Front number plate related thread

Welcome and it looks like a lovely motor. Not to mention a great plate on the VX, hope u bought that mid-recession! :thumbsup:

The rules seem relatively simple and don't seem to have ever changed much, so why is there confusion, even amongst the coppers themselves? :(
 
I see hundreds of cars driving around with illegal spacing.
Its almost the norm to be a LITTLE bit artistic with the spacing, just not with the font. I can imagine that if you were to be reasonably within the law you wouldn't get pulled more than once in a blue moon.
 
Cheers Andy thanks for the welcome.

Yes the rules have always been simple about number plates but thing is that so any people mess with different fonts and spacing’s some off which look nothing like the original issued registration number, A fine is one thing but the DVLA can now take back number plates from people who have been caught breaking the rules too many times, guess if your number plates is worth naff all anyhow I guess its not an issue, but if you have got an expensive plate I would suggest that you keep them legal just .
 
T2FFN said:
I'd remove it and place one in the windscreen along the top of the dash
Click to expand...

sadly that would break the rule that says it has to be vertical, or as near as possible thereto.........notwithstanding hereto thereafter forthwith.... :headbang: sorry!!
 
no1son said:
Hi all
Well this is my fist post on here so a big hi to everyone, as I have been in the background doing some research into my next car which I finally got last week.

So I am now the proud owner of a 2007 montego blue z4 3.0 Coupe :D , I’ am just awaiting the registration docs to come back so I can transfer one of my number plates on to it, but in the mean time I was reading this tread and hopefully can give you some of my past experience of number plates and sizes.

There is nothing at all that states the length of a number plate and have this confirmed with numerous calls to the DOT and the Police, there is however the standard regulations as the size of the letters and also the spacing, so the overall number plate is determined buy how many letters you have on your registration, the one thing that’s is important for the number plate to be legel is that it has to have the originators ref number on the plate so buy cutting off the access around a standard number plate length would normally make the plate illegal!

The way I got around this was to find a number plate manufacture that would place the reference number to my desired position on the plate along with any border I chose, so when I trimmed the number plate to fit the carrier it would still be legal.

I use a company in Leeds called “Paul turner graphics” who charge a bit more but will give you exactly what you need whilst staying legal, I have attached a picture of one of my plates on my last car which was cut down to fit the number plate carrier behind I hope this might be of help.

1.jpg
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Welcome No1son
I'm glad your post re plate size seems to exactly replicate mine. I'm not sure if this plate cutting and need to be full size is some sort of urban myth, but I've never seen anything that says a plate has to be a certain width. My cut downs have now been unchallenged on 3 concurrenlty run cars over 5 years and therefore 15 MOT's.

All the talk of spacing and fonts, botls, etc. - of course they're just illegal.
Best I've seen recently was 'FIONA' Not bad until I was close enough to see E1 ONA with square headed yellow bolt in the tail of the 'E' :rofl:
 
A few years ago I paid £125 for D10 RNE which I despaced to D10RNE (I have a spare set of 'correct' plates that I stick on for MoT purposes) and put on my wifes car.

Oddly enough the 1 tends to 'disappear', or it may just be thishful winking....

The cherished reg company clearly thought it was only any use as a 'de-ager' because it went awfully quiet at the other end of the phone when I told them how pleased Dorne would be with it...... :rofl:
 
I've tried several times to get cut down plates - i've had them on several cars in the past - but no-one has been willing to supply them. I haven't tried the plate co mentioned but will give them a shout. Cheers.

I'm sure you're all right that the laws govern the font, size and spacing and that simply the number of characters can then determine the length. I don't really care if they were illegal anyway - it's very unlikely to get pulled unless they're grossly misrepresenting their trues characters. Just been really struggling to get the plates when it was easy peasy previously.
 
I'm guessing it's illegal due to the letter size, but i like this..

Photo0117.jpg


no need to chop the plate to what could end up an odd shape. Also, might look odd against the larger number plate holder. Colour coding may help?
 
