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Dear Cary Esq., and Sal Esq,
Okay, maybe not so serious, but I'm not real happy about it. My wife got a ticket in our T-Bird. Nobody on earth puts plates on the front of T-Birds, Corvettes, and that type of car. Pam got a "fix-it" ticket for $25 bucks. It costs $175 to take it to court according to the notice I got from the court. I'm tempted to take it to a jury trial, and then subpoena everyone in Los Altos Hills with a similar type of vehicle and see if I’m being discriminated against.
Okay, I know I'm being a spoiled brat, but is there any way to get an exemption for a front plate even though state law says you must have one on the back and front. I put both plates on the back, but someone has already got busted for that one.
Sincerely,
Conway
"Lord, please let me be the man my dog thinks I am." (Author unknown)
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7057_Conway wrote:Dear Cary Esq., and Sal Esq,
Okay, I know I'm being a spoiled brad, but is there any way to get an exemption for a front plate even though state law says you must have one on the back and front. I put both plates on the back, but someone has already got busted for that one.
Sincerely,
Conway
Well it's not an exemption, but you could register the T-Bird in a state that only requires the plate to be on the rear. SC, NC, Ga, Al & Fl come to mind. You could even use my address for a residence if you choose SC. 
Bill
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Bill,
I would like to, but registering a California based car in another state is also illegal.
You may notice I fixed my "spoiled brad" comment. Hey, I'm sticking with that, any Brad that is so focused on the Skybolt is a "spoiled Brad"!
Conway
"Lord, please let me be the man my dog thinks I am." (Author unknown)
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How else will your car be identified when you go through a red light camera if you don't have a front plate? :D
"...But for some women, conformity is death. It's a death of the soul. The soul is a precious thing. When you live a lie, you damage the soul." "Lipstick Jungle" 
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You're (or your wife) is out there buddy. I never put a tag on the front of my Jag and was never pulled over. I know others who didn't and were ticketed. The law is the law. How long have you been without the front plate? Might want to pay the fine and then continue to ignore the law. Tickets for that are usually few and far between. Best regards, Brad
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Brad, We've had that car for a number of years now. I believe it is a classic car (or going to be), and one of the best all around performance duce coupes that I have ever driven. It does not have the power of a Corvette, or quite the handling of a Porsche. But, as I have always felt, Ford is a real value against many cars far more expensive. I think it was the best performance deal on the road for the money when they built them, and just has a cool factor. By the way, it is much lighter than the Vet, so it's fast, real fast, and the handling is more than I can handle. I will likely keep it for life. I think we have to show proof for the fix it ticket to be satisfied, and also pay the $25 bucks, it isn’t fair (fix it tickets used to be free, at least in Idaho). Then I was pretty much thinking of taking the plate back off as you suggested. The unpainted bracket to mount the plate did come with the car, but it is pretty apparent they never expected to have anyone actually do it; they didn't even waste paint on it. The issue, you have to put a screw through each side to secure it. I am trying to figure out a way to do it without the screws. I have also posted on T-Bird sites around the web to see what they have to say, but I noticed even the mid-50's vintage Birds have plates in California. California is broke, so they have a habit of setting fines at $25 for the first ticket, and $3.98 million for the second, or at least it seems that way. So, I may have to think twice about taking it back off. The UUUUUUUUGLY photos:   Conway
"Lord, please let me be the man my dog thinks I am." (Author unknown)
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I got one of these a few years back. Didn't want to scratch the paint on the bumper cover and thought the actual license plate holder was ug-buttly.
So, I went to home depot, bought a 2' piece of 1/8" inch aluminum flat stock. I cut 2 pieces off and then bent them in a vice to attach to the bottom of the bumper and hen up to attach the license plate to.
It was cheap and did the trick.
I'm with you on not wanting to install the plate.....
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Rob,
Do you have any pictures you could PM to me? I can't quite picture what you're saying.
Conway
"Lord, please let me be the man my dog thinks I am." (Author unknown)
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Mike,
I don't think you can beat the ticket. I owned two Corvettes over a period of about 12 years. I got one ticket in the first one for no front plate. It was in Calistoga and the police there went through a few weeks of ticketing every car parked downtown which did not have a front plate. It stopped when the merchants complained to the police chief that their patrons were telling them they were not coming back.
