Trimming a CA License Plate

i have done the exact thing for motorcycles, as long as the numbers and tags remain undisturbed...no worries.

 

you can just roll / bend it

otherwise, cover the edges with some thick clear / white tape to protect paint. then put a frame on it.

 

technically its a felony to alter a CA license plate. It would be a pretty ticky tacky thing to charge one with a felony for trimming the edges to make it fit nicely... but.....


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CVC 4463, though presumably intended to primarily address the intentional
falsification of registration information, defines it to be a *felony* to
alter license plates. Though it would indeed be an extremely strict
interpretation of the code as written to charge one who has simply trimmed the
edges of their license plate with a felony, it is a possibility. It should be
considered that this code might also suggest that a plate altered in any way
is probable cause for a traffic stop.
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CVC 4463
(a) A person who, with intent to prejudice, damage, or
defraud, commits any of the following acts is guilty of a felony and
upon conviction thereof shall be punished by imprisonment in the
state prison for 16 months or two or three years, or by imprisonment
in a county jail for not more than one year:
(1) Alters, forges, counterfeits, or falsifies a certificate of
ownership, registration card, certificate, license, license plate,
device issued pursuant to Section 4853, special plate, or permit
provided for by this code or a comparable certificate of ownership,
registration card, certificate, license, license plate, device
comparable to that issued pursuant to Section 4853, special plate, or
permit provided for by a foreign jurisdiction, or alters, forges,
counterfeits, or falsifies the document, device, or plate with intent
to represent it as issued by the department, or alters, forges,
counterfeits, or falsifies with fraudulent intent an endorsement of
transfer on a certificate of ownership or other document evidencing
ownership, or with fraudulent intent displays or causes or permits to
be displayed or have in his or her possession a blank, incomplete,
canceled, suspended, revoked, altered, forged, counterfeit, or false
certificate of ownership, registration card, certificate, license,
license plate, device issued pursuant to Section 4853, special plate,
or permit.

 

I'd be more keen on attaching a front plate to a car if CA could offer a "thin plate" option for extra $$. Something, say, under 4" tall?

 

Interesting how this reads - it sounds like you would only be charged with a felony if you trimmed your plate, and then insisted that it came that way from the DMV. In other words, altering it to make it fit on a bracket is not a crime, but if you try to convince someone else that it came that way, you're guilty.

 

Actually, note the "or" placed before that sentence. That is just one way that altering a plate becomes a crime.

Nevertheless, the statute has a much stronger limitation as set forth in the preamble of the statute: It is a felony to alter a license plate but only if it is done with the "intent to prejudice, damage or defraud..."

I am not sure what that means but it seems to me that altering the plate with the intent to fit it on the bumper of your car, does not fall within the categories of "prejudice, damage, or defraud" But, I could be wrong.

In any event, I trimmed the bottom and top of my CA front plate so that only the numbers of the plate were showing and I placed it on the front chin spoiler of my Alfa Romeo Spider. I drove around for several years like that without incident.