Has anyone installed the front license plate bracket without the plastic rivets?

[MarcoG]

I need to install the front license plate bracket which means drilling into the bumper. Not a huge deal for me so I don't really care for aftermarket no drill offerings. I don't have a rivet gun and would like to be able to take the bracket off once in a while to clean everything behind it. Has anyone used nuts and bolts instead? It seems hard to reach behind the bumper to tighten things down this way. Anyone have other ideas how I can secure the front bracket while still be able to easily take it off?

There are some good You Tubes on this but they all use the rivet to keep the plastic base from moving around at all. We live in California where a front is required. I have never, on any car, removed this to clean behind. I am OCD clean, but that's beyond.

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[PlantMan]

Maybe try a threaded insert for plastic?

 

[TheNeedForSpeed]

These might be similar to the above mentioned "rivnuts", but Ford uses what are commonly called " scrivets" on many trim panels. They are basically a plastic rivet but with a plastic crew in the center than can be unscrewed and reused. Your Ford dealer may even have them in stock. In addition, on your Maverick if you look at the edges of the inner fenderwell liners on the front wheel opening there are similar fasteners to these "scrivets" that have a center that you can just push in and it spreads the rivet for securing, then you can just lift the center back out for easy removal and they also are reusable. Once again your dealer may have these also, and if not at least you have a reference to tell the parts guy what you are looking for and where they are located.

I have these in my miata. I really wouldn't trust it to hold up a license plate. You can pop those pins pretty easily.

There are some good You Tubes on this but they all use the rivet to keep the plastic base from moving around at all. We live in California where a front is required. I have never, on any car, removed this to clean behind. I am OCD clean, but that's beyond.

I don't feel like washing the truck right now so I just wanted to put the plates on first and get to it later. Still haven't fully decided what to do just yet.

 

[Mabcim]

My dealer just screwed it on. They have done that for all the cars I have bought from them. They never use the rivets. They are only an 1” or so long.

 

[Jakb]

I ended up using zip ties and blocked some of the venting. Probably not the best for airflow but it only blocks about 8-10"

More details and pics here.
https://www.mavericktruckclub.com/f...-license-plate-holder.7315/page-5#post-547484

 

[Jimmyland]

understand your reluctance, no choice in MN must be displayed so I used the included rivets, it does require a slightly larger rivet puller. The bumper is clearly marked -as to location. I did not consider using removable fasteners, until this post. Check for a fastener called a rivnut

install a couple in scrap to judge the results

Had the dealer put mine on when my plates came ready.

 

[Graboid]

Just installed plates on my 24 Tremor today using rivnuts. Did not care for screws directly in plastic so mounted rear plate with 4 rivnuts (rather than just 2 screws) and it worked perfectly. This was my first time working with rivnuts but was pretty easy to pick up.

 

[Graboid]

For the front bracket I did a "no drill" install by adding 2 rivnuts below the bumper (which angles back on the Tremor). All that you see when the bracket is off is a couple of inconspicuous nuts under the bumper - no drilling of the visible surface at all.

For good measure I also mounted the plate to the bracket with rivnuts (first of 2 shown below for "before and after"):

 

[TedTX]

Some wiseguy placed the front plates offside like the rear on I87 near the medical center area here in San Antonio. Seen him twice, want a pic but didn't show plates.

 

[L30n1d45]

I should have taken a picture of mine after I put it in, but I didn't have a rivet puller so I just used a set of three Phillips head bolts that I had lying around from some furniture assembly or something. they caught just fine on the plastic going into some slightly smaller pilot holes, so I don't think it's going to need anything on the back.

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