(First post) Lic. Plate rear bracket issue
 

First I just wanna say I stumbled across this club and I must say, it is like a oasis in the middle of the desert. I live in the Monterey Bay and I'm really excited to just have a forum to discuss this. I love my car so much, its scary and to find others with the same condition is like... an online Alcoholics Anonymous drinking party or something. I dunno but nonetheless, I look forward to interacting wit you guys and meeting up.

Now please be kind. I don't have all the time in the world to go through every topic, and my internet connection is 1956gay, plus my computer has just about finished its lifetime of use. so heres my first issue which I couldn't even get resolved by the dealershit. my apologies if this has been covered prior to my posting.

Yaknow the rear licenseplate backing? that black mount thing. because of how they made it, theres no screw holes in the back of the p5 to just attach a license plate by itself. in other words, the screwholes on the license plate alone don't match with the holes in the car. I wanted to get a Montego Chrome Vanity frame from Kragen, but unfortunately it doesn't fit over the black mounting thing provided by Mazda. Also, any mounting brackets from Kragen won't even attach to the car because the holes to attach also do not line up. The dealership conceded to the fact that it is a major inconvenience, but provided no help.
I know that if I could drill into the car and simply make holes to line up with the plate, it would work, but I would rather explore other options before putting more holes in my baby.

So how should I go about this?

I'm open to any suggestions, and I'd appreciate input. I'm willing to drill into my car if neccessarry because the license plate would cover the prior holes anyway, but I have no experience with metal drilling and I don't know how to go about it.

Once again I'd like to offer my apologies up front if my ignorance exceeds your patience, but I'm just another Pro5 lover. Thanks.

First things first...Slinky, Welcome to our happy little corner of the net, and to our Club. There are TWO BIG fridge'S in the corner with anything you can think of in them...help yourself...of course only take what you can LEGALLY have.

make yourself at home on one of the big fluffy couches, kick your shoes off, put your feet up on one of the tables, yes we are allowed to do that, mom don't care....and take it easy.

oh...btw....every once in a while a food fight breaks out...so you may not want to wear nice clothes here.

Welcome!!

NOW...please do NOT just drill holes in the back of your hatch for your plate....it will do a few things...one give the evil rust monster a place to start his attack...and another possibly water intrusion into the hatch as well. IF I WERE YOU, and wanted this plate frame so bad...spend the money to have a custom mounting made that will match the existing holes in your hatch...and the holes in the plate.

The holes for the license plates are drilled out for Japanese license plates. Mazda saved themselves some money by not having to make seperate sheet metal for the North American market. Instead, anything that is exported here will have the plastic bracket.

here is what i did
 

I believe the previous post is correct, which says tha the license plate holes are spaced for J-spec license plates. They add a plastic adaptor to accomodate US plates.

I wanted to screw my plate directly to the car, too, so here is what I did.

Using the adaptor holes as a template, mark the location of the Japanese holes on the back of your U.S. plate. Then drill through the U.S. plate where the Japanese holes are. Cover the U.S. holes with electric tape that most closely matches the color of the plate.

Get yourself a sheet of thin magnetic vinyl -- the kind they use for kitchen magnets -- from a craft store. Trace your license plate onto the vinyl, including your new J-spec holes. Cut it out.

Attach the magnetic material to the back of your license plate, and then use the OEM screws to screw your plate into the Japanese holes.

The vinyl backer is to keep the plate from scratching up your paint job, and because it's magnetic, it'll keep the plate tight against the car so nothing gets in there.

If enough people care to see how it came out, I can post a picture later today.

Yes, it sucks. The funny thing is that now Honda (Civic) has the same stupid adapter plate. And I also hate the front one too. Its so big you can almost put two plates in there.:rolleyes:

Re: here is what i did
 

I'd love to see pictures. Also how did you get the OEM plastic adapter off?

Thanks!

Jay

http://www.craytech.com/drew/temp/p5rear.JPG

That's kind of a crappy picture, so you can't see the red electric tape covering the holes on the license plate, but you can see that the adaptor is gone.

I seem to recollect that the OEM adaptor had little plastic tabs that you opened up to reveal the screws holding it into the hatch. I can't remember, though.