Yes I guess so some number plates look better on some cars than others, "note to ones self try it on the car before I buy" :lol:
 
I ran 3/4 size plates on the front of all my old Imprezas. I made sure it had the blue UK and euro bit on the side and got the font to be the same as standard plates, just smaller. Never had any issues or ever got pulled with it. Worst case scenario, £60 fine and a bollocking for the first time,after that if you get stopped again, you could be in some brown stuff. I think the fact it was identical to the UK plate, but was just 3/4 size got glances and no more than that from the BiB. Obviously if you get a p.i.t.a. BiB, just eat some humble pie, apologise profusely and hope the rest of your car is in order. :wink:
 
side badges? does anybody have a badge that is illegal? has it ever got you in trouble?
 
I used to have a 300zx TT with the nissan logo on the side of the plate.
Got stopped countless times "because" of it. Was never given a "get it fixed" ticket, or anything formal, so I think they were just looking for an excuse to pull over a young guy in a low, loud, fast car :/
 
I have a smaller size number plate on my current car as I inherited an awesome private reg and as its only 4 characters the guys I got the plate made with said it was legal, and never had any trouble with the rozzers. Will be moving the plate on to my Z as soon as I get the logbook through.

My "new" Z has a scrape and a couple of dints that I'm going to get sorted so I will just get my bodyshop guy to fill the number plate holes in the bumper when he does the rest of the stuff so wont be much of an expense there, but just need to work out how to attach it. Its just stuck on my current car with number plate plate tape but this car has a flat section on the front bumper that was fortunately just smaller than the plate so it looks great.

Just wondering on the Z am I going to be able to stick the plate straight to the bumper or am I going to have to mod the plate holder bit as cj10jeeper did I would really prefer to stick it straight to the bumper but the shape doesn't look quite right so not sure if I will get good enough adhesion, has anyone tried this with a smaller plate because I don't want it falling off, these smaller ones are more expensive than a standard plate and don't want to find myself driving around without one

And yes I realise this is a really old thread but though it better to bump this one than start a new one
 
You can stick it to the bumper. It will be off vertical and flexed quite a bit so need well fixing down.

Stick on flexible plates are an option but look tacky if no illegal.

I just much prefer the modified holder as it looks completely OEM, but each to their own.
 
cj10jeeper said:
You can stick it to the bumper. It will be off vertical and flexed quite a bit so need well fixing down.

Stick on flexible plates are an option but look tacky if no illegal.

I just much prefer the modified holder as it looks completely OEM, but each to their own.
Click to expand...

Have to agree here.. I looked at different ways of mounting the plate when I got my bumper resprayed..
modding the existing holder is the only way that this seemed acheivable whilst still looking good (other methods just looked tacky in the end imo)
 
The original holder isnt in great condition, so would mean buying another one to cut down , although i suppose I could practice on the old one and if i like it then get a new one and do it properly
 
sk93 said:
cj10jeeper said:
You can stick it to the bumper. It will be off vertical and flexed quite a bit so need well fixing down.

Stick on flexible plates are an option but look tacky if no illegal.

I just much prefer the modified holder as it looks completely OEM, but each to their own.
Click to expand...

Have to agree here.. I looked at different ways of mounting the plate when I got my bumper resprayed..
modding the existing holder is the only way that this seemed acheivable whilst still looking good (other methods just looked tacky in the end imo)
Click to expand...
If the plate holder was removed and the bumper filled/repainted, I wonder if you could epoxy a number of neodymium magnets to the inside of the bumper skin and then attach the same number to the rear of a number plate using (strong) trim tape so that you have a magnetically attached number plate that can be removed for shows etc. The side of the magnets that contact the bumper could be covered with some masking tape to prevent any marking.

It might take a bit of experimentation with the number/size of magnets to ensure that the attachment is strong enough at speed but, given that a pair of cheap 25mm x 2mm N35 neodymium disc magnets produce just over 0.4kg of magnet to magnet pull force at a separation of 5mm and a standard number plate is 520 x 111mm, you could fit a maximum 4 rows of 20 magnets giving a maximum pull force of over 33kg (ignoring any magnetic field interaction due to magnet spacing)

The same size magnets in N52 spec produce just over 0.6kg of pull force at a separation of 5mm so this would give a potential of just under 50kg (would probably make removing the plate a two person job :lol: )

The horizontal curvature of the bumper shouldn't be a problem as the magnets would be more than strong enough to make the plate conform and it should even be possible to use magnets of different thicknesses (or create a stack of discs) for each row on the rear of the plate to make it (more) vertical
 
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