It's always a buzz buying a new personalised registration, but there remains the question of getting the plates onto the vehicle - and even before that, removing the old plates. Fortunately, you can do this yourself, and in most cases it won't be difficult.
There are some things you'll need in order to get the job done without interrupting your flow. Depending on whether you're fitting with screws or sticky pads, you'll need...
FOR STICKY PADS
- A sticky/adhesive pads fixing kit.
- A piece of thin wire, such as a fishing line (only necessary if you have to remove old plates that were fitted with adhesive pads).
- Detergent and water, plus a cloth - to clean the vehicle surface behind the plates so that your pads will stick reliably.
FOR SCREWS
- A screws and plastic covers fixing kit.
- A cross-head screwdriver.
- A drill with a 6mm bit.
- A marker pen or bradawl for marking the hole positions on the back of your new plates.
- A decorator's scraper (may be necessary if you need to prise off non-hinged screw covers on the old plates).
- A piece of scrap wood for absorbing the drill behind the new plates.
REMOVING THE PREVIOUS PLATES
Your old plates may be fixed with screws, or using sticky pads / double-sided tape / another adhesive variation. You can find instructions relevant to both adhesive fittings and screw fittings below:
PADS OR TAPE FIXINGS
To remove plates that were fitted with sticky pads or tape, it's often suggested that you simply pull at the plate until it comes off. However, the adhesion of the pads can be such that pulling hard causes damage to the surface behind the old plate. Fortunately, there is a less haphazard way to do the job. Sliding strong, thin wire behind the plate and then using a lateral slicing motion to cut through the pads, means you're attacking the adhesive pads, and not the vehicle. Once you've cut through all of the pads and the plate has come away, you can see what's left behind the plate and clean things up with a clear view.
SCREW FITTINGS
To access the screws in your existing plates you may first need to remove or open a set of dome-shaped plastic covers. These may be hinged caps, which you should be able to open by sliding a fingernail into the groove a short way down the depth of the cap. Once a hinged cap is open you can access the screw head to remove the screw. If the caps are of a different design, you may need to prise them off by sliding a scraper utensil under the cap and then gently levering it upward. But check whether the cover is a hinged cap first, as the bases of the hinged caps usually sit under the screw heads, so each screw will need to come out before the base of the cap is released.
Removing the screws should enable you to pull the old plates away from their fixings. You might want to hang onto the old screws. They might prove more suitable than the new ones under specific circumstances.
FITTING THE NEW PLATES
There's a choice to make before we can get started with the fitting:
ADVICE ON MAKING THE CHOICE BETWEEN SCREWS AND FIXING PADS
Generally speaking, using sticky pads should make things easier in the short term, but may complicate things a little in the future.
If you use screws, you'll need to drill holes in your new plates. And if the previous plates were fitted with screws, you'll need to plot the position of the old screws on the new plates before you drill the holes. If you're using pads, it won't matter how the old plates were fitted, and you won't need a drill.
However, if you choose to fix with sticky pads, although the adhesion is very strong, you may find that it weakens over a number of years. And because pads can also bond a plate very firmly to the vehicle, removing plates that were fitted with pads may be less straightforward than removing plates that were fitted with standard screws.
PRELIMINARIES
Before getting started, remove the thin film that protects the new plates. It's only there to keep them pristine before they reach you.
TO FIT YOUR NEW PLATES WITH SCREWS
Start by marking the position of any old screw holes on the new plates. If the old plates were fitted with adhesive pads, you won't have a ready-made template for the screw-hole positioning, so it may be best just to use sticky pads again. But if you do want to fit your new plates with screws and you have no holes in the old plates, you can make an intermediate template to accurately transfer the correct hole positions over to your new plates.
To make a template, place each new plate onto a piece of paper and trace a line around it, making sure you keep each plate's piece of paper identified as front or rear. Then, cut out the paper plate profiles marked by the line you drew. Next, hold each paper plate template in position over the plateless vehicle and make holes where the vehicle's screw mounts are.
For front and rear respectively, place either the old plate or your template over the new plate, and carefully mark the positions of the holes. Make sure you mark the back of the new plate - not the front. You might want to push a bradawl through the old plate's holes and indent the rear surface of the new plate - which will give you a key for drilling. You're now set up to drill your holes from the rear of each new plate, where you've put your place-markers.
Before you drill, make sure you have some waste wood behind the plate to absorb the drill bit after it goes through the plate. When drilling, as strictly as possible keep the bit at a perfect right angle to the plate
With the holes opened up, it's now just a matter of attaching the new plate.
Most screw kits come with plastic, hinged screw caps. Normally the base of the cap goes under the screw head, and in that case you'll need to place the base of each cap over the hole before you drive in the screw. Once the screw is tight, you can then simply flip over the hinged plastic cap to seal it.
TO FIT YOUR NEW PLATES WITH STICKY PADS
It's really important to make sure the surface of the vehicle, where you intend to fit the new plate, is clean. Detergent such as washing up liquid will help remove any grease - which is likely to be the culprit in poor adhesion.After that, the fitting of a plate with sticky pads should be plain sailing. The pads will be ready to stick once you peel off their backing, so be aware that they're pretty powerful, and plan where each one is going to go before you expose the adhesive. Be sure to distribute the pads well, close to the corners and edges of the plate, but leaving a little "breathing space" so there's no danger of a pad becoming visible once the plate is fitted. This, in combination with a good, clean surface on the vehicle, should make for a firm and secure fix. After you've attached the pads to the reverse of the plate, carefully align it, and then push it firmly onto the vehicle. Job done.
IN SUMMARY
Fixing a new set of plates with adhesive pads will be the best choice if you're looking for minimum hassle, and seeking to avoid the accurate marking and drilling of screw holes - which is not a straightforward task for everyone.
Screw fitting might be better if you want to increase the durability of the fix. It might also be a better option if you're considering removing the plates again in a relatively short space of time.
