3D Printed License Plate Mount For My Dune Buggy!

With the arrival of my new dune buggy I have found it necessary to press my 3D printer into service once again. Not so much that I needed to make something to spruce this little beauty up but rather having to make something that is useful and needed.

The car was originally put together in Arizona and later on sold to a gentleman in Florida.  Both states do not require a front license plate.  The fact that I live in Wisconsin changes all of that being that both a front and rear license plate are a requirement here.  As you can see from the photo above there is no front plate on the dune buggy and even if I mounted one on to the front of the body it would be hidden by the front bumper guard.  Thus the reason to press my design skills and 3D printer into service for this weeks project.

I was happy when the dune buggy arrived so that I could get proper measurement of the front bumper guard for this project. This is where I planned on mounting the new license plate.  I had to work up some kind of mounts that would attach to the bumper and hold the plate properly so that it could be installed easily and in the end be very visible.  On top of all of this I wanted something that looked good when this project was completed.

I started this project using Fusion 360 CAD software like I normally do and laid out just a section of the front bumper and the mounting parts that are bolted to the vertical center supports.  The black pieces for this part of the assembly (shown above) needed to be mirror images of one another so that the assembly would be set up correctly.  This was an easy task in Fusion 360 as one part is created it can easily be duplicated and mirrored to get the next correct part made.

Next the mounting brackets for the license plate mounting plate were designed.  On the right in the image above you can see a black "D" shape on the inner face of the mounting bracket.  This was made so that the black down tube mount would slide into the mounting bracket and not spin.  A bolt and nut are then added to secure the yellow parts to their mating black parts. 

I then designed a simple drill guide for the license plate mounting plate.  This drill guide helped me make sure the holes for the mounting plate were drilled correctly and would mount up to the yellow brackets in the assembly.  

Here is what the license plate mounting plate looked like for the assembly. The slots for the yellow brackets were changed from holes just to make sure the assembly would go together smoothly.  

The license plate mounting plate then is bolted to the yellow brackets and now the assembly is looking like a real license plate mounting assembly.  All that is needed then is the license plate that will be mounted to the four holes at center locations shown on the mounting plate above.

Here finally after hours of 3D printing is the finished parts assembled on the front bumper of dune buggy. All of the parts printed very well and the assembly was a simple task of bolting everything in place.  I will make sure to add Loctite to all of the bolts just to make sure that nothing vibrates loose while driving. 

Here's a good view of the license plate brackets mounted with the drill guide attached to the assembly. I thought it best to double check my measurements by using the drill guide first before finding out later that I had messed up and now have to remake the license plate mounting plate over again.  At this point everything looked good so to make double sure I changed the holes for these brackets on the license plate mounting plate to slots to make doubly sure that the assembly would work properly.

In the photos above the license plate mounting plate was added to the assembly.  I was correct in adding slots to the mounting plate as this part slide right into place and worked perfectly.  The mounting plate I did not 3D print as I thought it best to find something already online that would work just as well.  The mounting plate is 1/4" plastic already cut to 6" X 12" in size for only $7.00.  The perfect size and very light weight and strong for the project. Plus I didn't have to wait for hours to have it made on my 3D printer.  Oh sure I could have but I thought for a couple extra bucks it was worth it for the project. 

Here's the final result of the project.  A nice clean installation ready for my license plates when they finally arrive from the DMV.  I think the look of the assembly works very well with the dune buggy so I call this project a done deal. Check another one off of my to do list. Yes!