I finally got around to buying a couple of chrome frames for my plates. When I tried to install them, however, I found that the screws were too short to get the plate and the frame firmly onto the car. The rear ones were different from the front ones, but none of them had a threaded length of more than about a quarter inch.

For those of you who have bought frames - have you bought new screws to use? Are they a standard size? Am I somehow just being really stupid here?
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Chris

I had to use longer screws to mount the front license plate with my frames but I was able to use the factory screws for the rear.

Jerry

 

Chris,

I had no problem installing my frames. The screws were plenty long and even included chrome caps to hide the screw heads. Sounds like you just need to get some longer screws. My plate frames are plain heavy duty chrome (not MINIUSA). Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Kim

 

Chris,

Only 1 of my screws did not fit and that was for the front. Are you using the black spacers? You don't have to use those spacers for the back plates, so the back should be pretty easy. The front is what got me. To hold those spacers in place, I used masking tape and taped them to the back of the license plate. Then I pushed (not too hard) and screwed the screws in place. I had 1 screw that gave me a problem. I used the screw from the plates my dealership gave me, since they're going to be covered with the chrome cap anyway. Hope this helps.

 

Kim, it sounds like your MINI was blessed with much nicer license plate screws than mine. The ones I got would probably have trouble holding two license plates stacked onto the car!

Jerry, how did you know what to buy? Did you just bring the stock ones into a hardware store and eyeball it?

 

jivanivan - I do have a black spacer-bracket thing on the boot, but on the front of the car the plate is just screwed right to the painted piece. I'll try fiddling with the spacer in the back tomorrow - thanks!

 

I bought all new screws.....
It was easier than worry about whether or not they would stay on :smile:

Peace,
D

 

bump

Thanks for the replies so far everyone, but I'm still confused. How do I know what kind of screws to buy? How deep ARE the holes? Turns out the bracket doesn't make a difference for me; the screws I have are barely long enough to get through the license plate and frame, so it doesn't matter what I'm screwing into.

Sorry if I'm missing something obvious here, but I honestly don't know what to do, other than try bringing the stock screws (different for front and back plates) into a hardware store and visually trying to match them.