Registration of antique vehicle in Pennsylvania

It looks like, as of July 2014, that all is needed now to get antique plates for a car is the title, completed application, and a check for $75.00. (Photos no longer needed). Is this correct? I have a car I have been meaning to register for some time but the inability to print out photos has prevented this from happening. Please confirm or refute. Thanks!

Yes. Do it while you can.

Also for an additional $75 you can register it with year of production plates.

I registered this with 1922 plates a few months ago.

Good for you! None of their business, really, what the car looks like. I had difficulty registering my 1917 Maxwell as it is 90% + original, and looks like a 97 year old car. They rejected it the first time because it did not look showroom new. I had to doctor up the photos to get it through the second time around.

I remember my frustration 15 years ago when I tried to register my first Crosley. Ity really angered me that the car had to appear showroom new to be registered in Pa. I did one a few years later by putting plexiglas in windows and taping on hubcaps to make it look acceptable to them. This is a welcome change and I am glad they did it.

Okay, sent in the $75.00, and a letter came back that another $50 and an insurance card was needed. Mailed it back in and the antique plate came back, but the title was not mailed with the plate. Any ideas as to if the title will ever come back separately or do I need to do something.

GOOD LUCK in actually reaching the Pennsylvania DMV by telephone. Trying to reach them on various occasions by telephone over the YEARS ALWAYS yields a busy signal. Congressmen in this state ought to MANDATE that you reach a live voice, hopefully without having to go through a canned recording, this not even being an option!

Your PA title will come back separately. It might take several weeks.

And it does...came in the mail today!

Congrats! Next time go to:

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[TD=class: med, colspan: 2] Ruth Miller, Notary Public[/TD]

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[TD=class: med]6158 Rt 309

Germansville, PA 18053[/TD]

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They are experienced now with dealing with the new antique car and vintage plate rules. And they are not too far from you.

Congrats! Next time go to:

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[TD=class: med, colspan: 2] Ruth Miller, Notary Public[/TD]

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[TD=class: med]6158 Rt 309

Germansville, PA 18053[/TD]

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They are experienced now with dealing with the new antique car and vintage plate rules. And they are not too far from you.

Actually, I did well. Just ended up costing more than expected. Thought it was $75, but ended up being $125. Also, if going through a third party, you still need photos and I have no way to take pictures and get them on a computer to print out and cannot locate an old camera with film photos.

I just trailer the car there. They check the vin, pay the $125, and you are good to go.

OH, and that is pronounced Grrrmensville for all of you out there that were not blessed to be born Pennsylvania Dutch!

In 2015 I registered the last antique vehicle I bought and did not need any photos.

I remember when I bought my 1962 Triumph TR4 back in 2008 the photos showed a paint touch up on the right door approximately 8 inches in diameter that did not exactly match the rest of the car.  The car was a perfect candidate for AACA HPOF class, but PennDOT would not allow me to register it as an antique at the time due to the color mismatch on the door.

I bought the car with the intent of immediately restoring it, so I just got the title transferred then let the normal registration expire while I was restoring the car.  I registered it as an antique with no photos after the law changes.  

Under the letter of the law during the time when photos were required, there was no way you could have registered many of the HPOF cars with antique plates unless they were in perfect condition visually.  At the time you would never have been able to register an HPOF car that has distressed paint but are in good mechanical condition with antique plates in PA.

Anyone know when PA will allow 1978 vehicles to display YOM plates?  They started in 2012 with 1975, and as of now, they are up to 1976.  I can carry antique plates but not my YOM plate that I bought.

On 8/25/2014 at 4:59 PM, Dwight Romberger said:

OH, and that is pronounced Grrrmensville for all of you out there that were not blessed to be born Pennsylvania Dutch!

On this side of the Blue Mtn that's pronounced Grrrmenswill........ One old Dutchmen says to the other:  "Ven ve hat are daughter ve vanted to call her Chain (Jane) but ve cound't say it so ve chust called her Wickey (Vicky)"...................Bob

Aaaaand they brought the photo requirements back. That I'm sure will make it a huge PITA for me to register any cars. I wouldn't have even been able to register the car in the photo and it's in great mechanical shape.

