JoanMarshall

Where the front license plate was fitted to the front bumper I have 2 nasty holes that are just awful! Why am I not seeing these or plugs on some of these other cars? And how do I get them fixed? I want them smooth and would rather not have to put plugs in. Plus when the dealer fitted the front plate they actually pulled the bumper out a bit around the holes... I'll post a pic tomorrow.
Any suggestions are appreciated.

IH8ONYU

you can get fastners from lowes or home depot, just like the ones that are used on the gen 1 carpet area on the back hatch. they are a few cents each, and paint up real nice with touch up paint.
unless you look right at them up close, you'll never know that there not 100% flush..
although, you run the risk of getting a ticket for no front plate if it is not attached to the bumper. my advice is get the plugs and paint them with touch up paint, and get one of them jdm style liscence plate mounts that mount to the bottom of the front lip.

JoanMarshall

But even if I put plugs in and painted them, the dealer put the plate bracket on too tight and it pulled the bumper out a little around the holes

IH8ONYU

you can push the extruded part in with a screw driver, or some other type of reamer, or try to grind/cut them down a bit. carefull exacto work... i would try to ream them in a bit. i was lucky, my dealership in valencia put anchors inside the bumper, and nothing was pulled up out of the bumper. although, i would have preffered no holes altogether..
if you go to hardware store, there are many different size plugs in the "fastner" section. look for the drawr marked "automotive fastners" once you find one that will fit into/ around the hole, there should be enough overlap to hide any area that may look funny, because you had to push in some plastic from around the edge of the holes. if it is really bad, you can or have a body shop go in with plastic filler, and fill the holes completely... the whole bumper needs to be repainted though, if you go that route, i suggest doing it very quickly, so the paint on the rest of the car doesn't have time to fade very much, so that your color match is as close as possible. have any pics of the bumper and extruded material?

JoanMarshall

Hey, I got mine from Frontier too.
Wonder why they were so rough with it and left out the anchors? When did you get yours? Bought mine July 7th. Maybe I could have them sort it out?

IH8ONYU

i got mine back in 04, but you could try to complain to them. they can send it out for repair. they once had to do a repair for me - took box in after driving it for 6 days, needed alighnment corected and my intake was pressing on the bottom of the foglight making it aim high on one side. they fixed the alignment, and while the tech was test driving it, someone rear ended him... not bad, but the rear bumper was dimpled by the idiots liscence plate bolts.. whatever shop they sent it to was amazing.. best work i have ever seen.
thats besides the point.
it could be that on the 2ng gen's they can't get anchors into the bumper? i have not seen one up close yet with that plate off. i wonder if they just screwed right into the bumper foam? see, by law they have to furnish you with a 100% street legal vehichle when you take delivery.. thats why the front plates are put on at the dealer. some states don't require a front plate. but in CA we do because of traffic cams... thanks Los Angeles.... if you had gone in before they got your car on the lot, and told them not to drill holes, and that you would be coming in with a plate mount of your own, they would have left the bumper alone. But they can't release the vehicle to you untill you bring the plate mount, and install it yorself, or pay them to install it for you.
your best bet would be to get some touch up paint, and a few plugs.. i am happy to help if you need it, i live local in simi valley and work in chatsworth.. an even better idea is to get the color # of your paint and order an aerosol can of your color paint from a paint shop or on line paint shop... $12-$20 and a small can of clear coat from the local autozone.. paint the plugs to match the paint, about 3 coats, then clear coat them 3-4 coats, and viola.... if you need any interior parts painted, the can should be enough to paint the stereo bezel, door sills, etc... sa well as some engine componants. thats how i did my interior trim peices... 5 coats of paint, and clear coat.. cost me 25$ after shipping, and a can of primer / adheasion promoter and a few hours of time. looks totally factory... people often ask me why the other xb's that they see don't have color matched interior, they think it's a release series perk..

Liquid-R1

Actually, I'm located in CA as well and don't have any holes in the front bumper. When we ordered ours up, we specifically told them not to drill it. When we picked up the car, we signed a waiver saying that the front plates were not mounted but we received the parts to install it ourselves.

