Painted license plates?

1941 - 1945, MB, GPW modifications, sugestions, and ideas, official MWO's and unofficial WWII field mods NO EBAY or COMMERCIAL SALES.
Scratch
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Painted license plates?

Post by Scratch » Wed Mar 01, 2023 12:49 pm

I live in Wisconsin and our collector plates are blue with red lettering which... in my opinion... does not look good on an OD jeep. I think I've found plate mounting locations that I'm... "OK" with, but I just hate the stark contrasting color of these plates. I have a CNC plasma cutting table and vinyl cutter, so my thoughts are to make an exact size and shape plate from 16ga steel, paint that "plate" ODG to match my GPW, then cut out the correct, exact shape and size letters from my legal plates, in black vinyl... including the words "COLLECTOR" and "WISCONSIN". Basically to make an exact copy of my state plates, but in ODG with white or possibly black letters. I could use gloss or matte letters even. (The matte colors show less glare)

I would "think" that if a cop did see me driving around, he probably wouldn't even notice that the plates aren't flat and are homemade. He'd still be able to easily read them and call them in if he needed to. I'd also keep the state plates in the vehicle at all times just in case a cop wanted me to change them. I don't want to paint my collector plates just in case, but I could easily create some that would look perfect, just a different color.

My state DMV says:
-A person who registers a Collector motor vehicle that was manufactured before 1979 may display a historical plate from or representing the model year of the vehicle when driving to or from a car show, or during a parade, if the registration and plates issued by WisDOT are carried in or with the vehicle and are available for inspection by law enforcement upon request.

Reading that, I know that my state is OK with me driving around with plates (at least to car shows and parades...) that aren't registered to my vehicle and could be any number of colors so I "think" it'd be fine...

What do you all think?

Here's what I got:
1.jpg
2.jpg
3.jpg
4.jpg
5.jpg
43 GPW 93487 Blk
44 GPW 230283 OD
46 CJ2A 48990 Blk
46 CJ2A 77632 Wht
47 CJ2A 141681 Grn
48 CJ2A 156240 Red/Yel
48 CJ2A "Lefty" 181341 Red
61 CJ5 123120 Tan
76 CJ7 Camo
03 TJ Inca Gld


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Re: Painted license plates?

Post by 70th Division » Wed Mar 01, 2023 1:06 pm

Scratch wrote:
Wed Mar 01, 2023 12:49 pm
I live in Wisconsin and our collector plates are blue with red lettering which... in my opinion... does not look good on an OD jeep. I think I've found plate mounting locations that I'm... "OK" with, but I just hate the stark contrasting color of these plates. I have a CNC plasma cutting table and vinyl cutter, so my thoughts are to make an exact size and shape plate from 16ga steel, paint that "plate" ODG to match my GPW, then cut out the correct, exact shape and size letters from my legal plates, in black vinyl... including the words "COLLECTOR" and "WISCONSIN". Basically to make an exact copy of my state plates, but in ODG with white or possibly black letters. I could use gloss or matte letters even. (The matte colors show less glare)

I would "think" that if a cop did see me driving around, he probably wouldn't even notice that the plates aren't flat and are homemade. He'd still be able to easily read them and call them in if he needed to. I'd also keep the state plates in the vehicle at all times just in case a cop wanted me to change them. I don't want to paint my collector plates just in case, but I could easily create some that would look perfect, just a different color.

My state DMV says:
-A person who registers a Collector motor vehicle that was manufactured before 1979 may display a historical plate from or representing the model year of the vehicle when driving to or from a car show, or during a parade, if the registration and plates issued by WisDOT are carried in or with the vehicle and are available for inspection by law enforcement upon request.

Reading that, I know that my state is OK with me driving around with plates (at least to car shows and parades...) that aren't registered to my vehicle and could be any number of colors so I "think" it'd be fine...

What do you all think?

Here's what I got:
1.jpg
2.jpg
3.jpg
4.jpg
5.jpg

Good idea !

In Florida we can locate vintage Florida license plates from 1941 to 1945 and register them to our WW2 vehicles.
They must be in decent shape, and not ever have been repainted.

Also in Florida, Historic Military Vehicles can be driven without plates displayed, but you must have them with the vehicle,
and be registered to the vehicle and insured, naturally.


Best Regards,
Ray

Scratch
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Re: Painted license plates?

