About Me

My interest in license plates started in the late 1950's growing up as a kid in southern Ohio. It was customary to hang last years plates up on the garage wall, and I still recall my fascination with the different colors, letters and numbers. On family vacations I'd have my pad and pencil handy writing down all the various states we'd see along the road.

I didn't actually start collecting tags until 1974, when I stumbled upon a '72 stickered California plate found at the Dekalb County landfill. I hung that tag up the day I found it, and have been adding to it ever since. It's still displayed in my 50 state run.

Prior to January 2002, I was the guy who said you'd never catch me on a computer. Now I don't know how I'd get by without one. Fortunately, the computer introduced me to ALPCA, eBay, license plate websites, and some really neat people that enjoy plates as much as I do. I truly thought for years that I was the only guy in the world that had plates hanging throughout his house, a phrase I've since heard from a lot of plate collectors.

After joining ALPCA, I began buying and trading plates like an addiction. Condition didn't matter, figuring I'd restore them. Then, a buddy or two asked me to do a few repaints for them, and the license plate restoration hobby snowballed. As more and more guys saw my work, plates started coming in faster than they were going out. But I needed some help with the rougher, damaged ones.

Enter Mike Forbes. Mike had written an interesting article about his plate collection in the December 2002 issue of the ALPCA Register, and mentioned he did plate restorations. (Actually they're plate resuscitations, which is a more accurate description.) I emailed him saying how much I enjoyed his article, and we started emailing on a daily basis, usually two and three times a day. As conversation grew, we began swapping trade secrets, when I realized this guy was teaching me a great deal. He does the types of repairs on tags that I had no real skills in, so when that severely damaged plate came my way, I referred it to Mike. He'd get it straight and put back together, then send it to me for the repainting. Before long, more plates were coming in that needed serious repair work, so they started out with Mike, and finished up with me.

This went on for a good six months or more, and ironically, we had never met in person. In fact, we had never even talked on the phone, but our daily emails continued. Fortunately, we got to meet in October of 2003, when Mike came down from Virginia to attend a local tag meet here in the Atlanta area. We talked tags the two days he visited with me, and finally got to work on plates together under the same roof.

A good friend and neighbor has put together this website. Tina's like my right arm when it comes to her part of this equation. She takes her work as serious as Mike and I, and without her, none of this would be possible. I feel very fortunate to have Tina and Mike beside me in our endeavor.

I have been fortunate to have restored plates from around the world for some really nice folks, but mainly here in the U.S. More specifically, lots of Californian's. I take a great deal of pride in my work, and strive for perfection. My feedback page includes a short list of some satisfied customers, so should you be in the need of a license plate restoration, please keep me in consideration.

Thanks,
Rod