Number plate blanking

[pcj]

I'm with those who think this is just a bit OTT guys.
Let's have a look:
Many of us take our classics to car meets/shows where lots of people wander round and take pictures. Going to lie down on the grass and remove the plates/cover them up are we? Going to explain to the police officer you forgot to replace them/take the covers off before driving home?
For instance how many of us went to Coventry Motofest this year where Saturday classic car numbers were some 500+ and attendance was some 70,000 people and an awful lot of whom wandered around the classic display areas with their phone cameras going full tilt? Chumleigh Pageant of Power (1,000+ classics). Bromley 2000+ I believe.

Taken part in any classic on-road events? Easy pickings for snapping classic number plate pics and nobody is going to ask why you're taking pics, that's for sure.

How many of us use our cars on a regular basis and park up at Tesco/Morrisons etc where there is a vast opportunity for anyone to take snaps of number plates? How many people have had strangers come up and say "Nice car, can I take a pic"?

Bought any "show" plates on Ebay? Are you absolutely sure the guy hasn't passed your number on?

In fact tried to buy classic spares/tyres etc on the net? How many sites ask you to input your reg number to check compatibility? You sure none of them might be leaking info?

The blanking of number plates in pics just looks naff and to my mind simply makes me go "Sad, yet another one chasing the perceived wisdom/PC nirvana that everyone knows can only be obtained if you put on the tin-foil hat".

As someone pointed out a successful number plate clone has more chance of going undetected if its for a mass produced, every day vehicle than for a rarer, not often used classic.

As far as vehicle security goes it's the equivalent of the lucky rabbit's foot (not lucky for the rabbit): I've got the fierce guard dogs, I've dug the ditches, fitted the wire and the mines AND I've got my lucky rabbit's foot too!
Even worse: I've got my lucky rabbit's foot I don't need anything else.

[Danny]

Thanks everyone for your mixed views and i do see it from both sides but was only saying.
Hope i haven't started on the wrong foot as I'm fairly new to RR and not out to upset anyone. 

Cheers

[Mercdan68]

Fair question asked fella, as you will soon find this forum and its mods are decent guys, I've used a few forums, this one is by far the best , sometimes you get replys that you have to take a breath and look further into, when I first joined one fella on here posted some replys I thought were damn right rude,,, but the more I read and digested some of his posts the more I realised the bloke knew his stuff. And I look forward to his car threads, which have been a little bit scarce lately??? RICH??? Anyhow enjoy the forum mate the best around imo, with some helpful knowledgable people, Atb Dan

[joem83]

I always blank out mine if it's my current car & I'm always careful about posting pic's that show where I live, just to be safe - I don't have anything worth nicking but I also don't want people to think that I have.

You will be able to find pics of my car's with the number plate, but I bet I don't own it any more

Say you have pics of your workshop with all your tools & a wip pic of your car, then you also state your going on a road trip for a week on a forum, makes it extra easy for someone to do there Christmas shopping doesn't it?

You would be surprised how easy it is to find places on google when people don't check whats in the background.

[Danny]

Sept 30, 2015 18:31:28 GMT Mercdan68 said:

Fair question asked fella, as you will soon find this forum and its mods are decent guys, I've used a few forums, this one is by far the best , sometimes you get replys that you have to take a breath and look further into, when I first joined one fella on here posted some replys I thought were damn right rude,,, but the more I read and digested some of his posts the more I realised the bloke knew his stuff. And I look forward to his car threads, which have been a little bit scarce lately??? RICH??? Anyhow enjoy the forum mate the best around imo, with some helpful knowledgable people, Atb Dan


Hi Dan
Yeah i have a number of friends who are already on here with retro rides and have all spoken highly of the site, ive got a 89 Astra GTE i'm restoring at the moment so will definitely be sticking around and heading to as many shows and meets as i can to meet the other members.
Yeah thats ok i can see both sides so it's fine, in most opinions people post there will always be some who agree and some who don't but its cool either way.

