Installed my Euro Plate this weekend

Kirby

Kirby

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I installed my Euro license plate bracket and plate this weekend. I wanted the BMW OEM look, so I ordered the European holder from my dealer thru the parts dept - $22, in stock in NJ distribution center. It comes unpainted, so I took it to the local body shop that does the BMW dealer's work. They requested that I bring the car in for a computer color match.Two coats of paint and a coat of clear - $35!!!! Such a deal!



I took off the US holder and got a surprise - it seems like this is the wrong Euro holder, it was made for a different bumper. The bumper is thicker on my car. Since I already paid for it, I decided on trimming it down to fit. Use the US holder as a tracing template (on the bottom in the picture), you can see the line marked on the Euro holder. I used a new Xacto blade to trim it. If you do this, trim it BEFORE painting.


I drilled 1/4" holes in the Euro to match the US mounting holes because none of the mounting holes in the Euro holder lined up with the US mounting holes. The original screws are not long enough, so I got #12 stainless countersunk 1- 1/4" for the top, 2" for the bottom. Also I got an assortment of nylon washers or spacers to put between the bumper and the holder.


I have the two Euro Delivery tourist plates, which I was going to use, but it turns out they are not as wide as a standard Euro plate. So I ordered a plate from www.LicensePlates.TV . It was around $40, took about a week to arrive. I don't know how they do it, but I SWEAR this is truly a German plate with registration stickers and all. It is IDENTICAL to the plates I saw in Germany. Here's how it looks:

 
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sieben

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Kirby said:
I installed my Euro license plate bracket and plate this weekend. I wanted the BMW OEM look, so I ordered the European holder from my dealer thru the parts dept - $22, in stock in NJ distribution center. It comes unpainted, so I took it to the local body shop that does the BMW dealer's work. They requested that I bring the car in for a computer color match.Two coats of paint and a coat of clear - $35!!!! Such a deal!

That's really nice! I was wondering if it's legal not to have front license plate.
Click to expand...
 
Kirby

Kirby

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Amber Lights - I think they were shipping them with amber lights, I assumed all of the '03 and '04 had amber lights. But when I was at the dealer the other week, I saw some new '04s with clear lights. So I am not real sure of what shipped on what cars when ????? I was actually considering doing the amber to clear conversion.

I had the pictures originally linked to Geocities, but I think they might try to prevent direct linking. But I don't know why some people could see the pictures and others can't. I put them in the Gallery here to eliminate the problem.
 
Kirby

Kirby

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Re: Re: Installed my Euro Plate this weekend

sieben said:
That's really nice! I was wondering if it's legal not to have front license plate.
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I live in Pennsylvania, one of the very few states that only requires a rear plate. You can't get a front plate issued even if you wanted to. I have actually heard stories that people put their OLD plate on the front, and they got stopped and the plate was confiscated. You are supposed to return or destroy expired plates, but nobody does.
 
Tweet227

Tweet227

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Kirby said:
Amber Lights - I think they were shipping them with amber lights, I assumed all of the '03 and '04 had amber lights. But when I was at the dealer the other week, I saw some new '04s with clear lights. So I am not real sure of what shipped on what cars when ????? I was actually considering doing the amber to clear conversion.
Click to expand...
As of '02 models (i think?) clears come with the sport package.
 
MrElussive

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archang3l, you cannot get Euro plates from any of our NJ DMV's. Euro plates (and the lack of a front license plate) are illegal in NJ. Expect to get stopped by the police if you are driving around without a front license plate, or even worse, with a Euro plate. But if I had a 330Ci or an M3, I would definitely get myself a Euro plate...they look hot, they don't hide the front of the car, and at the very least assuming the proper license plate #'s are on the Euro plate, maybe the cops won't mind???

Kirby, the Euro plate looks REALLY nice! [:)]
 
A

archang3l378

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A friend of mine got pulled over by a cop.. and the cop was like where are your front license plates. .he was like. umm.. in my windshield. I wish I could've seen the cops reaction to that.
 
Zchild

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Kirby, help me out here, you live in PA, right... You were able to put on Eurpean style plates in PA. Did you keep the same plate numbers as your PA plates... I like it, if indeed you can have a Euro plate with your PA information on it. Holla back...
 
Kirby

Kirby

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The Euro plate doesn't have the same number as the PA plate on the rear. We can put anything we want on the front, or nothing at all. Since PA doesn't issue front plates, it just doesn't matter.
 
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