Just got my Euro plate, took my chrome wheels off earlier this month as well. They are for sale if anybody would like to message me about that then you can. Waiting to get some Coventry Whitley wheels and then lower my ride. Anyway, to the chase. I asked mom for a Euro plate for Christmas and I got it early. Here it is,

 

nice. the coventry wheels will look good on there. 18 or 19?

 

Nice gift

 

It depends on whether or not I decide to lower it. If I lower it, then 18's. But if I decide to just put a body kit on it all around then I will more than likely get 19's or 20's. Low pro's of course :P

 

Cool. I would vote for 19s and possibly color-match the centers Jaguar factory-correct white to match your car. I love white on white wheels as long as the whites match perfectly.

Lowering shouldn't play a factor either way. If you run 225/35/19 or 225/40/18, the overall dimensions of the tire are about the same. I would be more prone to lower it with 19s, because with a fatter sidewall (18s) you can live with more fender gap and with lower profile tires (19s) fender gap makes the car not look right.

 

That sounds like a really good idea. Thanks for all the help with everything man.

Btw, I put my plate on with industrial velcro from 3M and it ended up not sticking to the plate since it is so cold here, so I ended up taking it off. I'm not sure if I should try to use 3M double-sided tape, and if I do then should I take a hair dryer and warm up the adhesive so it really starts to stick to the plate? I know you're good with these things so I thought I would ask. Thanks a bunch!

 

Clean the back of the plate with Goof Off and heat that up using a heat gun or hair dryer - not to the point where you are melting the paint on the other side, just warm to touch. Apply your industrial velcro or 3M tape and you should be good. For car paint, don't use Goof Off, use a "paint cleaner" product or polish without wax or even use cleaner (pro tip: Sprayway, nothing else), then tape will adhere there also. To remove heat up a bit or wait for a nice Summer day so you don't pull paint off later.

 

Thanks so much, anytime that I have a question from now on I will make sure to ask you. I will head home and add that stuff to my euro plate and hopefully get it to stick to my car. Thanks so much man!

 

If the back of the plate is metal just wipe it down with isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol and you should be good to go. 3M also sells a product called Adhesion Promoter 111, but you probably won't need that. You don't necessarily have to heat up the plate, just make sure it is at room temperature when you apply the adhesive to it. Then you would want to let the adhesive bond to the metal at least 24 hours. It will take that long to achieve most of it's bonding strength and 72 hours to achieve it's maximum bond. What you don't want to do it warm up the plate and apply the adhesive and then run out and stick it to a cold car and leave it sit outside. That might have been why it came off so easily. That or the adhesive on the velcro isn't a good match for that application. What kind of liner is on the velcro? I might be able to look up if that is a good fit for what you are trying to do. If it is a red plastic and says VHB it should be fine, but you just need to make sure teh mating surface is free of any oils, mold release, etc.

If the mating surface is plastic do the same thing with the iso alcohol. If it is very smooth and shiny you might want to scuff it up a bit to give teh adhesive more to bit into

I am familiar with a number of these types of adhesives as we use a lot of them in different membrane switch applications where I work. I'm a sales weasel.

 

Wow, thanks. That really was quite a bit of information. So I should go ahead and put the tape on the back of my plate, let it sit for a day or so, and then heat up my garage and then take some masking tape for example and then place it on my car and let it sit in place with the masking tape for a while? Or is the masking tape a negative? Thanks everyone

 

The plates are aluminum from what I can tell and my guess is that they spray the license plate stamping machine with some form of lubricant on the letter side to make sure the plates come off easily. Good points about the behaviors of adhesive. I luckily have a heated garage and tend to use my 3M adhesives at night and let them bond around 10 hours before I drive to work the next day

 

If the plates have some kind of mold release on them then definitely wipe them really good with alcohol at a minimum. I forgot that you were adhering the velcro to the painted bumper as well. Wipe that down with alcohol for sure, even if the adhesive seems to stick quite well. I had an application once that went on a garbage truck. When the assembly was built our user interface stuck perfectly, but the customer was experiencing some parts not adherring well in the cold. Turns out there was some kind of slippery coating on the painted metal boxes they were putting these on. Wiped them with alcohol and the problem went away.

Not knowing what kind of adhesive is on your velcro, I can't say how well it will stick to your car bumper. If you could get the temp up in your garage for an extended amount of time that will definitely help. If the adhesive liner says "VHB" anywhere on it, that will stick forever once properly adhered. That is the stuff they use for a lot of the automotive trim pieces. If you get that on a clean surface it isn't going anywhere. You can only give it a try and see what happens.

Good luck!