Cheers mate and hopefully speak again soon


Danny

 

[AB car pix]

Paranoia that's way more hassle worrying about than just taking the gamble of completely ignoring it.
Especially for old and unusual cars which generally have distinctive features which could easily void any fines etc that a clone could gather.
Also there's the fact that cloning usually happens on modern common cars, not old rare things that are rarely seen in public the first place!

Here's rmad taking an unauthorised photo of my car, and most likely sharing it for all the world to see!
Hope it doesn't get cloned..... Oh wait, there's only three RHD Chrysler Horizons left in the world. This one being the only 1.3 GL model, lol.

[georgeb]

Echelon Tower, Mabini Street, Malate, Manila (save anyone the bother of looking up the address). Come and try it!

Secure parking with minimum 4 guards (all armed) on the building entrances at any given time. All know me and all know I let no-one else drive my motor. Gonna get messy!

Seriously, it was a fair point but a) it surely comes down to personal preference, as with all vehicle security measures and b) as flyingphil points out, how do you stop others taking pics and putting them on other forums?

Anyway, welcome to the board and enjoy yourself here. There's some good guys, and girls, along with stunning motors, whatever your preference.

[dodgerover]

It's probably more of an issue in the readers rides build threads where some vehicles may or may not fall into the "Aquatic Rodents" catagory, look at the upset the BMW/escort caused with people saying they had reported the number to vosa or whoever, much easier not to have the reg number visible during the build. Obviously whatever the owner does after that is up to them

[vulgalour]

As an aside, I've noticed some show pictures from Japan not only have blanked number plates but also blanked faces. I wasn't sure if this was done out or courtesy, a considered legal reason or just a cultural thing I don't understand.

The idea that plate-blanking in photographs prevents identity theft is probably true. The occasions where identity theft or vehicle theft have occurred because I plate wasn't blanked I would suspect is so low as to be coincidental.

As a courtesy, if your forum has this rule then users would respect it. Here, I can't see it as being anything more than a nuisance.

What you need to be more cautious of is explaining car security systems, entertainment installations, garage location and contents and where you put your car keys at night. That's the information I'd go after if I was going to steal a car, not what letters and numbers were on it.

[mikeymk]

Oct 1, 2015 2:33:44 GMT mikeymk said:

Sept 29, 2015 8:07:51 GMT vanpeebles said:

I always blank mine when putting it online. You never know who is looking at it. Also prevents plate cloning too.

Yeah, but my hit list of 64 cars i got from car shows includes yours

I used to do it, usually just some letters, but stopped bothering after a while. That despite knowing that the DVLA will sell your details to any unscrupulous wheel clamper or shop owner these days..

Here i kept the details on the truck, as there was never any harm in the plug.



But here i protected my neighbours. Note the shine on my licence plate - two mins with standard Windows XP paint.

[MrSpeedy]

Sept 30, 2015 23:14:39 GMT dodgerover said:

It's probably more of an issue in the readers rides build threads where some vehicles may or may not fall into the "Aquatic Rodents" catagory, look at the upset the BMW/escort caused with people saying they had reported the number to vosa or whoever, much easier not to have the reg number visible during the build. Obviously whatever the owner does after that is up to them

I can think of a couple of other builds that also are of questionable origin

[rmad]

Sept 30, 2015 20:48:30 GMT AB car pix said:

Here's rmad taking an unauthorised photo of my car, and most likely sharing it for all the world to see!

Here's the picture I took:



Very disappointing for number plate thieves.

[luckyseven]

Very disappointing for Chrysler fans, too... it's all blurry

In a forum-world of blanked numberplates, how far would we be expected to take it? Yeah, it's nice to be able to do reflections and all that in MS Paint (other programs are available) at only two minutes per pic, but if I'm doing a show thread then am I really going to spend two minutes for all three hundred photos just to preserve people's modesty?

You're right, I'm not

[Battles]

Oct 1, 2015 2:45:27 GMT mikeymk said:

the DVLA will sell your details to any unscrupulous wheel clamper or shop owner these days

This is an excellent point. I'm still a bit surprised, to be honest, that there's not been (or maybe I just haven't seen it) a case of some rogue employee using a clmaping or parking company's access to the DVLA system to get address details for criminal intent.