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

arter

nice, thanks for the instructions, just ordered the magnets

also had read about someone doing this on their car a while ago.

zx5go

Do you have PPF on the bumper or something else to protect the paint?

flickroll

What a great idea. I will order the magnets and I install on the GTS when it comes in.

I think for the front bumper magnets, 3M VHB double sided tape would work great to hold the magnets, as the force being applied to the bumper magnet by the plate bracket magnet would tend to keep the bumper magnet in place in the first place (and the 3M tape would prevent the magnet from moving), and would avoid having to use epoxy on the bumper. The plate bracket magnets definitely need to be epoxied. Also, if the black plastic insert below the plate bracket can be removed without removing the bumper, you might be able to do this with the bumper in place. In any event, excellent idea!

bwiele

Yes, the front end of the car is wrapped in PPF. But so far I see no effect from the bracket being on.

Gus_Smedstad

I'd like to say in passing that K&J Magnetics is great. They're a niche company, but very very into what interesting things you can do with magnets. This sort of project is the sort of thing they love to mess with, just because they find unusual applications interesting. They offer a wide range of magnets, and some of them are very strong indeed.

CDH911C2S

Great idea----I also used griplock (velcro) on previous 997---I had PPF so I wasnt worried about paint damage and damn that griplock held the plate---and no holes in the bumper

Cheers

extanker

dear god save me

bwiele

yes, but the problem is the griplock staying on the bumper when you don't want the plate on!

PCA1983

Wouldn't it be nice if police spent more time stopping crime and pursuing criminals, as opposed to stopping taxpayers for not displaying a useless front license plate?

drcollie

I haven't run a front place on my Porsches or Aston Martins since 2008. one ticket in 9 years, $ 100. Well worth it, just a cost of ownership for me. Those plates on the front just ruin the aesthetics of a nice car - the tickets are cheap.

texasviany

25+ years of no front plate. Stopped once while crossing the Canadian border! I acted like...."holy ****...where did it fall off"!

flickroll

For the ones who don't run a front plate even though you are required by law to have one, try doing that trick in Northern Virginia (DC area). You WILL get pulled over, and frequently. I live in Central Virginia and so far have gotten away without having the front tag (i.e. Never been pulled over for that- but I have a friend that was) but am still going to do the magnet trick for the plate bracket. I agree the front plate ruins the look of the car. As always, YMMV

flickroll

My magnets came today, and HOLY COW are they strong. Unbelievable given the size of them. This is going to work great; many thanks to OP for the idea! I do not intend to use the front bracket on a regular basis (most of the time will not), and will instead use OP's idea of carrying it in the frunk, and if pulled over just say 'Doh! Forgot to put it on after a detail job!'. Hope that works...if it doesn't I'll develop a Plan B. For those worried about it marring the paint, just sick on some fuzzy velcro at the contact points on the bracket so problem should be solved. I do think if PPF is on the car it won't be a problem anyway.

Archimedes

Seems like a lot of work when there are other solutions, like the Skene mount that are fairly easy to take on and off and leave no visible marks. Also, the Carbonio spring loaded mount for the GT3/GT4/Spyder looks like it could mount on the front of a basic Carrera with just a couple minor openings cut in the black plastic in the center of the air dam. But to each his own.