What would a late Ruby have had originally, please? A black with white letters pressed steel plate on the front, and the number painted straight onto the rectangular panel on spare wheel cover (with a matt background) at the back?
This would certainly look a lot more 1930s than the pressed aluminium plates my car has now.
Were the letters and numbers a bit smaller than on the pressed plates?
I think any car would have had what the first owner and/or the garage would have supplied. For instance, my Cabriolet has cast aluminium letter rivetted to the spare wheel carrier. The front plate has been replaced, so I dont knwo what would have been there originally. My Box Saloon had original plates manufactured by Hills - pressed steel number plates, again with rivitted aluminum letters. I'm sure there would be other examples..
Basically thats a long winded way of saying go for what you think suits the car best. The cast ali letters and numbers are (were?) still available from The Cooke Group in Wigston
Pressed aluminium plates were available from the 1920's I believe, so not out of place - though I share your view that they don't look quite as "vintage" as, for example, a nicely hand-painted plate. As Hugh suggested, I think it would largely have been a question of what the garage had rather than any blanket "rule".
When driving around here it helps if people think the car is ancient - they are then more likely to cut it some slack - so anything that makes the car look older is helpful.
The pressed plates I have at the moment are the usual with 3.5" letters on a field 4.5" high, plus the border, whereas the spare-wheel cover number plate area is only 4" high, plus a raised border.
25-09-2023, 09:23 PM (This post was last modified: 25-09-2023, 09:25 PM by Tony Griffiths.)
I've posted this before - so you might want to take a very close look at your plates to see if they have any maker's stampings.
"Our 1934 Ruby has its original aluminium number plates by a company called "Homo Ltd." At a glance, they appear to be a thin casting but, looking at contemporary advertisements, they're described as being, "die pressed from pure sheet aluminium the letters and figures being semi-sheared from this sheet" and "....made in one piece from pure aluminium 1/8" thick..."
The black paint remaining appears to be very hard, probably a stove enamel.
The first advertisement is from 1927, when just one type of plate was offered, the other two, from 1935 and 1935, show options available of letters and figures riveted onto a steel backing plate.
What does "semi-sheared" mean - and does anyone else have these plates or ones of a similar type?"
The standard aluminium pressed plates I have on my car at the moment are of 'semi-sheared' manufacture. The raised letters are produced by squeezing a flat plate with the registration letters and numbers set into the die. The back shows indentations of the letters as the total material volume is conserved.
I think the process is called 'semi-sheared' because the the letters/numerals are pressed far enough to create the raised effect, but the process is not continued until they are squeezed all the way out of the plate. (As you will know, 'shearing' refers to the way the load is applied in pressing the letters - the force is administered in two directions at the same time but slightly displaced - as with scissors.)
