Marktini

I live in Illinois where front license plates are required on all cars.

When I purchased my SLK55 it came from a dealer in Ohio that had already mounted a plate bracket to the front of the car which I hated. I removed the plate bracket and used "bumper plugs" to fill the holes and it looked OK but I still was not happy with the look, more importantly I received several $50.00 tickets for no front plate when my car was parked either on the street, or in a public garage (in Chicago the police search public garages for cars with expired or missing plates, but they do not routinely pull people over for not having a front plate).

Long story short I had a new bumper cover installed on my car to get rid of the holes, I didn't want them filled, and thought I'd figure out a removable plate bracket that I could use when I park.

Here's what I came up:

1. I went to the local Home Depot and bought some suction cups with hooks on them.

2. I removed the hooks noticing that the back end of the cup had a ridge that held the hook in place.

3. I took the original plate bracket from the car and open up the two center holes that originally had screws that attached them to the bumper and I filed them large enough to push the ridge side of the suction cup through the bracket. After I pushed the suction cups through from the back side of the bracket I flipped it over and filled the holes with hot glue to hold the cups in place.

4. One the glue had dried I mounted my plate, being careful to use screws that were not too long as to not scratch my bumper.

5. I will add a plate surround to clean up the look, as well as put some protective clear film on my bumper where the plate will be put on/off and that's basically it.

The suction cups do stick very well, I'm not sure if they would hold for long periods of driving, but for short trips, or more importantly to hold the plate when I'm parked, it works perfectly.

I hope this is useful to some of you.