  There IS a technique to straightening them, but please, don’t learn your skill on rare, antique frames. 

This especially applies to the older, large frames from 1955 and earlier.

Only because I know some people are “bound and determined” to try to straighten them no matter what anyone says ... and because I don’t want the frames broken ... I will tell you this much:  THEY CAN'T BE STRAIGHTENED COLD.  You can't just grab 'em and start applying pressure--they will break.  At the very least, you have to heat the area with a propane torch, and then GENTLY coax them just a little at a time.  Still, I wish you would not “try this at home” ... you can easily ruin them and you'll wish you hadn't started "messing around". 

THIS GUIDE DEALS SPECIFICALLY WITH CALIFORNIA LICENSE FRAMES, as that is what I am familiar with.  However, I believe similar principles apply to frames from any state!  And I am referring to standard car and truck plates, sorry I do not know anything about motorcycles etc.

LICENSE PLATE SIZE AND HOLE PATTERN ARE THE SAME FOR ALL STATES 1957 TO PRESENT.  This includes all California plates 1956 to present.  For decades, license plates were many different sizes and patterns.  Most were larger than today's plates;  a few were smaller.   In any event, there was a wide variety.  The Federal government stepped in and standardized license plates in 1957 so all states were thereafter the same.  (How the Federal government got into the state license plate design business is beyond me, but I suppose that's something for a different discussion!) 

JUST BECAUSE THE FRAME FITS THE PLATE, DOESN'T NECESSARILY MEAN IT WILL FIT THE CAR.  This is very often overlooked.  Several things to watch for:  

• Does your license plate attach to the car by the top two holes, or by the bottom two holes, or by all four?  Some cars mount them only one way, while your frames might assume another way.  Look and see how they get screwed, so you don't get screwed. 

• Since the standardization in 1957, some cars have designed the bumper or trunk lid with a recessed area that allows for the license plate only.  Any frame that extends past the edge of the license plate (and most of the old ones do), simply will not physically go in there.  Too bad if you just blew 50 bucks on cool frames you can't mount now!

• Will the frame clear the trunk lid, and the gas cap door?  My 55 Ford mounts the rear plate ON the gas cap door, with the hinge at the bottom.  Not all frames will work.  The trunk lid clears my present oversize frame by only about 1/4 inch.  Something to be aware of and think about in advance.

1951 FRAMES DO NOT NECESSARILY FIT 1947 PLATES.  Everyone knows plate size and hole pattern is the same for 1947 and 1951 California plates.  However, the details are laid out differently!  Frames designed for one generally do not look good on the other.  

SOME DEALER FRAMES ARE MORE YEAR-TAG-FRIENDLY THAN OTHERS.  1947 plates used metal year tags for 48-50, and 1951 plates for 52-55.  These metal tags are shaped in such a way that they jut out about 1/8 inch from the plate, right next to the bolt hole.  The most common frame design does not take this into consideration, and it binds and causes a little distortion when you mount it ... just enough to not look quite right.  To minimize the distortion, I place a washer between the year tag and the frame, and two washers in the other three holes to compensate.  This brings the frame out a little from the plate, and still doesn't look perfect, but it's the best solution I've found so far.  Some late frames 1952-1955 included a little indentation to allow for the year tag.  The frame thus mounts perfectly with no distortion at all.  I hope whoever thought of this got a raise and promotion. 

1947-1951 FRAMES ON 1930's PLATES??  1951 frames will actually bolt onto 1930's plates.  The hole pattern is the same, although the 1930's plate is a little wider than the 1950's frame.  It is not immediately apparent in fuzzy photos, so you have to be very careful if you see an ad for a 1930's plate with a frame.  True 1930's dealer frames are extremely rare.  Ask for a closeup of a corner.  If the corner of the plate is protruding past the corner of the frame, that's not right.  

CITY NAME FRAMES.  Souvenir city name frames (without a dealer name) have been popular at least from the 1920's up until the 1960's.  In fact, they were in existence quite a few years before dealer frames.  However, they seem to have gone the way of the "Dodo Bird".  I don't think there are even any modern black plastic city frames, and who the heck wants black plastic anyway?  The old chrome ones are quite hard to find.  I was very lucky.  I live in Fremont, near San Jose.  Fremont was incorporated in 1956.  So on my 1955 Ford, I have a San Jose frame (Fremont not yet being in existence), and on my 1959 Ford, I have a Fremont frame.  Utterly logical, and I get tons of compliments!

