Classic & Antique Car Insurance in Irvine, CA

The current version of the city’s residential provisions, Form 41-29B, applies to permit applications made on or after January 1, 2026 and draws on the Irvine Municipal Code’s security sections. Wood overhead garage doors need panels at least 5/16 inch thick with the locking hardware fixed to the support framing; a cylinder lock needs at least five pin tumblers, with the bolt reaching an inch or more into its guide. The door from the garage into the home gets a single-cylinder deadbolt with at least a one-inch throw.

For shared multifamily garages, the form requires garages and carports with three walls and a ceiling to have garage doors and floor-to-ceiling walls between assigned spaces. Homes permitted earlier were built to the version in force at the time, so check what your own garage actually has.

Whether a classic policy requires a locked, enclosed garage, and whether a carport or shared structure qualifies, is set by each company. Fire is the other garage risk: CAL FIRE logged the October 2020 Silverado Fire as starting off the 241 in the Irvine area and burning 12,466 acres. Fire damage to a parked car falls under comprehensive coverage, not liability.

Under Vehicle Code 5004, a car of historic interest built after 1922 and at least 25 years old can carry permanent special plates; the statute defines historic interest as a car a hobbyist collects, restores and maintains and drives principally for exhibition and club activities. Cars from 1922 or earlier, and pre-1965 cars with 16 or more cylinders, get the Horseless Carriage series. The plates do not lift the equipment sections listed in subdivision (e).

Section 5004.1 is lighter: the owner of a 1980 or older car may run legible, serviceable California plates bearing its model year, with DMV’s approval, and DMV may ask an old-car hobbyist organization whether the year matches.

Those plates also matter for smog. BAR treats a car 25 or more model years old with Historical Vehicle plates as a collector car, alongside the 35-model-year and special-interest routes, but only if it is insured as one.

Today 1975-and-older gasoline cars skip Smog Check, and 1976-and-newer collector cars go to a state Referee for an abbreviated test. Senate Bill 1392 (Chapter 245, Statutes of 2026) adds a full exemption from January 1, 2028 for qualifying collector cars built before the 1981 model year whose collector insurance is on file with BAR, advancing a model year each January to pre-1986 cars in 2033.