Good News and Bad News

Dateline - 05/19/2018 - I have some good news and some bad news.  The good news is that I have finally sent my bumpers off to be re-chromed this weekend.  My friends Roland, Joe and I went to the Monroe Auto Swap meet this weekend and I ran into a chrome shop that has a local rep.  He came to my house on Sunday after the meet and took a look at my bumpers and quoted me a price.  Probably not the cheapest, but I had a good feeling that they will do a great job, and I didn't have to ship them someplace.  He took them with him.

Now for the bad news, best chance of getting the bumpers back will be early July, so it looks like I am going to miss the Greenwood Auto Show this year, yet again!  It was starting to get untenable anyway because I still need to get the paint straightened out and I keep playing phone tag with the paint shop.  I don't think he could have the paint done for the show either, so there you are!  I do want to get the car going for driving this summer though, so I'm going to keep pressing.

On another front, Roland told me about a very interesting classic/vintage car rule in Washington.  Once your car is over 25 years old, you can get collector car plates as long as you are not going to use the car commercial use.  The nice thing about collector plates is that you only pay for them once, and you never have to renew the tabs!  That's really cool!

But the fun doesn't stop there!  The standard collector car plates are, well, a little funky.

New Collector Vehicle License Plate

These are the plates I've seen on most cars.  But Roland told me of rule that, if you get an original plate that has a year tab that is the same as your vehicles model year, you can use that plate to register your car!  Not only that, but you are not required to have a front license plate either!

Well, guess what they sell at the Monroe Auto Swap, old license plates!  So, for $50, I got a 1971 rear license plate in really good shape, to put on the car!  Now I need to take it down to the Depart of Licensing and get my title changed to this plate and I'm good to go!  I may have to pay for one more registration, but after that, I'll be done.  Plus, the old plate, that looks like this, but with a different number:

1971 Washington License Plate

Will look pretty good on the car.  I particularly like the unique year tab with the yellow and black.

Roland had a really good idea about the license plate frame, I should see if I can find a frame from Lew Florence, which was a dealership in Seattle of British cars in the 70's.  Or, I could research were the car was originally sold (I believe it was to a doctor in Seattle) and see if I can get a frame from that dealer.  Both would be pretty neat to have.