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What have you got left to collect? I personally prefer worn with life stories. Apparently driving over a plate repeatedly on a flat surface straightens them out too. Not tried it myself. Well, New Jersey and South Carolina are on their way, so that leaves Delaware, Idaho, Maryland, Massachussetts, Oregon and Wisconsin. I like a bit of patina on a plate, which as you say, tells a bit of a story. I may replace a couple of printed plates with embossed ones as I prefer these, though Delaware may prove more difficult - these were only embossed up til 1961 apparently. But I am almost there!! |
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jjp666
Part of things
Posts: 139
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There are some Delaware plates on Ebay but they are a bit pricey
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2 more have arrived! I have a wonderfully patinated and extremely well-used New Jersey commercial vehicle plate:  and a 1972 South Carolina example in moody black. I rather like this one.  |
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Last Edit: Aug 8, 2022 21:21:42 GMT by mrbounce
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Aug 15, 2022 19:49:48 GMT
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2 more plates (and 2 replacements as well) hit the doormat with a resounding thud this morning: We have Massachusetts (from way back in 1975)  ...and a scruffy-looking 80s Idaho plate which of course mentions their Famous Potatoes   You may have read that I prefer the pressed plates to the printed ones - aside from my Disabled Veteran plate from Montana (which is going nowhere), I had only 2 other ones - Oklahoma and Tennessee. So I have replaced those with pressed ones: A bicentennial Tennessee plate from 1996  and a 1967 Tractor plate from Oklahoma.  Which of course means that these 2 have now been claimed by thomfr   |
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Last Edit: Aug 15, 2022 20:27:07 GMT by mrbounce
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Well I think it's about time I did some updating. I have done precious little in the Manroom for several months other than throw stuff in it and make a bit of a mess (US holiday, sorting the final bits and bobs from Dad's house etc, life getting in the way and a massive case of CBA). So the first thing was to do some sorting. I was never happy with the shelf I had for the bench grinder, as although it was on its Mk2 phase with heavier worktop-style wood, the shelf brackets it was on still made it vibrate like a raver on too much medication. I took it all off the wall, cut a baton to size and fished out a couple of wooden legs for the front end which I had to shorten by about 1/2". I also added a little shelf halfway up to put my battery chargers on as these are always in the way. Excellent. I have also moved the welder and put it on a new trolley. Next up was the fridge. This always had stuff dumped on it and although it was switched on, it was a waste of electricity and really wasn't being used much - just for tins of Pepsi Max. So I freecycled it, and it was picked up by a chap who's just moved into a new flat with next to no furniture. He walked round, collected it and called a taxi to take it home. To say he was delighted was an understatement. "Pay it forward" as they say. Gave me a nice warm feeling. Of course, moving the fridge out left a space, so I got some shelves to fill the gap. I put loads of stuff on them which had mainly been on top of the fridge or on the floor. Tools! I have loads of them and they're often in the way. When I was over at Shaun's clearing out his garage we borrowed a van, so I grabbed a couple of pallet tops from his work and have made a new tool wall. The only thing is, once painted, I have now run out of yellow paint to match the rest of them so any further tool walls will have to be a different colour... I also have 3 more plates. When in Florida I managed to find a shop selling plates on International Drive - amongst all the knock-off Disney stuff. Still, got Oregon ticked off the list; then I managed to get Delaware. Maryland is in the post, but with the delights of the Royal Mail Strikes, who knows when it will arrive! Finally, a Netherlands plate kindly donated by thomfr who sent it after I chucked a couple of US plates his way. Once Maryland arrives that will be just 1 to go: Wisconsin. The garage is still a tip - just slightly less so now! Bench grinder shelf sprouts legs and a little shelf. It now DOES NOT MOVE!  Shelving unit replaces fridge. Cheaper on the electric. And a bit more organised.  New Tool Wall. I have a need for more "English Trifle" yellow paint for any new ones that I build.  Plates! Oregon - directly from the USA and brought home in my suitcase. I am sure that the Custom Officers have seen weirder things...  Delaware - slightly different to the usual US plates - It's not as rounded on the corners and being a printed plate it's a much lighter strip of aluminium (or should that be aluminum?). I wasn't prepared to pay the astronomical amounts asked for a pre-1961 stamped Delaware plate. I know I want them all to be pressed, but they were silly money, even from the States.  Thom's Dutch donation, which apparently came from a 70s Mazda 616. Love the patina!  And finally, the bumper sticker I got from the Everglades has gone on the side of my big red cabinet. I don't like stickers on cars, but cabinets? Totally fine!!  |
