The Wagon’s foglight bulb replacement necessitated the removal of the entire front bumper (see the previous post’s photo) which in turn involved accessing fixings behind the front registration plate – the perfect excuse to give the car its first set of proper plates, properly mounted…

This fixation on registration plates might seem a little obsessive but the Wagon has had a hard time as far as plates go. The first UK owner – and I wince as I type this – fitted it with standard rectangular plates, including at the back where it straddled the JDM plate recess like a bridge. ? To add insult to injury these were, of course, screwed into the bumpers.

This sorry situation was mostly rectified by one of the subsequent owners, but the replacements weren’t quite import size and the front plate was mounted high to obscure one of the original screw holes. I couldn’t let the opportunity to tidy things up pass by and so purchased a set of correctly-sized plates – 330mm x 165mm – and some double-sided foam tape to avoid the evils of screw mounting once and for all. The difference is… well OK, probably barely noticeable to anyone else, but it makes me happy!