My suggestion is a bit more pragmatic...I am a license plate collector and restorer...I think you would be much better off finding/buying better condition examples of the specific plates you need on ebay or from one of many collector/suppliers. Ebay has 1000's of plates from every state for every year and pretty decent prices...usually a lot less than what it costs to restore a pair of plates. Further, in many cases restored/repainted plates like restored furniture lose much of their value.
