Audidriver9

MikTip, what did you use to attach the center license plate holder??

MikTip

What I did, was drilled the 2 holes for the USA plate through the plate holder, and into the trunk. This way I use 2, 1/4 bolts to hold on the plate and plate holder. Which is now, attached very securly. ;O)

This is but one method. Others may have a better idea, but at the time, it worked for me.

quattro.pilot

what I did was made a sheet metal cutout which matched (or even was slightly smaller than) the North American plate.

I then drilled a hole @ the corners of the cutout so that I could facilitate mounting of the plate to the cutout.

I then took measurements on the Euro plastic plate insert to do with horizontal & vertical distances of the pre-drilled holes in it (which would otherwise be used to mount a European plate). I also found the distance between these holes.

Back to the cutout I transposed all these measurements onto the sheetmetal so that I could drill holes that would exactly match up with those on the Euro insert. I wanted everything to be centered so I took great care in my measurements, drilled, and adjustments. Measure twice, cut once.

It's nice that on the B4's (dunno 'bout B3) there are plugs in the trunk face which otherwise go unused but are actually for the mounting of a Euro plate + insert. So I popped out these plugs so that I could attache the insert -which is done from the "inside" of the trunk-.

Back to the license plates, all this time I had been scrounging nuts, bolts, screws, and fabbing custom metal & rubber washers. All for the use in this project.

See now, the trickiest bit is that you need to mount the cutout to the plate before anything else; which ends up hampering mounting the cutout/plate combination to the Euro insert. So with the cutout, in the 2 holes I drilled in the middle, I had to use a long bolt + washers + jam nuts in order to mickey mouse a stud that I could access from the rear of the insert when it came time to mount the plate&cutout.

I don't know if that makes any sense but it worked out in the end. There is a sequence to putting this all together, and can not easily be taken apart out of this order.

1) mount cutout to plate. I was able to find 4 plastic license plate screws which I pushed through from the back of the pieces. Tighten down and secure these two together.

2) Bring cutout/plate to the Euro insert and mount these 2 together. The makeshift studs will go through the factory holes and then I used further nuts & fabbed washers to attach these pieces.

3) Insert + plate go to the trunk and are mounted. You use 4 screws that are screwed into 4 posts on the backside of the insert, and this is done from "inside" the trunk (like where the back of the tailamps are). I also put butil rubber weather seal around these 4 posts, as well as a couple other areas around the edge of the insert... no water is getting into MY trunk =)

So yea, if this helps at all I'm glad, but I realize that without pictures it's all probably very confusing. But it worked for me, and I didn't drill any unnecessary holes.

I will probably use such a method when it comes time to mount my european plate, as I will also need to keep my BC plate; but I would like easy access to take it off (for shows etc.)

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/53503/day_close.1.jpg">

check yah later

Xel

"for shows etc"? u kidding, right? :-)

quattro.pilot

PacNW =P alright, i meant more like gtg's

520

lol

MikTip

at the time I didnt have any screws to attach the Euro-plate-holder, via the 4 plugs. But, might just re-open the mod. Thanks qpilot! ;O)

quattro.pilot

why I had to (fitment as I recall) but in any case they were a B*TCH to get out. I ended up breaking the "head" off each and just scrapping them. oh, I remember what they're for... yer supposed to screw in the europlate through the insert and into these crappy plastic threaded clip things. I just broken 'em and figured that you could always use a nut &amp; bolt to accomplish the same thing. good luck

check yah later

squidix9

<center><img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/33772/6sm.jpg"></center><p>
I did the same thing only with a maybe couple of things different.

1. My backing plate is made out of a plastic sheet I got from an outlet here in town. They have a scrap pile, where you can buy it by the pound. It's lighter than metal, and isn't going to rust. Plus it's very easy to cut and form.

2. I leave the Euro plate on all the time, my lights and mounting are made for it anyways. The backer extension is above the Euro plate, and has the studs for mounting the U.S. plate on it.

I too used the plastic license plate hardware, and it makes it easy to take the U.S. plates off when needed.

Blake@NWAutoSalon

Use industrial strength velcro. It works great for when your at GTG's or shows, you can just pull off your N.A. Plate and throw on the Euro one. You can trust me on this one, it is secure.