ESTHETICAL issue --> Front license plate

My advice is to fight the improper display ticket - $185 for improper display when the license plate was, in fact, showing in the first place...?!? Give me a break...! Here's my advice to you. Go buy a front plate bracket with screws and a screw driver and put that stuff in a shopping bag with your front license plate. Keep it in the glove box or in the trunk. Next time you get pulled over, show the officer the materials and say you're on your way to your mechanic's place where precision holes will be drilled in your front bumper so that you can obsequiously acquiesce to this ridiculous New York law.

 

My 400i (#049773) looks just like your car - right down to the color - and here is a pic of what I did. Low in the center, and I bent the plate to curl under the car (easy by hand). Double sided tape will hold it in place no problem if you don't want to drill holes in the low spoiler. Never had a ticket or problem with this location, and I do drive it in Manhattan regularly.

A
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

The ticket is that much now? When I lived in NY I got one, it was like 65 bucks. If they are that much, still don't do the front plate hole drilling thing!

I'd say try velcro and just toss on the front plate when you drive through areas you think you might be ticketed. Or you can have a decal of the plate made which won't do any damage.

BUT, what I did, and it worked TWO times if I took my front plate and bracket and damaged it like it was backed into by someone. I left it in the truck and when I was pulled over I said someone backed into me the other day in a parking lot and I haven't had the chance to get a new bracket. And showed them the damage LOL. It worked! Now in FL, I don't need no stinkin' front plate....

 

So long as you can instantly produce your front plate when being stopped by a Patrolman, you're free-n-clear to invent, on-the-spot, any reasonable excuse why its not attached to the front of your car. I have yet to see a lawful statute that expressly requires you to damage your own vehicle for the purpose of mounting a license plate, and any such statutes today probably were written AFTER your car was built - a reasonable person could conclude that since there's no factory-provisioned location for it, and the bodywork/air ducting do not provide a flat, vertical mounting surface to affix it without blocking critical radiator airflow, well..... If you want to pull-a-McGuyver and 'create' a bracket, well, you'd be clever - until the wind rips it off on a speed-run, and throws the assembly under your tires, into your grill, or up into your windshield - and that might be a very $$$$ problem that any citation you could receive without a plate pales by comparison.

 

If that's your reasoning then why can't 1950's F1 cars be driven on the roads? If the law says have a front plate, then how do get around it by saying "I don't have holes in my bumper for it"?

A very weak stand in my opinion. It's better to take your chances with a broken bracket in a bag.

 

Rear plates were required in the 1950's Headlights and Tailights too, but you could get away with no front plate on your 1950 F1 car. Most states grandfathered older cars when they brought out front plates. Have no idea what the rules are in Canadia. NY state had front tags in 1986, so he won't have much room to stand on.

Could a modified bracket from a euro plate work?

 

It varies from Province to Province as it does from State to State.

 

This plate issue continues to pop up and never seems to get past the 10 yard line. So the 2nd picture looks like the best place for the plate whether you screw it on or tape it. I think the other thing that is funny here is all of the excuses that you don't thing the NYSP folks don't already know. If you were to sit and drink with these folks it is real funny when they start trying to find the most creative excuse of the day. So either screw it on or glue it on or move to a state that only takes 1 plate. This is not a big deal and if you are someone wants to restore the car at a later time then weld or patch the holes during the repaint.

 

Has anyone ever fought this law (as in lobbying to have it repealed)?

One some cars, this isn't just an aesthetic issue. On cars like the 308/328, the logical place for the plate partially blocks airflow through the radiator.

I agree with Steve that the pre-fab excuse route is pretty weak.

 

You might be able to mount the front plate just below the Cavallino in the grille like I did on the 328 GTS I used to own.

Take a look at the picture below to see where I mounted the front plate. This is the only picture I can find with the front plate on the car (all the others I have were with no front plate). Not a great view of the front license plate, I know.

I mounted mine with the following pieces:
- buy a plastic universal license plate mount from your local auto supply store (Trak Auto, Advance Auto Parts, Target, Wall-Mart, etc.). It will be about 1/2 inch thick, black plastic, with about twenty holes in it. The metal license plate screws to the front of it.
- use black plastic tie-straps and thread them through the holes in the universal mounting plate and the grille opennings and/or the open spaces in the front air dam. I linked 2 tie-straps together to make some long ones to loop all the way through. Pull the black plastic mounting plate tight against the front of the car.
- screw the plate onto the black universal mounting plate. I used a simple chrome frame around the plate when I mounted mine.

The end result is a tight fit, no drilling to the car, and easily removed later with wire cutters on the plastic tie-downs. Total cost is under $10.00.

Good luck.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

1. Don't put it in the window. That just draws attention to the fact that it's improperly displayed.



2. Those mid-tunnel cops will stop you EVERY time. That's all they stop people for. I've been stopped twice by them in two different cars. Just take the Queensboro Bridge next time.



3. Look at the tickets as a sort of tax for the ability to not use a plate



4. If you must use a plate, use good velcro. Costs about $20 for a roll at Home Depot.

 

Looks nicely done. Did the plastic tie-straps scrape the paint?

 

I have fought it. Just taped my plate on and snapped a photo for the judge.

 

Toggie , I mounted my 308 plate about the same place. I have it just below the grill and slanted back. Only drilled 2 holes to mount the bracket that holds the plate.

 

No, I put those felt sticky pads on the back of the black plastic universal mount where the plastic would have hit the red paint. I forgot to mention doing that where it might rub.
It was pretty tight, so I don't think the plate moved much.

I traded the 328 car in about 5 years ago when I bought my titanium 360 from the local dealer. When the front plate tie-straps were cut off, the paint looked good underneath. The plate had been mounted for about a year prior to the trade-in.

I miss my 1988 328 GTS. It was/is a great car.
I later traded the 2001 titanium 360 in on a new black F430 in 2006, so I can't complain.

 

Just about everyone I've known who ever had a 328 has said the same thing! I think I'll hold onto mine.....

 

My 88 328 has a factory bracket for the front license plate below the horsey, like Toggie's. But this is not helping the 412 question. My bracket is behind the grill with some tabs sticking out just above the air dam.

 

Have you guys been primarily stopped for the lack of a front license plate or is it a secondary item?

 

Here in Virginia it often is the only reason a car is stopped.
The enforcement of it is selective and varies greatly by town/region.
It seems the closer to the denser population centers, the more likely getting a ticket is for not having the front plate mounted.
I live somewhat "out in the sticks" so, so far, I haven't been stopped yet (knock on wood).

I've had the State Highway Patrol cruise next to me for several minutes, pull ahead, eyeball my F430 with no front plate, cruise behind, and then come up along side, give my a thumbs up, and leave me in the dust. This has happened to me more than once. So, they know they can pull you over any time. But often, they have more serious offenders to take care of.

 

Secondary for me - happened once when I was in the Mercedes. I got a warning for speeding and 'fixer ticket' ($25 or something) for missing plate.

 

I noticed a while back that there is a warning (at least in the '78 manual) that says not to install any accessory that will block any portion of the radiator. I'd have to measure things out but I don't see a way to meet the requirements of the law and not violate warnings in the owners operating manual (unless there is enough room to the side to mount the it).

 

Do you have a photo? I'm probably going to have to fit something eventually. I just don't want to drill the fibreglass valance or ruin the aluminum grille.