You could use a linear actuator, but that costs $$$. A cheap alternative would be a vacuum actuator, that way it could power out as soon as it is running. Allthough, I would check with the boys in blue first...hate to have your car towed because it has "no plate" when parked.
Not power but worked on my custom henry J plate was in mytrunk lid,I had a lawn mower choke/gas cable on mine,with my gas cap behind it,the pull was at low just inside driver door B post near floor
You cn pick up a 12 volt LA at Surplus Salvage for about 20 bucks, not alot of travel, but you don't need a lot....
Why not have it hinged with a spring, but a nice little cable run to your E-brake? 1.Get to the show. 2. Park it 3. Pull the ebrake-no plate 4. Profit? -rick
There is this one that is intended for the front (Ebay #) 170577848610 Not inexpensive but it may do the job A vacuum or electric control for a heater or ac door should work if you want to build your own and go Joe Cheap. I'm like gtkane though in that you had better see how the local law enforcement folks view cars with hidden plates when they are parked. Great for shows but in some area they are hell on wheels on cars with no plates showing.
They are commercially available, they are a little more trickey than you think. The problem is that when it is 'on' you don't want power to be continuous - you don't want the actuator running all the time to keep it visible. And when it gets turned 'off' it has to have power to tuck it back out of sight, the problem being when you turn your key to 'off' there isn't power available to it. The commercially available one was called 'Tric Tag II' try to google it.
May be illegal, I think it is in Illinois, I believe the law reads it as an impairment to the ability to read a license tag. It's a big ticket too. I got one 20 years or so ago for having a string on the hinge. Just a thought.
the ones that you can buy are called "trick tags" we used to sell them throught eh shop. i THINK they are from Gennie or K&S. but its been years since then... a quick google search showed me that Auto-loc also has one now.
$ $ $ Junkyard solution: Power headlight door (think Miata) with extra headlight switch - hit switch, plate becomes visible and power then shuts off till you hit the switch again.
You could forget the power part of it all together. Just get the plate holder of a GM with the filler kneck behind the liscence plate. It is spring loaded mount it so that the spring holds it down and connect a long choke cable to it to pull it up. Problem solved and it won't be as street roddy that way.
The streetrodders used to have a vacuum powered unit on the market. I remember walking past one that was having idling problems. The tag was waving at me. It would start and flip down. Then it would die and it would flip back up. Hit the starter button again and down it would come again. They were too streetroddy for my tastes. The vacuum deal does ensure that it is down and legal when the car is running. If it ain't broke of course.
Check this out avail at Jegs Altec products Item 042-400 EU remote control or manual version Item 042-400U. Altec's web site has demo video
You know the funny thing about it is that it is illegal in MO to be able to hide your liscence plate. I have no idea why that should be of course.
Check out Retract-A-Plate at http://www.hotrodproducts.com/RetractAPlate.htm Had one on my 27 T. It worked great ! Ron
use a late 70's camaro license plate mounting frame i use them on trucks with roll pans all the time, so I can haul a trailer just flip it down and there is the reese hitch
Why not use a power antenna ? When the key is on it pushes out, when key is off it retracts, you could trim the length for the throw.
Use a vacuum actuator from a heater [ most euro cars ], Wire a vacuum relay switch [ C3 Corvette ] to your kickdown switch, so when you floor it away from the cops [ simulated scenario haha! ] the plate automatically flips up. If you want to go really high tech, use a speedometer from a japanese imported car. They have a 100kmh [ 60mph] warning buzzer attached to a screw on the back of the speedo head [ it grounds the circuit ], that way your plates will flip up automatically when you go over 60mph through speed cameras.
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