Post by Scratch » Wed Mar 01, 2023 1:36 pm

Thanks, I’ll have to do some more checking on Wisconsin laws. It was just an idea that I was thinking about today. It’d be perfect if I could just have them on the vehicle but not displayed like your Florida laws, but I don’t think I’ll get that lucky.
43 GPW 93487 Blk
44 GPW 230283 OD
46 CJ2A 48990 Blk
46 CJ2A 77632 Wht
47 CJ2A 141681 Grn
48 CJ2A 156240 Red/Yel
48 CJ2A "Lefty" 181341 Red
61 CJ5 123120 Tan
76 CJ7 Camo
03 TJ Inca Gld

Scratch
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Re: Painted license plates?

Post by Scratch » Wed Mar 01, 2023 2:29 pm

Just found out that Wisconsin has historic military vehicle plates in OD for 5 bucks! Problem solved!
43 GPW 93487 Blk
44 GPW 230283 OD
46 CJ2A 48990 Blk
46 CJ2A 77632 Wht
47 CJ2A 141681 Grn
48 CJ2A 156240 Red/Yel
48 CJ2A "Lefty" 181341 Red
61 CJ5 123120 Tan
76 CJ7 Camo
03 TJ Inca Gld

Ron D
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Re: Painted license plates?

Post by Ron D » Wed Mar 01, 2023 5:03 pm

Wrong shade of OD.

OMG, did I say that out loud? :lol:
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1951 M100

Scratch
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Re: Painted license plates?

Post by Scratch » Wed Mar 01, 2023 5:13 pm

Ron D wrote:
Wed Mar 01, 2023 5:03 pm
Wrong shade of OD.

OMG, did I say that out loud? :lol:
That shade has to be closer than the blue shade of OD I have now!
43 GPW 93487 Blk
44 GPW 230283 OD
46 CJ2A 48990 Blk
46 CJ2A 77632 Wht
47 CJ2A 141681 Grn
48 CJ2A 156240 Red/Yel
48 CJ2A "Lefty" 181341 Red
61 CJ5 123120 Tan
76 CJ7 Camo
03 TJ Inca Gld

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Re: Painted license plates?

Post by 70th Division » Thu Mar 02, 2023 4:10 am

Scratch wrote:
Wed Mar 01, 2023 2:29 pm
Just found out that Wisconsin has historic military vehicle plates in OD for 5 bucks! Problem solved!
Hello Scratch,

That is great !!

They will look better that the light blue, Florida also has the same color blue "antique" license plates as your state does, except the numbers are white, not red.

Post a pic when you get them, that would be nice to see.


Best Regards,
Ray

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Re: Painted license plates?

Post by markos100 » Fri Jun 30, 2023 2:30 pm

Another solution is simply to buy a couple of the vinyl covered magnets that car dealerships use for the back of their plates; they are easily available on Amazon for under 20 dollars. Just mount the plate when necessary and stuff in under the rear seat the rest of the time. This requires drooling no holes, no damage to the paint and provides compliance as you move her vehicle from state to state.

These magnets or really strong, the plate will not come off even with fairly aggressive bumps. Unless an accident, most likely the only reason a law enforcement officer is going to look at the vehicle is because they are just excited to see something really cool and old.....
Willys MB #2224; Dec 4, 1941
1942 Willys MB, 1942 Ford GPW
Converto T-6, Nov 1943,
'44 MBT Trailers (2),
1952 M-38, '52 M100
1962 M151 MUTT, '64 M416
MVPA 18646

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Re: Painted license plates?

Post by GUNNUT in Iowa » Fri Jun 30, 2023 3:42 pm

markos100 wrote:
Fri Jun 30, 2023 2:30 pm
Another solution is simply to buy a couple of the vinyl covered magnets that car dealerships use for the back of their plates; they are easily available on Amazon for under 20 dollars. Just mount the plate when necessary and stuff in under the rear seat the rest of the time. This requires drooling no holes, no damage to the paint and provides compliance as you move her vehicle from state to state.

These magnets or really strong, the plate will not come off even with fairly aggressive bumps. Unless an accident, most likely the only reason a law enforcement officer is going to look at the vehicle is because they are just excited to see something really cool and old.....
snip -

". . . they are just excited to see something really cool and old . . ."

- snip

Thanks for that information! I always wondered why I was being stopped all of the time. Now I know why.

(You were talking about me as an individual - right?)

