If that were a full size tire it would look goofy, but with the small tire it looks great! Really good job! Did you have to do anything special to get the license plate lit?

 

Like these?

Just realized I don't have any with them on the car. I'll fix that next time I wash it.

 

The plate and lighting definitely added a level of complexity.
Keep in mind most of this is custom so even the light fixture you see I had to create.
The happy accident is that I needed to create a supporting plate for the license plate. I'll show some details about this later. After trying different things (due to the center of the wheel being raised from the face of the tire) I found that making it slightly smaller than the tire was creating a chamfer to the cover which added a nice depth and finish to the whole thing, so I was pleased with that.
But that and having to wire it through the spare wheel wasn't the easiest part of the project unfortunately. Surprisingly everything went very smooth on this project until I got to the lighting... and I thought it would have been the easiest part It's making the assembly more complicated than I wanted to and it's not as easy swap as I had hoped for but it works.

Light is wired though the middle of the spare wheel, then through the mount, under the chassis of the car, back in the trunk compartment where it is attached to the 12 volt power outlet. I have a quick sealed connector under the car detach the entire contraption from the car, and an other quick connector to separate the license plate holder + cover from the spare wheel to make it easier to disassemble.

One other thing is that I had to dig in some basic information about light and license plate to stay within legal requirements
The plate can't be angled more than 30° (which was not an issue for my design). The light must be white(ish) and needs to lit the plate enough (though enough isn't a difficult requirement). I found those DOT approved led lights which I modified and made my own aluminum bracket to mount with a polished stainless steel frame holder.

Anyway, probably more details than you wanted


Exactly
I got the inspiration for the cover design from those obviously.

 

I like the details. Looking forward to more Thanks!

 

How about supporting the license plate from the rear tow hook like some folks do on the front?

 

Just looks too busy...

 

Tomorrow we'll be putting this design to the test . . . we'll be leaving for a 3,000 miles road trip going from Western PA, to Canada (Toronto, Ottawa), back to NY through lake Placid), VT, ME (north of Portland), and back to Western PA. We'll see how it does

 

Looks great TG, have a great trip and here's to not needing the spare😀

 

That looks fantastic! I especially like how the cross is reminiscent of the Scottish Saltire. Goes well with Kite Blue. Was that your intention or did it just work out that way?

 

Thanks minijenn!

Well it performed flawlessly and indeed we did not need the spare on our 2,200miles journey

We drove through Niagara falls, Toronto, Ottawa, Corwall, Whiteface mountain (NY), Lake Placid (NY), crossed lake Champlain by ferry at Essex (VT), Mt Washington, Camden (ME), Rockport, Castine, Bar Harbor, Freeport, Portland (ME), and our last stop Danbury (CT) and nearby Buddhist temple, before driving back home.

We drove top town for most of the trip








Thanks. I'm pretty pleased how it turned out but I must say it was not inspired from the Scottish Saltire