A little more elaboration on the Illinois soybean cardboard license plates. Illinois issued them from 1943 thru 1948 to conserve metal for the war effort and were constructed out of a material that was a combination of soybean paste and pressed cardboard. It's been known that goats and sheep would munch on them if you parked in a barnyard and left the car unattended, honest! They were only intended to last for a year and then be replaced with the next years plate so they aren't all that robust. Those plates that still survive like the ones I used on Gus are over 60 years old now and need to be displayed in a protected manner.
The front bumper on Gus only had these two holes in it to attach a license plate and those holes didn't line up with the holes on my plates.
I fabricated a stainless steel backing plate that I mounted to the bumper in the pre-existing holes using stainless steel button head screws to keep the head profile as thin as possible and used self locking nuts throughout. I now had a new surface which the old plate could then be attached.
When using all stainless threaded hardware it's important to use anti-seize on the threads to prevent galling or locking/seizing of the threads as stainless is prone to do. Here's an excellent link for more information on "
How To Stop Thread Galling On Stainless Fasteners"
http://www.estainlesssteel.com/gallingofstainless.html
Seen on the right of the tube is a self-locking nut compared with a regular nut, both in stainless.
Since the front cardboard plate was a little warped, with the full backing plate to fasten the license to it's now well supported. I suspended the cardboard plate between the backing plate and the Lexan cover so there is minimal contact. That prevents the cardboard from chaffing and allows any moisture that gets in to drain or dry quickly. It's a little clunky having that Lexan cover over the plate but I felt the need to protect the old plate. Once it gets a few bugs smashed up on it, it'll look right at home.
In the rear you can see that...
... the rear plate is right in line with the rear tire. That tire will be throwing up dirt, mud, water, stones etc so I fabricated a stainless backing plate for it as well.
You can see that the outside part of the old license bracket is missing and what remains is a little bent but the license now displays straight. I also had to do a little welding repair to what was there and it's solid now. As with the front, the backing plate is slightly oversized to protect the cardboard plate as much as possible.
All in all not especially elegant engineering, but for now it serves its purpose;
"To Display and Protect" 
Thomas
) but functional...
