WARNING! EXTREMELY LONG, PEDANTIC AND NERDY POST AHEAD!

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When I first bought my MX5, it had the standard 'plinth' bolted to the front bumper, which I really didn't like. It was also missing the Mazda badge, leaving the two holes and some foam tape. So I decided to give the front bumper a shave.

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I removed the number plate and plinth and filled all the holes, including the badge holes. A quick spray and it looked great. But what to do with the number plate?

I have a vinyl cutter so I thought I'd have a go of making my own number plate. I looked into the rules on spacing and fonts etc. Not surprisingly for the UK, they're waaaay complicated! There are different rules for different years of manufacture.

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My MX5 is a 1998 so here are the official rules:

"...the letters and numbers (characters)
on number plates bought since 1 September 2001 will
need to meet the following standards.

• Characters must be 79mm tall
• Characters (except the number 1 or letter I) must be 50mm wide
• The character stroke (the thickness of the black print) must be 14mm
• The space between characters must be 11mm
• The space between the age identifier and the random letters must be 33mm
• The margins at the top, bottom and side of the plate must be 11mm
• Vertical space between the age identifier and the random numbers must be 19mm

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/533255/inf104-vehicle-registration-numbers-and-number-plates.pdf

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Here's where you start asking yourself, "WHY BOTHER!?" Haha! Well...I like doing stuff myself if I can. I like learning new things. I like making stuff. And it was a chance to maybe do something a bit different. If it were up to me, I wouldn't have a front plate at all, so I became a bit obsessed with trying to make it as small as legally possible! You know, get one over on THE MAN! Kinda. :-P

My original plan was to put the black text on white magnetic sheet. Then I could remove the plate whenever I wanted to. Plus I already had the magnetic sheet. So I made the thing up completely forgetting...the bonnet is aluminium!

But anyway, I managed to get it down to a reasonable size. Stuck it on with double-sided tape and it's worked fine for a few years.

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However, the winter has been quite rough here and the snow has ragged up the edges of the letters and number. And the other day when the L fell off, I decided to try a printed vinyl plate from eBay.

So imagine my absolute horror when the new plate came and it was HUUUUUGE!

Actually, it was the standard 520mm x 111mm, which I knew when I ordered it. Not a problem because I knew I could just cut down the edges a bit. But for me, the annoying part is that the letters and numbers are waaay further apart than they need to be. They're not even legal, according to those rules above. Pedantic, like I said. I know! Hahaha! But it'll do for now. I'm sure it will pass the test but I don't think I'll be keeping it!
Here's how much I managed to cut off. And next to it, the old plate I made by hand, for size comparison.

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So it's still massive compared to the one I made. RAGE! :-P
I think I'll look at getting a JDM style plate next. I might even 3D print my own bracket. We'll see!
It doesn't look too bad in the meantime...

STOP! IMAGE NOT FOUND!

Now, here is where I was going to post a nice picture of the car with the new number plate, fresh MOT, nearly ready for summer. HOWEVER...she failed her MOT big time. It's something I've known needed doing for a long time but I was hoping to get away with it for another year. I'll cover the problem in a future post but in the meantime, here is the current situation:

I'M IN DEEP!!!

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More anon.
Nik

Email: [email protected]
Website: www.alternateshift.co.uk
Shop: www.etsy.com/uk/shop/AlternateSHIFT

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