Go with what Bill said in a post on the 1st page. It seems every Calif. DMV works it a different way, but when you get to the bottom of it, you will have to have a SB-100 tag to be legal. See some of Morgensters posts about the amnesty bill that is to let people with replicas not registered legally, SB-100, not have to pay the fines that are normally attached when they pull the titles. They have also did away with the registering by year of the block so that is not an option. Basically Calif. law says that any replica vehicle must be registered as the year it was built or purchased. Once again depending on the DMV you go to and their interpretation. I know of three who came from out of state with what were legitimate titles in those states, Calif. registered them and then abut 2 to 4 months later pulled the titles as they were illegally registered. Save the grief and try to either get a car that already has the SB-100 number of get all of the paper work in order to stand in line on Jan. 2nd to try and get it a number.
Ron