My much-traveled daily-driver ’92 Civic arrived in Colorado in June, but the California registration tags were good until September 30th. Why pay for three months of registration twice? Eventually, however, I had to get some Colorado plates… and installation of said plates caused the car to start dropping parts on the highway.
The Denver County DMV was much more pleasant than its California counterpart, and getting the new plates turned out to be cheap and relatively painless. The hard part is over, right?
Well, no. The car was originally purchased in Virginia, then lived in Chicago for nearly a decade before moving to San Francisco (where it was broken into and/or hit by other cars on a regular basis).
The front license-plate mounting hardware was all rusted to shit, thanks to those years in Chicago, and the entire front body of the car had been destroyed and (partially) replaced by the previous owner. Sadly, the shop that did this job believed in saving time and money by discarding 80% of the fasteners involved. Somehow, I managed to drive the car for almost 5 years without noticing that the fenders, headlights, and marker lights were held in place by a tiny fraction of the original mounting hardware.
After removing the front bumper cover, I managed to drill out the hardware holding the mangled California plate and install my new Colorado plate.
Naturally, the rear plate was also a pain in the ass to install. The rusty mounting screws broke off, I couldn’t find the right size EZ-out to remove their stumps, and I was going to get this goddamn plate installed now, no trips to the hardware store! So, I drilled a hole all the way through the tailgate and ran a long bolt through to mount the plate. It’s crooked, but at least it’s legal.
It was at this point that all the loose hardware in front became apparent. After driving 15 miles to the junkyard, I noticed that my right turn signal was flashing very quickly, a sign that I’d burned out a light bulb. But no! I’d lost the marker light completely. Back to the junkyard!
Unintended Consequences: New Plates Cause Marker Light Shedding
October 6th, 2010
October 6th, 2010 - 4:04 am
You can probably buy a cheapo Chinese marker light for less than the hassle of trying to find one of these in the junkyard.
Although it may not be as hard to find a late(r) model Honda in the junkyard there than it is in SoCal.
October 6th, 2010 - 5:55 am
Looks like you’ve scraped off the Jalopnik logo already 😉
October 7th, 2010 - 11:27 am
I had one of these year civics once, and had the same issues you had when I attempted to change plates. Luckily SC only requires a rear plate.
Those front marker lights are held on my hopes and dreams. Or, as was the case with mine, packing tape, when the little plastic tabs all snapped off.
Now I drive my ’67 Amazon wagon to work. Sure, the gas mileage isn’t as good (27 vs 42) but at least everything is held on with honest-to-goodness screws and bolts.
October 7th, 2010 - 11:29 am
BTW, glad to see you’re rocking the stock 13″ steelies. I once got a set of four tires mounted and out the door on my 13’s for under a C-note. Here’s for cheap bastids!
October 7th, 2010 - 6:48 pm
I think I see your problem. If you want to be rid of the bad mechanical juju to you’re going to have to remove the two icons o’mechanical doom from your hatch lid. You might have to sprinkle the blood of a junkyard rat over it just to make sure.
October 8th, 2010 - 4:11 am
The fake plate HORRRGH sticker is gone, too. I miss it already.
October 9th, 2010 - 8:24 am
RWD Volvo front plate H-brackets, as you know, hang below the bumper, leaving the plate dangling and leading to inevitable damage – I actually lost a plate after it got bent far enough to widen the screw holes. The hardware gets rusted, too, but it’s comparatively easy to deal with.
mechimike: I just bought a ’92 745Ti, and one of the first things I discovered was that instead of the lenses being held in with a screw and the reflectors/bolts being mounted to the headlights (and taking a while to remove) as on my 244, the corner markers simply plug in and snap in. No wonder people lose them.
October 10th, 2010 - 7:01 pm
Talking about Volvo wagons…
Fast forward a few years and you’ll maybe have the pleasure, genuine joy, of having to change the headlight bulbs in a 2005-2009 Volvo V40. One big clip under the hood and the whole thing detaches from the car allowing great access for bulb changing.
I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if that single, currently sturdy, clip gives up at motorway speed.
Expensive and messy.
October 29th, 2010 - 7:32 pm
[…] for the gauge panel. How about the trashed front California license plate from my Civic, which just got new Colorado plates? Some rummaging in my box-o-junkyard-gauges-and-lights and a few minutes of work with Sharpie, […]