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The penultimate plate has arrived. The more modern Maryland plates are a little bit "sterile", being mainly white with very little detail on them other than the Maryland Flag. However, find one that's 55 years old and it has all sorts of patina on it - it certainly has a story to tell. It also amuses me that despite having 4 perfect serviceable holes in it for mounting, someone has seen fit to drill a couple of holes either end. No idea why!   I have one plate left to get - Wisconsin. I have something in mind for this which is a bit "leftfield" (it is genuine) but it does depend on circumstances. I shall keep you all posted... |
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The final USA License Plate has arrived! I have been trawling the suppliers for an unusual Wisconsin plate and the one I found does not disappoint. It's from the Menominee Indian Reservation - I love the colour, the bird design to the side and the fact that Wisconsin is simply shortened to "Wis" at the top, whereas "Menominee Nation" is prominent at the bottom. It's certainly one of my favourites.  This does not mean that I have now "finished" the garage. There will be occasional updates, new plates (just not US ones) and other assorted gubbins. I'm not done yet! (Still trying to figure out if I can fit a set of traffic lights in there somewhere...) |
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The final USA License Plate has arrived! I have been trawling the suppliers for an unusual Wisconsin plate and the one I found does not disappoint. It's from the Menominee Indian Reservation - I love the colour, the bird design to the side and the fact that Wisconsin is simply shortened to "Wis" at the top, whereas "Menominee Nation" is prominent at the bottom. It's certainly one of my favourites. This does not mean that I have now "finished" the garage. There will be occasional updates, new plates (just not US ones) and other assorted gubbins. I'm not done yet! (Still trying to figure out if I can fit a set of traffic lights in there somewhere...) Brilliant find on the Wisconsin plate. I love the unusual stuff too. Do you have a set of traffic lights already? |
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Nov 12, 2022 11:00:36 GMT
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The final USA License Plate has arrived! I have been trawling the suppliers for an unusual Wisconsin plate and the one I found does not disappoint. It's from the Menominee Indian Reservation - I love the colour, the bird design to the side and the fact that Wisconsin is simply shortened to "Wis" at the top, whereas "Menominee Nation" is prominent at the bottom. It's certainly one of my favourites. This does not mean that I have now "finished" the garage. There will be occasional updates, new plates (just not US ones) and other assorted gubbins. I'm not done yet! (Still trying to figure out if I can fit a set of traffic lights in there somewhere...) Brilliant find on the Wisconsin plate. I love the unusual stuff too. Do you have a set of traffic lights already? Ha ha no - not yet... |
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Nov 12, 2022 11:13:22 GMT
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Brilliant find on the Wisconsin plate. I love the unusual stuff too. Do you have a set of traffic lights already? Ha ha no - not yet... I bought one years ago to fit at my shop. Never fitted or mounted it, so still in the shed, awaiting its moment of glory. Available for 25 of the Kings Pounds, which is certainly less than I paid for it. Tea and biccies also on offer. |
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The garage needed tidying - amongst other things there was a pile of wood just inside the garage door. Said pile included batons, bits of 4x2 and various offcuts including floorboard planks etc. It was untidy and needed to be sorted. And if you're going to sort something, it's always good if you can do it cheaply. I had enough bits of baton to make a small frame which could be screwed to the wall. On top of that, to stop unnecessary "fall-outs", I found a roll of chicken wire which had been left in there by the Landlord's late father. A few screws later, plus some work with the side cutters and the staple gun, I drilled two holes in the brickwork for rawlplugs and the new wood organiser was in place and doing its job. It's amazing how something so simple can make an area of the garage look so much neater. Excellent.  Whilst the Midas was pushed out far enough, I took the opportunity to finally put the final two US plates up in the rafters.  |
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Jan 11, 2023 18:47:46 GMT
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Bit of a silly one this; however, when I was a teenager I spent a fair bit of time on trains to London (used to get seen at a London hospital). The old "door slammer" trains were still in use and they used to have big windows with a small opening partition at the top. Beneath this opening was a guidance plate. I found one, so I bought it and screwed it to a shelf as there's no windows in the garage. It's a bit pointless, but it reminds me of my childhood, so it qualifies.   |
