Miata Front License Plate Options?

I just got pulled over for not having a front plate on the Miata.

It seems that Connecticut is doing away with the windshield stickers for registration to save money and, as a result, they will also be generating extra cash by cracking down on violent criminals who drive around without a front plate.

Assuming that I can actually find the front plate that was issued to me ten years ago, I have to come up with some kind of bracket. I'm not sure I ever had stock bracket and I hate the way they dimple the front end anyway.

Short of dropping a stupid amount of cash ($50+) for a bracket from Moss, what are my other options? I'd like to fabricate something that looks halfway decent and doesn't block too much airflow.

Where is the tow hook on the front end of those? MN is the same way, so I ordered som rod stock from McMaster in the same thread as the tow hook bolt, stuck a piece of scrap steel to that, and put a couple of holes in it for my front plate. One other option might be finding a way to ziptie it to the underside of the top of the opening, with two zipties. Satisfies the front plate law, and if you zip it loose enough, the plate will fold out of the way at speed.

I need to replace the tow hooks on this car anyway, as it will be strapped to my trailer in a few weeks. They're a PITA to get to, so I only want to get up in there once. I don't think it's a good option for the bracket.

I'd like to make a bracket that comes up from below the front spoiler in the center and lays back at 45 degrees.

I was thinking Ct when you posted. A friend has a Fiero and gets this often. He pulls out the factory brochure, shows the cop and asks, "Where would you like me to mount it since the factory, and the US Government allowed them to be sold like this?" It has worked so far.

I have a large track-sized tow hook on the passenger side. With a couple of scraps of aluminum strapping, I made a bracket that bolts to the loop with a screw and a wing nut, so when I get to the track, I just unscrew the bracket and drop off the plate. It bounces around a bit and is less than perfect, but with a bit more effort, could probably be acceptable. The plate sits completely outboard of the radiator opening.

FWIW, I've seen Elises where the plate is bent into a C to conform to the lower lip of the bumper. Readable? Maybe. Legal? Possibly. A statement about the stupidity of this law? Likely.

I like the idea of it "hinged" to allow it to bend back under the pressure of the wind hitting the nose of the car

There's a post on miataturbo.net somewhere in the FAQ about rigging up a stupid-cheap mount out of metal strapping. Ghetto, but IIRC the mount can't be seen once there's a plate on it.

Stash it in the front window. That's what I do in TX. Don't know if the law is different where you are though.

There's a decent one from Beatrush that puts the plate over to one side - but the bracket is huge! I've been thinking of designing one that would perform a similar mounting location but that would mount to the tiedown holes on one side. Kinda like that super-cheezy one on Miataturbo but with a little more style and production-ready. Not getting a lot of support at work for it, though, so I'm not sure it's going to happen.

The whole "folds back at speed" thing seems completely wrong to me. That's when you need a visible plate, as that's when you'll be noticed and pulled over. Meanwhile, when you stop the car and YOU get to look at it, the plate's on full display. Exactly backwards to my thinking.

The stock brackets only dimple the nose if they're used as a bumper, so that's under your control unless you have to parallel park on the street.

GI_Drewsifer wrote: Stash it in the front window. That's what I do in TX. Don't know if the law is different where you are though.

The other reason that I got pulled over was for having a satellite radio receiver suction cupped to the windshield. It had been installed on the car for approximately 12 minutes.

On my old RX-7 I used zip ties to put the plate in the grill opening at a 45 degree angle. You couldn't see it standing up close, but from a few yards away it was totally visible and legal. It also operated as a psedo-airdam directing airflow up into the opening. When I get a new bumper/repaint this Miata I will do the same thing, though maybe with some metal straps so it won't vibrate.

On my 88 TBird Turbo I would point to the nose and ask "Where?" (They have a VERY sharply pointed prow). Worked every time (plus I kept it in the windshield).

Keith wrote: . The whole "folds back at speed" thing seems completely wrong to me. That's when you need a visible plate, as that's when you'll be noticed and pulled over. Meanwhile, when you stop the car and YOU get to look at it, the plate's on full display. Exactly backwards to my thinking.

It would be interesting to get pulled over for this, stop the car and when the officer went to the front to show you what you did wrong the plate would be there.

"hmmmm. I swear that wasn't there a minute ago..."

Of course the getting-pulled-over part is a bit of a pain and he should notice the hingy part...

