Hi, Thanks for all the compliments. The license plates can be cut with tin snips, or a jigsaw with a metal blade. They can also be bent by clamping them between two pieces of wood or metal that have strong edges. Line up the edge where you need it "cut". Score across it with an old knife or screwdriver and bend it back and forth. It should break right on the line. Hope that makes sense. You caught me, plumbelly. That sure is a caution sign, lol. My rules for the birdhouses is that the stuff will last outside and be interesting and that the roof is big enough to protect them. They're all primed and painted with exterior paint products and have little 'feet', in this case, stainless steel drawer pulls, so they won't sit in water. Decorating Cents had a good idea for license plates. They attached them to a board, framed it and it was a magnetic bulletin board. This will work with the steel ones. Many newer ones are aluminum. If you search for 'license plate art' on Google images, you'll find lots of good ideas for them. I found a great source for license plates with very reasonable prices. If anyone needs any, let me know and I'll send his email address. Linda

As a teenager I used to live 20 miles from the border and been down to Mexico many times. I've seen how the people down there live, the shacks, no water, no electricity. My kinfolk are appalachian (hillbillies), as a kid I used to spend some of my summers with them and they lived in shacks down hollers in WV, no water, no electric. The difference is they never stole a thing from anyone to make a better life for themselves. I just got off the phone with my mother who lives in So. Calif. She was telling me how she doesn't know how she's going to pay for her $800 per month medicine without selling her home. She then said, "Those illegals come over here and get everything for free." This is crazy! I blame our government for not doing something about it. We have fences around our prisons to keep people that do illegal things inside, why can't we build a fence along the border to keep people who do illegal thing out? Granted, it would cost a fortune, but it would pay for itself in the long run. I also blame the Mexican government for not doing something to control their own people. I'm sure we aid them, maybe we should stop the flow of money to them until they do some policing of their people. The Mexican government obviously doesn't want to do anything. If everyone comes here we'll all be living in shacks with no water or electricity.

Usually these bolts are threaded into plastic pieces, so your biggest challenge will be getting what's left of the bolts out without totally ruining the plastic. If this was on a bumper and you had access to the back of the hole, I'd say just tear the plastic out and use a screw, washer and nut to put the new plate on, but I think on a Civic the plate is on the hatchback or back of the trunk lid, so you probably don't have access to the back of the hole. Given that, the best thing I can think to do is buy a good quality metal boring drill bit slightly smaller than the diameter of what's left of the bolt and just drill it out. I have had good luck with the Bosch, DeWalt, and Milwaukee drill bits. You're looking for one bit that'll cost about $5 or $6, not a set of supposedly "metal boring bits" from some off-brand, because usually those won't actually drill through metal. Be sure to wear eye protection when drilling through metal, and a plug-in electric drill works better than a cordless because the electric ones usually spin faster. Be very careful when you get toward the bottom of what's left of the bolt so the drill bit doesn't shoot through the hole and damage something on the other side.

I have a collection of maybe 30 old plates between 1913 and 1927 from the states that the Lincoln Highway ran through. New York to California. After lots of considering, I finally hung them up like a wallpaper border around my living room. they were really cute up there and blended nicely with the other antiques in the room. It didn't look junky at all. Fun and funk, i like that. It was a conversation piece often times. Old road people LOVED it and came to my house to see them used like this. I'd post a picture, but we had to paint the room and i took them all down. Eventually after a remodel, they might go back up again somewhere. They are too cool to leave in a pile unappreciated!