DeafSoundGuy
Well-known member
Okay well the original idea was to mount neodymium magnets behind where you're supposed to mount the plate, right in the middle where the bulge is. When the BMW guys said they all don't like running front plates I had a hard time envisioning myself drilling holes into that nice new bumper 
. So I ordered some neo magnets right after I bought the car thinking I'll figure out some way to put them behind the bumper, and have a nice means of attaching the plate that way to the hidden area behind the bumper. Still like that idea but chickened out when I was starting to remove panels. What if I screw up and have to get a bunch of new attachment clips (it's happened before with some other cars I've had)?. Okay so I decided to try and fabricate something that would work with the existing structure. So at the bottom of the grill there's a inlet vent for who knows what. I decided to try there. From experience in other projects, I used 1" wide ring magnets 1/8" thick for enough pull. The idea is to have a detachable Poly piece that has neodymium magnets to hold the plate, and it's thickness combined with Velcro holds it in place.
I used 1" thick black Polyethylene on the bottom for it's ease in machining, UV protection, and ease of tapping. There's a series of grill arms on the existing i3 bottom grill. I basically cut 2 3/16" grooves into a piece of 9" wide spaced at the grill spacing which is 5-15/16" wide in the middle and who knows what in the metric system but I'm sure it won't take mental gymnastics to figure it out. Then I mounted a piece of 3/4" black Poly on top and inset from the rear 2 1"x 1/8" ring magnets (neodymium). They are held in by the largest screw I could find that would fit into my particular magnets. In this case even 6/32 was too big so I had to go metric and use M3 button heads with their perspective stop nuts. I used 7-1/2" spacing on the 2 ring magnets on the holder and the license plate itself.
The whole plate holder then slides into the bottom grill assembly with the grooves going into those 2 center (bottom) grill arms. Then, I placed Velcro at the bottom of the vent opening and opposing Velcro on the Poly bottom. Once you slide it in, you can then press down and firm it up with the Velcro so it can't go anywhere. You can keep the plate holder on the car and just put on the plate when you need to or take out the whole plate holder assembly.
I didn't put too much time into this, but if if I had to do it again I'd make the upright poly piece 1" thick and cut a groove into it so that the next upper grill horizontal piece would go into the next highest groove for even more stability. It works great for me, since I'm only going to mount that plate when I'm downtown.
These are just ideas for anyone else :idea: . Obviously it helps to have the right tools for the job like a drill press and table saw. Sorry if the images come out in a weird order.
. So I ordered some neo magnets right after I bought the car thinking I'll figure out some way to put them behind the bumper, and have a nice means of attaching the plate that way to the hidden area behind the bumper. Still like that idea but chickened out when I was starting to remove panels. What if I screw up and have to get a bunch of new attachment clips (it's happened before with some other cars I've had)?. Okay so I decided to try and fabricate something that would work with the existing structure. So at the bottom of the grill there's a inlet vent for who knows what. I decided to try there. From experience in other projects, I used 1" wide ring magnets 1/8" thick for enough pull. The idea is to have a detachable Poly piece that has neodymium magnets to hold the plate, and it's thickness combined with Velcro holds it in place.I used 1" thick black Polyethylene on the bottom for it's ease in machining, UV protection, and ease of tapping. There's a series of grill arms on the existing i3 bottom grill. I basically cut 2 3/16" grooves into a piece of 9" wide spaced at the grill spacing which is 5-15/16" wide in the middle and who knows what in the metric system but I'm sure it won't take mental gymnastics to figure it out. Then I mounted a piece of 3/4" black Poly on top and inset from the rear 2 1"x 1/8" ring magnets (neodymium). They are held in by the largest screw I could find that would fit into my particular magnets. In this case even 6/32 was too big so I had to go metric and use M3 button heads with their perspective stop nuts. I used 7-1/2" spacing on the 2 ring magnets on the holder and the license plate itself.
The whole plate holder then slides into the bottom grill assembly with the grooves going into those 2 center (bottom) grill arms. Then, I placed Velcro at the bottom of the vent opening and opposing Velcro on the Poly bottom. Once you slide it in, you can then press down and firm it up with the Velcro so it can't go anywhere. You can keep the plate holder on the car and just put on the plate when you need to or take out the whole plate holder assembly.
I didn't put too much time into this, but if if I had to do it again I'd make the upright poly piece 1" thick and cut a groove into it so that the next upper grill horizontal piece would go into the next highest groove for even more stability. It works great for me, since I'm only going to mount that plate when I'm downtown.
These are just ideas for anyone else :idea: . Obviously it helps to have the right tools for the job like a drill press and table saw. Sorry if the images come out in a weird order.
