How To Fit New Number Plates To Your Vehicle

You don't have to be a mechanic to replace the number plates on your vehicle. Whether you are fitting new ones or replacing broken, lost or stolen ones, this article will guard you through the process from start to finish.

There will usually be just two scenarios where you find yourself needing to change a number plate on a vehicle. Firstly, exchanging an existing one and secondly, replacing a broken, lost or stolen one. In either case you will need very few tools and very little technical expertise.

Before you start keep in mind that the front number plate is the white one and the yellow one goes on the back (That sounds obvious, I know, but its a surprisingly easy mistake to make). Also that if you are replacing your original number plates with a personalized registration then before you fit the new plates to your car you must assign the registration to the vehicle. If you don t then the registration is not legal and you could end up with a fine and points on your license.

To assign the registration you must fill out the appropriate parts of the V750 certificate and then send it or take it in person with the required documents to your nearest D.V.L.A. Local Office. The sections of the certificate to be filled in will depend upon your particular circumstances. A step by step explanation of all these sections, as seen on the back of the V750 certificate, can be found in the Regfinder.net Help Index under the heading of Ordering a Number Plate from D.V.L.A. and you will find details of your nearest D.V.L.A. Local Office in the Got a Question? pages of the D.V.L.A. website.


(Scenario 1)
Exchanging your existing number plate.


You will need:

1. A cordless or electric drill

2. A 4mm to 6mm drill bit

3. A Philip s screw driver


Doing the Job:

1. Remove the original plate from the vehicle (Pop open the plastic caps and undo the screws)

2. Place the original plate exactly on top of the new one and drill holes in the new one using the original number plate holes as a template.

3. Screw new number plate to the vehicle using the original holes in the bumper (Don t forget to put the plastic caps on the screws first).


(Scenario 2)
Replacing your broken, lost or stolen number plate.
(If you don’t have the original one to use as a template)


You will need:

1; A cordless or electric drill

2; A 4mm to 6mm drill bit

3; A Philip's screw driver

4. A small amount of grease or anything of that texture (jam will do)


Doing the Job:

1; Unscrew the old plates. (or find placement screws if lost or stolen)

2; Put the old screws back in (without the plastic cap).

3; Put a blob of grease’ or jam on the screw heads.

4; Offer up the new number plate centrally until it touches the two screw heads.

5; Remove the screws.

6; Carefully, drill the new plates where the grease blobs appear. Remember you will be drilling from the back of the number plate so don t apply too much pressure or you may damage the front as the drill bit goes through.

7; Screw the new plate on. (Don t forget to put the plastic caps on the screws first).


If you re still uncertain about this process then its probably a better idea to go down to your local mechanic or car body shop and offer one of the lads 20 pounds to fit the number plates for you. It should only take him half an hour and you will probably find that he will supply any new plastic caps or screws that may be required.

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Why Number Plate And Registration Dealers Are Expensive

Of course, we d all like a personal registration mark like the recently sold F1 plate but for most of us, the 440,000 pounds price tag would prove a little prohibitive. So, the trick, when searching for a private plate, is to find a good one that nobody knows exists but everyone would want if they did.

The D.V.L.A. is without doubt or exception the best value provider of UK personalized number plates there is. No one else can realistically compete because the D.V.L.A. creates them all in the first place. It is the only place you will ever find a genuine bargain. If you can find one, that is.

With a stock list often in excess of 30 million registrations you could spend the rest of your life trying to find words, names or phrases within it when most of the time you re not really sure what you re looking for until you see it, and when most of the number plates don t make a word, anyway.

Even if you had the time and patience for a task of this scale, the D.V.L.A. stock is in perpetual flux, selling between 500 & 1000 number plates every day with millions more being added every 6 months. Its not that surprising then, that most people either give up the search completely or turn to one of the many privately run, after market, registration plate dealers currently operating.

Private dealers mostly offer a good service but can never offer the best value. They make their money by marking up the product which in itself would not seem too unreasonable. Every business needs to make a profit, however some of the top dealers need to spend 50,000 pounds a week on advertising before they do. This money has to come from somewhere.

An example of this pricing is the registration mark: UP51ART. I bought this registration from the D.V.L.A. for 799 pounds after finding it by default using the, then manual, Regfinder algorithm and realized I had to be on to something as it had been available on the D.V.L.A. website for nearly 3 years without anyone else noticing it. You don t have to look very far in the private dealers advertisements to see that most 7 letter word number plates of this caliber are on sale for at least 10k.

Knowing that with the Regfinder.net system I could find thousands of such registrations I briefly thought my day job would soon be a thing of the past. But its not that simple. I have contacted most of the private traders regarding UP51ART over the years and been offered fixed contract prices of between 1200 and 216 pounds. Needless to say UP51ART is staying in my possession for the foreseeable future.

It could always have been worse, though. I could have bought UP51ART from one of these companies for 10,000 pounds and then been told the fixed price that they would be willing to guarantee me for it if I wanted them to sell it for me again.

All of this lead to the decision to build Regfinder.net. The number plate search engine. Now, Instead of manually trawling through the whole D.V.L.A. registration number stock with pen and paper we have turned the idea into an algorithmic database that is updated daily for everyone to use and have found over 200,000 words and names in as many different ways possible.

To date, Regfinder.net has found, categorized, availability checked and price checked over 30 million readable registration marks starting from A at the beginning of the prefix plates up to 13 in the current style, most of which are still available or will be in the future. Regfinder.net links you directly to your registration of choice on the D.V.L.A. website. All of the available personalized number plates found on Regfinder.net are bought directly by the user from the D.V.L.A. for the D.V.L.A. price.

Unlike all the private dealers Regfinder.net does not mark up the D.V.L.A. prices, nor does it receive any form of payment from the D.V.L.A. or any of the private companies. This project was started with a Robin Hood style design remit in mind and we believe that everyone who uses this service will be so pleased, they will tell others about it. Word of mouth will be the only advertising we will need.

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