I’m gonna talk Illinois and State Farm here. I've a friend that’s in the process of restoring his 1950 half ton. It has the original badly faded green paint and rust on most of it and the front clip and a back fender is in primer and all of that has been sitting alongside the garage for the last 11 years. In other words, she taint no cherry. We've spent the last six months redoing all of the brakes, suspension, steering, engine and rear end, that is, everything to make it safe and to get it road worthy. He just registered it with Antique plates and insurance was the next step. His State Farm agent came out to take pictures of it since he was asking for full coverage and was claiming the value at around $18,000 (way high in my opinion without any body work or interior), anyway, there apparently is some sort of a problem with it being insured with it registered as an antique because of the paint and he said he had to look into it more. Now I don't have all of the facts yet but I just don't see where the paint condition, the interior condition, or anything other than the age of the truck has anything to do with classifying it as an antique. Any other antique such as furniture etc. looses its value if it’s refinish. The running condition and whether the vehicle would pass a safety inspection seems like it should be the only concern, unless of course your looking for full coverage at a radically inflated value.
If I’ve interpreted the previous part of this thread correctly, this is exactly what you guys are referring to in states like NM, PA, etc.???? Now I could certainly understand the insurance balking at high value full coverage on what to them appears to be a "rent-a-wreck" and I could understand their only being interested in issuing a policy on a fully restored antique, but I don't see any problem with them issuing a policy for liability on a vehicle registered with AV plates.
I haven't run into any of these problems because I didn't want any restrictions on my '50, 3600, it's tagged with 'B' plates because if for some reason I want to carry a load of gravel home, (not that I would) I simple don't have a problem. The fact that I have the freedom to use it anyway I choose is worth the extra four hundred buck more that I will spend on plates over the next five years. And as fur as the insurance goes I didn’t have to re-mortgage the house to buy my truck, it’s certainly not a show truck and if it gets bent up I’m the guy that straightened it out the first time so I’m pretty confident that I can take car of it the second time.

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny G
Sandwich, IL