What have you done to your car today?

grudas said:
Don't use locking nuts in the first place.
Click to expand...

Was on the car when i got it last month.

Acme said:
You live in London, you absolutely need locking wheel nuts. And also bulletproof glass windows. :D
Click to expand...

Im outside of london, but only 17 miles from central.

I got someone taking them out today for £20 which i think is a good price.
 
Raymond Lin said:
I know what you are doing but honestly when i see a nice car on the road, the last thing I think about is where the plates are. In fact, if it is not where it is normally it draws even more attention to it than where it is normally.

Which means don't mess with it, it just dispute the look of the car more, makes it look worse.
Click to expand...

Thats fair enough. It will be in the standard place now anyway, but stick-on instead of a plastic place on that gopping plate mount. :)
 
Acme said:
I can choose if I want it on a mount, not on a mount, centred or offset, how high up the bumper, on the front of the bonnet, jap size plate on a mount, etc etc.

I wanted to have an offset stick-on plate, but because of all those holes it will go in the middle... :)
Click to expand...

Depending on how offset, that's also illegal. There aren't many optionsi n the UK :/
 
I guess Alfa Romeo drivers should all turn themselves in then. :D

e; ah it seems that they are allowed to have them there because it isn't "reasonably practical" to mount them in a more central position due to the design of the car.

In any case, I think the chances of being pulled over for having a standard legal number-plate in a different position on the front of the bumper are incredibly minute. I drove the Shedica around with it in the window for weeks and drove past loads of Police. I even drove it a few times without the plate not visible at all, and passed at least two or three police cars.

Lots of MX5 owners have numberplates in different places and I've not heard of any issues, only if they are not a standard size/font. :)
 
Last edited:
Acme said:
I can choose if I want it on a mount, not on a mount, centred or offset, how high up the bumper, on the front of the bonnet, jap size plate on a mount, etc etc.

I wanted to have an offset stick-on plate, but because of all those holes it will go in the middle... :)
Click to expand...

You can't fit a jap sized plate though can you? They are only available for cars which do not have type approval in the UK/a suitable place to mount the standard size.

There look to be very few places to legally mount a UK specification plate to the front of that car. It looks like it can either go where you had it, where you had it or perhaps.. where you had it :D

Basically, our plates look crap. There isn't much we can do but suck it up and wish we lived in Alberta where you don't need a front plate :(
 
Acme said:
I guess Alfa Romeo drivers should all turn themselves in then. :D

e; ah it seems that they are allowed to have them there because it isn't "reasonably practical" to mount them in a more central position due to the design of the car.

In any case, I think the chances of being pulled over for having a standard legal number-plate in a different position on the front of the bumper are incredibly minute. I drove the Shedica around with it in the window for weeks and drove past loads of Police. I even drove it a few times without the plate not visible at all, and passed at least two or three police cars.

Lots of MX5 owners have numberplates in different places and I've not heard of any issues, only if they are not a standard size/font. :)
Click to expand...

Maybe I'm growing old before my time, but I honestly couldn't be arsed with the hassle just because it's "scene" to not have your number plate mounted vertically. Yes Alfas are one of the exceptions to the law because most of them have a V shaped grille where you can't mount a number plate, yet if you look at the modern ones, they even have a plastic raiser now to get them to sit more flush.


tl;dr Only people who should buy stick on plates are VXR dicks
 
Aren't square ones are allowed for MX5's if it was imported from Japan where it was once fitted with that shape plate?

Either way, front plates are crap. Police probably don't bother hassling people unless the font or spacing is way off, or you've decided to stick 'black platez on bruv' because you're after that drug dealer look.
 
My point is though, its almost a given that you wont get pulled for having plates in non-standard places as long as its not somewhere exceedingly stupid, and abides by all the physical regulations. (size, font, reflectiveness, colour, etc)

In either case, doesn't matter now. It will be going in the standard location anyway. :)

Hyburnate said:
Only people who should buy stick on plates are VXR dicks
Click to expand...

You don't know what you're talking about. Let me show you.

Stick on plate:

0NTf4PFh.jpg


Standard:

ixfm1yYl.jpg


:)
 
Last edited:
Acme said:
Cleaned it and applied some polish (only the bonnet for now, it had cat scratches)

cos8LbKh.jpg


q1WBVt8h.jpg


Took the front plate off to help me visualise the sort of plate I want and where I want it, only to be greeted by 8 holes, two additional marks from screws, scratches from the mount which won't polish out, and chips in the paintwork... :(

Think I'll de-burr the edges of the holes and put a stick on standard size plate over it all. :)

2xNXHJah.jpg


gvlF0ewh.jpg


Fitted MK2.5 rear lights (and a sticker) - I'm not convinced, think I prefer the MK2 rears as they are more in-keeping with the styling to my eye. Before/after:

KsMumUGh.jpg


R1pZo0Vh.jpg


Fitted a new gearstick gaiter. Got distracted and put it on the opposite way to how I intended, but I think it looks good! :) Before/after:

fEbqG6Fh.jpg


XjlpFWQh.jpg


Also re-located the USB cable to the passenger side of the console.

Not a bad day overall. Annoyed about all those holes though! :P :(
Click to expand...

As much as this pains me....

Acme that's looking smart, rear lights look nice, just make sure to get shot of the orange bulbs :)
 
Back or front?

I have some chromed ones somewhere... I'll have to find them and see if they're the correct fitment. :)
 
I think the standard plate with holder looks better than the stick on. What you could do to modernise it up nicely is body colour the black holder. This would be easy, any bodyshop would paint it up in no time, probably even for the price of a few drinks for such a small item.

Other than that, break out the duster for that centre console man :D

Looks nice otherwise!
 
Last edited:
Thanks. The whole interior needs a clean. :p

Going to have to agree to disagree on the plate though, I think the standard holder looks beyond horrible, and will be almost as bad in red. It would also continue scuffing the paint off of the bumper. It has to go.

Stick on plate is happening. Because I like it. :)
 
It looks crap and it's illegal. What's the point? At least if you illegally don't bother to have one it actually looks good. Stick on plates are so naff it hurts.
 
Looks are subjective, and its my car. I'm not killing any puppies by applying a stick on plate, and if I ever get pulled up over it, I'll be amazed, and I will tell you it happened. :)

It is very nearly vertical (slightly contoured to the bumper) legal size, font size and spacing, standard position, reflective.
 
Last edited:
Fitted cruise control

Before:


During:


After:


Not the best photo's.
Took 2 minutes to replace the switch on the brake pedal and about 40 minutes to do the steering wheel module.
Considering it only cost £110, I can't believe they all didn't come with it as standard!
 
Pretty good average MPG that. :p

Numberplates ordered. Standard size reflective stick on plate with a black pinstripe for the front (sorry not sorry) and a standard non EU plate with a black pinstripe for the rear. Looking forward to getting them on. :)
 
Last edited:
Non orange plastic lights dude, as for bulbs think I got my chromed ones for about £4 a pair on amazon :)

As for the plates as long as they're legible and not in a retardofont then I dont see the problem tbh. I know plenty using jap style plates and they've not had any hassle
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom