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Front License Plate Solutions

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Wow! What a fabulous, creative solution. Where I live, I can get away without a front plate at all --well, I get a ticket on my various cars about once a decade (on my Roadster) but this might work great for my son who drives his Model S in The City (San Francisco) daily. Please PM me if these go into production.

Hmmm..I have been driving in the SF Bay Area (including lots in SF) for 20+ years without a front plate and have never gotten stopped or tagged. Yes, lucky, and, yes, against the law in CA, but I know that I am not alone.
 
It appears that it might be subject to scraping on inclined ramps.

When the plate is out it only has about 0.25" of less clearance. When I get my plates it will always be out (the law in CO). The purpose of the Show n go is to be able to retract the plate for car shows or while parked. They also make an electronic one that can be shown and retracted remotely from inside the car.
 
I'm going back and forth between two solutions. Either the Skene or this solution from youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY1cGIIGVWo

I first wanted to make sure though that people still aren't having issues with it blocking the grill and battery issues. I saw it mentioned on this thread that a service center said that battery heat dissipates from the side grills but there didn't seem to be confirmation.

Also if anybody has any opinions on the two solutions I mentioned above and which I should go with I'd appreciate it. Thanks.
 
I went the zip-tie route. I mounted the plate holder (tesla supplied) upside down and used three zip-ties. Had to take the nose cone off to get the top two ties nice and snug with the third one below. It doesn't move at all, the actual plate attaches nice and flat, and it doesn't seem to block too much of the air intake. I will ask service what they think when I take it in for due bill items.
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I think this is the way I'm going to go. It's simple and looks good (better, I think, than the mounts you can buy for $50-80)

I cannot tell from the picture how you attached the zip ties to the Plate holder. Do you have any pictures up close from the side? Thanks.
 
OK. So here is my attempt to create a detachable front license plate. It is a combination of super magnets, gorilla glue, gorilla tape and zip ties.

Supplies
1. Super magnets (neodymium)
a) two (2) 18 mm x 3 mm discs
b) two (2) 12 mm x 3 mm discs
c) two (2) magnet discs with caribiner hook
2. Gorilla glue (the one that takes 1-2 hours to set and requires clamping.
3. Gorilla tape
4. 2 heavy duty Zip ties
5. Rubber weather seal with adhesive backing.

Magnet Orientation: Determine the orientation of the magnets so that they attract and not repel each other (super important!!!!!). The idea is that the 12 mm x 3 mm discs go on the front of the license plate backing (where your license plate will be mounted), the 18 mm x 3 mm go on the opposite side (facing car) and the caribiner magnets will be attached to the grill using zip ties. OH. The caribiner magnets have tape covering them. Very important not to remove this. I removed them, and then tired to figure out magnet orientation, but the 18 mm magnet got stuck. The magnet on the caribiner is recessed by 1 mm, so you can’t slide any magnet inadvertently attached off (thus the gorilla tape). Required a blade to remove the magnet.

Assembly: Clean surfaces of magnets, and the left and right holes of the license plate backing. Wet all surfaces that will be covered in gorilla glue (magnets, license plate backing. Moisture is required to activate the gorilla glue). Starting with the 18 mm disc, spread glue around the outer edge and attach to license plate backing. Similarly do the same to the 12 mm disc on the front side of plate. I put some in the hole as well so that there is glue attaching both magnets. The 2 magnets essentially will create their own clamp to help the glue bond them together (with plate holder between them). Cover the 18 mm magnets with gorilla tape in an X fashion. This is done so that you don’t have magnet on magnet touching, because it is super difficult to separate the caribiner magnet. Tape on strips of the rubber seal to areas of the plate that will touch the car, to prevent scraping.

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Disassembly: pull each caribiner off from the license plate by sliding them off. The caribiners can then be detached from the zip ties. The zip ties will remain on the car’s grill, while the rest can go into the frunk.

I hope that made sense.
 
I just received my new plates and mounted the front one using the zip tie technique described by grisnjam recently. Easy, cheap, and looks fine. I have no interest in risking getting ticketed and then having to bother with mounting it and spending time getting my fix signed off on. Thanks to grisnjam for posting detailed photos!
 
After receiving FOUR missing plate ($25 / each) tickets while parked in Santa Monica, I finally decided to do something about it, and I completed the magnet procedure this morning.

I used this as my guideline: Magnetically Held Front License Plate | TeslaTap

I got the magnets from Amazon, the glue from my local hardware store, and I have a stash of hockey tape.

Used paper to limit the metal-to-plastic rubbing while I aligned the magnets just right. Note I was watching the NFL playoffs during... :)
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Lined up the magnets by just holding the bracket on the front of the nose cone and sliding around until they were perfectly aligned.
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Couldn't find any better gloves to use - I did not want my skin touching that glue.
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After glue
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This is what happens when you're not mindful of these super magnets. They violently slam together! I had to be careful not to pinch my skin.
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I used a small amount of tape to cover the holes so glue wouldn't drip through
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Ready to glue bracket magnets
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Post glue
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I decided to tape ALL the metal areas. I figured, why not, it makes it smoother to the touch when removing and there's really no downside. For the magnets to nose cone touching, it's obviously less abrasive.
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After 45 minutes of waiting for the epoxy to dry, I tried it out. A perfect fit!
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Has anyone looked at removing the nosecone, mounting the plate to the inner bumper support and then cutting a slot in the underside of the nose cone to let the plate hang down in front of the upper grill? I have to pull the nose cone off our car to check, but it seems like this could work. As a bonus you would only see the numbers on the plate not the top with the screw holes and the state. It might be a more subtle look. Take a look at the photos of the nose cones removed to get an idea of what it looks like in there. Front Grill Access
 
Also installed the Skene plate and it has worked out really well. It is decent quality and yes does involve drilling two small holes on the underside of the front nose lip. However in CA you got to do it or risk a ticket especially from the CHP. Also installed my HOV stickers which on my silver paint are almost invisible.
 
That is a quicker solution but also easier for someone else to remove your plate as well. Just different ways
of providing a front plate that isn't destructive.

We designed The Law for the Model S as a bolt-on application to avoid drilling into the nose cone and protect against license plate theft. The initial install of The Law takes less than five minutes. The license plate can then be removed at any time in less than a minute by unscrewing two bolts. Teslarati gave a great (and balanced) review of The Law here: Removable Tesla Model S Front License Plate Bracket Review - Teslarati.com