It has been a long time since I put the Version 6 rear bumper on my RS, and it was about time I put the proper license plate lights and bracket on the car. The process is not very hard, and is made easier with the JDM rear bumper beam (it already has the holes for the plate lights to bolt through). If you should have any questions or comments, feel free to email me.
First off, you need to remove your bumper cover or already have it off. The best time to do this would obviously be when you are putting the bumper cover and/or JDM rear bumper beam on, but of course I did things the hard way. In any event, as you can see, the plate brackets very easily bolt through the JDM bumper beam. Ignore the grass clippings- the car is filthy while undergoing many upgrades including the motor swap.
Push the wires through the trunk wall up to the grommets- the reverse of pulling them out as shown in the Scoobymods link.
Next, clip the lights to the body harnesses.
Next, you need to either weld or bolt the bracket to the body. For the average person, drilling and bolting will be easier/more practical than welding. While I have a welder, I do not trust myself with this kind of finesse yet, but I am great with a drill. The bracket will almost self-align itself due to the shape (you will understand when you put it up to the trunk panel). Mark the holes and drill carefully. It would be wise to remove your spare tire while drilling; while you will be above it, it is better to be safe than sorry.
With the holes drilled, it is a simple matter of simply bolting the bracket it. One bolt on the left side
and one bolt on the right side. You will notice some black goop on the bolts- this is 3M Ribbon Sealer (normally used for windshields and things like your rear tail lamps for sealing). I used a bead of this to ensure no water penetrates the trunk. I also used stainless steel hardware, just in case this should ever need to come off.
All bolted in place
In this photo, the arrows I have marked are setup for a US license plate (in all honesty, it is setup for some other country that happens to work for us); I used more stainless steel bolts to attach my plate through these holes. You could probably use standard license plate screws/inserts, but my plate never comes off so I did not feel the need to use the more removeable attachment method.
|
|
