D MENAC 7

For those of us who must mount a front plate I have been thinking about a mod that doesn't make the front plate look like a rabbit as has been suggested by many. I hate the fact that someday soon my new plates will arrive and I will have to put the front plate mount back on and put that FUGLY license plate on. Just look at my avatar, that is what my plate will look like. BIG and MOSTLY white, that's an Illinois plate at it's finest.

SO, you might ask, how do you legally stealth a plate? Knowing lighting for effects and how certain available substances work, I thought about when the plate needs to be clearly seen and when it doesn't really matter. When we are driving, it needs to be seen, when we are parked, it shouldn't matter.

So, with that in mind here is a photo of my prototype Stealth front license plate mod. Mind you, this is with a flash to show you a little of the body of the entire piece. You cannot see the tinting of the window covering the plate with flash assisted photography.

D MENAC 7

Here is a picture without flash on the camera.

D MENAC 7

So, when you wire it so that when you turn on your ignition here is the end result.

D MENAC 7

OOOPS forgot to attach the image!

D MENAC 7

It looks a bit fuzzy because the only way I could get my camera to take a decent looking representation of what it actually looks like is I had to use a low light plus setting.

D MENAC 7

I will post a DIY on this at a later time since this isn't even on my car yet. That plate is an older plate that I had before my last vehicle which had a different plate because it was a truck.

Omicron

Another GREAT idea from D MENAC 7!!! Damn dude, I am impressed! I'm currently running front-plateless, but may just have to reconsider this once you get this DIY up. :D

Japan8

not a bad idea. Another is the Japanese solution of having a tilted plate mount. It tilts backwards into the front spoiler opening so that tower and traffic light mounted cameras can't pick up your number and likely cops in cars won't get a clear view either.

Team GTUs

Does anyone know how much a front license palte restriscts air flow?

Is there some type of permit you can get for an exception?

D MENAC 7

I do not think that airflow is a concern since the radiator is angled forward and gets it's cooling ffrom under the front grille. It leans forward by at least 25 degrees so this would not make a difference for that purpose. The cold air intake, I believe, gets it's air from the passenger side of the front grille.

What I have built above is no larger than the mounting frame and as a matter of fact the mounting frame is whatg it is mounted to.

I do not know about the laws of your state and a possible "exception" but I do know that the great state of Illinois allows no such thing.

We do have "outlaws" () who run with them off and haven't been caught, yet. I thought about it but where I work we have police officers who would take notice so I am only going to get away with it so long as I do not have my plates and only have temp plate.

Omicron

BUMP! Want to see this mod!

D MENAC 7

I am currently working on getting this put together properly. It was a sad day yesterday. My plates came in the mail. I hate to have to put one on the front so I guess I will be working on it this weekend.

The main component is all masked and ready for a coat of OEM Trim paint. Tomorrow I can do it outside since it will be warm enough and I won't have to make the entire house smell like spray paint.

I'm also going to look for the acrylic piece I need to fabricate as a spacer. After these, I am looking into a material to house the final assembly in.

I am going to make a rear plate that isn't tinted but the same lighting system will light up when the lights are on and should be a plug and play where as power is derived from the license plate light recepticle.

All in all, I hope to have this done by the end of the weekend at the earliest.

Total for materials should be less than $30. A built one would be a bit more due to the manufacturing that goes into it.

Also, I didn't get my requested plate number and will have to use the generic plate they gave me until they send the correct one, which is on my avatar. The dealership messed this one up too. They brought my special request in yesterday to the office and I got my plate the day before. I bought this car almost 2 months ago and it took them that long to get it into the state.

Omicron

Cool, looking forward to updates!

emailists

I know in NY that you cannot have any cover overthe plates- ever clear plastic. A friend got a ticket parked on the street for a clear cover. I'd like to find out more about the japanese tilt system. any links?

MP3Guy

That was one desperate cop. I've had clear covers on my rear plates for years, and no one said anything to me. That cop has too much time on his hands.

Omicron

I too would like to hear more about the Japanese "tilt" system...

G8rboy

This is a great idea D MENAC 7... being one of the 'Illinois Outlaws', I'll wait until I get a ticket or two, but if I were being forced to put a plate on the front, this is the way to do it.

Keep up the good work...

-Sean

D MENAC 7

Well, time came today to test the proto type. I am sad to say that it is a no go. The light wasn't bright enough to make a difference in sunlight, you couldn't tell it was on. The proto type stuck out just over two inches from the front of the car and I hadn't realized that the bracket actually was flush with the front of the hood when mounted so it looked like a big black box sitting on the front of the car. I would consider modifying the grill to recess this but the light is still not bright enough.

I haven't tried it with incadescent lighting but I would be hessitant to do so since it gets very warm. I might still look into that if I can find the materials that I feel would work well. Perhaps a couple of sockets for a 194 lamp mounted with some sort of reflector and housing mount. The whole trick is to get it dark enough for when it's not running and light enough to overcome the darkness and sun light. It's got to be done in a shadow type box. This would still have to be recessed.

This first attempt was with neon, one of those custom neon license plate frames turned around backwards and mounted just about 3/4 of an inch from the plate. I have decided to use this on the back of the car without the tinting and it will only be lit up at night. It does look nice in lower lighting such as that. I think there is enough room and the plate is recessed enough that it wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb. I just ordered the 194 empty bases so as to make the wiring a plug n play. I will post pics of this seconday mod when I have it done, sometime next week

D MENAC 7

Oh yeah, one last thing, I mounted the front plate and rear plate today, I now have an ugly front end...

Omicron

Drag. Perhaps a ring of LEDs, like 20 per side? Pretty bright for their tiny size, use very little power, and put out virtually no heat. Just a thought...

D MENAC 7

I looked at LEDs too. The biggest problem with them is they are more like a spot light and produce a very bright light but are focused beam. I know there are opaque and inverted lens type but still are not bright enough to do the job.

A vented housing using incadescent would be the way to go, IMO. This could be larger than the grille because it could be installed behind the grille, I'll have to look at exactly what is behind the grille. I am not worried about the radiator because it gets it's air flow from below the grille.

Like I said, this isn't dead yet. I know you can get the front grille from Rosenthal for cheap so, if I do decide to mod it, at least I can replace it for a small price.

Omicron

Understood, but I still think LEDs bear some investigating. A thin reflector would angle the light where you need it, and even without, a BUNCH of LEDs would probably do the trick. Just my 2 cents... and prolly worth about that! :D