Front Plate Mounted Dead Center on the Grill.

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frnkd

Member
Joined
May 23, 2013
Messages
10
I regret that in my "rage" I did not take a picture.
Went to pick up my FFE yesterday. It was raining in spite went through the new car check list including checking the outside, good thing the rain let up.
When we went to the front that's when I was shocked.

The dealer had mounted the front plates DEAD CENTER of the grill....smack in the middle.
Consequently I was enraged at the fact that I had mentioned to make sure that the front plate mounts do not go infront of the grill rather be like the Fusion, just below the grill.
I mean the "Austin Martin" like grill is the cool thing about this car.

And, to top it off it was mounted upside down.
I demanded that they remove the mount and place it where I had requested. And, who in their right mind decided that the center of the grill was an appropriate place to mount it.

Figuring that If I had left the lot, my "power" to get this tended to would have been lost I refuse to come back when the official plates came in.

I waited almost an hour, and nothing was told to me as to what was happening. I went to the main desk and told them I didnt want the car anymore.
At which point ears perked and the manager inquired what was going on. I explained and one of his people said that they were fixing a recall with the program....in hearing this I lost it again, "if that's so why didnt any body say something, why did I have to get to this point to get this info"

the manager ask me to wait in the waiting room, at which time the owner, whom I had met the day before, asked me how things were going.....oh boy......"i told him Im not very happy" and started to explain. He apologized and took the manager to the service dept to investigate.

They came back and acknowledged that is was there mistake and that they will replace the grill as holes would be seen.

I cant believe this. Lesson learned....tell your dealership that you want the plate mounted like the fusion.....that is if your state has front plates.
 
frnkd said:
I went to the main desk and told them I didnt want the car anymore. At which point ears perked and the manager inquired what was going on. I explained and one of his people said that they were fixing a recall with the program
Just curious, what do you mean by "fixing a recall with the program"? You mean they were updating the software in your FFE?

----------

Anyway, about you front plate...
frnkd said:
tell your dealership that you want the plate mounted like the fusion.....that is if your state has front plates.
First of all, sorry you had such a bad experience taking delivery of your new FFE. I hope you get things sorted out to your liking. Secondly, wow, I had no idea that the dealer could choose where to mount the front plate! I thought there was simply a "standard spot" for it, designed into front of the car by Ford. I can't imagine all the idiot dealers out there who might mount front plates any which way... but I guess that's what happened to you. :shock:

So, question... how was your plate (mis)mounted differently from mine? You can see a photo of mine in this thread:
http://www.myfocuselectric.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=865&p=3120&hilit=license+plate#p3101

From your description, it sounds like they might have just mounted the plate holder upside-down? Mine is mounted "to" the grill, but protrudes down over the bumper, and yet avoids covering up the "mini grill" below the bumper (which is a real, functional opening). I don't particularly like it, but it seems the "best" place a plate could go without interfering with the lower opening.

But, you said they are actually going to replace your grill? That's because they had to drill holes in it for the way they originally mounted the plate?
 
I got curious and did a quick Google search, which yielded quite a bunch of images of FFEs with front plates mounted, all seemingly just like mine. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen an FFE front plate mounted otherwise. Granted, I haven't seen many FFEs in person. (Btw, I live in the SF bay area, so I've seen literally a few other FFEs driving around.)

So, your plate was different from these examples?

263dc697cab230ac649f62190b88ed19x.jpg


43ed56a05f095a51b16008b06a54301ex.jpg
 
Part of the problem is that there are no factory holes in the grille to guide an installer. So to ensure confusion and inconsistency, I suspect no instructions on how to mount the front plate were provided to the dealer. ;-)

My front plate was mounted by a dealer exactly as the above three pictures, and I hated it. I took it off and found out that the holes in the grille were not factory-drilled nor were they molded in. They were just drilled into the plastic ad-hoc. I saw another FFE that was mounted one grille slat down (so that the plate only covers two black lines), and it looked better. So I remounted my plate one slat down and centered it. Incidentally, the plate mount actually hangs better when installed this way, the curvature of the back of the mount actually seems to fit flush against the front end.

Gotta get to work, so no pics... will post later...
 
v_traveller said:
Part of the problem is that there are no factory holes in the grille to guide an installer. So to ensure confusion and inconsistency, I suspect no instructions on how to mount the front plate were provided to the dealer. ;-)

My front plate was mounted by a dealer exactly as the above three pictures, and I hated it. I took it off and found out that the holes in the grille were not factory-drilled nor were they molded in. They were just drilled into the plastic ad-hoc. I saw another FFE that was mounted one grille slat down (so that the plate only covers two black lines), and it looked better. So I remounted my plate one slat down and centered it. Incidentally, the plate mount actually hangs better when installed this way, the curvature of the back of the mount actually seems to fit flush against the front end.