:lol:
1968 M274 A5 Mule
1945 Willys MB

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markos100
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Re: Painted license plates?

Post by markos100 » Fri Jun 30, 2023 5:36 pm

Not really, in Tennessee. We just take our antique tags put a magnet on the back of them good to go. And it’s super nice because we’re not even required to display a tag as long as we have one; so I save those plates for occasions when I give it to other states where tags are required…..
Willys MB #2224; Dec 4, 1941
1942 Willys MB, 1942 Ford GPW
Converto T-6, Nov 1943,
'44 MBT Trailers (2),
1952 M-38, '52 M100
1962 M151 MUTT, '64 M416
MVPA 18646

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Re: Painted license plates?

Post by dpcd67 » Sun Jul 02, 2023 10:37 am

I guarantee your state will not allow you to paint a license plate. But here, we have black out plates, which looks good on MVs. Black with white lettering. Anyone can get them; not just for MVs.
And yes, some of my friends use magnets.
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Re: Painted license plates?

Post by Gastrap » Sun Jul 02, 2023 4:37 pm

dpcd67 wrote:
Sun Jul 02, 2023 10:37 am
I guarantee your state will not allow you to paint a license plate. But here, we have black out plates, which looks good on MVs. Black with white lettering. Anyone can get them; not just for MVs.
And yes, some of my friends use magnets.
Red white and blue plates too, I just found out about those and put them on my Humvee. We can also run model year plates, they load the old plate number as a reference number on the registration which comes back to the modern plate number when a cop runs it. I have those on a 1950 and a 1930 vehicle, and the black and whites on the daily driver.

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Re: Painted license plates?

Post by DWesol » Tue Aug 08, 2023 1:04 pm

A photo of the Wisconsin Plate here:

https://wisconsindot.gov/Pages/dmv/vehi ... itary.aspx
1942 GPW 55791 DOD 8-12-42 USA # 20144366 (Original)
1943 Bantam T 3 21392 DOD 6-21-43 USA # 0270225 (Original)
Midwest Military Vehicle Association - www.MMVA.us
MVPA 28115
www.MVPA.org/Oshkosh

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Re: Painted license plates?

Post by sjalbert » Thu Aug 10, 2023 9:44 am

GUNNUT in Iowa wrote:
Fri Jun 30, 2023 3:42 pm
markos100 wrote:
Fri Jun 30, 2023 2:30 pm
Another solution is simply to buy a couple of the vinyl covered magnets that car dealerships use for the back of their plates; they are easily available on Amazon for under 20 dollars. Just mount the plate when necessary and stuff in under the rear seat the rest of the time. This requires drooling no holes, no damage to the paint and provides compliance as you move her vehicle from state to state.

These magnets or really strong, the plate will not come off even with fairly aggressive bumps. Unless an accident, most likely the only reason a law enforcement officer is going to look at the vehicle is because they are just excited to see something really cool and old.....
snip -

". . . they are just excited to see something really cool and old . . ."

- snip

Thanks for that information! I always wondered why I was being stopped all of the time. Now I know why.

(You were talking about me as an individual - right?)

:lol:
Every time I've been stopped in a vintage Jeep (I'm including the 1946 CJ2a that was my first Jeep 40 years ago) has been by a LEO that had a vintage Jeep and wanted to talk Jeeps. The CJ2A had a freshly rebuilt engine and both times I got pulled over was because they'd never seen one that would really go 65 mph. Unfortunately for both those LEO's the previous owner was responsible for the rebuild and I had no idea what shop they'd used.
Seth
******
1944 MB 349858, 20620361
1942 MBT 10968 viewtopic.php?f=18&t=149552
1942 MBT 15799, USA 0217497 viewtopic.php?f=18&t=225199
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Re: Painted license plates?

Post by 70th Division » Thu Aug 10, 2023 11:06 am

DWesol wrote:
Tue Aug 08, 2023 1:04 pm
A photo of the Wisconsin Plate here:

https://wisconsindot.gov/Pages/dmv/vehi ... itary.aspx
Hello,

Thanks for posting that link to the Wisconsin plate !!

They are beautiful, maybe other states can take notice and follow up with olive drab plates, and the $5 fee !!
Outstanding !
plate-hist-military-200px.gif
plate-hist-military-200px.gif (7.94 KiB) Viewed 2197 times
Best Regards,
Ray


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