Original license plate frames
 

I got this idea several years ago from a friend of mine down in Oceanside, CA. He has a show winning ‘68 GTO and one day he was raving to me that he had just found a license plate frame that came from the dealership where his car was originally sold. I thought that was pretty cool idea and have since been on the hunt for one from Beranack Pontiac in Berwyn, IL. Haven’t found that one yet, but I did find one from the former local Pontiac dealer here in Reno where I currently live. I had to refurbish the paint but it turned out pretty nice. Just curious if anybody else is OCD enough with their Pontiacs to worry about such details, haha. Top photo is refurbished and bottom photo is how I bought it.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...898639ba73.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...44ece1a6c5.jpg


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I am with ya. I had to hunt over a decade to find a Manhattan Beach Surfside Pontiac license plate frame.... but as someone else posted elsewhere these frames were tossed in the trash on day 2. Ha. But today many of us not alive then geek out over them.

Obviously when most of our 60’s cars were new, dealers were using the horrible pot metal, riveted on dealer ID badges. I *think* that license plate frames was more of a mid seventies thing?


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I'm still in search for one from Frank Woods Pontiac in Charlotte NC.
I periodically check on eBay but no results.

My 68 came from a small town dealer whose main business was the Chevron gas station out front. As such it took over three years to find a frame. Put in a Craigslist WANTED ad in the area where the dealership was located and a retired CHP officer responded several months later. Had one hanging in his shed . He tried to get the other one from his mother's 60s something GMC but she said NO lol.

License frames have been used since the late 40s early 50s, at least out here on the west coast.

i have mine for my Lemans from mike salta in long beach california. it was on the car for many years and i recently took it off but its in good shape. I took it off after seeing a couple guys at the dream cruise checking it out too close.

Good idea!!!

Pretty neat. I did something similar and found a period original key chain from the dealer where my car was sold new in Miami.

I made one for Ganis Pontiac in Dallas. I did the art in PhotoShop, aged it, printed it, clear coated it and applied it to a license frame on my garage wall from my 71 Camaro (kinda era correct). After all that it covered up too much of the '69 MI license plate. I took it off and put it back on the wall. I have a automatic search on ebay for anything related to that dealer name, nothing has ever shown up for the past 2 years.

Not the frame, but I did do something similar with the plate itself;

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...d.php?t=807387

I ran across this the other day. Not quite the same as original but not bad from a distance.

https://greasepitgraphics.com/product-tag/pontiac/

They have quite a few frames in stock (mostly California) but will custom make one for your dealer of choice.

Finding any of the dealer items is hit or miss these days.

I got lucky, the dealers family members sent me a dealer emblem, key chains, pen ,and letter opener with dealership name. i also found a front tag, a lighter, and other things.

Some dealers had License plate frames and a lot didn't.

Picked this up on ebay after a search of the dealership name.

License Plate frame restoration is on my back burner. It's a nice artifact since many of the dealers closed up shop.

Company
Company name LOUIS FRAHM PONTIAC, INC.
Address *
Status FTB SUSPENDED
Company number C0402386
Company type DOMESTIC STOCK
Jurisdiction CALIFORNIA
Incorporation Date 14th September 1960
Last Statement Filed 11th April 1990
Updated at 6th November 2018
Agent
Agent name MITCHEL L FRAHM
Agent address 7345 E FIRESTONE BLVD
DOWNEY CA 90241

I’d like to find one just for the heck of it. Even just to hang in the garage. A member here actually sold a frame from where my car was sold recently. Unfortunately it sold a few months or so before I discovered where my car had originally been sold. Haven’t seen another since.

.....

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1675130005

Speaking of making stuff, I did something similar –

I noticed this on the back of my Grand Prix....very faintly, faded into the chrome (I highlighted it with Sharpy marker so that it would show up for photos and so that I could have a couple stickers reproduced):

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...tevenson_3.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...tevenson_1.jpg

Here is the reproduced bumper sticker, based off the ghost images on the bumper. I picked the colors just from my imagination of what they might have used:

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...x/100_8355.jpg

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...x/100_8360.jpg

So - yes. I guess.

K

I had a couple of these originals for my car but didn’t want to use them on the car til it was restored, so I had exact reproductions made. That way I could put one on the car now and not worry about it. .