whats a black plate car? is it indicated by a black rear panel? thanks

There may be other references that I am not aware of. But many people refer to original california cars as "black plate" cars if they have the original license plates. They were black with yellow letters. I am not sure of the year California stopped making black plate license plates. Probably in the 70s.

In the 1970 model year, California went from 999ZZZ to AAA001. When they did, the plate colors chaged from Yellow letters on a Black background to Yellow letters on a Blue background. Most people, when buying a used car back then, had the option of updating the plates to the current normal plate. (In california today, this is a blue letters on white background with "California" in red.) There are over 20 current plate styles in California. Anyway, when a car is rescued from "salvage," i.e. junkyard, it automatically gets new plates. The indication that it is a "black plate car" usually says that it was first registered in California, and was not brought there from another state unless it was less than 3 years old (in the case of a 1967 'Bird), and was not rescued from a junkyard.

Q

My '67 'Bird is one.

I'm a So Cal native. From cars that either I, my friends or my family have owned, the following first letters on a CA Black Plate related approximately to the following years:

U, V - 1967
W, X - 1968
Y, Z - 1969

What this really means is that the car has been registered in CA all of it's life and therefore the owner can make the claim of "rust free"

FYI Quenton - Black/Yellow plates were Letters then Numbers, Blue plates were Numbers/letters

LOL ... yeah ...you're right! :rolleyes: I thought about that the next morning when I wasn't quite as tired.

Q