australian number plate mod

before...





after....mmmmm





well worth the effort. Just had to drill out the rivets, and pull the blob off. It was held on by some double sided tape. Just be careful not to grab the hot rivet on the drill bit....

Plates now sit flush with the bodywork, as the designer intended.

Looks great, one of the first things I'll be doing when mine arrives..

And I see your evoque badge washed off too.. Much cleaner look! Any plans for the landrover one to come off in the next wash?

Plan to do this myself as well, Did you put in any rubber grommits to seal the holes left behind?
Was there any marks apart from two holes? I want to use silmline plates but if there are markings from the black bracket I will get a full size/Euro plate.

And is their any chance of the rivet-end falling inside the trunk lid when drilling out?

Gead, just a question or two. I assume that you just unscrewed the number plate and then used a large drill bit and drilled out the head of the rivet? When you pulled of the plastic plate was the rivet steams still there? What are they attached to, how are they removed? I assume there are bolt holes behind the plastic plate for the number plate?

Cheers

That looks awesome!

Want to go into business removing them? Cause I don't own a drill, let alone know how to use one.

Or is this something simple I could ask the local mechanics to do? How long did it take? What could go wrong?

The thought of letting them drill into my baby scares me.

How do you then attach the number plate to the car - are there original screw holes sitting under the black monstrosity?

I wonder if the dealers will re-install when they do a service rather than let a car leave the workshop that doesn't meet roadworthy regulations.

Not being a party pooper here, genuine curiousity

ok, some answers...

I just used a medium size drill bit on the two aluminium rivets. This was just slightly bigger than the small hole in the centre of the rivet. As someone else has posted the rivets sometimes want to spin, so you just need to modulate the speed of the drill.

I did not end up drilling right through the rivets. Pulling gently on the black blob while drilling allows the rivets to get very very hot, and I think they slightly melt the plastic, which allows them to come out intact. The resultant holes were about 4mm diameter.

There are no pre drilled holes or special connectors for the plates. If it wasn't for the black blob, I think the car would have come with no holes in the body work...this would have been much better, but its not going to happen.

Similarly on the front, the small number plate holder was fixed with two screws straight through the plastic. The holes were not even centred...grrr

the holes ended up being slightly proud of the body work, so i just pushed them down flat...pretty easy with the plastic construction. Double sided tape over the holes prevents any water ingress.

I attached the plate to the car with exterior grade heavy duty double sided tape. Picked it up from Bunnings. It is similar to the stuff they use on the badges, if not a little bit thicker.

I have done this on previous cars with no problems. The only issue is when it comes time to remove the plates, they generally bend due to the strength of the tape. The old adage 'measure twice, stick once' comes to mind...

Having a flush screw-less fit is more important to me that the cost of ordering replacement plates...

All up it took about 5 minutes to remove the plates. A bit longer to put the new ones on!

hope that helps...

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(06-02-2012 11:14pm)memota Wrote:  I wonder if the dealers will re-install when they do a service rather than let a car leave the workshop that doesn't meet roadworthy regulations.

Not being a party pooper here, genuine curiousity

Can't imagine they would go the extra yard in all honesty...

would they tear your tint off if it was slightly darker than legal??

when the dealer fitted my personalised number plate onto the car... it fitted absolutely perfectly on the black blob at the back.

And looks pretty decent as well!

no rivetting removal for me! thank god.

I still think even if your plate covers the blob, it will look better having the plate flush with the bodywork.