Fiesta Mk8 ST3 Registration licence plate removal refitting.

[Gaz1000SX]

Both plates had been fitted carelessly on my recent purchase to the extent that after cleaning the car your eyes were drawn to them. They had drilled half through one of the digits and overlapped with the background both front and back, also the screws used were dribbling a rusty streak and the plates themselves were losing their backing in places. I suspect the previous may have had personalised plates and swapped them out? Anyway who knows.

I decided to change them for a nice legal set of raised gel types from a local accessory shop, also to fit them with double sided fixings to do away with the screws.

After much fannying about with spacing here is the benefit of my experience.

I bought 2 x packs of 3  "Number plate fixers 6mm adhesive spacer pads" from Halfords  and 10 x 2mm number plate fixing double sided pads from amazon.

Both front and back you need to watch where you place the pads on the rear of the plate. This is due to curvature of the body on the front and also on both there are raised areas on the bodywork for the screw fixings.

I measured the width of the old plates in situ to find the mid point and used a white board marker to mark the middle on the bodywork to make it easier refitting the new ones. The rear is most straightforward. When I removed mine there is a foam sticker behind the plate but it came off very easily once you get a start on an edge of it. I always have a can of "Sticky Stuff" remover on the shelf for any residue, or alcohol rubbing.

For the rear I used 4 x 6mm foam pads, just be careful to space them to avoid the raised areas on the bodywork.

For the front I used 2 of the 2mm stickers stuck on top of each other to form two 4mm pads either side of the middle and a 6mm pad at either end to allow for the curvature.

I know this sounds long winded but honestly I did use quite a copious amount of sub mariner language before I got this right so I hope it helps someone else out! - Oh and the plates look 100% better!