Are reg plates allowed to be cut/trimmed?
Discussion
Trying to work out if reg plates have to be a certain size, or if they can legally be cut down to suit, here is the info from the .gov site, it gives information for character size and spacing but nothing about the over all dimensions of the plate itself.
The characters on a number plate need to be a certain height and size:
•characters must be 79mm tall
•characters (except the number 1 or letter I) must be 50mm wide
•the character stroke (the thickness of the black print) must be 14mm
•the space between characters must be 11mm
•the space between the age identifier and the random letters must be 33mm
•the margins at the top, bottom and side of the plate must be 11mm
•vertical space between the age identifier and the random letters must be 19mm
As highlighted in bold the margins must be 11mm, so does this mean that the excess background on the sides can be cut off?
It's an import sized plate so allowing for the 11mm margin and character spacing there's at least 50mm I'd be able to cut off from either side.
The reason for this is the car in question originally had a top mounted intercooler and now has a front mount but the reg plate blocks more than half of the frontal area off, the usual solution is to hack the bumper to bits cutting out the slats and the bit that the reg plate is screwed to and mounting the plate off to one side but I'd rather not go down this route as it ruins the bumper and makes the car look unsymmetrical.
I appreciate that it's not going to make a huge amount of difference but it costs nothing and any extra air flow to the intercooler and radiator is a bonus.
The characters on a number plate need to be a certain height and size:
•characters must be 79mm tall
•characters (except the number 1 or letter I) must be 50mm wide
•the character stroke (the thickness of the black print) must be 14mm
•the space between characters must be 11mm
•the space between the age identifier and the random letters must be 33mm
•the margins at the top, bottom and side of the plate must be 11mm
•vertical space between the age identifier and the random letters must be 19mm
As highlighted in bold the margins must be 11mm, so does this mean that the excess background on the sides can be cut off?
It's an import sized plate so allowing for the 11mm margin and character spacing there's at least 50mm I'd be able to cut off from either side.
The reason for this is the car in question originally had a top mounted intercooler and now has a front mount but the reg plate blocks more than half of the frontal area off, the usual solution is to hack the bumper to bits cutting out the slats and the bit that the reg plate is screwed to and mounting the plate off to one side but I'd rather not go down this route as it ruins the bumper and makes the car look unsymmetrical.
I appreciate that it's not going to make a huge amount of difference but it costs nothing and any extra air flow to the intercooler and radiator is a bonus.
Edited by s91 on Sunday 8th December 21:55
Roo said:
Or buy a legal import sized plate for it.
It's already got a legal import sized plate on it, 13" x 7" with the correct character size and spacing, BS number, and name and postcode of supplier.But across the width there's almost 5 inches in total of useless background.
I just want to know if I can cut away the excess background, if it's not legal to cut it down from the original 13" width then I wont bother.
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