jonnybgood

Hahaha, no not selling anything! Last night I had my choice of posting about my upcoming VW 36hp dual motor 4WD 944 conversion or practicing posting with pictures. I thought that since everyone last night was going for jet engines, sentra engines and any engine I would keep it German. Those posts have all been moved this morning.

So I did this instead. I lost some quality on the pictures in Photoshop but it turned out ok.

Nothing to sell just turn over the stock mount and bend it a little. Seems some people like it.

EZRider

Sounds like a plan, thanks. Yep I've read about this trick somewhere from a 944 FAQ.

dave120

Wow I had noticed that before on my car too...another project to do while I'm out there next time!

IceShark

I just looked at this and there is no way you can do as he describes without hitting the body sheet metal with the frame or license plate. No thanks as to wearing a hole through to bare metal. The angles are too radical and there is that upper curve in the sheet metal.

To get the plate moved up significantly, you would have to bend the frame quite a bit or shave or bush the rubber seating blocks but then the license plate is almost in front of the license plate lights, especially if you have a plate frame like Danno has in his picture.

awilson40

If you do it right it wont hit anything.
I did mine a year ago and its well away from any edge.
And also have a large Porsche frame around the plate too.

83 TX 944

Why does everyone think that the insert, that was previously there, looks hideous? IMHO it looks better than holes or a patch job. I have one, and it does light up. However, I don't have the porsche sticker above the rear bumper that most other 944's have, so the over board doesn't apply here. I also chopped off a part of the 9 in the 944 badge so it doesn't look like a g anymore. Anyone care to share?

SamGrant951

Everyone has their own opinion on the light panel, lets not go there.

re: the license plate mod, I did this prob 3 years ago and havent looked at it since but mine required cutting the ends with a hacksaw so as the frame did not hit the body of the car. Take it off, flip it, mark it, cut it, install-drink beer.

EZRider

Seems to me this is an excellent opportunity for an enterprising business individual to make a few custom cut/bent/whatever gizmo of this thing Rubber backed coating with matching bracket screws is a plus!!

tifosiman

Yes, I had to cut about 1.5" off mine, IIRC.

pete944

I did that on my 85.5 before i found Rennlst and it was one the first things I did on the S2. I had to cut a good bit off my bracket too.


OMG, Carrot Top is back, he's creepier than the clowns.

IceShark

See, cutting 1 1/2" off is quite a different story than 5mm. And if you have to clip off 1 1/2" that means the top of the license plate will be about 1 1/2" below the the bottom of the sill/ rear light assembly face, probably more, actually.

I'm eyeballing this and if you leave the bracket and rubber pads flat you can only raise the plate by 3/4". My plate and frame happen to be about the same hight as the lights. So I would have to do something about the angle to move the top of the plate out of the top sill radius to get it to line up in a somewhat similar fashion as the tail light lines. And that is where you start to run pretty darn close to the 2 plate lights. Like maybe even block part of them off.

Danno

"Looks like I am missing something. Is Danno selling some sort of realignment kit for rear license plates? "

No, I'm not going to be charging people to drill two holes! I think there may be different license-plate brackets out there. Here's mine flipped upside down:


The way the holes were drilled in the body on my car angled the tops of the bracket inwards. Or perhaps it was the rubber bushings. But the length of the longer arm prevented the holes from lining up between the body and the bracket. So I just chopped off about 5mm from the ends and they actually fit right into the corner between the vertical and horizontal surfaces. With the plate mounted, it's in exactly the same plane as before, so there isn't any differences in illumination. It's actually brighter because the numerals are closer to the bulb. Here's what it looks like at night with my 2-way bulb conversion for the empty center-light socket:



Not to mention that when the constable is following you, his headlights will be illuminating your plate anyway...

IceShark

Danno, something strange is certainly going on. Which car did you do this to? I have a TS and they rolled the fender lips at the factory, I wonder if they did a different radius on the sill? But then tail lights wouldn't be interchangeable. Maybe it is the rubber bushings, where the mounting frame holes were punched or the mounting frame itself.

How close did you get the license plate to the top of the taillights looking square on?

Bill

I used the front plate mount and shelved the rear mount.

The front plate mount, using the stock rear hole, will center perfectly in the recess. No new holes to drill. No modification of the mount.

You will loose the front plate, but that is the configuration that I want my car in. If you want a front plate, just buy another front mount.

IceShark

Bill, err, my car has never had a front plate in all its life. LOL!