Really Cheap and Quick Front License Plate Relocation!

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Hey guys!

So here in Vancouver Canada it is LAW that we have a front plate mounted to our vehicles. All the vehicles come to the dealership with the holes drilled in the front bumper (sucky)

To add to the fact that this gets in the way of the next project I want to complete which is the EVO blacked out portion between the lower air dam and the nose of the car... I have been looking at the different options where to relocate the plate!

One of the common ones is the front tow hook location. You can buy these all over the place on eBay. Just make sure you buy the correct thread size! Our tow hook size is NOT compatible with Honda sizes. I found that out by ordering a tow hook which was too small

The other idea I saw was from user Fuel Squeezer who came up with a cool adjustable bracket. It threads into the lower left side of the black air dam when you are looking at it. There is one hex head bolt that holds something in, he created something that looked like a 1/2" conduit with the bolt welded onto a washer that was then welded onto the end of the conduit pipe so that you could thread it in by hand. Then drilled a couple holes and threaded some screws into the sides at the tip of that pipe, so when he pushed in the license plate bracket with a rod on the end it would be held in place by the 2 screws that tighten down on the rod. I think this is a really great idea. But I don't have a welder at home and didn't want to meet up with welders to give them my idea etc. Too much time for me, I am impatient!!!

SO what I did instead was this. I was in Canadian Tire rummaging around looking for other hardware for different projects. When I came across a really simple little bracket that I thought would work for this!

They were 80 cents each. Two small "L" brackets, they had different sizes but I decided to use 2" x 2" ones. They look excactly like this!



What my plan to do was to just screw the L bracket to the underside on one of the front grill fins. Out of sight! and the L bracket has 2 holes on both ends, so I was going to have it pointing DOWNWARDS and screw the plate into the TOP hole, so the rest of the bracket would actually support the plate while at speed the wind will want to push the plate inwards so this will help prevent that from happening too much.

I also decided that because I won't be screwing into anything that I needed a Nut & Bolt combination. Here is a photo of the bolt and nut I decided to use. I struggled a little bit having enough threads to bite onto when I used the license plate frame, so keep that in mind. Had to use a razor blade to trim some plastic off before I could grab enough to crank er down. Maybe might want to get a little longer of a bolt but that's up to you. I chose short so that I wouldn't come near the front bumper.



Okay! So now I had to decide exactly where I wanted the plate. My future plans for the car include a tow hook, which is why I wanted to do this install in the first place. But I thought maybe to even out the appearance I would mount it on the driver side. But when I looked into the cars grill I noticed only one half of it (the driver side) is open to let airflow into the radiator. My passenger side was blocked off except for the bolt that Fuel Squeezer used for his wicked license plate bracket. I decided to mount it on the passenger side because I didn't want to obstruct any airflow to the radiator. Also on the passenger side I noticed on the very far end of it that there was a small opening, it looked like the horn was there. So I kept away from there to make sure people can actually hear me when I need them to when I use the horn. That is important!!

I'm hijacking a photo from Fuel Squeezers thread to show what I'm talking about! Thanks buddy!!



So after throwing some quick paint on the brackets, here is how I mounted them! I used the same screws the dealership used to screw the holes into the front bumper I'm thinking of how to cover it up. I might fill in the holes and shave them for when I plasti-dip the front to hide them, OR I could maybe find something funny to plug them with. Googly eyes? A couple spikes? Not sure. I measured the distance between holes on my license plate (It was 7 inches for my BC plate) and used a sharpie. I hand held the bracket on the spot so I could see exactly where the hole would have to be because there is not a lot of play. Marked it, and then I used a drill bit to drill a pilot hole to screw into. Accuracy!! Mounted the bracket on, and screwed it semi-tight! Left a little room left to adjust as needed before tightening down more. I didn't want to screw it SUPER tight because well, it's just plastic. So it can easily strip. Snug is good.









I used a 7/32 drill bit to make my pilot hole, but if I were to do this again and use the same license plate screws I would use one size smaller for a tighter and snugger hold.



And here is the plate mounted! Had to shave off some excess plastic on my license plate frame before I could mount it.



And because I love the dealership I bought my car from







Here are some more detailed photos to show how much space there is after this installation! I think any shorter than 2" may although be a little stronger but might not be far enough from the bumper either. It was pretty tight to fit the little 1/4" ratchet in the back. Any shorter may not have worked at all and would have had to use a wrench.





Alright folks! If you have the screws and nuts/bolts already. This will cost you less than $2. Without, it is less than $5. Shwing!

Have fun!