Gotta get to work, so no pics... will post later...

being that there are no pre-drilled holes there are more liberties so to speak in mounting these plates. I mounted the plates mounts on the side of my Civic.

The dealers use some sort of tapping screws to drill into the bumper and faux grill.
 
80BE477C_zpsdc29e6a4.jpg


9AA26D28_zpsd6591eac.jpg


the top picture is what I will mount the plate

the bottom picture was the way it was mounted. I dont know why.
 
Hehe... the top picture makes me think of Tow'mater from "Cars". ;)

250px-MaterCars.jpg


I agree, though, that placement does keep the "grill lines" clean. That said, it also does partially block the air intake at the bottom. (Your FFE still has a radiator for the battery cooling fluid.)
 
Okay, here's how I have mine mounted, which is one grille slat lower than the pictures above. I believe this is how the plate frame was meant to be used.

This picture shows how the recessed molded-in brackets fit between the grille slats. I mounted it such that the brackets sit in the lowest "opening".


This picture shows (I hope, it's a bit dark) how the curvature of the back of the plate frame seems to match the contour of the bumper. When mounted any higher, the bottom of the frame doesn't seem to fit as well; it doesn't sit flush against the bumper.






Hope this helps....
 
It does look slightly nicer one notch down.

Who did the work this time, you or the dealer? If the dealer, what did they think? Or, were they just clueless and did what you told them you wanted?
 
I totally agree with "slightly"! Unfortunately there's no pretty way to mount that front plate, IMHO. Wish they'd design it in rather than treat it as an afterthought.

I didn't bother going to the dealer, figured that would cost me at least a couple of hours to have someone else do it. So I just did it myself, took maybe 20 minutes to center, then mark and drill the holes into the plastic, and then screw everything back together. That includes at least five minutes of explaining why the hell I was drilling holes into the front of a brand new car rather than helping our son write an autobiography of a miner in the gold rush era. In the end, the boy got a perfect score on that autobiography, so it's all good.
 
Hey... looking closer at your photos. (Thanks for posting them, btw.) It looks like anyone who wanted to replicate your mounting could remount their plate holder one slat down (on the bottom-most slat), and there would be no visible holes. Sure, there would then be two pairs of holes in the grill... one (new pair) in the bottom-most slat, one one in the slat above, but both pairs would be covered by the plate holder, correct? Just a thought, if anyone really prefers the lower mounting. (Rubs chin.)

And, I guess the holder can't really be mounted any lower, unless you want to drill holes in the bumper itself. But, it looks (from your photos) that the stock holder wouldn't really work very well that way. It seems to be designed to "slot" in the grill slats and fit flush against the bumper.
 
Yup! Official family fleet color is white. Keeps things cool in the sweltering summer sun. Tiny dings don't show up as much, at least in the bright sun. Easy to touch up. Hides the haze from an occasional half-assed wax job (sometimes I rush it).

And you're right about the old holes in the grille being hidden behind the plate. No need to fill and touch up. There's actually a third hole that goes into the bumper, low and centered on the plate mount. Fortunately that one is also concealed.

Oh, and I did contemplate mounting it lower, but as you said it wouldn't work well, figured I'd have to modify the plate mount to do so, and I just didn't think it'd be worth the effort.
 
:D

I got curious and took a closer look at my FFE front plate this evening.

So, how does it work to screw into the grill and/or bumper for mounting? (Frankly, the third bumper screw seems a bit overkill.)

Anyway, are there "nuts" or something that need to go on the reverse side of the grill to receive the screws? If so, how? -- there doesn't seem to be easy access to the back of the grill from inside the engine compartment. (Same for the bumper.)

If no bolts, then are the drilled holes simply required to be small enough that the screws will "bite" into them? (Seems easy to botch up; choose wrong size drill bit, etc.)

Thanks!
 
There are no nuts, the screws provided are like wood screws and will bite into the plastic as you mentioned, when tapped into a small hole. I think I used a 1/8" bit, I remember it was pretty small compared to the cross section of the screw. The plastic was pretty soft, so it seemed like there was little risk of cracking the plastic by using too small of a hole. Here's my recollection of the steps I took:

1. Center the plate mount. I used a tape measure to make sure that the edge of the plate mount on each side was equidistant from where the grill slats are slightly indented.

