REAL CLUBS ..... OR NOT?
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Copying another club's design is something that has been done
for many years. If you'll look at some of the clubs on the Clubs
with the Same Names pages, you will see how many have similar designs. In
the 1950's you could also order a plaque from your local speed shop using a
stock design and adding your club's name and location.
This ad from a 1960 Newhouse Automotive Industries catalog
shows three ways you could order plaques from this company in Los Angeles;
Lettering Only, Lettering And Stock Design or Completely Custom Plaques.
The stock designs included 32 Couple (Coupe?), 34 Sedan, T-Lakester,
Wheel with Wings, Checkered Flags, Skull and Crossbones, Spark Plug, Piston with
Rod, Camshaft and Crankshaft.
A current money making venture has people modifying plaques so
they can be sold at swap meets, and places like Craigslist and eBay on the
Internet. Although I don't consider myself to be an expert on this subject, I do
believe the examples shown below are plaques that are for "made up"
clubs. Some have had locations added to what may have been a plain plaque while
others have had the location removed from the original plaque and a different
location added. They are being shown on this page as examples of what people may
be paying good money for because they believe the items to be rare. My advice is
buyer beware.
The L.A. Roadsters are a well known club in Los Angeles, CA
with limited membership, and they have been around for many years. Their
original plaque had L.A. as their location. On a later version they had made,
"Los Angeles - Since 1957" was added in place of L.A.
The example on the left below appears to be a L.A. Roadsters
plaque with the location removed. Someone went a step farther with the three
plaques in the center by adding Denver, Pomona and So Cal, and selling them on
eBay. Another version being sold on eBay is the plaque on the right and LA was
replaced with Duces Are Wild.
The same guy is still making and selling these plaques on eBay
from time to time and on his latest versions below, he added "57" to
the door of the roadster on the LA plaque and Riverside under the roadster on
the other one. I'm guessing there may be more versions coming.
The Diehards is a San Leandro, CA based club that Gary Minor
started many years ago. The monthly newsletter he publishes is mostly known for
the last page. It's called the "Mauled Merc of the Month," and Gary
picks and features a car to roast. It doesn't have to be a Mercury, just
any poorly designed or executed "custom." Gary is a well known
gearhead personality and a member of a couple of halls of fame. Back in 1992
Gary had the parallelogram shaped club plaque designed by Steve Stanford. The
version of Gary's plaque in the center, has GMC added across the bottom and was
being sold on eBay. When someone let Gary know about the knock-off of his
plaque, he commented that maybe the GMC was meant to mean "Gary Minor's
Club". Recently another version was for sale on eBay with SCTA and
Hollywood added.
One more example is the Vampires - So Bay plaque in the middle.
The person selling it on eBay took what may have been a Vampires - Pueblo plaque
and ground off Pueblo before adding So. Bay in larger letters to cover up where
Pueblo had been removed. The original Vampires - So. Bay plaque is on the right
and I was a member of this club that disbanded around 1957. The plaque in the
middle is bogus.
After receiving the photo of the Drifters plaque from Surf
City, I noticed it looked a lot like a stock Drifters plaque with large letters
added for the location, like the ones on the Vampires plaque above and they
barely fit across the bottom. A surf board, steam coming from the radiator and
three lines behind the car were also added to make it appear different. In my
opinion it's another plaque for a club that never was. It was being auctioned on
eBay and had a opening bid of $99.69, because it was "Unique and Very
Different". Unique? Yes. Very Different? Yes. Real Club? You be the judge.
Here is another example of the above plaque that someone added
Bur Bank to. There wasn't enough room under the car to put Burbank together.
Dennis O'Brien (O'Brien Truckers) has the original pattern for
the Port Arthur, TX Highway Prowlers plaque shown below on the left. When
Beverly Craine wrote and sent a photo of the plaque she found in a Galveston, TX
thrift store (2nd from the left), she wanted to know if we had any info about
who, or where, "OV" was. She said it looked like something else had
been across the bottom at one time but it had the Chicago Metal Craft stamp on
the reverse side. Probably another unsolved mystery.
Later on, someone sent photos of the two plaques on the right
that were being sold on eBay. They appear to be more examples of trying to make
a plaque look like it was for a real club. It looks like the same Port Arthur
plaque was used, but with crude home made looking letters added for the
location. These types of plaques are becoming more common and are often seen for
sale on places like eBay or Craigslist.
Dennis also owns the original pattern for the Houston Road
Bandits plaque, shown on the left below. The version in the center has Houston
removed and was being sold on eBay. Then it appeared again on eBay, as shown on
the right with RTA added. Chances are it will appear again with a different
location.
One of my contributors sent me the photo of the Down Shifters -
SCTA plaque on the right below. He said he was in Rialto, CA picking up a
transmission and there was a guy there with a bunch of plaques in his car. He
bought the Down Shifters plaque from him because it had “Chicago Metal Craft -
Port Chicago Calif” cast on the back in raised letters. The buyer contacted
Jim Miller, who is a historian for the S.C.T.A., and Jim said that he has never
heard of this club belonging to the Southern California Timing
Association. It's another example of a plaque for a club that probably
never existed, and it also has those same crude looking letters added.
Here's another example of adding stuff to this Fanatics plaque.
Not only did they add SCTA, they also added RTA and Slow Pokes and put it on
eBay. I doubt that this club was a member of the SCTA or the RTA.
It appears as though the same person modified this Salt Kings
plaque on the right by adding BONNEVILLE to the car and UT to denote the state
that Ogden is in. It too was for sale on eBay.
The Knight Prowlers plaque has been modified several times.
It's unknown what this club's original plaque looked like.
I had these plaques shown with other Motorcycle Clubs when Paul
Camilleri wrote to say these plaques are fakes. He said the Hells Angels would
never have had plaques like these, so I removed them and added them here as more
examples of bogus plaques.
Below are more examples of plaques that are probably not for
real clubs. Some of these types of plaques have also been "aged" to
look old. Take a look at each of the plaques on the left that are believed to be
original plaques, then compare them with the plaques on the right and make your
own decision. More and more of these types of plaques can be seen for sale on
the Internet.
