Custom Car Chronicle
Custom HistoryEarly Custom Cars

Californian License plates

 

CALIFORNIAN LICENSE PLATES

 

In the past I have had great help from a list of vintage Californian License plates to help date certain photos of Custom Cars. Recently I came across these photos from a display of Californian License plates which make identifying old Car photos even easier.

 
 
I do understand that Custom Car history not only took place in California. It happened all over the US, and later also outside the US. But a lot of it did happen in Californian, and a lot of the old photos of early Custom Cars do come from the West-coast State. As  Custom Car Historian, I have always been very interested in dating these old photo, which helps find out more about the history on the cars, the people involved and the surroundings. Sometimes, if you are lucky the original photographer hand write a date on the photo front, or back. Others might have an develop date printed in. But sadly most of the early and not so early photos do not have any dates on them. Fortunately the license plates in these for us Custom Car Enthusiast important years changed nearly every year. So in case a license plate is visible in a photo, we most likely will be able to date that photo by identifying the license plate.

Some time ago I came across the Flickr website of Mark Mauno, who took some great photos of a Californian License plate display at the Petersen Museum. Absolutely wonderful material which has already helped me date several photos I had not been able to dat before.
 
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Rik Hoving

Rik is the CCC editor in chief. As a custom car historian he is researching custom car history for many years. In 2004 he started the Custom Car Photo Archive that has become a place of joy for many custom car enthousiasts. Here at CCC Rik will bring you inspiring articles on the history of custom cars and builders. Like a true photo detective he will show us what's going on in all those amazing photos. He will write stories about everything you want to know in the realm of customizing. In daily life Rik is a Graphic Designer. He is married to the CCC webmaster and the father of a 10 year old son (they are both very happy with his excellent cooking skills)

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