How To Remove A Number Plate

There are lots of reasons for needing to remove a registration, with the most common being the selling of a vehicle which displayed a private reg.

Why Remove a Number Plate?

You don't want to sell the vehicle and have to re-purchase the physical number plates for your new vehicle, so if you do own a car or van with a private reg, you probably want to take it off to sell the vehicle.

You might want to take the rights to a private reg off a vehicle to put onto a retention document, again, you'll probably want to remove the number plate for this reason.

You might have just bought a number plate from a registered number plate dealer like Plate Master, and you need to take the current private plate off the car and replace them with new ones.

Number plates can also get damaged or vandalised, meaning that replacements must be purchased to adhere to DVLA regulations and UK law.

But how do you attach and remove personalised number plates from a vehicle?

How are Number Plates Attached to a Vehicle?

Firstly, you will need to consider how the registration, or number plate, is attached to the vehicle you want to remove them from.

There are two common ways in which number plates are secured to vehicles, the first being with screws.

How to Remove a Screwed on Number Plate

If your personalised number plate is secured to your vehicle using screws, you need to start by unscrewing the screws that the number plate is attached with.

Once these screws are removed, the number plate should come off the car with the screws.

To get the screws off, you may need a drill, particularly if the registration has been secured to the vehicle for a long period of time. It's vital that you are cautious when using a drill to do this work, and check the settings before starting.

If your drill is set to a powerful or hammer setting, you will more than likely damage the screw or number plate. A damaged screw makes it much more difficult to remove the number plate, and a damaged number plate will mean having to purchase a new set.

Another helpful tip when removing screwed on registration plates is to keep the screws you just removed. This helps if you want to secure your replacement registration, replacing the one you just removed, on to that vehicle.

The screw holes and screws will be synchronised, making the replacement of the number plates much easier.

How to Remove a Number Plate Stuck with Adhesive Pads

The majority of registrations on modern vehicles are secured using adhesive pads or durable stickers, rather than screws. The process to remove a personalised number plate secured with these adhesive pads is slightly more complex, but still relatively simple.

The first thing you need to do is apply pressure to the back of the number plate as evenly across the registration as possible. This can be a slow process, but is necessary as if you don't apply a firm amount of even pressure, your number plates may snap or be damaged.

To help the process, you can use a thin tool, a wallpaper scraper works well for this, to remove the number plate from the adhesive pad.

Remove each section of the number plate from it's corresponding adhesive pad, and repeat the process until the number plate is fully removed.