Curse you americans who don't have to have a front plate!!! ARGH!!!!

 

not long ago i was looking at that license plate, wondering how porsche would make such an error. perhaps there are overhang clearance standards, who knows? well, i saw this post earlier this afternoon and i did the "conversion" an hour ago. i wanted to retain the bottom screws, so i altered the procedure a little. this is how i did it:

-- remove and flip the bracket. grind about 4-5 mm off the upper part of the bracket as danno describes.
-- remove the plastic seating blocks (used bolts with nuts on the back instead)
-- used pointed grinding stone drill bit to effectively increase the height of the bracket hole by grinding the bottom edge of the hole; likewise, grinding the top part of the hole on your license plate helps too. (i didn't tell you to do that.)

with this method, there is very little clearance at the top of the plate, but there is, indeed clearance; so no threat of grinding metal. the plate sits completely behind the plate lights, so there's no issues there.

 

I did this to my car a long time ago, so far ago I didn't even remember it until now. I did it by flipping and drilling the bracket. But now I think I'll change it for a front bracket, which is somewhere collecting dust...

 

I'm using the front bracket in the rear as well. No muss, no fuss.

 

Hey Tx, I didn't say it was hideous. I didn't like mine because the license plate move was a hatchet job as far as the plate light was concerned. Also the insert had three lamps of which two worked. I agree that the insert continues the lines on the rear but it was not for me. If you like it keep it. Of course now I have the holes to deal with! Thanks to IceShark I went to the hardware store and found plastic hole plugs that I will paint so that should be an improvement.

I was a bit simplistic in my description earlier. You do need to do the mods as Danno suggested. I was in too much of a hurry and I do need to trim from the bracket and protect from the tips of the plate screws.

Cheers.

 

Here's how you can fill up the holes in the body and bumper easily. Get a 3/4" round thin metal disc, like 1mm thick. Find them at Home Depot, they can be found as the punched-out filler for electrical socket boxes (the ones that mount inside the walls). Or you can just cut some from 1/16" plate.

Then sand it really well; also the back side of those holes. Then epoxy it to the back of the holes. Let dry and you should have an air- and water-tight seal. Once the disc has firmly been affixed on the back side, fill up the depressed hole on the front side with Bondo. Use a plastic putty knife and scrape across the top to level the Bondo to the same surface as the surrounding metal. Let the Bondo dry up, if it's still depressed below the surface of the metal due to shrinkage, then add another layer.

Once the Bondo has cured, lightly sand with 400-grit wet-or-dry sandpaper (wet). The sanding should blend in the edges of the hole with the bondo. Don't sand more than necessary to get a smooth surface or else you'll sand a depression into the filled hole. Then paint over it with touch-up paint. You'd need to get closer than 10" to be able to see the patch job.

 

Have you done this? Pics?

 

I haven't done this to a 944's rear that had the light-panel installed. But I have filled in the alarm keyhole. Also filled in a couple of door-handles and keyholes on some ricers as well. If you do it carefully, it doesn't require repainting the entire panel. Just color-sand it at the very end.

 

Yeah, I have gone through this procedure mentally. One problem I have is the left hole for the removed panel light is right in the middle of the option sticker on the inside! At least the jackass had enough sense to pull the option sticker off enough to not drill through it. To do the proper patch job I will have to peel it off the rest of the way without tearing it, or take a picture of it or I don't know just leave the plugs in it. Anyway Jeeper Danno outlined a do able procedure there if you don't want to use plugs.

 

I JUST did the install on my car, WOW!!! I can't even speak it is SO much better. I want to get a few parts of my car touched up by a good person so I will have them fill in the holes anyways, but I just want to say thank you to danno and everyone else. This thread made me just hope up off of my butt and do it, something I have wanted to do for a LONG time!! Thanks

 

I just drilled a new set of bracket mounting holes in the bracket high above the original ones , and it worked fine. Bent the bracket to bring it out from the top lip

 

Glad you guys are enjoying this. Once you see how much better it looks you just gotta do it. Danno has good taste!