Opinions Please: Frontal plate or no?

[Smudgey]

Hi everyone,

I have a quick question for everyone. Living here in Florida, you don't need a frontal plate. Since we bought my Forte 4DR EX, it has been wearing a Union Jack on the front (I was born in England and moved to America 6 1/2 years ago), but I am seeing more and more Fortes out on the road with no plate and I'm starting to wonder if it was such a good idea.

Obviously, appearance is purely subjective, but what you guys think, should I remove the Union Jack for a smoother, more cohesive look, or should I leave it on, because it already has a white background and adds contrast to the black plastic/white paint/silver chrome car?

If I should remove it, are there any sort of paint color or transparent plugs I could place in the screw holes? I don't really want a bunch of dead meat (insects) collecting in there during the lovebug season.

The pictures without the plate are from when we first got the car, but it has not changed as I have applied no mods to it.

[ItsaRuck!]

Don't need one in NM either. The car looks much better without.

[Smudgey]

First thing this morning I woke up and read the thread/votes, performed my bi-weekly fluid and tire pressure check, and removed the plate. I put the screws back in but I'll probably paint them soon to match the car.

Look much better?




Excuse the awfully messy garage, please!

[Chino Koup]

With out plate or screws.

[Smudgey]

Chino Koup,

I would love to just remove the screws and forget about it, but I'm not sure if the holes/the area around them would rust. Being a naturally impatient teenager, we (I got permission from my father to do this and he didn't object to putting the plate on without a bracket) didn't pick up a bracket and just screwed the plate in to the pilot holes, thus making them significantly larger and a bit gaudy.

I'm not sure if I could just leave them open without damaging the car, so my plans were to just paint the screws a matching white color in a sort of better-safe-than-sorry way.

If you could advise me on the situation at all, it'd be great, but I already I know kind of screwed up (excuse the pun).

Smudgey

(11-25-2011 12:43 AM)Chino Koup Wrote:  With out plate or screws.

[Chino Koup]

The front bumper cover is plastic and any metal bumper or bracket under the plastic would never rust enough to care about in 30 years if it even if it could rusted at all. Any metal part under the bumper is probably painted anyways. Never looked on these cars.

The from plate on my car had additional 2 or 3 more holes in the plastic where the plate mount was mounted. Lucky for me the black holes don't show up too much against black paint. You get use to them and eventually you forget about the small holes.

Your plate is nice looking if it is your look. If you wanted to fill the holes there are small plastic rivets or plastic trim plugs that can pop into the holes to fill them but will still look like an insert of some sort. Not much you can do without visiting an auto body shop and see what they have to offer. I just don't think it's worth the money or the time. They don't show that much.

Here is So. Cal, I've been ticketed twice in different vehicles for not having a front plate, so I keep a screwdriver and screws handy to install the plate again if I get pulled over.

[Smudgey]

(11-26-2011 03:28 AM)Chino Koup Wrote:  The front bumper cover is plastic and any metal bumper or bracket under the plastic would never rust enough to care about in 30 years if it even if it could rusted at all. Any metal part under the bumper is probably painted anyways. Never looked on these cars.

The from plate on my car had additional 2 or 3 more holes in the plastic where the plate mount was mounted. Lucky for me the black holes don't show up too much against black paint. You get use to them and eventually you forget about the small holes.

Your plate is nice looking if it is your look. If you wanted to fill the holes there are small plastic rivets or plastic trim plugs that can pop into the holes to fill them but will still look like an insert of some sort. Not much you can do without visiting an auto body shop and see what they have to offer. I just don't think it's worth the money or the time. They don't show that much.

Here is So. Cal, I've been ticketed twice in different vehicles for not having a front plate, so I keep a screwdriver and screws handy to install the plate again if I get pulled over.

Ah, I see - I'll look into those plastic rivets. Thankfully, the state of Florida doesn't require people have two plates - they have enough trouble trying to get the rear plates out of people's tinted back windows.