I never got a ticket in the second one and the front plate for that one sat in the den on a shelf the whole time I had it.
My brother has a Shelby Mustang and has a front plate system which turns under the front of the car. I am not sure if that is Shelby specific or generic. I can ask him if you want.
I would figure out how to install it and pay the ticket. Then, if you don't like the looks of it, take it back off. As Brad said, these tickets are pretty few and far between. Unless you are in downtown Calistoga when an officer figures out an easy way to write 10 tickets an hour.
CalifDan
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Conway
Fix-its used to be non payment here but all you scofflaws ruined a good thing.
The strap idea is loosely this: Your bumper is somewhat C shaped. You fashion two straps that have mounting hole into a bigger C that goes over the top and under the bottom of the bumper. You would want to make it a tight fit and maybe put a thin pice of rubber or something else softish under the strap to prevent rattle.
You being the astute craftsman you are should be able to handle that.
Lee
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Conway, sorry to hear about the bureaucratic nonsense issued by California's bankrupt political cronies. Get this, my Grandfather had a car in California registered in Colorado with no plates required on the front. California didn't like him driving around that way and he didn't have a second plate to put on the front of his car. So, he put a previous Kansas plate on the front and they actually signed off. It is pure nonsense!
The previous suggested method of mounting a plate is to fashion a bracket that attaches to the car from below, so that the screw holes won't show ("L" type support). As an alternative, you may want to do a temporary set-up with 3M removable tape on the back of the plate. It is probably strong enough to get the ticket cleared and you can decide what you want to do afterward. Hope it helps.
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Thank you for the suggestions guys, at least it gives me some ideas that had not occurred to me. I'm pretty sure I have to do something to get the fix-it ticket signed off. At least most of your ideas will not leave holes in the bumper.
Thank you again.
Conway
"Lord, please let me be the man my dog thinks I am." (Author unknown)
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Hey... I was just pulled over and given a warning for the same, with Brad watching, to boot!
I need to go to the dealer and get her bumper 'pierced,' never had it on my Audi, and not happy about it either!
(It was my second warning, so time to shape up!)
David
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davloose wrote:Hey... I was just pulled over and given a warning for the same, with Brad watching, to boot!
I need to go to the dealer and get her bumper 'pierced,' never had it on my Audi, and not happy about it either!
(It was my second warning, so time to shape up!)
David That's the problem with driving on the toll road. Not much traffic there so cops see too much. Brad
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7057_Conway wrote:Rob,
Do you have any pictures you could PM to me? I can't quite picture what you're saying.
Conway lemme check....
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Sounds like some jerk did a National seminar on how to rip-off people with nice cars (hey they have the money right). Tell he cops how to make an easy buck, jerks. Do you guys have to pay for fix it tickets David?
Conway
ps: I had to lookup "scofflaws", that's a good one!
"Lord, please let me be the man my dog thinks I am." (Author unknown)
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Sheesh! Anyone who can afford such a car can afford the ticket! And we all know Condog is rich--after all, he took the longest vacation imaginable, whilst still flying the baby Beech. Oh well, some folks just can't count high enough to count all their blessings, right?  Cary
 "I have slipped the surly bonds of earth...,
put out my hand and touched the face of God." J.G. Magee
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I knew I could count on my good lawyer buddy Cary, and I got exactly what I paid for didn't I buddy! :-) I guess poo (that would be me), is a relative thing isn't it, I don't live on the street (yet), so a street guy likely does not think I'm poo (but I am)! :-)
So far I like Rob’s idea of a minimal homemade bracket, I can picture it now, but that still required a screw hole or two in the bumper. If you find a photo, please post or send it. My favorite is ifly's idea about some kind of L-bracket. I get the fix-it ticket fixed, and go back to being a scofflaw (I love that word Lee, and now I've used it in a real live sentence) that I was born to be… free! :-) Lee, I knew you were old dude, but that word was introduced in 1924, and I believe it last used that same year, I’ll assume by you! :-)
Conway
"Lord, please let me be the man my dog thinks I am." (Author unknown)
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I was just at the Audi dealer... $200 for an Audi bracket! Went over to Advanced Auto Parts, $5.09 for their version, already on the front.... I bought the smoked plastic cover too, but they warned me it might not be legal! :)
David
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