Hiding Front License Plate Holes My DIY

[nachob]

Unfortunately the original owner drilled the front bumper on my car. I wanted to see if there was a way to take the front plate off and hide holes. I looked online for other solutions but they entailed making the license plate hole bigger. This meant, if I needed to, I couldn't put the front plate on again.

I wanted something that was inexpensive and would not enlarge the screw hole in case I didn't like or had to go back.

One of the main issues is that when the bumper is drilled, it raises the area around the hole so you need something concave on the inside to take up the bump. I went to my local hardware store and found two $.15 cent black screw covers that are about 3/8" in diameter on the head. They were also concave on the inside to take up some of the bump around the screw hole.


1. I first took a sand paper to the head to take the smoothness away, then wiped with alcohol.

2. I placed the caps on packing tape that was inside out to hold them in place, then sprayed white primer and let dry. I used white because our cars use white primer under the orange and white.

3. Once primer dried, I brushed on Valencia Orange touch up paint on the head.

4. Once paint dried, I applied the touch up paint clearcoat and let dry.

5. I put a tiny bit of silicone glue on the nub that goes into the screw hole and pressed it in and held it in place with blue masking tape.

6. I let it dry overnight, then peeled the tape and headed off to Cars and Coffee with no front plate.

[Osiris]

This is really very good work.

[sixburgh]

Excellent work. Thanks for the post.

[etr2016]

now you just need to buff out that scratch in the center...

[nachob]

Originally Posted by etr2016

now you just need to buff out that scratch in the center...

It's actually not a scratch. It's a seam from the clear bra reflecting in the light.

[etr2016]

my bad, looked like a scratch. i did the clear bra on my full front, roof, and rear bumper and love it. makes cleaning the car so much easier...besides the obvious advantage of reducing rock chips.

[stormchaser7]

This is brilliant. Good job on coming up with a smart way to cap the holes.

[bdaddylo]

I'll take 2 in VO, please!

[gregthegr8]

In case people aren't aware, or don't want to DIY it, or don't trust their painting skills, you can actually buy very similar looking ones online that are professionally primed and color-painted to most BMW colors for like $28 at bumperplugs dot com. I checked and Valencia Orange (B44) is an available option, too.

https://www.bumperplugs.com/index.ph...&product_id=73

Don't want to get in trouble possibly for posting that, but I did try them out a few months ago, ordering mercedes black, and it was a dead on match and exactly what I was looking for. Still a hair big for my OCD, though virtually identical to what Nacho made.

I've also seen people take small nylon plugs, like 1/4" or 7/16", which cost about a buck at any hardware store and do a similar process with excellent results, and they tend to have a much smaller "head" so just look like a couple of nubbins.

[nachob]

Originally Posted by gregthegr8

In case people aren't aware, or don't want to DIY it, or don't trust their painting skills, you can actually buy very similar looking ones online that are professionally primed and color-painted to most BMW colors for like $28 at bumperplugs dot com. I checked and Valencia Orange (B44) is an available option, too.

https://www.bumperplugs.com/index.ph...&product_id=73

Don't want to get in trouble possibly for posting that, but I did try them out a few months ago, ordering mercedes black, and it was a dead on match and exactly what I was looking for. Still a hair big for my OCD, though virtually identical to what Nacho made.

I've also seen people take small nylon plugs, like 1/4" or 7/16", which cost about a buck at any hardware store and do a similar process with excellent results, and they tend to have a much smaller "head" so just look like a couple of nubbins.

Yes. I had seen those and mention them in my post but those require that you drill the holes larger which means you will never be able to put the stock Bmw license plate bracket with small screws. Mine go into the existing size hole. I can pop them off and put the stock plate mount on them. That is why I went this route. Hope that explaines it.