The Official 356Talk Forum

hi there,
may be a strange question to us citizens - but how do we have to fix the license plate on the 356BT5 models on the front fender. there are two tiny holes on the underside but I cannot find any information an a bracket or something else.....
Who can help me out .....

cheers from Holland
Helge

The holes are probably water drain holes or from a non-factory bracket. I think Albert Tiedeman makes a no-drill clamp on bracket. Or you can go period correct and add some kind of old aftermarket bracket like the dealers usually did. With all the repairs that most of our cars have been through in the last 50 years I feel like it is no crime to drill a pair of holes, but many would disagree.

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=36480&hilit=front+ ... t&start=15 John Copello has made them in the past. Unsure if he still does. Here is his current Facebook list showing what he has: https://www.facebook.com/copellosnew356 ... NE&fref=nf His clamps to the lower edge of your front bumper.

Elevenparts also has something that will work. Maybe others as well. https://www.elevenparts.com/index2.php? ... Photo/100/

Guys, thanks for the tips .. I guess I go for the elevenpart piece which can be mounted upside down on the B

cheers from Holland

I liked the look of the factory style mounts (like ElevenParts and others sell). I mounted my plate so it look like it uses factory mounts, and I didn't need to drill any holes in the bumper:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=32397

Adam

slightly higher mount

Helge
The low cost simple approach to mounting your front license plate.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=25931&p=133043&hili ... te#p133043

Helge: your license plate is probably the long, narrow one, correct? If so, if you just used the two drain holes in the bumper with some type of bracket, the ends of the plate are unsupported and might flex into the body and/or bumper. The bracket made by John Copello is for plates as used by the U.S. and possibly other countries.

You might have to use the bumper drain holes and drill two additional holes and add brackets to support the plate. The plate would have a bit of a bend in it matching the contour of the bumper.

On my car, I used aluminum angle bracket and attached it to the drain holes with rubber bushings to protect the paint. The U.S. license plate holes are 7 inches apart. The drain holes are about 6 inches so I used threaded fasteners at 7 inches on the angle bracket and attached the plate with allen head bolts. The bracket is painted the same color of the bumper so it is not visible if I chose not to display the front plate. In your case, a longer bracket might work.

Helge Tielker wrote:hi there, may be a strange question to us citizens - but how do we have to fix the license plate on the 356BT5 models...

Helge, on early B models, if the front plate was installed at the factory, it was often attached through the bumper deco.
The factory made special rubber brackets for this purpose. Reproductions of these are available... http://www.stoddard.com/64472355305-nla.html
It was done this way too for temporary "tourist" plates, even into the 911 era. However, not everyone likes this method today.

Here are some original rubber brackets. The earlier versions were solid, the later ones hollow. The bottom photo is from a 1960 road test of a factory demo car, with Stuttgart plates.

Thanks for posting those, Jon. I've never seen them!

Wow, I was wondering how they did install those plates. Couldn't imagine only with screws. Thanks for sharing, but I am not keen to drill holes in the bumper either.

For license plates on the front of the car, some states do not require a plate if the car manufacturer did not provide for a mounting fixture. See below for the law in Nevada.

Interesting, Brad. I'm sure we will all now be checking our state's vehicle codes as they relate to displaying license plates.

A search of California's vehicle code indicates no provision for cars without a front plate mounting location. Simply, two plates are issued and two must be displayed, front and rear.