Original Number Plates

[frequentflyer]

Painted number plates are often reproduced a little too white these days. A good signwriter will add in a little yellow to dull down modern white. Little or no titanium oxide white pigment pre war.

[Robert Leigh]

I suspect that in the 1930s the plates provided by the supplying dealer may well have depended on whether he had a number plate making facility. For small garages only supplying a new car occasionally it could be that plates were sign-written by the painter who was otherwise occupied with bodywork repairs. Main dealers probably had a suitable die pressing facility to make a separate plate which would be fixed in the designed position. A mark II Ruby I had for many years obviously had a blank number plate hanging from the front bumper when new with a manufactured aluminium plate attached to it, and a similar plate attached to the spare wheel cover.
Incidentally the size of lettering is clearly defined, and the old plates with a maximum of six characters had larger letters than those allowed in the later system from 1963 onwards, the size of plate not changing at that time. I imagine that metric dimensions may have taken over but for practical purposes plate size has stayed the same. Lettering for seven character registrations is slightly smaller than previously. For any Austin Seven the earlier larger letters are appropriate.

[Colin Morgan]

When I hand-painted plates for a Chummy a while back I put quite a bit of yellow in to make an old-looking cream - white definitely didn't look right.

[Tony Griffiths]

Painted number plates are often reproduced a little too white these days. A good signwriter will add in a little yellow to dull down modern white. Little or no titanium oxide white pigment pre war.

A very good point. Mine are definitely too white.