Originally Posted by BayAreaQ7

When I purchased my S-Line Q7 here in California, the dealer ordered the SUV with out a front license plate bracket. But the front plate is required and I prefer to have mine installed on the SUV, plus I don't want to give the police a reason to pull me over. So, over the last few weeks while waiting for my license plates to arrive from DMV, I've been brain storming on a way to mount a front license plate. I hit the local Home Depot, Pep Boys, and Orchard Hardware store inquiring on what type of materials I could use. Well, below is what I came up with and I have to say it turned out much better than I could have hoped for. It's very sturdy and does not move thanks to the sturdy form fitting aluminum bracket and black rubber bumpers. I definitely like the placement and looks of this custom bracket I made over the OEM one's shown below.

After investigating where I could mount the plate with out obstructing the front grill (my goal was to retain the look of the grill), I noticed there was an aluminum brace (part of the SUV frame I think) underneath/behind the grill where I could mount the license plate frame. This was perfect for mounting the bracket made out of a different piece of aluminum that I picked up at Home Depot. The aluminum piece was about 36 inches long and I bent it / cut it by hand on my work bench vise-clamp to mold it into the shape to match the mounting section. Below are the various pictures I took along the way...

This mod took me about 3 hours to complete. There were a bunch of plastic pieces under the SUV that I need to remove to access the aluminum piece mentioned above.