I never explored how it is attached to the car, it is a pretty solid mount with multiple holes to mount different types of plates. It is the essence of German engineering! I will look at it next year when I have to take the tag off and put a new sticker on it.

 

Certainly don't rush on our account...

And besides the point is moot, out back the bumper has a raised area and pre-defined places for the screws to go in, whether the plate is naked or trimmed with a surround the screws are needed and most of us do something to reduce or eliminate the chance that the plate rubs... out front that is a subject for completely separate thread, actually no, definitely not, we have enough front plate mounting threads already!

 

I was surprised at this as well. No other car I have owned has been like this. I didn't even realize it until I went to put my permanent plate on after coming home from PECATL with my temp tag - which they installed.

As for the OP's issue, in Delaware we have special plates that can be remade in the same style the original plates were made when first issued. For the plate on my GT4, it is a porcelain coated plate. To prevent damaging the plate and the car, we use rubber grommets that go in the holes. It provides a 1/4 inch of rubber spacer between the plate and the car. You can just barely make them out in the picture below behind the bolt cover caps

.

 

looks like you should be running moonshine across state lines with that plate
and a tommy gun in the frunk

 

Cravenspeed Platypus. When I had my 991.2 Targa GTS a guy made mounting plates to keep the plate about 1/4" off the car, and prevented holes from being drilled into the car at the dealer. However, he does not make them for the 718 so I had to come up with another idea and that is hopefully the solution, which will be tested when my Spyder arrives next month. It was developed for mounting a front plate but when I saw their design it appears it will work for the rear, and they agree. And it also allows water to run down without accumulating and leaving water spots, but I like it since the plate appears to be floating!

 

Just finished installing my rear plate with these washers. Got them at Home Depot in the, believe it or not, toilet section. Didn’t know what size would work so figured I would buy the multi pack. Ended up using the 1/4 size. Interesting that they have 1/4 and a 1/4L size with the L being just a smidge bigger.

Installed my rear plate using all four screws. Didn’t want to use just the top two because then that would allow the bottom
part of the plate and frame to still move around with vibration from the car hitting all of the bumps in the road. By using all four, I stop all of that movement and now only the four rubber washers are touching the car’s paint.

Didn’t like installing the plate and frame onto the car without the washers because the bottom part of the plate and frame was pressed onto the outward curvature of the rear bumper just above the rear diffuser.

 

As other users have mentioned, I'm pretty surprised Porsche doesn't have some sort of mount for the plate. It looks like the older models (987) had them but not the newer ones. My BMW has a plastic mount w/ 4 threaded holes, I would've expected the same quality from Porsche.

Does anyone know if there are at least 4 pilot holes for the screws? Or does the dealer just eyeball it when they're putting the screws in?

 

There are 4 pilot holes but I was surprised at how basic this part of the car was. It's literally four pilot holes that you screw into with no fittings, mount, or anything. It's straight up raw into the bumper. This is the first time in my life that I put so much effort into mounting a license plate. Dang, first world problems.

 

The difference here is that the actual plastic mounting plate is put on once and never removed again. Car companies who do this actually mount them nice and solidly to the car. If you buy a new license plate, it just goes on the plastic mounting plate. Screwing directly into the plastic bumper, every time you take your license plate off you're damaging the thread some more. Eventually, as you know, the thread strips.
I'm amazed that Porsche gets so many "By's" by so many on these forums for things that Porsche has done badly. There's always a way to rationalize bad design it seems.

 

Great idea! Would you like to sell me a few so i can do the same? Seems like you have a lot!!!

 

You would literally be better off just going to your local Home Depot and buying them there. I wouldn't even bother selling them to you as the cost to ship to you would more than likely far outweigh the cost of you just running to your local Home Depot or you can pick them up from me but it looks like you're in FL so that will also be cost prohibitive. It would make for a good excuse to take a long drive though.

I shared the size I used to help others so they didn't have to buy the multi pack like I did and they're like a little under $2 for a pack of say 8 or 10 washers in a particular size. Again, I used the 1/4 size because when I put the washer up against the plate, it was just small enough to lay flat on the plate. For CA plates, the surrounding edge is kind of lifted up (from the back) so if I went any bigger, the washer wouldn't lay flat because an edge of the washer would have been pressed up by the surrounding lip of the plate(from the back of the plate perspective.) Don't know about plates for other states so can't help there but I will say that I actually took my plate, frame, and screw to Home Depot to try and test out the washers. Some of the washer packages were sealed so I just figured I would buy the multi pack to be safe.

 

Has anyone thought about using pre-threaded rivet nuts? Seems like a much better solution than just screwing directly into the bumper, not sure if there are any downsides. Found this picture from a user on another forum:

 

Well that looks very nice and quite honestly, that it what I expected from the factory instead of the four little dimples that the dealer just screwed into. You mentioned that you found this picture from another user on another forum? Would you be able to link the thread here or gather some more information to share as I'm sure others would be interested in this set up. It definitely looks much cleaner and if I may say, how it should have come from the factory. It would appear that the person probably used a drill to open up the hole and then inserted those into the holes. How are they keeping those in place so they don't fall out?

 

Here is the thread: https://www.718forum.com/threads/pro...9/#post-230214

As you said, this is what I'd expect from the factory. I think the threaded bit is riveted on from the back. Looks like there are tools to install it without needing to access the back side, and I assume you have to drill out the hole to get the threaded insert in.

 

If everyone can give me a little time I am working on these with someone right now. They will be plate mounting blocks to keep the plate off the car and so that one does not have to drill into the car if you have not already.