Howdy

I got a series 3 XJ, and the plates were stolen off it by force, and damned if i can't find replacements for those little tapped clips behind the front plate.



Tried the local Jag shop, and they gave me something that was much too big. Local Jag dealer said they simply don't deal with cars this old, and it may be that i can't guess the specific name of the things but no parts site i can find appears to list the part, either in diagrams of searches. I ended up pulling some off a series 2 parts car a friend has, but those also failed and the new license plate is now lost somewhere on the sea to sky highway, because **** my luck i guess.

Does anyone know where I can get those clips? Didn't expect a bitty little fastener to be such a problem to track down.

 

I've never had front plates in mine so I have never seen them or needed them.

can you describe them?

 

Plates used in a crime or mewrely to avoid paying registration!!!!

 

I', guessing. My local CARQUEST has a wall of oddities such as liscence plate fasteners. small plastic inserts that you push into the hole in the steel l and they erxpand behind it. Then a small screw with a washer like head screws in to that. I even got some dome like devices in chrome that it over those. Really generic things..

Failing that, visit the hardware store and check out devices to attach stuff to sheet rock. Toggle bolts, expanding screws, etc.

There is patented product. Nutserts. Not sure if they come small enough. but, they wold really be elegant... HF has something like them...

My first advice as a 90 year old... .AKa lost post!!!

Carl

 

Crime or registration evasion...

 

Been there, done that,

The slots on the front bumper are an odd size. None the usual press-in plastic license plate nuts will work unless you file/grind them to fit

Cheers
DD

 

My car was missing one of the fasteners when I got it, the plate held on by only one.
I squeezed a 1/2 or 5/8 inch length of small vacuum line into the slot and screwed the plate into that. It worked so well I removed the other clip which was Very loose anyway, and did the same.

The front plate was never so secure after I did that. Doesn't rattle or anything.
(';')

 

Yup, me too. No front plates in the state where I bought it. You will get a ticket without a front plate in the state where I live. I used stainless steel lag bolts just the right size to dig into those aluminum slots on the front bumper. So hex bolt heads but not too bad. I tried drywall fasteners first but that didn't work. I like Elinor's idea so far. Looking forward to other people's solutions.

Jeff

 

I just remembered my front bumper had two black rubber oblong inserts covering the aluminium. Same shape as the cutouts on the rubber. At some point I removed them and still have them somewhere.

Then when I bought the '65 S type I removed the rear license plate and noticed the same identical oblong rubber inserts where used at the bottom two oblong holes because only the top two holes were being used.

proof that Jaguar used many identical parts from the 1960s to the 1990s in all their cars.

 

Well they're collector plates, so unless they were robbing a store in another mint XJ, they'd be of little use. Cancelled them right away of course.

They did stuff like flip the breaker box and stuff someone else's sweaters into the trunk, and didn't steal anything of real value from the garage, outside of the factory toolkit from the XJ. And did similar stuff to other properties around here.

Just some shitty kids out to cause trouble and take trophies.

Interesting that this wasn't an off the shelf part, guess i'll get crafty.

 

For those who may remember this, there was resolution to the story.

Turned out the culprit was a junkie named Heidi who has a long history of petty B&E magpie theft. Not much going on between the ears beyond "take shiny objects"

We may be getting some of the stolen items back, might not. But they were convicted for theft under 5,000 dollars so there's that at least. Oh well.