Does anyone have any tips on painting old car tags.

Also, while typing in the subject line, I wondered who calls them "car tags" and who calls them "auto license plates".

Lamar,
I have a buddy in California that has been a dealer in license plates for many years. To restore a plate, he bead blasts or soda blasts it to bare metal, repairs any pits, holes etc just like you would do to a car body panel.

He finishes it with thin body fillers where necessary and primes and spray paints the whole plate with the correct base color. He then uses what looks like a printing roller to paint only the tops of the letters and numbers.

They look new when he is done.

Tags are the little stickies you get each year from the DMV after you pay your fees. They used to be metal years ago..

"Car tag" or "license tag" is a Southeastern thing. Kinda like "gas top" for gas cap.

I've always found it about as easy to find NOS Virginia tags as to have them restored. I've had some hard to find special commemoratives done, mainly Civil War and Tobacco Market Centennials, and a few county strips (county license plates for those not from here! so called because they are rarely more than 2" wide).

(edit) This week's local shopper paper has an ad in "Antiques" for... "VA car license tags, 1948, 1950...1975, $30 each pair"

www.piedmontshopper.com for online version if anybody wants 'em. Sometimes you can even find a neat old car in there!