Removable (ahem) front numberplate

Felonious Crud

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A question for you front numberplate refuseniks out there. I'm having my front bumper smartened up, drill holes, filled, PPF blah blah. From time to time, I suppose, it might be important to put a front numberplate on. What do you use to fix it and (a d take it off) easily without wrestling with double-sided tape every time?
 

azapa

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1,300
OK, I did this and works great IMHO. I used hard drive magnets (Pry an old one open, has one or two each). I slid these in to the grill slats from behind, they are hollow. I then made a backing plate for my plate, with corresponding magnets and forks to go around the back of each grill slat. the forks do the mechanical work, the magnets keep the forks hooked.

Sounds complicated, but is really easy. Happy to take pix. Tested to "very fast" on a closed circuit. Officer.
 
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Oneball

Member
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11,075
OK, I did this and works great IMHO. I used hard drive magnets (Pry an old one open, has one or two each). I slid these in to the grill slats from behind, they are hollow. I then made a backing plate for my plate, with corresponding magnets and forks to go around the back of each grill slat. the forks do the mechanical work, the magnets keep the forks hooked.

Sounds complicated, but us really easy. Happy to take pix. Tested to "very fast" on a closed circuit. Officer.

That’s a really good idea.
 

JJbing

Member
Messages
445
A question for you front numberplate refuseniks out there. I'm having my front bumper smartened up, drill holes, filled, PPF blah blah. From time to time, I suppose, it might be important to put a front numberplate on. What do you use to fix it and (a d take it off) easily without wrestling with double-sided tape every time?
There’s a company called MagnaPlates, you need to remove your front bumper, install the magnets then you can remove the plate for “show” use. They claim it’s been tested up to 200mph when I asked them.
 

Felonious Crud

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OK, I did this and works great IMHO. I used hard drive magnets (Pry an old one open, has one or two each). I slid these in to the grill slats from behind, they are hollow. I then made a backing plate for my plate, with corresponding magnets and forks to go around the back of each grill slat. the forks do the mechanical work, the magnets keep the forks hooked.

Sounds complicated, but us really easy. Happy to take pix. Tested to "very fast" on a closed circuit. Officer.

Yes, a bloody good idea. I just need to work out how to get around the back of the bumper. It's possible I might need tri-fold arms, or I can find a way in from underneath. Once the car's back I'll have a look. Thank you!
 

Felonious Crud

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There’s a company called MagnaPlates, you need to remove your front bumper, install the magnets then you can remove the plate for “show” use. They claim it’s been tested up to 200mph when I asked them.
£35 for a set of magnets and magnetic tape for the back of the plate. I'm sure their profit is good, but the idea looks excellent.

Just need to figure out how to get to the back of the bumper...

Again, thank you.
 

azapa

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1,300
Mr. Crud, sorry, I was thinking you had a GTS still. Pop a picuture of the front of you car here, and let the interweb give you some ideas.
 

Felonious Crud

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Mr. Crud, sorry, I was thinking you had a GTS still. Pop a picuture of the front of you car here, and let the interweb give you some ideas.
Here you go. My thinking is to remove the upper grill (apparently an easy task) and see if I can get to the back of the bumper from above. Lower might be better but I think that fixes on from behind.

84858
 

CatmanV2

Member
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48,548
Why not get some rare earth magnets from ebay, drill and epoxy them into the bumper then skim and paint?

Given your'e going to have it painted anyway?

C
 
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MarkMas

Chief pedant
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8,796
Magnaplates seems to be out of stock and offer 'pre-order' only. But I presume general magnetic strips would work - a couple of strips inside the bumper and a couple of matching strips on the back of the plate (or just a ferrous plate).

But I just noticed (link below) that some self-adhesive magnetic strips are 'magnetic on one side only' so I suppose you would have to get plain ones for the bumper and glue them the 'wrong' way round.

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/magnetic-tapes/1315954

You might also want to put some 'fins' on the back of the plate that overlap the top and bottom of the bumper to give it some 'no-slide' stability.
 

azapa

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1,300
Here you go. My thinking is to remove the upper grill (apparently an easy task) and see if I can get to the back of the bumper from above. Lower might be better but I think that fixes on from behind.

View attachment 84858
I'd shove it down low over that black grill. Not like with that cold windy weather it will overheat anyway :)

Or maybe small stainless brackets bellow bumper (fix with stainless pop rivets) and the magnet system I mentioned above. I made my brackets in stainless, I have a bunch of sheet of different sizes and thickness around. Very easy to bend in a vice.

Advantage of this is no bumper removal.
 

Gazcw

Member
Messages
7,699
Here you go. My thinking is to remove the upper grill (apparently an easy task) and see if I can get to the back of the bumper from above. Lower might be better but I think that fixes on from behind.

View attachment 84858
Is the bottom grill a suitable ferrous material? If it was you could sit the plate on the chin spoiler and use a roll of magnetic tape
 

Oneball

Member
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11,075
Is the bottom grill a suitable ferrous material? If it was you could sit the plate on the chin spoiler and use a roll of magnetic tape

I wouldn’t go blocking grilles. You’ll find a different cooler under the bumper line to above it so you’ll be blocking the whole thing. Could be coolant, oil, tranny, ac, pas. Something won’t like it.