Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Removing rusted license plate bolts....OMG

Yes my plate screws on the contour are so rusted there is rust stains running down the license plate..hehehehe

Well as you would expect, I had the same problem. Here's what I did. I took out the old screws along with the press fit metal inserts and threw them out, good riddance! Next I went down (with my truck, no plates on back of car now)to the local hardware box store and purchased some large short sheet metal screws. The size that worked best is number #14 x 3/4 inch in length (sheet metal screws). Just screw them into the recently vacated plastic holes where the metal press-fit sleeves used to be. They bite into the plastic and grip real well. Since it is metal to plastic and the screws are plated, they will take a long time to rust but even rusty they will still never sieze. I got 8 screws (4 spares)for about $3 cdn.

Regards,

John

Any new ideas on this problem?

The '96 I just bought has three headless screws rusted into that back license plate panel.

From the previous postings, it sounds like best plan is to remove the whole metal insert that the screws go into and go from there.