I am looking into states where I can title/register without really having to live there nor get an inspection as part of the process.

In 1974, when i lived on College Hill in Easton, PA midway 'twixt my old NYC and Philadelphia, i bought a '40 Packard One-Twenty needing the full treatment, including a registration, and could then get a "reconstructive title" via the state of Vermont,  which i think cost then all of $15.   

Kept that car nearly a decade.  Nice ride, including driving cross-continent without a hitch February '76, back up to greater NYC to see old friends and relatives, down to Jamestown/Colonial Williamsburg, Charlotte, cross country via I-40, much of that formerly Route 66, caught Highway 58 at  Barstow, briefly Highway 99 North 'til crossing over to I-5 North up to the East Bay Area in 5 1/2 days.  Nice to be able to have a relaxed trip in an old car when you had the safety net of so many fellows still around at gas stations, small garages across the nation who knew how to work on vintage cars, and did sans big production or charging more than attending to anything current-- less even.  Texas was the only bore.  Even the cows looked demoralized.

  "The sun is riz,

    the sun is set,

    and here we is,

    in Texas yet.

    Burma Shave."

2 hours ago, Su8overdrive said:

and could then get a "reconstructive title" via the state of Vermont,  which i think cost then all of $15. 

Unfortunately the "Vermont Loophole" was corrected this year and only people with both a physical address and the vehicle in Vermont can register there.

On 8/24/2014 at 4:19 AM, mrcvs said:

Okay, sent in the $75.00, and a letter came back that another $50 and an insurance card was needed. Mailed it back in and the antique plate came back, but the title was not mailed with the plate. Any ideas as to if the title will ever come back separately or do I need to do something.

GOOD LUCK in actually reaching the Pennsylvania DMV by telephone. Trying to reach them on various occasions by telephone over the YEARS ALWAYS yields a busy signal. Congressmen in this state ought to MANDATE that you reach a live voice, hopefully without having to go through a canned recording, this not even being an option!

same here in Belgium, and even more difficult to obtain registration. We first have to go to the technical inspection and that is very difficult to pass

Demco, the same miasma you experience in PA we suffer here in Kaleefornyuh.  Only Stockholm Syndrome keeps me here.  But you did inspire me to call my congressman.  Call yours today.  Let's start a groundswell.

Ok, it's 45 minutes after my above line.  I called and spoke with one of my congressman's staff,  with the news desk of my local and large newspaper,  and our local CBS radio affiliate.  Feel free to use some variant of what i also emailed the latter (below), wanting to be multiple voices.  We,  Demco, and anyone else on this forum,  have to do this because let's face it,  most people would rather grouse on chatrooms, forums, then act. It is easy enough to Google phone numbers, emails, and use both.  Have your wife/girlfriend (or both) do the same.

  Report to the commissioner.  Break a leg.  It starts here, today.  Remember the adage about making your luck.     We fix this:

     "It is   i m p o s s i b l e  for any of us, and i speak for friends, neighbors, coworkers, area residents at dinner and cocktail parties,  to get a live agent, a live clerk, a live rep on the phone when calling    DMV.   The pandemic is over.  But this was the case  BC; before Covid.  There is no reason for us taxpayers to put up with this, treat it like a sitcom routine, roll our eyes, and let it continue.   Enough   is enough.  We are subsidizing a mutiny.

     This is a long overdue story.  It is not sexy or exciting.  But let's see if there's a pre-corporate journalism spark left at CBS, once the crown jewel of reportage in this nation.

      Profound thanks, and believe me, this story will garner attention, praise, appreciation and evermore thanks from listeners if you  put some effort into it.

      Start with broadcasting what happens when your own reporter tries to get a live agent at 'our'  DMV."

