Registration Plate Wedge

I'm something of a boy racer, in that I always end up personalising any car I own. In years gone by this would involve major physical alterations such as lowering, aftermarket wheels, aftermarket head and tail lights, amplified sound systems, custom exhausts, etc, etc, etc.

These days I tend to be more conservative given that I passed the age of 50 over half a decade ago! So My modifications are more understated and subtle. In this case, this vehicle mod was nothing more onerous than exchanging my boring rectangular registration plate, with a (slightly cooler) square one.

The number plate mounting point on my 2009 Suzuki Swift leans backwards at an angle of about 6 degrees. This looks fine on a rectangular plate. But with a square plate fitted, it just looked plain odd leaning backwards like a drunk in a gale. Not a problem though; it would just need a wedge-shaped spacer to change the angle, and Bob's your uncle!

Of course, nothing in life is QUITE that simple: The first problem to overcome was the size of the print bed on my Ender 3. Whilst it's undoubtedly a good size at 235mm X 235mm, there was no way it was going to be able to print a 290mm (11.5") spacer. No matter how many different orientations I tried in my slicing software, it just wasn't gonna go in that pint pot.

So I split it, arbitrarily, into 3 pieces. I'm sure I could have gotten away with 2 parts, but I had the vague notion that I was allowing for expansion and contraction caused by temperature extremes. Also, by splitting it this way, I could surmount the second problem; which is that the car's number plate mounting is curved across its width - matching the shape of the bumper itself. Ordinarily this is accomodated for within the flexible nature of the UK's perspex number plates. But when I made my first print in PLA, I was uncomfortable with the surprising amount of extra force that the screw heads imparted to the perspex when making both the plate AND the spacer follow the curve. So I reprinted using a reel of black TPU filament, and this allowed the whole shebang to match the curve.

The central portion of the spacer is designed to interlock with the two outer parts so that it can't go anywhere once it's sandwiched in place between the registration plate and the bumper.

It was a little tricky to keep all 3 parts aligned when installing, and I was prepared to use double-sided tape to retain it if necessary. But, to be honest, a little extra patience in lining things up dispensed with the need for doing so.

The end result worked perfectly. The plate now stands vertically, and it looks like it was always meant to be this way. The only downside is that it's now so perfectly aligned that speed cameras will be able to capture a nice clear image without any confusing reflections from the flash. Oh well; one sometimes has to suffer for one's art!

Happy printing!

Standard FDM printing settings:
- Layer height: 0.2mm
- Infill: 70%
- Supports: As needed