Front License Plate Location

[Bill Pottle]

Hey,

Here in Maine our inspection requires a front license plate. Ugh! My Spider never had one on the front so I thought I was fine, wrong! They required one to get inspected so I went to the hardware store and fashioned one from a plumbing pipe hangar. It works slick but I hate having a plate on front. I thought that since there wasn't any plate holder screws or bracket I was clear. If I have to have one officially does it go in the center or on the right mounted in the rubber section? I think I'm gonna take it off now and toss it in the trunk until I get stopped or go for inspection next spring. What do you all do and where's the official location?

Are we all law breakers!
Bill

[So Cal Mark]

the original spot on the later cars was on the left side of the bumper, mounted into the rubber pad. Most of them I see have the plate hung between the bumper tubes right in the middle. Not the best spot, IMHO, because it's right in the air path to the grille

[Danno]

my state requires front plates too, i'm still not sure how I'm gonna do that now that I have no bumpers.

[Pininfarina]

I suggest putting the plate dead center on the front bumper betweent the black rubber pieces. You can secure it with tie wraps and not damage anything. Let us know what you decide!

[Bill Pottle]

All good points... I've hung it off the middle and since it could be done easily without leaving a mark I removed it after it passed inspection. These cars look funky with a front plate! It's now in the trunk ready to pop back on if I get pulled over. I'm going to say oops it fell off and I'll get it back on ASAP! That should keep'em happy. The years I've owned her it was never a problem. My defence is all the vehicles that owners have with car dealers promo plates left on for some reason they seem to not get questioned or have they? That comment didn't fly though the inspector agreed with me and hinted what he'd do after he passes it.

I agree with you on the air restriction point Mark... It's right where air is channeled through to the radiator. I know Fiat had to beef up the bumpers i the later years to make them at leat 5mph bumpable and I actually like the beefy bumpers but the plate is bad no matter where it's located! One other great point about these beefy pipe like bumpers is when I put her up for the winter I put her on wheel dollies and then 2 people can grab the bumper by hand really well and we roll it right up into the rear corner of my garage which give me room for 3 cars in a 2 bay garage. The $80 I paid for the auto dollies sure were worth the $.

Later,
Bill

[Mad-Machine]

I think if you take a good hard look at the rubber facing on the bumper.. the driver's side has two small holes already preformed into the rubber. I remember using a Vdub (aircooled) license plate holder screwed into those two convienent holes.

[Bill Pottle]

Hey Art,

Good to see you posting at the site. I will look at the rubber sections to see if there are any indications of possible mounting holes. I keep the plate in the trunk in case I get stopped. Remember me from the old web site. You encouraged me to do the head gasket and just this past few weeks I got the nerve to Just do it! It went as well as you said it would if I just took my time and went right by the steps in the book. I've been wanting to let you know I had great success and it never ran better. Thanks again for your great advice man y moons ago.

Later,
Bill

[Mad-Machine]

Glad everything worked out for the best.

Also, with the plate. If you can get a REAR plate mount from an air cooled beetle, they use a single bar that the plate mounts to and two LONG mounting tabs to bolt to the rear decklid on the beetle. You can bend them around so they can be screwed into the underside of the rubber facings of the tube bumper.