BVD

Hi,

Does anybody have any information or opinions about the placement of our front licence plates?

I’m mulling over the idea of replacing the original plastic front grille with something of my own choice – perhaps black mesh or similar.

I’m also wondering about relocating the licence plate, which is currently a fairly ordinary looking blue and white thing that’s made larger by having a bit of State stuff on it. The plate doesn’t really block the airflow through the grille (about two thirds of which is blocked off anyway, and is therefore largely cosmetic rather than functional). But (to my eye anyway) it just looks somewhat out of place, plastered right across the middle of the grille.

(EDIT: I posted some pics of possible positions on page 2 of this thread)

Apparently I can buy somewhat smaller plates in black and white, but I can’t legally trim off the surplus crap around the number on the existing plate.

After being redirected around various WA licensing department phones, I got someone who read me the rules about placement. Surprisingly, according to him, the only restriction was that it must be below 1.3 metres above the road. He said that it doesn’t need to be central either.

So maybe I could just about hang one at lizard catcher height – perhaps slightly overlapping the lower intake (shouldn’t be a flow issue if the top grille is fully open).

Any thoughts?

Lock & Load

BVD

I ALSO GOT SICK OF MY FRONT PLATES , so i had my local signwritter make my own plates in vynil which i have placed on the right hand side below the right head lights.

If i get stopped i will worry about the mater then.

michael

8_wannabe

Pix! We need pix! This sounds like a great idea.

timbo

BVD

When pepe and I cooperated to do the famous Hymee Grill install, pepe moved his front plate from the carrier and attached it directly to the grill. We both agreed it looked much better, slightly tougher/edgier -- hopefully you can look back and see the photos we took at the time --oops, just discovered they are not there, so here's one that should show - pepe's on the left with repositioned plate, mine on the right with std tacky ACT plate on std tacky front mounting plate

(hmm -- apologies -- am completely f*&^%$g up attaching the photo - here tis)

pepe

Need to see pics of this... sounds like an EVO Lancer type thing... which'd be fine, but not many RX-8s have intercoolers yet :LOL

pepe

timbo... the position of that plate is great, go get a red slimline one straight away :D as most of that grill is filled in behind it anyway, you don't lose airflow by having it mounted like that either

jax8

Coincidences happen (not onlysh%t) as I have just come in from hacking my plate to the bare mimimum and re-attaching it, still central but high up in the shark mouth.

BVD, now would be the perfect time to explain to someone (i.e.moi) how to attach a photo. While you do that I'll go and take a digital snapshot.Then I cans how and tell.

BVD

Thanks for the replies guys.

Michael, I like your approach - if I've got the nerve I might just try it - and act innocent if I get pulled over (some small advantage in having grey hair in these matters... :p ). Stick on numbers used to be commonplace on sports cars but they've got a bit **** about it over here recently. The only reason seems to be to protect their cosy little 'personalised plates' revenue rather than any real issues with safety or readability.

Timbo, I liked the look of Pepe's plate. Coincidentally I did that a week or two ago, when I fitted my own grille. I cut down the mount behind until it couldn't be seen and also removed the dealer advertising surround plastic. Looks better for sure, but I'm shooting for more.

I did contemplate just taking the tin snips to the plate and reducing it to 'slimline' size, but was cautioned that that was regarded as defacing the plates..... what a load of.....

Pepe, those black slimline plates sure look great on your black car. I think I'll dummy up a few options and see which looks the best and/or most practical on my yellow car.

Cheers, Chris.

Lock & Load

Sorry no digital camera , maybe father christmas will bring me one.

michael

Wildcard

I've also attached my plates directly to the front grill. It's a simple job. Just remove the plate holder completely and drill two new holes in your liscence plate so that they line up with the existing holes in the grill that were used to hold the plate holder on. The result looks very sharp. Sorry no camera either, and I know Santa isn't bringing one either.

Hymee

iTrader: (1)

I was lucky enough to be looked after by my dealer, and this is the way it was when I took delivery of the Hymster mobile:

Lock & Load

Hi it's me Hymee

Did not realize you were a man of the cloth referring to HYM 33 of the lords bible.

God bless

MICHAEL

Hymee

iTrader: (1)

Hi you, Hi me.

