Yesss! The front license plate of our 2008 Pontiac G8 GT is square and true to the world.
And it only took 5 minutes...
...after I made a trip to Pep Boys...
...where I spent only $2.16 on a pack of 3/16" pop rivets...
...because I already had the required tools (3/16" drill, pop rivet insertion tool).
And it turns out that Pontiac (or Holden, or GM -- all are correct answers) did attempt to make this process idiot-proof. But their approach obviously wasn't idiot-proof enough. Dimples might still be a good idea.
You see, the plate holder has these notches in it; one on each side and one in the bottom-middle. They nest neatly up against the contours of the bumper. Only an idiot could fail to see it and line them up properly. Ahh.
Our idiot must have seen the error of his ways at one point. The ill-placed right-hand rivet shows evidence that he thought about drilling it out and trying again. Why he stopped, we can only speculate. Maybe he had no spare rivet. Perhaps his boss chided him for spending too much time on the car. Maybe he went to lunch and didn't get back to it. We'll never know.
All I had to do to remove his rivet was grab a 3/16" drill bit and drill it out. I was then free to pivot the plate holder on the remaining "good" rivet until it nested up against the body contours. I then verified the dimensions and squareness before drilling the new hole. Together, both operations took less than a minute.
You can see how far off our friend really was with the plate holder swung down again. Would you believe a full 1/2-inch? (green arrow = new hole.) That much clearance gives us plenty of meat for a soild connection.
Aside: The ragged third hole came from the screw that holds the plate to the plate holder -- it's a bit too long.
Inserting a new pop rivet is a cinch if you have a pop rivet insertion tool. I do. They cost less than $20 at Home Depot, Harbor Freight or others. They have "a thousand and one uses"-- as long as those uses involve pop rivets, that is.
Since my trip to Pep Boys yielded a 5-pack of rivets, I added another to the lower middle hole.
Done and Done.
Seriously, this is not rocket science. Anyone with a pulse and a few tools should be able to do it correctly.
Dan Edmunds, Director of Vehicle Testing @ 20,735 miles
lazyhater says:
09:57 AM, 05/ 6/09
FINALLY! hallelujah!!!
lazyhater says:
10:01 AM, 05/ 6/09
Why not use a screw instead of a pop rivets though, so you don't need any special tool?
rad180 says:
10:03 AM, 05/ 6/09
Now two of the rivets are white and one black. It looks completely uneven! You're just going to leave it that way?
subytrojan says:
10:08 AM, 05/ 6/09
Nice job, Dan! :thumbsup:
dougtheeng says:
10:25 AM, 05/ 6/09
good work.
greenpony says:
10:47 AM, 05/ 6/09
If only the tech who originally did this had wanted to spend five minutes instead of two.
stovt001 says:
11:05 AM, 05/ 6/09
Thank you! Looks nice. That's like a reverse Edmunds LT treatment - You unbroke something.
actualsize says:
11:16 AM, 05/ 6/09
@lazyhater: A screw might pull out of the soft bumper-cover material. A rivet won't.
bankerdanny says:
11:26 AM, 05/ 6/09
"Seriously, this is not rocket science. Anyone with a pulse and a few tools should be able to do it correctly."
And yet it took you 9 months and 20,000 miles to fix it.
arm51 says:
12:47 PM, 05/ 6/09
Finally! It looks so much better now.
the_big_al says:
01:51 PM, 05/ 6/09
I was just going to say that pop rivets are a more secure and permanent way to secure something. Especially if there are no plans to remove it... Now if someone who lives in AZ happens to buy the longterm G8, he now has several holes to bondo instead of just two crooked ones!!
adavis2493 says:
02:28 PM, 05/ 6/09
Went to my Pontiac Dealer today and test drove a red GXP. To say the least: I am in love.
Red was not my color of choice, it seems like too much of a police magnet. But, I was able to beat a Cayman S, BMW 550, Audi A4, and Evo in a total of 4 Miles.
I find the seat adjustments in the car kind of strange. How there is only one adjuster, which essentially makes the seat like an automatic rocking chair. That, as well as how there is only a trunk release in the glove box.
Other than that: I love it. Get me a GT in Grey with Grey Leather....
bloodyr says:
02:28 PM, 05/ 6/09
The license plate isn't perfectly centered on the plate holder. :)
beach15 says:
04:31 PM, 05/ 6/09
Argh...all the holes, even if they are now straight.
Front plate states need to stop it, and stop it NOW. What a waste of money making double plates and having to trash the fascia of a car to put the bracket on. Oh the horror.
Let me go smile as I look at the smooth, hole-less face of my '09 G8 GT...and I even bought it in Jersey! Good dealer, good, good dealer;-)
beach15 says:
04:33 PM, 05/ 6/09
Okay, there could be worse things, but not by much;-)
eidolways says:
04:33 PM, 05/ 6/09
The only problem with making things idiot-proof is that as soon as you do, they come out with a better idiot. It's a vicious cycle.
cwc1 says:
05:57 PM, 05/ 6/09
I'd be mad at my dealer for putting any extra holes in my new car - I'd make them fix it.
actualsize says:
09:03 PM, 05/ 6/09
Think of it this way: now it's lighter!