[s-cars] Stupid License Plate

[Keith Maddock]

 twobro12 at aol.com <twobro12 at aol.com> wrote:
> Hey,
> 
> My rear license plate won't come off and i need to remove it.  The receptical
> bolts for the license plate screws are stripped on the black bracket/holder
> behind the plate.  Is there a way i can remove the holder in order to get the
> license plate off?  any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

I had this problem taking the Oregon plates off my car to put on my
new Michigan plate "S VIER"  But I got lucky and the bottom two bolts
came off,  it was only the upper two that were "stripped".

What it actually was was that the license plate screws screw into
square nuts which are captured by a metal bracket, and if that metal
bracket breaks, there is nothing to keep the square nut from just
spinning round and round.

So I was able to just bend the license plate up, which gives you
access to the two screws that hold the black plastic surround to the
trunk.  Once you take these screws out, you will have to defeat a lot
of plastic flexible glue holding the black plastic surround to the
trunk, take your time and eventually you can get a razor blade
underneath to help cut the glue.

Since you won't be able to get to those two screws anyway, you might
consider another possible chance.  If you can remove your taillights,
then you might be able to slip a thin open end wrench under the black
plastic surround, which you can use to hold the square nuts, which
would allow you to remove the screws...

HTH,
Keith