Originally Posted by bwiele

Nicely done!

Originally Posted by mreloc

Here's my take on the magnetic mount diy. I live in SoCal, and I frequently get ticketed, but only when parking on the street- so the plate needs to come off and on frequently. Went ahead and did this while I had the bumper off for the Rennline grill screens install on my 991.2 C4S. The bumper removal on a 991.2 is super easy and is documented well on this forum. My Quickjack rules!!!

I used some rare earth magnets with a hole in the middle and coated in epoxy that I bought off of Amazon for about $10. Used JB Weld Plastic Epoxy for bonding to the inside of the bumper, and a few stainless steel #6 screws, washers and locknuts to fasten to the license plate bracket. I opted to use the holes in the original front plate bracket since they are contoured to fit the contours of the bumper. I used some rubber furniture skids to add a little bit of cushion and resist slipping. This method results in a plate mount not sitting quite flush to the bumper, but that is what I wanted to reduce the risk of friction/marring of the bumper.



Bumper comes off easiy as a one-man job without the need to remove headlights



I was concerned about how much clearance there might be between the skin of the bumper and the rigid foam substructure behind it, however I didn't have any fitment problems with the magnets that were glued on the inside of the cover.



Magnets fastened with stainless steel screws and locknuts behind




Readily available rubber furniture pads




Identical magnets used on the receiving side of the bumper. 5 minute epoxy is the way to go! (after cleaning with isopropyl alcohol)



Plate mount slaps on and off with a nice padded thud. About 1/8" clearance between plate mount and bumper.

Originally Posted by Ecosse911

Nicely done

I think your method takes the execution to the next level and I would like to replicate. Have your experienced any issues with the install? The only potential issue may have been the strength of the magnet which was likely thinner than the OPs. Did you also use non magnetic grade stainless washers? I assume so as the magnetic field would shunt into the washer, but this would be still be ok if it was thin and became saturated.

Can you post some details of the materials you used, magnets and the hardware.

Thanks

Originally Posted by bwiele

I had seen a thread on the 6Speed forum years ago where someone had used rare earth magnets to attach their front license plate bracket rather than screws or the very unattractive off-center, parking sensor complicating tow hook solution. I always wanted to do this, so my plan was figure out what I would need and then glue the magnets to the inside of the bumper when I took it off to install the Rennline front grilles that I was planning to get.

As I posted in another thread, I ended up visiting Rennline last week so they could do a final test fit of their screens for the 991.2 GTS. In anticipation of that, I reached out to a company called K&J Magnetics (kjmagnetics.com) to get a recommendation for what size and strength of magnets I should use. We decided on 4 of each of these:



Part numbers are BX084BR-N52 AND DC6BR-N52 and they are rubber coated.

I then took the stock license plate bracket:



I roughed up the areas where I planned to place the magnets (very close to where the screws would go) with a little sandpaper:



And then used some 3M 5200 Black Marine Epoxy to secure the magnets to the plate (if I were to do this again, I would use JB Weld Epoxy instead of the 3M Epoxy because the 3M stuff takes SEVEN DAYS to cure. Lucky thing I was planning ahead:



Two other things I would do differently after going through the full install process: don't put too much epoxy on top of the magnet, I ended up having to sand it down to get the plate to sit flush. Additionally, the lower 2 magnets should be moved up 1/2"-1" higher because the plastic center fill insert partially blocked where I had put them.

While the bumper was off for the fitting of the grilles, I used the JB Weld (which sets in 5 minutes and fully cures in an hour and is readily available on Amazon or in the store) to attach the inside magnets.



You can see in this picture where we had to "field modify" the plastic insert to notch it where I needed the magnets to go based on where I put them on plate bracket:



I let the JB Weld cure and grabbed a bite of lunch, then the bumper was put back on and voila:



After sanding down the epoxy on the back of the mounting plate, this sits exactly flush as if it were screwed on and the strength of these magnets is really impressive. It takes a pretty good tug to get the plate off. The person on 6Speed that did this said he had driven over 100mph with this plate on the front and there's no sign that it ever moved at all. The bracket has a guide to automatically center the plate on the car, so it's easy to find the center. I've only driven locally with mine so far, but I'm pretty comfortable that this will only come off when I want to pull it off. I'll update this thread from time to time confirming that I still have a front plate!

(I don't plan to leave it on most of the time. But when I travel in the area around NYC there's a higher risk of getting stopped. In 5.5 years of ownership of my Panamera I was stopped 3 times for not having the front plate on. Twice I was just given a warning, once I was given a ticket. I plan to just put it on when I'm in the higher risk areas, and if I'm stopped without it, I will just say that when I washed the car I forgot to put it back on, and would it make a difference if I just put it on now? Then take it out of the frunk and pop it on. We'll see how it goes!)

I hope others can benefit from this!

- Brian

Originally Posted by Riz

Is there a way to do this without removing front bumper? Is there some access panel for getting there either from the top or underneath?

Originally Posted by Riz

Is there a way to do this without removing front bumper? Is there some access panel for getting there either from the top or underneath?

Originally Posted by Zeus993

Sorry to be such a HACK but I don't like putting anything on my bumpers or even up over them so I've been using Scotch All-weather double-sided tape to secure my front plates. Like some have done, with my 993, I drove it for 3 years without and no problem, but there still that constant "when am I getting pulled" that exists when driving.

With the new CT, it's a bit, errrr, RED, and feel it will attract a bit of attention. So I've done the following "Euro" Front License Plate Hack by bending the plate to thin out the appearance and attaching it to the centre grill area (blank, non-functional) with the double-sided tape and I think it looks pretty good. The tape is STRONG and the plate is not going anywhere.

Technically, I'm still "damaging" the front plate and can get a ticket for it. It that happens I think I'll just take it off, but in the meantime, I like the thinner look of it.