ExcelRevs

i have the small license plate holes as well, i'm gonna go to the hardware store and get fastners and paint match them and see how that looks. i'll post pics of how it looks.

timmer357

Same here...I ordered mine and from day 1 said no holes. There are still indentations from the factory but not bad. I am looking for a nice way to mount the plate so it looks somewhat clean. Zip ties don't cut it for me.

ExcelRevs

i totally forgot to ask to not drill the plate, i was too excited to order the car. i have no front plates on my truck and i've gone about 4 years without being pulled over...same with the xb.

TechKnowlEdgy

The dealer put fronts on mine too, even though you don't need them in KS. I think it was just a cheap ploy to boost advertising as they put a dealer ad plate on. I wasn't happy about it.

Turbo4door

That was one of the first requests out of my mouth when I purchased my xB2. I live in a state that doesn't require front plates, but purchased in a state that does. They said that since they sell a lot to folks in my state, they don't drill any of them until sold. Makes sense.

Last year we purchased my girlfriends Infiniti G35 coupe out of state as well. They drilled the front bumper cover for their plate during the "post sale prep". I made them replace the whole cover - not fix it.

vanstoaster

Wish I knew about this before the purchase of our XBhttp://www.eight08customs.com/licenseplatebracket.html

timmer357

Our rides don't have the honeycomb down there. I am going to just have to fabricate something myself as the eight08 system looks fairly straight forward.

JoanMarshall

I didn't think it would be such a mess underneath the dealer plate! On my Civics there are tapped holes and a nice neat cover to plug into them so it didnt even come to mind that theyd tear up the bumper like they did. I'll post pics tomorrow.

rdfxb

All my cars in all my years of on the road ive always taken off the front plates and have never been pulled over once. We even have traffic cameras here and they still don't enforce it. Now if they pull you over for something else they will most likely add that to the ticket.

mikemann

I just did a quick search and found this company....

http://www.bumperplugs.com/

mikemann

I also found this on their website, My plates are already on if someone measures their holes and it looks like they'll fit I'll give them a try and order them. My car is white so I would assume a match would be easy. I'd be happy to share with everyone if they work...

---snip---


Most automobile dealers drill out the front bumpers to hold a front plate. Some cars have factory drilled holes. Our plugs will fit a variety of cars, but in order to know if your car will accept our plugs, please take some measurements.

The key to a perfect fit is holes no greater than 1/4" in size. Measure round holes across their center. Other holes that may be square or rectangular should be no larger than 7mm per side. You may have to drill your holes slightly larger to get them to the ideal size for these plugs, but we have thousands of customers who have done so. It's easy, simple, quick and you'll be amazed at the final results. See the pictures on our main home page.

If your holes match these specifications, our plugs will fit. The next step is to find a color match on the colors page. We can match any color of any car manufacturer. However, rare colors require a special order.

If you do not see your vehicle color listed, please go to the 'contact' page and email us with your specifications. We will get back to you regarding fit, color and pricing.

IH8ONYU

dude, go to the hardware store! the prepainted ones will not be a color match to your paint! touch up paint is like $5 at the dealer, and these plugs at the hardware store are like $1.29.. you only need like 1 shot of primer/adhesion promoter.... just push them into a peice of cardboard, and hit em once or twice with primer, then apply touch up paint to the center of the plug, and let it roll down the brush onto the center of the plug, and spread out evenly acoss it. should take 10 min to do the pair, plus drying time...
the ones i got for my bumper are under an inch acros, and lay really well on the bumper.. hard to tell they are there. of course though, i already had touch up paint, and adhesion promoter, and live near a lowes.

mikemann

Show us a picture of yours lets see how good it looks...

I'm all for doing this, but I'd like to see what you did. Especially since you have a gen 1 and the OP was regarding the gen 2. Not saying it's different, but it would help to see...

Regarding paint match, if you poke around on their site...they actually list a pretty large array of OEM colors including Scion colors.

I do agree their plugs do look large in the pictures...something smaller would be nice.