So I need to put a front license plate on and I’m going to go the route of drilling the front bumper just because going through a car wash is a real pain with a tow hook plate holder. I hate it, but it is what it is..

So I drilled some guide holes and hit something hard right behind the bumper cover. I’m assuming this is the aluminum structural portion of the front bumper? I didn’t want to go any further because I’ve made mistakes like that before…but does anyone have experience drilling to mount an OEM plate bracket?

 

I assume I’m hitting this thing? Is that hard plastic that I can mount a license plate bracket into?

 

Pop rivets. Saw a video taking off the front bumper and the plate holder was held on by two pop rivets. Ok, getting this done tomorrow!

 

Maybe consider another approach where drilling is not required? I installed mine this way years ago and it hasn’t budged. The OEM mount places the plate too high on the bumper IMO.

 

Ok, so while changing out the headlight bulbs today, my guy decided to do it the “easy” way and just pulled off the front bumper and mounted it with the supplied OEM anchors. You just need to drill a space out of the foam to allow the anchor stem to sit in there and then the arms pop out to secure it to the bumper once you screw it in.



I ended up using a different plate mount that I had from one of my other cars. The OEM G37 mount was about 3/4 of an inch longer than the license plate on each side and also only about 2/3 the height of the license plate so going through car washes, etc. could grab the portion of the plate that had no support behind it and mangle the plate. The mount that I used is the exact same size as the license plate so the whole plate is supported.

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