FRAMES FROM THE 1920's.  I do not believe there were any dealer frames per se from the 1920's.  There were AAA frames, and the forerunner of city name frames as shown.  The city name was on a separate small plate, mounted under the license plate in a special single frame that held both. 

ORNATE BEARS.  California is the "Bear Flag Republic", and early frames sometimes show cast grizzly bears!  Bear frames can bring quite a pretty penny -- a pair from the 1920's brought almost $1000 on Ebay recently.    

FRAMES FROM THE 1930's.  A few dealer frames began to make their appearance.  This was the age of "Art Deco" and some of the frames are quite flashy, for example this pelican design from San Diego.  (Owner of photograph unknown, please contact me)

DEALER FRAMES 1947 - 1950.  There were no new cars during World War II, and no frivolities such as license plate frames.  When the license plate frames returned, they were simple, conservative designs.  Here is a pair of Chevrolet and Ford frames from that era. 

(PHOTO TO COME) 

These simple plain designs can be used on 1951-1955 plates, but they aren't stylistically ideal for the later period.

DEALER FRAMES 1951-1955.

DEALER FRAMES 1956-TODAY.

WHAT KIND OF DEALER WERE THEY?  Most dealers named on old frames are no longer in existence.  And of course, no one wants to put a Ford frame on an old Chevy!!  Now, if your antique frame has a marque name, or a logo (Ford shield, Chevy bowtie etc.) you are in luck ... also they're worth more!  Without a logo or other indication of marque, it MIGHT be assumed they were a used car dealership.  But that is not necessarily the case. 

SHORT OF DRIVING TO THAT CITY'S LIBRARY for intensive research in old phone books, let Google be your friend.  A few years ago I picked up a pair of 1947-era frames that read simply:  "Boyd H. Gibbons, Downtown Los Angeles".  Spending several minutes with Google, I found the gentleman's obituary notice in Racine, Wisconson, which stated he died at the age of 89 and that "He ran the Family Ford dealership in Los Angeles for nearly 23 years".  Wow, a Ford dealer, just what I had wanted!

NOT ALL ID'S ARE THAT EASY, in fact some of them are rather hopeless, but I would always recommend spending time with Google.  Use as many different combinations as you can think of (try adding words like "dealership", "1950", etc.), and use quotation marks.  If you're not familiar with quotation marks in web searches, learn about them ... they will help you in all walks of life!  For example,

• JACK W RONALD GILROY ... nothing.
• "JACK W RONALD" GILROY ... Bingo!  Studebaker.

OCCUPATIONAL FRAMES.  In the 1920's and 1930's some professionals, usually in the medical field (doctors, dentists, RN's, pharmacists, chiropractors, and even coroners) had specialty frames showing their occupation.  They were usually stylized, for example showing a snake on a staff for doctors, or a mortar and pestle for pharmacists. 

MANY YEARS LATER IN THE 1970'S and 1980's there was a quite a fad with humorous occupational frames, mostly based on naughty puns ... "Nurses Do It With Care", etc.      

OTHER NOVELTY FRAMES.  Sense of humor has apparently evolved over the years along with car designs.  Apparently the phrase, "Nuts to You!" was considered quite amusing in the 1930's.  One saying which does still speak to us in modern times reads, "If You Can Read This, You're Too Dam Close!"   

MOUNTING THE FRAMES.  Obviously dealer frames, even when new, were not considered essential car parts.  Their job was to advertise the dealer on the road for a year or two, and after that who cares?  So they were made of cheap pot metal with low quality control.  I have found the holes are sometimes not perfectly aligned, and trying to mount and tighten the bolts causes stress, and I think that's one of the main reasons for frames to bend and break over the years.  If the holes do not perfectly line up, I would go ahead and open them up a little with an electric drill (the frames, NOT the license plates).  And I would use smaller diameter bolts.  But I would not mount them if there were any binding or stress.  I use chrome allen-head bolts for a little better security, and locknuts.  I also recommend nylon washers which is a lot easier on 50-year-old pot metal.   

UNDER CONSTRUCTION -- PLEASE CHECK BACK LATER, MORE TO COME!