Screw holes from rear plate

[james.beaumont1]

Hi guys. I have just fitted my plate to my Elise, only to find the car had its original plates screwed straight to the car. This is one of my pet hates as I like using a shorter (but still legal) plate. If you take a look at the pic you can see two gaping holes and to top it off there is tarnishing of the metal below the holes from water/dirt build up.

Does anyone have an easy fix for this? I was thinking of getting a blank black reg plate in standard size to fit beneath? I could just get a regular plate but would rather not.

[j2 lot]

A couple of black rubber grommets?
A full size plate with the ends 'blacked out' ?
Feel your pain - I like the shorter (but legal) plates and often find cars are designed for full size plates so shorties don't work

[james.beaumont1]

A couple of black rubber grommets?
A full size plate with the ends 'blacked out' ?
Feel your pain - I like the shorter (but legal) plates and often find cars are designed for full size plates so shorties don't work

I had though about the full plate blacked out. The grommets won't cover the tarnished bits sadly. I'll see what I can come up with next week...

[Dominic]

Give it a gentle sanding to tidy up the tarnished areas, then spray with primer, and either put some black vinyl over the entire thing, or paint it and sorce some grommets.

[Graham C]

The exact same thing happened to me 2 weeks ago! I shortened the plate before pulling the old one off.... I too have the holes and the scratches etc... On the black metal. I am probably thinking that I will leave the short front plate on but revert to a longer rear plate...

[whaleys]

How about putting a sheet of matt black vinyl over the whole plinth behind the plate first?

G

[alicrozier]

Maybe avoid vinyl as it can get pretty hot.

Not as hot as the 2-11 probably, my plate melted off and went on fire. I eventually tided up the panel with sanding and a can of high temp paint...

[whaleys]

my plate melted off and went on fire

Thats scary!

With the mix of plastics, fibreglass and rubber that are equally as close I'd have thought the vinyl would be ok, but thats furnace hot!!

[alicrozier]

I think we measured the rear panel on the 2-11 at more than 200 deg C (trackday conditions in the South of France) but it gets hot enough to melt normal adhesive pads for the plate just cruising on the road. The Elise is more enclosed and has more heat shielding but I remember it still gets too hot to touch hence I'd say vinyl not suitable.