Rusty parts
on our cars are part of the price we pay to live in this part of the
world. Rusty bolts make things difficult to disassemble, even something
as simple as a license plate.
I saw a nice Mercedes Benz the
other day in Minneapolis, and the first thing I noticed were how the four rusty
license bolts were beginning to stain that fine Minnesota plate.
Why do we attach
plates to expensive new automobiles with cheap steel bolts that rust so
quickly?
Even if you don’t care about the aesthetics
of the very visible rusty bolts, there is a practical reason to be concerned: I
once could not get a rusted license plate bolt out of a fairly new Toyota, and the bolt
broke in the hole. I had to drill it out, and it was very time consuming.
I
replace the license bolts on my cars with stainless steel versions like the one
in the picture. They will never rust, which means they will look better
AND work better when you have to (eventually) replace the plates.
Any good hardware store will have
the stainless steel bolts, but make sure to bring in one of the old bolts so
you can match the length and the threads-per-inch count.
I
also like to get the bolts that have a hex head instead of the screwdriver head
most license plate bolts have. This allows the use of a socket wrench to
get the bolt a little tighter, and a hex head allows you to get more leverage
when you want to remove the plate.
Also, people who want to
steal your plate are less likely to have the proper size socket wrench with
them... they almost always have a screwdriver.
