Project Mini: Custom European License Plate Install

by Michael Satterfield

The guys over at CustomEuropeanPlates.com sent us a pair of their custom made European style license plates for Project Mini. Not wanting to cause undue confusion with the local police we opted to have the Mini's actual license number imprinted on the plate with the California Flag. But they offer a wide range of plate colors, styles, and regions, allowing you to build a custom plate that fits your ride.

Now to be honest I did not really know what to expect when I placed the order, the last license plate I had made for the Mini was for our SEMA show sponsor Valor Electronics. I ordered one that looked like a classic 60's California black plate and ended up with a laminated plastic license plate. That is not the case with Custom European Plates, I was blown away with the quality, stamped in metal just like an original plate, coated with the correct reflective coating, with crisply painted numbers/letters. They also included the MINI plate frame mounts.

This is what you get when you order your plates, now unlike US plates that have the screws that go through them, these are true Euro-style plates with the frame that mounts to the car. They come with a number of screws, two sized tape with velcro, and some plastic caps.

The frames themselves have several slots, holes, and flat spots so the frame should line up with whatever factory holes are in your car. I had to reuse the bolts from the Mini simply because they were much larger holes than the screws that came with the kit. But the screws that come with the frames were the correct size for our late model Toyota and Lexus. On older cars that have been driven and modified for over 40 years, you might need to reuse your old hardware.

The lower panel on the frame pops out and the new plate slides into place and is held by the small clips all around the edge of the frame.

Re-install the lower frame panel, and the plate is secured in place.

That's it, the new Euro Plate fits the indent on the trunk, the front actually fits under the bumper without scraping, and to keep the local police happy the official license plate is placed in the back window when driving. We took it to a local car show and people were asking if they could order those plates from the DMV, so they really do look the part!