License plate nabbed... has this happened to you?

[herbsteiner]

So I park my car at the music store yesterday to do some business and chat with friends, and when I walk outside, I see the 1973 license plate, which was there when I pulled into the shopping center parking lot, has been taken off the front bumper of my Zed!

Texas requires two plates, rear AND front, regardless of "classic" status or not. So to be legal, I have to get new plates, or find another set of '73s (available), and RE-register the car (~$50).

ARRRRGHH!!! :mad: Some people would steal used toilet paper if they thought they could get a nickel for it.

Excuse the rant, I'm just a newbie temporarily pissed off about a relatively minor non-issue, and will get over it shortly.

[steve91tt]

I feel for you.:disappoin The good news is that its easy to get a nice 73 Texas plate on ebay.

[KAL7467]

sorry for the ignorance but what is a 73 plate?

[manny1973]

I have a set of 73 Colorado plates I would sell for $25

[herbsteiner]

Kal

I was referring to my license plates, sorry.

Manny

'Preciate the offer, but seeing as how I live in Texas, a think a set of Texas license plates would be the most appropriate for me at the moment.

There's a pretty good condition set on CL here in town, I have a call in to the seller. Or I could just go with the boring set of new TX plates.

Edited January 12, 2011 by herbsteiner

[SteveJ]

sorry for the ignorance but what is a 73 plate?

Some states will allow you to run old plates that match the year of your car's production. Those plates have the year stamped on the plate. Alabama used to change the color of the plates each year, too.

[herbsteiner]

Thanks for the clarification of my first post, Steve.

I forgot that many folks here didn't know that Texas is one of the states that allows what you've described. I received a set of clean '73 license plates when I got the car last year, and went to the County Tax office to register the car with those plates.

[steve91tt]

sorry for the ignorance but what is a 73 plate?

Some states such as Texas allow you to run with plates from the year of manufacture of the vehicle. I think the 1973 Texas plates look much better than the gaudy modern plates.

[ZCurves]

Back in the day, my wife's plates were stolen from her ZX. When I put the reissued plates on the Z, I used large Pop-Rivets to secure them to the car. I think it provided security and had a nice look too.

Another thing...

Wait till the dildo that stole your plate tries to register it. It should come up stolen at the DPS. If you have a friend that is a police officer, you could ask him the periodically run the plate to see if it had become registered - then go steal it back! Keep your other one just in case....

Edited January 12, 2011 by ZCurves

[herbsteiner]

Zcurves

I don't think anyone is gonna try to register it, because you've got to have TWO plates to put on a passenger vehicle when registering it. Most likely, it's already hanging on a wall in South Austin somewhere. Or it'll show up on Craigslist or eBay.

The pop rivets thing is a good idea. I was thinking some kind of short bolt that you'd need more than just a screwdriver to loosen, such as a hex-head bolt or a carriage bolt, with Loc-tite behind it.

That is, if I get another set of '73 plates. They do look good on an old Z.

Edited January 12, 2011 by herbsteiner

[spitz17]

herbsteiner,

What you could potentially do... is order a replica plate from http://www.licenseplates.tv/ and have it personalized to an exact match of your rear and just place it on the front. I do not know if Texas requires any stickers on the front plate, I know California does not, but if you do that... I am pretty sure the police would not be particularlly looking out for it. The license plate that they made me is an EXACT replica. If you get pulled over and they find out that it is infact a replica, which is highly doubtful, you could possibly get away with saying the original owner put it on there :X

Edited January 12, 2011 by spitz17

[Marty Rogan]

I had plate stolen a long time ago. It's a good idea to report it stolen to the police, just in case someone commits a crime with it attached to their car. You don't want to be explaining anything to the police later.

Marty