Tips On Mounting Your New Personalised Number Plates On Your Car

You must be pretty excited waiting for the delivery of your new private number plate, right? But what happens after the plate arrives? Are you going to mount it yourself, or spend money hiring a mechanic to fix the plate on for you? It’s really not that hard, you know. In fact, with our tips below, you will probably be able to mount the plates on your own at the very first try.

Clean The Plate

Car number plates used to be screwed on holes drilled directly unto cars by self-tapping screws. Make a single mistake, and you could create unnecessary holes or scratches on your car. These days, car manufacturers have created a built-in space where you can place the plates on, with pre-drilled holes. Before you do anything though, take the time to clean the plate rear surface and the space on the car. Chances are, a healthy deposit of dust have caked the area. A clean surface is also conducive to the effectiveness of a double sided tape, in case you need to use it to stabilise the plate.

Use the old plate as a mould

Don’t guesstimate the drilling location on your new plates. Choose the easy life. Find a flat and smooth surface, and place your new plates on it. Next, place your old plate on top of the new one (you should probably give the old plate a good wipe first) and aligned the edges perfectly. Using a sharp pencil, mark the four drill holes. Voila! Now you can safely and accurately drill the holes for the screw.

Drilling Guide

First off, never drill the front of the plate. It could damage the integrity of the reflective surface and creating minute light refractions. It may not matter during the day, but it might affect visibility at night. So drill from the rear. You might want to dab the drill head with a wet tissue or wet towel first to keep the temperature low and reduce the risk of cracking.

If the drill holes come up on or near any letters or numbers on the plate, remember to use the supplied screw caps to mask their presence. You might also consider using a black marker to blend the screw head with the lettering.

Test the stability of the plates by giving it a light push with your finger on several locations. If it tilts inside fractionally, try to tighten the screws. If that doesn’t work, find and isolate the source of instability and level the surface using a double sided tape.

Doesn’t sound hard, does it? It’s a five minute job that will give you weeks’ worth of manly caveman satisfaction. Inspired by this success, you might even be tempted to walk around the house with a drill and a pencil behind your ears!