I was actually considering this one as a new set of plates. 3 is considered an E. But maybe 1/2 of me is just backwards.

BTW - the Bible does not have any Hymns in it. You need to refer to a Hymn book for that. Please arrange for a structural engineer to inspect any church you plan on visiting before you go

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

Cheers,
Hymee.

(Hymn 33 of the Australian Hymn Book II, 1999: Yet be still, my soul, and wait for God)

Lock & Load

Hymee

Thanks for the bible studies , however we better get back to topic before the analy retentive boys from camberra get agro.
(Errrr lounge?)

It must be hard to go through life being constipated.ha ha ha

Michael

labrat

Grand Prix Mazda Aspley did our plate mod (free, and so they should) at the first service. We have a slim line personalized plate, silver characters on black background, fitted high in the shark's mouth. Most unobtrusive.

Hymee

iTrader: (1)

That is actually what I thought they (GP) were going to do. But they weasled there way out of it and just attached it directly.

Cheers,
Hymee.

BVD

The labrat/pepe solution seems like the best way to go - Slimline plates with a black background. I'll order some after Christmas. In the meantime I'm playing around with positions.

The blue WA plates just stand out too much against the yellow, no matter what you do.

The first pic is how it looks now (original mount used but I cut it down so that it doesn't show behind the plate).

The other two are just try outs. Should be OK for airflow if the main grille is replaced with mesh - or alternatively some of those blocked off diamonds opened up.

The bottom one has only 9cms clearance from the road but it wouldn't be hard to mount so that it would just bend underneath if hit low down.

Comments?

jax8

Have just relocated my maxi-minimised nsw plate over the rotary accent. It fits ther neatly, with a lot to spare depth-wise, and leaves the radiator "mouth" blank, making my titanium look as menacing as a grey nurse shark.

Next, once I get rid of the M badge (next year whilst fitting Hymee's grille I expect) the front mouth/snout will be unadorned meanness.

BVD

Have you got a pic please jax8?

Since Hymee explained that we actually CAN attach pics, and don't need to host them ourselves, I've tried it out, and it works fine. (E.g. the pic above).

Did your 'minimising' involve cutting the actual plate size down and just leaving the rego number? I'd like to take the tin snips to my plate, but I might informally check with my friendly local arm of the law first to see whether they give a damn about that in my area or not...

Wildcard

I prefer the plate in the sharks mouth to the other two positions shown above. IMO the centre pic breaks up the clean lines of the intake and the bottom pic config would have the plate scraping every speed bump and driveway around. Just my opinion though.

I'm interested to see L&L's setup. Maybe Hymee can take some digital pics when we visit after Christmas.

Hymee

iTrader: (1)

Here you go...

Go play PhotoChop with this:

Cheers,
Hymee.

pepe

I agree, mounted like the bottom one would quickly lead to relocation of the plate to the top of the last speed bump you drove over!

Especially with slimline plates, middle or upper part of the "mouth" is the way to go. Hopefully timbo will have some red ones in the same place as mine soon and I'll get a photo of mine next to a "stock-cuz-his-plate-is-white-and-boring" Black RX-8 for comparison purposes

BVD

Thanks very much for the 'plate' Hymee.

I'll have a play with whatever graphics program I can dig up.

I got the pics above by actually hanging the plate in different spots on the car. So the computer way will probably be less fiddle (famous last words.....).

Thanks for the input everybody - the lowest position does seem to be a non-starter. Although I can't think of any speed bumps, protesters, dead nuns, or other obstacles on any of the journeys I make round here, it just looks wrong on the car.

Either of the other two look reasonable "in the flesh" - but with black plates I think that back in the shark mouth will probably be the way to go.

Hymee

iTrader: (1)

No worries about the plate. Just go to www.ppq.com.au and play to your hearts content, although it is only good for QLD combinations. I recommend you have a try with PaintShop Pro http://www.jasc.com/products/paintshoppro/ there is a free eval version, and it is reasonable priced if you decide to go the whole hog.

Cheers,
Hymee.

xxup

Sorry to drag up this old post, but it is only decent reference to fitting QLD slimline plates to the front of the 8.. Our new plates arrived today.. I see that all the pics have gone.. Can someone please show a little detail about how they fixed their from plate??

I am expecially interested in your solution Labrat and yours Hymee..