Short Front Plate

[NigeSt]

Hi folks,

Inspired by Zee's short front plate, I worked out that my personal reg' (consisting of a letter, a '1' digit, legally required space and three more letters) could fit in the front bumper slot for a Japanese plate and stay legal.

I ordered a plate of the required width from Fancy Plates but it didn't arrive before I had to disappear for a couple of weeks on business. Anyway, I'm back now, the plate has arrived and is now fitted...

I think it looks really great, and is legal! I've got a copy of the legal requirements in my glove box in case I need to explain this to 'someone' :winky:

The minimum margin on the end edges is 11mm. For the UK legal font with my letters, number, space, the margin was achieved with a plate of width 31cm (a full 21 cm shorter than the standard width). I've photoshopped the actual lettering in the photo, the margins are tighter on the actual plate.

As ever, Fancy Plates did a great job and the short plate was exactly the size I ordered, with the lettering centered and the plate edges rounded etc.

I think the bumper slot would take a plate of up to 33cm width (see photo).

For now, I've put black tape over the square holes left by the UK plate mount. That's pretty effective and is likely to be my long term solution.

Here's the long plate for comparison... :winky:

Cheers,

Nige

[Kavey]

Looks great!

As you can see here, I used motorcycle sized lettering on a short plate to fit the gap on my Jap import, as there wasn't a full-sized plate holder anyway. Looks much better IMHO anyway :D

Asam

[NigeSt]

Looks great!

Cheers Kavey!

I see you got a more precise fit in the available slot than I did. I'm just an amateur at this game :winky:

Nige

[Kavey]

Cheers Kavey!

I see you got a more precise fit in the available slot than I did. I'm just an amateur at this game :winky:

Just spent ages with a ruler and a DTP package on my PC to play with size and letter spacing etc. :winky:

A mate at Halfords got them done up for me as a special order at custom sizes for the front and even the large Jap-stlye back plate to go with the rear carbon-fibre trim (shown below), and even let me do the lettering myself according to the template I'd printed out from my PC :)

I was prettly lucky, as this was over 3 years ago - these days I think FancyPlates are probably the only people that'll let you do non-standard sized plates....

[Mike246]

Nige,

Would like to do something similar with a number I have been holding, but how do you work out it is legal?

The requirement says 33mm between groups. You have a whisker either side of the 1. I'm on your side on this, but there will always be some plonker willing to pull you in.

[Bazza-old]

nige

Inspired by Zee's short front plate, I worked out that my personal reg' (consisting of a letter, a '1' digit, legally required space and three more letters) could fit in the front bumper slot for a Japanese plate and stay legal.

how is it "a letter" then one digit

looks like two to me ie: SN

if you read your rules carefully it says 33mm between groups ie: number and letter

so as far as i can see its not legal

[Maz]

Hey Kavey, i got my rear plate from Fancy plate yesterday morning and it is great, i wonder it is legal to have a motorcycle type plate with 2 lines like the one u got on the rear to fit the front bumper? if it is legal that will be great, if not i think i stick to the standard plate..

:D :D :D :D

[bartkat]

This makes me glad we only have a small rear plate and no front plate in Alabama.

[Kavey]

Hey Kavey, i got my rear plate from Fancy plate yesterday morning and it is great, i wonder it is legal to have a motorcycle type plate with 2 lines like the one u got on the rear to fit the front bumper? if it is legal that will be great, if not i think i stick to the standard plate..

:D :D :D :D

It's a grey area this one, as imported cars are allowed to use motorcycle numbers on two lines, because they don't normally have a mounting area that can take a one-line plate...

If you make sure it's spaced correctly and is legible, it's unlikely you'll have an issue - strictly speaking, my front plate should be on two lines as it's using motorcycle lettering, but I passed MOT no problems - but then again, mine's an import, so they might just have been more lenient...

:)

[NigeSt]

I've photoshopped the actual lettering in the photo, the margins are tighter on the actual plate.

Hi guys,

For those who've questioned the legality of the plate, I mentioned that I've photoshopped the posted photo.

The actual plate has the required 11mm margin at either end, and a 33mm space between the number and the last three letters.

Cheers,

Nige

[Bazza-old]

nige

Inspired by Zee's short front plate, I worked out that my personal reg' (consisting of a letter, a '1' digit, legally required space and three more letters) could fit in the front bumper slot for a Japanese plate and stay legal.

how is it "a letter" then one digit

looks like two to me ie: SN

????