I'll try and take a picture of mine when I get home. Uses the driver's side tie down and it out of the way (mostly) of the rad opening. It was sorta this way when I got it, but I modified it a bit to get the plate to hang straight.

Stan

I keep thinking about getting one of these.

I'm not affiliated with that company, I just think it's a cool product.

A local guy had a trim shop "duplicate" his plate as a sticker. It is even reflective. It's stuck to the bumper, but there are no wholes or anything else. He claims he hasn't been hassled by the police. From a few feet away it looks like the real thing.

stan wrote: I'll try and take a picture of mine when I get home. Uses the driver's side tie down and it out of the way (mostly) of the rad opening. It was sorta this way when I got it, but I modified it a bit to get the plate to hang straight. Stan

I just took a "L" bracket I had lying around and bolted it to the tow hook with a long bolt and a few large washers. The first one had the plate held on with one bolt and was always slipping so the plate would scrape on the ground. I just took it off but when I got a $70 ticket on my birthday for it I put the second version on with 2 bolts in the license plate which held the plate at an angle but I never bothered to fix it.

(I was the PO of Stan's Miata)

You can kinda see it in this pic.

Apparently I didn't learn my lesson since I still haven't put a front plate on my WRX even though I was pulled over and warned about it a couple months ago.

Not a Miata, but here's what I did... I have a U-shaped tow hook that sticks out above the bottom lip, hung it off of that. Total cost was about $1.

Before:

This is fairly close to where the Elise mounts it from the factory. The zip ties aren't strong enough so I'll be replacing them with U-bolts eventually. It also serves as an early-warning klaxxon before I wing the lip on something, but that failed me a few weeks ago and I now need to have the whole bumper taken off and repaired.

Rant: why do numpties insist on screwing their ugly-ass front plates right into the bumper plastic? Hey stupid, if there's no bracket there maybe it's not supposed to go there! When I sold my frankly beautiful ST184 Celica GT-S, which never had a front plate on it in my possession, the first thing the new owner did was gnash two screw holes into my pristine front bumper. If I'd been there in person I would have kicked him in the nuts and taken the car back. (As it turned out he was an imbecile and I DID end up with the car back, gristly wounds plain as day. But that's another story...)

I'm with you, Jay. My otherwise perfect front bumper on my Miata has two holes where the license plate sits. I run the plate there, still, to hide them. A new bumper cover isn't that big of a priority, is it?

Good picture Evan. I just changed the bracket so the plate is positioned in the usual horizontal position, but left the plate in the same spot. Then I have a clip on the other side of the plate to keep it horizontal.

Woody, if you need pictures just let me know, but it's fairly straightforward.

Oddly, I haven't had a plate on my DD for almost three years and I'm not the only one as I see cars all the time doing the same thing in this area (Dayton/Springfield). Probably Columbus is just keeping an eye out for you wild college types...

Stan

Here in NJ, we are also required to run a front tag. Mine's offset, hanging from a bracket attached to the right-side tow hook.

Fabrication instructions for my license plate bracket (seen above) ~ARE HERE~

I cheat. In Connecticut, you only get one dealer plate, so I can't run one in front. When they used to issue us 2 dealer plates, we cheated even more. :)

Jay, your homebrew one looks a bit like the Beatrush one for the Miata. When I first saw one, I thought it was ridiculously oversize for the job. But on closer inspection, it was actually pretty cleverly designed for production. Still pretty big though.

aeronca65t wrote: Here in NJ, we are also required to run a front tag. Mine's offset, hanging from a bracket attached to the right-side tow hook.

I've also seen Miatas with the plate bent over the lower section of the bumper. Granted, in most states that would be considered mauling the plate and would net a ticket...

For the 1800ES, we replaced the NJ QQ plate with a European style plate with the same numbers. Although I'm sure that is technically not legal either, we haven't been stopped for it. The '79 RB Spitfire has a formed spot for a front plate, so that one is installed. If/when it gets converted to chrome bumpers, I'll probably get another Euro-style plate for it. A friend of ours in NJ with an CB MGB and an 1800E as well just doesn't run front plates at all on them. Again - has never been hasseled about it.

Fortunately for me, I live in PA... and don't have to deal with this... although I made the other half drill the holes for the front plate bracket for the '07 MINI after I installed the aero-kit. I hate the front plate on a MINI and wanted no part in defiling the car like that...

living in NJ.. I had thought of making an "italian" plate for the front of my fiat

Keith, If you build it I will buy it!

FYI in the State of Washington the ticket for not having a front plate is $124.......