  HumanTuber, thanks for the Vermont update so others with that problem do not spin their wheels.

No problem. The specific regulation in Vermont now is that they will allow you to register your car out of state ONLY IF you are not required to register it in your own state. You must get a DMV official to attest to that.

However, this applies almost nowhere. I'm not sure if there's any case where it would apply, aside from specialty vehicles for which registration is not normally required, yet would be allowed in Vermont.

"No problem."   What are we, 16?

4 hours ago, Su8overdrive said:

"No problem."   What are we, 16?

25 😃👍

Remember, otherwise thoughtful HPH, Packard once advertised in the National Geographic, the New Yorker, and Literary Digest.  Let's keep the bar well raised.  Neither can we imagine most Pierce-Arrow owners so communicating.  Certainly not Bentley owners, nor Delahaye, Delage, Invicta, Railton, and the dean of a local college owned a well-tended '41 Buick Roadmaster.  Erudition does not = out of touch w/ the latest teenybopism; rather, something they might aspire to,  even as there's more to autodom than dumping a crate SBC 350,  TurboHydramatic, tilt wheel into everything built before our greatest ever magnanimity of the Marshall Plan.

Ok man thanks 💅

Some of us 💁‍♂️ just have different conversational styles 🤷‍♂️🗣😂

On 4/8/2024 at 3:32 PM, human-potato_hybrid said:

Aaaaand they brought the photo requirements back. That I'm sure will make it a huge PITA for me to register any cars. I wouldn't have even been able to register the car in the photo and it's in great mechanical shape.

 

I am looking into states where I can title/register without really having to live there nor get an inspection as part of the process.

Bummer on pixs.

However, why can't you take pix, are they in pieces and non op?

They are only asking for front, both sides and rear, so in theory as long as it is all together with even some bad paint and it meets the criteria for the plate you are going for I can't see why it wouldn't work.

I am in similar boat, mine is is non op right now, with interior removed and in progress of replacing swiss cheese rusted out floor panels, trunk and quarter panels.. So pictures are not possible nor is driving it is possible at this time. For myself though, wasn't planning to register and plate it until it was painted and fully reassembled ready for the road.. But I did transfer the title into my name when I bought it which you can do at any time. Registering and plating it is more for when you are ready to put it back on the road to drive.

But, heck, just for pix, I could consider a "craigslist rebuild" with a few rattle cans worth of paint in similar color on the body.. They aren't asking to see it move.. Just looking to see if it is "complete enough" body wise to be put back on the road.

1 hour ago, ABear said:

They are only asking for front, both sides and rear, so in theory as long as it is all together with even some bad paint and it meets the criteria for the plate you are going for I can't see why it wouldn't work.

Not really because they want everything in the picture including chrome to be in "good" condition. So I doubt they'll pass it if it looks like some shitbox with signs of rust everywhere and both bumpers tweaked (cough)

1 hour ago, human-potato_hybrid said:

Not really because they want everything in the picture including chrome to be in "good" condition. So I doubt they'll pass it if it looks like some shitbox with signs of rust everywhere and both bumpers tweaked (cough)

Well, you know "pictures do lie", more often than not, pictures you give them will be copies anyway so some "detail" will be lost in the translation of several copies of a copy.

Unless the bumpers chrome has been fully eaten through there ARE ways to make them look like good 50 footers..

Some quick "craigslist rebuild" paint (rattle cans) to touch up worst looking places without a lot of effort.

Also, consider ditching the 10 to 20 mega pixel settings, lower pixel settings (2 mega pixels is good enough for 4" x 6" prints, they don't need 40" x 60" quality settings) tends to hide imperfections without the need for extensive photo shopping (cough, cough).

Mine right now would not be so easy, one quarter panel in primer, one quarter panel in process of fitting before welding in, doors, fenders, hood and truck in the wrong color for the VIN (donor parts), no glass, no bumpers, no taillights, no chrome moldings on, not to mention rear tires off.. Basically mine is a long ways from being drive able condition..