2. Mark the grille through the hole in the each of the plate mount "brackets", this is where the holes need to be drilled. To mark, I actually just used a tiny drill bit and a cordless drill and drilled a small pilot hole at the center of each hole in the bracket. Drilled with my right hand while holding the plate mount in position with my left hand. Note: If you're macho, skip the tiny drill bit and go straight to the 1/8" bit here, then skip steps 3 and 4.

3. Remove plate mount, drill larger holes into the small pilot holes (again, I think I used a 1/8" bit).

4. Test one of the holes by installing one of the screws into one of the drilled holes, using a manual socket driver or screwdriver. If too much resistance, drill slightly bigger holes and try again. In my case, I remember not having to re-drill.

5. Position plate mount and fasten to grille with the screws and a manual socket driver or screwdriver. Tighten until snug, do not over-tighten.

6. Drill bottom hole through lower hole in plate mount using 1/8" drill bit, then install last screw. Perhaps not necessary, but in my case just using the brackets at the top didn't seem to hold the plate mount in place very well... was a little too wobbly. You may have better luck than I did.

7. Install license plate in mount.
 
v_traveller said:
Yup! Official family fleet color is white. Keeps things cool in the sweltering summer sun. Tiny dings don't show up as much, at least in the bright sun. Easy to touch up. Hides the haze from an occasional half-assed wax job (sometimes I rush it).

And you're right about the old holes in the grille being hidden behind the plate. No need to fill and touch up. There's actually a third hole that goes into the bumper, low and centered on the plate mount. Fortunately that one is also concealed.

Oh, and I did contemplate mounting it lower, but as you said it wouldn't work well, figured I'd have to modify the plate mount to do so, and I just didn't think it'd be worth the effort.

Hey, thanks for the input. Im thinking of getting generic mounts so that I can mount it just below the grill. It will hide any drilled holes....and I just got a message that the new grill that was ordered can be installed. Told my wife that I want to be there when she takes the car in, as she will probly okay anything they say.....LOL.

I do like the platinum color myself....consider that it was the only choice besides the candy blue.
 
Frnked, Did you change your grille yourself? If so, wonder if you'd share the process. I'm short on time but still thinking of molding a new smooth cover with a license place insert for mine. Something about a grille that looks like it vents but doesn't bothers me.
 
v_traveller said:
Okay, here's how I have mine mounted, which is one grille slat lower than the pictures above. I believe this is how the plate frame was meant to be used.

This picture shows how the recessed molded-in brackets fit between the grille slats. I mounted it such that the brackets sit in the lowest "opening".

Thats exactly how the front plate frame looks and was mounted on my new 2014 FFE I leased last weekend.
However I saw another FFE in the lot where it was mounted one spot higher.
The one I got they just recently got in, so maybe they mounted it higher in the past?

I just got my new license plates from the DMV yesterday in the mail, less than 5 days from when I signed the papers at the dealership. I thought it used to take nearly a month? I was surprised!

I just put the front plate mounted directly with the two top screws on the dealer installed black mounting plate, is that the recommended way? Or use some additional outer frame cover? The dealer provided black plastic frame with advertising didn't look good on there so I removed it.

On the back, I could mount the back license plate (with the tags) with the dealer advertising plastic frame cover but it covers part of the tags and a lot of the top and bottom of the license plate. So I also ended up removing the dealer advertising plastic frame cover and went with just the bare license plate in the back with 2 top screws to see the whole plate, there is also 2 lower rubber things that stick thru the lower 2 holes in the plate.

I may later add a plain thinner low profile glossy black ABS plastic frame I found on ebay for the back license plate that shouldn't obscure much of the license. Might look a little nicer by covering up license plate edges. Anyone else do that or have other suggestions for making the license plates look better than plain?

This is what the thinner low profile glossy black ABS plastic frame from ebay looks like compared to the ones that obscure more of the license plate and tags and are like the ones the dealers put on with their advertising text on it:

Black_Frame.jpg


blank_111141052_std.jpg
 
NightHawk said:
I just got my new license plates from the DMV yesterday in the mail, less than 5 days from when I signed the papers at the dealership. I thought it used to take nearly a month? I was surprised!
Which dealership? The smaller dealerships I got the FFE and Volt from took the usual 4 to 5 weeks. The RAV4 EV, which was from Carson Toyota, took much less time - less than 2 weeks, from what I recall. And from what I can tell, they outsource their DMV registration process - the plates came in the mail from some company, not directly from the DMV.
NightHawk said:
I just put the front plate mounted directly with the two top screws on the dealer installed black mounting plate, is that the recommended way? Or use some additional outer frame cover?
Since I have a white FFE and the CA plates are white, I just have the bare plate on the mount, with the bottom slipped under the two tabs on the mount, and the top fastened by the two top screws.
 
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