Need license plate restoration help

For those who have had license plates restored, how long did it take? I sent a pair of plates (some dings, no rust or holes) off to a reputable plate restoration shop more than seven months ago and am still waiting. The estimate was eight weeks, depending on workload and plate damage. I've done a few status checks to assure myself that my plates are still alive and in the queue but I'm starting to have serious doubts that I'll see them again. The shop keeps telling me that, 'You'll have them soon.' I'll definitley feel better if someone tells me that 6-8 months isn't unusual.

I sent my plates to Darryl Booth in December of 1999. After four phone calls, each promising delivery in 'two weeks', I finally got ONE of the plates last week (the one with the least damage) with the other promised in 'two weeks'. Don't know if this is normal.

Sounds like it's time to have him send them back unrestored and find somebody else. Restoration shouldn't take that long at all and it's quite apparent that he's just doing it as an egoboost type thing.

I'm using the same restorer and am getting similar responses to my status checks. More alarming are the inconsistencies of the responses to my calls, e.g., ranging from 'very soon' to 'they're finished and waiting to be shipped, followed by, 'they're on the drying rack and will be shipped soon.' All of it seems to be code talk for 'haven't gotten around to them yet.' At least I know there's one other person out there having the same experience with the same guy (but I'm 6 months behind you in the queue, so I suppose I shouldn't hold my breath waiting for delivery).

This seems like a ridiculously long time to me! You could have had your whole car restored in the amount of time it's taking them to restore about one square foot of sheet metal! I have a friend who recently bought an old plate and had it restored by someone here in town who does it professionally and it took her a week or two to get hers back for a cost of around $20. I don't know if these folks do this on a very large scale basis, but I DO know that they sell license plates as well... so they may mostly restore their own plates to resell. I could probably find the phone number for these restorers if you should get your plate back unfinished and want someone else to do it for you... good luck!