[NigeSt]

Hey Kavey, i got my rear plate from Fancy plate yesterday morning and it is great, i wonder it is legal to have a motorcycle type plate with 2 lines like the one u got on the rear to fit the front bumper? if it is legal that will be great, if not i think i stick to the standard plate..

:D  :D  :D  :D

Hi,

This is the section Kavey is referring too for import cars...

Plates requirements for import cars

The import regulations allow for smaller fonts and spacing.

A motorbike plate must be on two lines (why??).

Nowhere in the regs does it specify the minimum (or indeed) width of the plate :P

IIRC, Mitsubushi EVOs usually have a square 'motorcycle' plate on the front to allow air flow through the lower grille. These aren't import cars.

I guess, as Kavey says, it's a grey area. I would like to think that with the specified font, correct margins & spaces etc then there would be no problems.... but then...

Ironically, I have a large size plate on the rear to nicely fill the rear boot lid space for a plate (Fancy Plates larger size).

I know Halfords used to do all sorts of odd shapes to fill the space on Peugeots or whatever - does anyone know if these are still available from high street plate suppliers?

As an aside, there's a letter in EVO mag this month asking how come the pictures of the Ferrari Enzo in last month's mag didn't have a front plate? The reply is that they carry one, but would offer the copper a ride in the Enzo to get off if pulled over :D

Cheers,

Nige

[NigeSt]

nige

Inspired by Zee's short front plate, I worked out that my personal reg' (consisting of a letter, a '1' digit, legally required space and three more letters) could fit in the front bumper slot for a Japanese plate and stay legal.

how is it "a letter" then one digit

looks like two to me ie: SN

????

The photoshopped photo is an anagram of the actual plate. There's a letter, a number, and three letters in there somewhere :winky:

[Bazza-old]

The photoshopped photo is an anagram of the actual plate. There's a letter, a number, and three letters in there somewhere :winky:

bring on carol vorderman........

[NigeSt]

bring on carol vorderman........

...please, no!

[Brian Berry]

I am a bit puzzled Nige,

Is it:

S Sierra

N November

1 as in number1

P Pappa

S Sierra

???

Great plate though!

[NigeSt]

I am a bit puzzled Nige,

Is it:

S Sierra

N November

1 as in number1

P Pappa

S Sierra

???

Great plate though!

Those are the characters yes - rearrange to make my actual plate

[Zee007]

That looks very nice mate.... and they are indeed legal as the last time I got pulled over by the police ( ) I asked....

[Fidgits]

Looks good Nige..

[dark_is200]

P-I-S-S-N ??

[imi]

Nige, on your reg plate, is there one of those signatures on the bottom right hand corner?

When i got pulled up by the :tsktsk: cops, he said that it ain't got one on so it's classed as a show plate, there fore i have to remove them and get the proper ones on..

This proper :tsktsk: peed me off...

[NigeSt]

Nige, on your reg plate, is there one of those signatures on the bottom right hand corner?

I assume you're referring to the postcode of the plate suppliers.

No, it doesn't However, I believe it conforms in every other way.

Perhaps I should write the postcode on

[Bazza-old]

Nige, on your reg plate, is there one of those signatures on the bottom right hand corner?

I assume you're referring to the postcode of the plate suppliers.

No, it doesn't However, I believe it conforms in every other way.

Perhaps I should write the postcode on

shouldalso have a BS mark

[imi]

bazza Posted on Jun 18 2003, 01:17 PM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

QUOTE (NigeSt @ Jun 18 2003, 02:14 PM)

QUOTE (imi @ Jun 18 2003, 07:45 AM)

Nige, on your reg plate, is there one of those signatures on the bottom right hand corner?

I assume you're referring to the postcode of the plate suppliers.

No, it doesn't  However, I believe it conforms in every other way.

Perhaps I should write the postcode on 

shouldalso have a BS mark 

Well in Bazza, :winky:

It's the BS Code (i didnt know the name) but thats it..don't mean the postcode, the nice :tsktsk: officer told me it's got to have that on now, and that they are stopping cars n checking for this (only new-ish ones), otherwise it's classed as a show plate.. :yack:

[Maz]

but what is this BS Code? never notice i have those on my standard plate?.. CONFUSED..hehe :iraqi-info-minister: