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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Jim,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>If you look closer at the bolt holding your license
plate on, you will most likely find that it is a torx bolt. Many people
mistake torx bolts for allen bolts. They appear to be very similar.
The difference being that the torx has a bit of a star shape to it. The
reason for the tamper resistant torx is to keep the average thief from being
able to remove the bolt. Tamper resistant bolts are commonly used by the
car manufacturers in areas like the ignition switch to make it harder to hot
wire the vehicle. This is most likely why someone used one on your
plate. Torx drivers come in different sizes i.e. T10, T15 and so on.
When you buy the tool you need you need to make sure it is a tamper torx driver,
which will have a hole in the end to accept the pin in the bottom of the bolt
recess. You could go to the local auto repair shop and talk with one of
the technicians, to see if he would take the plate off for you, then you could
just install the new one with conventional bolts. You really don't have
anyway to find out what size you have, so you would be stuck buying a complete
set, which is expensive when buying the tamper resistant sets. I paid
$300.00 for a set of 9 from Snap-On. Now I know you could get a set
cheaper somewhere else, but it will still be expensive.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Mike Darr</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=Jim_Woodward@beaerospace.com
href="mailto:Jim_Woodward@beaerospace.com">Jim_Woodward@beaerospace.com</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=discussion@nsrca.org
href="mailto:discussion@nsrca.org">discussion@nsrca.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Friday, July 09, 2004 8:02 AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Off Topic - tools</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><BR><FONT face=sans-serif size=2>Hi All,</FONT> <BR><BR><FONT
face=sans-serif size=2>After moving to FL and registering my cars, I realized
that someone had installed a license plate with what appeared to be allen head
bolts. Upon closer inspection, the actual bolt has a hex-like shape,
with a STUD in the center. Thus, if I were to use an allen wrench, it
would have to be hollow to allow to actually work. I looked up some
tools on the McMaster Carr website and a tool on catalog page 2662, called
the, "Tamper-Resistent Torx." Not being familiar with this type of
tool/fastener, I was hoping someone could shed some light on the subject
before I ordered it (for instance, is there an Allen style tamper resistant
fastener, or only the "torx" style head?).</FONT> <BR><BR><FONT
face=sans-serif size=2>Thanks,</FONT> <BR><FONT face=sans-serif size=2>Jim
W.</FONT> <BR><BR><FONT face=sans-serif
size=2><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></BODY></HTML>