e30 advice on front licence plate mounting?

[cirrusblue]

Hello,

1987 325, pre facelift... licence plate question?

I live in a state that requires a front licence plate, and I want to mount a permanent licence plate bracket on the bumper. The car used to have one, but now has been in FL for years and it seems there is a plastic part about 1 foot long over the portion of the metal bumper where a mounting bracket prob. used to be when the car was a northern car

Any advice on how I can tap the screws into the pre-facelift bumper?
Yes, I know some folks won't like this idea, but I just want to permanently mount the bracket. I'm ok with it. The car is 87 325.

I just don't want to start testing screw holes and find out I can't tap it, or make a mess of it.

Any thoughts appreciated.

[cirrusblue]

under or on

http://skene.org/bmw/plate/images/FLPB-side-high.jpg

I saw something like this which looked interesting, but maybe i"m over thinking it...

I did buy a standard black plastic mounting online and it's on the way.

[MR 325]

Why not just buy the OEM BMW part that goes there? It's under $25 new. Part number 51181971266

[Reichart12]

Or the original piece from a junkyard for about $5-10. If you are switching to a oem piece with bracket you could probably sell the filler piece you have to make back your couple dollars.

[cirrusblue]

Thanks for the part number...

I didn't realize there was a part for this! Thank you.

The issue is I can't figure out how to get the bumper strip that's currently inserted in there "out"... I kind of tried to wedge it out but I wasn't sure if it was going to break. I coudln't get my hand behind it. Any advice on getting the strip out would be really apprec.

Thank you!

[Reichart12]

There should be nuts/bolts holding it on. 2 I believe. The metal bumper will only be hold onto the bumper shocks by a couple bolts. Undo that, pull the bumper off and check out the back of the bumper for whats holding the filler piece on.

[cirrusblue]

Bumper strip... thank you!

that make sense, I'll do that. I could feel 2 large wing nuts behind the strip but it was impossible to reach while attached. I'll take a look a this. Thank you you

[Reichart12]

Yup that sounds like what youre looking for. Post back if you need any other help.

[Steve Corbett]

I have the bracket you need if you want to swap me the filler piece.