Front Plate

OK, how do you mount this type plate

Zoll Frei by romad posted Aug 25, 2018 at 3:24 PM

to this 2004 Prius front bracket?

Prius Frt Mnt by romad posted Aug 25, 2018 at 3:24 PM

You make an adapter plate!

Adapter Plate by romad posted Aug 25, 2018 at 3:24 PM

 

Basically it is because Arizona is a one plate state and it is on the rear. So I asked my wife what she wanted on the front plate bracket, thinking something for her Staten Island roots or maybe Alfred University. She said why not the zoll frei plate from when we bought our first VW Jetta in 1981 when we were stationed in Germany by the USAF?

We bought a California spec Jetta but had to go to Luxembourg to pick it up. So we took the train from Bremerhaven on Memorial Day weekend in May 1981 to Luxembourg, picked up the car with the plates on it, and drove it back to Bremerhaven. The day after Memorial Day, I got it registered with the US Military and got the US plates. We were allowed to keep the temp plates. One we gave to her brother for his license plate collection and we kept the other one.

The pictured plate is actually a replica I had made using the numbering off the original plate because the real one has two holes punched in the plate so it could be attached to the US spec bumper and plate locations. Unfortunately those holes don't line up with the plate mounting points on the Prius bracket so I would have to either drilled more holes it the plate or make an adapter. I really didn't like the holes that had been punched in the plate back in 1981, so I went to licenseplates.tv and had the replica made.
Oh, for my 2005 VW Jetta Wagon TDI GLS, I custom designed a front plate; for my 1990 Mazda Miata, it looks better without a plate on the front.

 

It isn't any different than all the other myriad plates seen on the fronts of cars in AZ, NC, and other 1 plate cars. In AZ, front plates are considered optional.

Also, in the article you cited, I'm sure they were talking about other US standard state plates (including Canada and Mexico) being used on the front. Since the German oval plate is obviously NOT a standard issued plate, I don't think even the PA troopers would be confused.

However, this brings up another story.

In 1979, I'd come back from Germany and picked up my car with its US Army Europe (USAREUR) plates at the US Army Port Bayonne in NJ. Driving across country, I broke down in Nevada. While waiting for a tow truck, a Nevada Highway patrolman stopped to see if I needed help and used his patrol car to push my car to a slightly safer area on the roadside. He saw my USAREUR plates and asked what they were and I explained I'd just came back from Germany and these were the plates issued to private vehicles there by the US military under the Status of Forces Agreement between the US & Germany.

 

Nice job. I like how the white of the "plate" merges with the white of the car. Similar to how my old California blue & yellow plate merged into the blue of my Miata's body color.