I have this weird situation where the top right screw of the license plate fell off. More specifically the holder where the screw goes into fell off out of the metal. So in my trunk I basically have a hole in the metal where the hole screw apparatus happens to be.

I know its just a matter of time before the OTHER screw falls off, and I'm pondering the best way to repair this. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

dealership if it's under warrenty. If not, a bolt, nut, and a couple of washers from your local home improvement store should do the trick. Oh and some touch up paint if it needs it.

 

yea.. its definitely out of warranty (1st gen). Problem is the bolt fell out of the trunk leaving a hole. I'm pondering whether to buy a metal sheet, attach that to the trunk, then attach the bolt to the new plate covering the hole...

 

If you could snap a quick picture I could be more helpful here.

 

The red is where the affected area is. But the left nut is about to fall off also.


Here is the damaged area.


I'm thinking maybe I can drill a new hole and shift the license plate.. but it may look a bit awkward..

 

I would drill it out till you get a clean edge, then get some touch up paint and touch up the unpainted edges. Then I'd go to your local home improvement store and get a nut, bolt, washer, lock washer set up that fits through the plate and use that to keep it on. I'd also invest in a good washing, a clay kit, and some wax cause it looks like you could use it.

 

hey itchytoe, thanks for your feedback so far. So when drilling a new hole, would I simply just drill a hole like slightly to the right of the current hole?

 

I'd try to round out the hole that's already there. Just make that one bigger. That way you don't have to relocate your plate which would look funny. If you don't want to drill into the car, you could get away with just cleaning up the edge that's already there with some sandpaper and touching up the inside area so it doesn't have any rust problems. Then just sandwich the hole between a couple of washers on your bolt and add a small spacer (probably just some more washers) to keep the plate in it's original position and not skewed and tighten everything up.
That is of course, unless someone else knows of a better way to do it.