Front License Plate Delete

[Rennwagen]

If you're like me, one of the first things I did when I got my new GTI home was remove the front license plate.
And if you're like me, you stood there in slack-jawed horror as you gazed upon the FIVE extra cooling holes left behind by the OEM license plate bracket.
I immediately hopped online to buy myself a block off plate to hide that mess. I couldn't find one anywhere, and thus began my quest to develop one for myself. I finished up the preliminary design today and decided I'd share it with whoever finds this interesting.
I plan to cut it from .090" Aluminum, anodize black, and either laser etch or screen print the "Rabbit" (I'm not really decided on the text, maybe shoot me some ideas?)
The rubber-coated rivet nuts are neat in that they will protect the front bumper from rubbing against the plate. I also wanted to give it some nice finish hardware rather than some lame self tapping screws.

Let me know what you guys think! I'll be updating this post as I move forward.

 

[dubless]

Nice! Might look cleaner if you flush mounted the hardware. I did something similar when I found out the dealer RAPED my front bumper under the LP bracket. I shaped up a piece of aluminum plate. Bought a color matched aerosol touch up kit (primer, basecoat, clear) and painted the plate to match my car. I mounted it using some thin 3M vhb tape. The plate is thin enough to conform to the shape of the bumper.

 

[Rennwagen]

My original idea was to flush mount the hardware actually. But I would need to use thicker material and I didn’t want the plate to pull or stretch the bumper at all so I decided to go with a different approach. I may end up trying it though!

 

[Rennwagen]

Got the parts in today and test fit. Everything looks good so far!
I opted to go for plastic washers instead of the black zinc coated brass ones so that they wouldn't scratch up the finish once it's anodized. I'm pretty happy with how the hardware looks finished rather than some bare steel 1/4" self-tapping screws.

Parts

Holes left after license plate removal.

Take a 5/16" drill bit and open up the holes left behind by the self tapping screws.

Insert rubber rivet nuts.

Take a 3/32" allen wrench and thread the flat head screws into the rubber rivet nuts. (I **badly** painted the plate with some gloss black in order to visualize the look).

I also decided to make some changes to the laser etched text, went for something more subtle.

BONUS: Your license plate can be mounted again using the same hardware. No need to worry about the unlikely event you need to pass a fix it ticket inspection!

 

[StorableComa]

Looks good. Like the idea you went with something over a bumper plug.

 

[Rennwagen]

Thanks! I came across the bumper plug thing and it wasn’t a solution I’d be happy with. I’d probably rather just have the license plate left on lol

 

[Rennwagen]

More pics

 

[peeta]

Kinda looks like it's got a little hitler stach very fitting for a german car!

 

[Rennwagen]

Lol my buddy said the same thing!

 

[SonicBloom]

Can you post a link to the nuts and washers you used? I have bumper plugs that don’t quite fit so a 3D printed block off plate might look better.

 

[SnailpowerMk7]

Brah, I'm contemplating this situation myself but honestly can't see this being much better. In fact just a black rectangle leaves questions to be answered. Like, if you still have a rectangle plate there, why not just put the license plate? lol. Which I see you did now. The only two options I'm really thinking about are the stupid bumper plugs (do not want), or figuring out how much it'll cost to get it fixed properly. I"m sure it'll require a full paint job on the front bumper once the holes are filled. Do I want to pay nearly 500 bucks to hide 2 holes? Hmmm.

 

[Rennwagen]

I ended up pretty much deciding the same thing. I recently put on a Euro front plate and am much happier with the result.

 

[ReadTheBook]

FYI, be careful using well nuts for mounting anything to the plastic on these cars. I had 4 of them holding in my wife’s rear license plate on her 2015 Golf (long story, don’t ask) but they were properly installed, didn’t move at all when I tugged on the plate after install, and somehow over time they worked themselves out and the plate lost two. I realized one day when I was washing her car. Unless someone tried to steal it but I find that unlikely.

 

[Rennwagen]

FYI, be careful using well nuts for mounting anything to the plastic on these cars. I had 4 of them holding in my wife’s rear license plate on her 2015 Golf (long story, don’t ask) but they were properly installed, didn’t move at all when I tugged on the plate after install, and somehow over time they worked themselves out and the plate lost two. I realized one day when I was washing her car. Unless someone tried to steal it but I find that unlikely.

Interesting, thanks for the heads up! How long did you have them on the car before you noticed that they were missing?

I've had them on the front plate block off/euro plate for a little over 3 months with no issues whatsoever.