I'd noticed the top of the rear license plate holder was a bit rusty,
so I decided to remove it for a clean-up and fresh coat of paint.
The plate is held on by the two nuts through the license plate
itself, padded by two rubber spacers behind the holder and secured by
nuts accessed from inside the boot. The license plate lights are fed
from wires, through holes either side of these screws, connected to
the harness via bullet connectors inside the boot. it's a pretty
simple job to undo the screws, release the bullet connectors and
detach the plate and wiring from the rear of the car.
Unfortunately the holder was more rusty than I'd thought - thanks it
seems to the rubber bumper allowing water to sit at the bottom of the
plate. As soon as I started cleaning it up, much of the bottom edge
disintegrated. So I'll have to order a replacement, which luckily is
cheap. In the meantime I gave the old one a clean with a wire brush
and some wet-and-dry paper and a coat of Hammerite gloss black paint,
so at least now it looks better. It also gave us the opportunity to
give the paintwork behind the license plate a clean and polish.