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Jan 11, 2023 19:21:51 GMT
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Not silly at all! I have one of these on the wall in my garage, found it in my dad's stuff when he died. No idea why he kept it! But it gives a warm feeling when I see it...  Example pic, as I'm soaking in a hot bath, and I'm not going out in the drizzle for you lot! Also, mine is a posh (ha!) two dial version of the above, so we could finally tape something while watching something else! Woooooh! |
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Jan 15, 2023 10:00:44 GMT
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Got offered these at £5.00 each. Not negotiable. I walked. Would that have been a fair, market related price though ?  |
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Last Edit: Jan 15, 2023 10:01:36 GMT by grizz
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Each to their own, I was in New York a couple of years back visiting relatives, one of them offered me (free) half a dozen different states number plates, I have no interests in them and turned down his offer, which he found very surprising
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Jan 16, 2023 17:26:15 GMT
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Each to their own, I was in New York a couple of years back visiting relatives, one of them offered me (free) half a dozen different states number plates, I have no interests in them and turned down his offer, which he found very surprising Absolutely get it. But we all have reasons for doing things. Mine started in South Africa (a big country) where every town/city had its own registration number, and 4 provinces had different prefixes. So traveling as a kid, you knew where cars were from, learning tons of registration number prefixes became a game for some. At some point I started collecting them for garage roof rafter decoration….. The rest is history. I often bring some back as gifts for friends who like them, but do not have the opportunity to collect or own them, traveling. |
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Jan 16, 2023 18:52:42 GMT
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With regard to the £5 each offer, I would have probably gone for them IF I had a need for any the States, or thought any were good enough to replace what I already have. Most of the plates nowadays you see advertised on ebay and in online shops are generally £8.99 upwards unless they're really rough. You could take what you need and move the others on for £6-£7 each and not feel guilty. Or just buy what you need. If you didn't need any, I would have walked as well, as there aren't really any anything in that group that stands out other than maybe the Trailer one for me. They aren't calling to me.as they're not that special.  |
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Mar 29, 2023 19:47:40 GMT
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I had given myself a bit of self-induced garage exile as I had other things to attend to. I shall now be making more efforts to go back in on a more regular basis - there's a thing in there called a project car which has been a bit neglected. I recently had a birthday, and my friend Shaun decided to get me something for the garage walls. He got me this metal Mercedes artwork:  as well as this fun bit of Retro style picture:  I also found a silly sign I'd got whilst in the States - from Walmart no less. It's about a foot square. As there was an area for a signature, I asked Mrs Bounce to think of the most outlandish American name she could. She recalled a news report she'd seen many years ago, and one of the people in the report was "Brick Von Trippenmeier III", so that's what I put on it as the signature for a bit of fun.  Finally the sound system in the garage was starting to get a bit old and in need of a service. As I am rubbish with electrical stuff, I managed to get hold of some reasonable replacements: A Technics SU-V220 Amplifier and a tuner for a surprisingly cheap price replaced my receiver amp, I ditched the CD Player and kept my cassette deck (Tapes are cool and surprisingly hardy). There's also a line in to stream Spotify from my old phone as my new one doesn't have a headphone socket.  And finally, my old speakers were toast. Aside from having some of the plastic surround broken, one of them had an intermittent issue where the sound would occasionally drop out. So these along with any non-working gear I had were moved on for a nominal fee. I replaced them with a pair of Tannoy 605s which I got for an incredibly cheap amount. They are quite a lot bigger so they sound epic by comparison.  |
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Car Boot Sale this morning yielded a sign for £3: "Do Not Climb". Completely random sign, I liked it, so I put it on the wall where you couldn't possible climb anything anyway. Excellent!   |
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Apr 18, 2023 19:41:55 GMT
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Last Edit: Apr 18, 2023 19:42:22 GMT by mrbounce
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