99' molded plate removal
 

Anyone had experience removing the 99' spec molding licence plate. The shop that is doing my work has no confidence they can do it and it will last. As in maybe weeks or months. Pretty frustrated as this started with a no problem. Now that I have the thing it's big deal and Mazdaspeed, busted they're ass to get me this part after a ordering mishap.. I'm not willing to go with a rigid bumper cover and the plate holder is not an option to me.

I currently have a RX7store clone, but the fitment just isn't there. This partly by it's design and compounded by it's age but it greatly takes away from an otherwise very straight car. But as it stands today that my seems to be the best option.

If anyone has had success with this I would love to hear from you. Otherwise you will be hearing about a 99' spec NIB for sale.

If it's cheap enough I'll buy it hahaha.

That does suck man :(.

I'm fortunate enough to live in a state that doesn't require a front plate and still can't figure out why they made it that way to begin with. Words can't describe how frustrating this is. Still holding out hope someone will know how to pull this off reliably.

In Japan, cars are required to have front license plates. Mazda actually did a good job with this, they added intake ducts into the back of the license plate to draw air into the airbox. Of course, you have to have all the ducts and parts to make this work along with a stock airbox :).

I have seen and heard of shops molding out the square frame, but it's a LOT of work, and work in a body shop means labor hours means $$$$. I seem to remember Pettit made a fiberglass replica with the plate frame molded out.

This is something you need to step back and think about. To do it right, you're looking at a large labor bill, money that could be put into something else. A fiberglass nose is good, but IMHO I hate fiberglass noses, they are too damn fragile.

Or, run it as-is and get one of the RX-7 logo plates that go where the front plate goes.

Dale

IMO the plateless front bumper doesn't look that good. I makes the car look like a cat fish.

The trick is how to do it this shop has agreed to do it for material. He owes me for taking two and half month to paint it, that was actually done in 5 days. It was rushed and it showed fortunately the worst of it was on the hatch and hood. So he's fixing that too... Plus with the OEM part on hand and several FD's on the property one of which is all original he should be able to confirm he lined everything up right.


It's a daily driver and fiberglass is exactly as Dale has said too fragile. I hope he can do a better job mounting this time around. Oh it's the Rotary Extreme part I believe that I purchased from the RX7store.

Plus with the OEM part on hand and several FD's on the property one of which is all original he should be able to confirm he lined everything up right.

Aside from that an unaltered OEM 99' spec is of no use to me, I really do hate the look of it that much.

So the shop has done a sub-par paintjob already, and now you're asking them to modify your expensive OEM bumper even after they've warned you it's difficult and they might do a poor job at it? Seems like you are asking for trouble.

Search up sport compact car magazine and their project car RX 7....

They did this exact thing you are wanting too, even though the magazine is no more I remember a few months ago reading the articles, so they still must be archived on a sister mags site...

They cut the plate holder pff, used a piece of the old 93-95 bumper to cover the hole left, then patched it up...

Do a google search and see what you come up with, if not PM and I'll see if I have the pictures kicking around somewhere....


J.

shop around for shops that actually do custom work. I have a plateless aftermarket polyurethane bumper and the custom shop had a hard time making it fit right. Through conversations the body shop guy found out through me that there was an oem version with this plate holder and told me that it would had been a hell of a lot easier to just shave the plate off. He then proceeded to show me a bumper that came off an mr2 where he was doing exactly that.

catfish! lol

It's a shame Mazda put that stupid thing on there... but there's no perfect solution.

I've heard of people having issues with shaved ones, the FG look pretty good but are fragile (although probably less than other FG bumpers, because you can still mount the '99 flexible lip for protection), and the urathane versions (like I have) don't fit perfectly.

screw fiberglass.

unfortunately 99 spec w/ shaved plate looks bad.

I think I've seen that article but certainly don't recall if they said how they did it. I happen to have the original bumper as well. But there is a real concern about eating the material and matching it with similar strength. Does anyone know what it's actually made of?

The body work is flawless, it's staighter than it came from the factory. The prep work sucked. The paint would be great had the helpers done their jobs. He will be doing all the work himself this time. Also I'm not doing anything with the OEM until I can ground a reliable way to do it.

Maybe I'm thinking about this all wrong, my main issue is the hood gap about a 1/2". Maybe I should just make the hood match the bumper cover... Structurally I would think this would be much stronger. My side fitment which is acceptable now could probably be improved as well. A lot harder to make it look good but far more predictable.

Have you looked into any of the other bumper styles that shine offerss? Iirc they are all made of frp so they should be pretty strong.

Again rigid material is not an option even if it free. There is a reason almost every production car out there uses flexible bumper covers regardless of how much it cost.

To each their own, but with very few exceptions I personally hate aftermarket body parts. The main reason is they look like something bolted to the car. Just my personal taste, it's not a right or wrong thing unless we're talking about my car.

Mazda created one of the few timeless designs in automotive history I'm not looking to stray too far from that. I still have the stock hood, but the hoods venting really helps with the temps in Florida. With the stock hood using the AC was not an option in traffic.

Pain in the ass. I had this done back in 2000. I have pics somewhere but not on here. It warped twice before they got it right but the end result was worth it. What the body shop ended up doing is cutting a piece off the stock bumper and molding it in to fill the hole left by removing the plate holder.

to be honest i was too lazy to read everyones post.

IMO it sounds cheap to sell yours if and use that money towards buying a plateless version. i have a plateless i picked up for cheap but needs a lot of tlc. idk which one i like more. but its better then more boring 93 lol

http://shop.pettitracing.com/pettit_...d/g-62930.aspx

says urethane or fiberglass

I had missed that, that's a workable solution. Waiting on the results after ordering new metal framing for the RE one that I currently have. I found a few other threads as well like the one from Rotary Experiment Seven

Thank you very much for pointing that out to me, an new option is a very good thing. Everything should be done sometime this week so I guess I'll know soon enough.

np. im 50/50 on the platess 99 :scratch: please show some pics of when you get it painted/mounted

dont be surprised if the pettit poly-urethane plateless bumper is made out of the same mold as the RE one.

a few years back there was some drama where the mold that RE made was being used (and still is)
by other vendors.

I have the urathane from the original RE group buy. My body guy, who is supposed to be one of the areas best, did two at the same time (Mine and Crispys), and said he had a heck of a time gutting them fitted and sanded, so the fitment/pain wasn't cheap. I've seen some on the forum that appeared to fit better, and many that appear to fit worse.

That said, it looks pretty good. What's more irritating is that the paint doesn't match perfectly (F-ing silver), Crispy's looks better for that reason. One word of caution, have the shop open up the holes on the rebar for the marker lights instead of chopping the ends off. The uarthane tends to sag a little in front of the headlight lid, but you can stuff a little something between the bumper and the rebar to hold the shape, and after a while it'll stay that way.

In my opinion though, this is how the front is SUPPOSED to look.

Previous owner had this done like almost 10 yrs ago.... OEM JDM bumper....can't even tell it was shaved and molded...looks totally stock.

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z...331000logo.jpg

MORE PICS please!! sick fd man. i think that just changed me to go 100% plateless

My plateless bumper
 

My plateless '99 urethane front bumper that Pete mentioned.

http://www.reganrotaryracing.com/99bumper3.jpg

More dteailed pics here with a writeup: http://www.reganrotaryracing.com/99bumper.htm

Regards,
Crispy