In New York that would be a no no the plate belongs to the state and you can and will get a ticket for drilling a hole into it.

 

Simple, and replaceable.

 

Dredging up an old thread here but curious as to how the wiring is routed to the camera. Do you need to drill a hole in the rear bumper cover to route the wire?

 

Cant remember where i saw it, but the slickest thing Ive seen someone drilled the tag area in their bumper and mounted the camera from the inside. was just a nice hole with the camera sticking through. looked fairly OEM.

 

Nah, no drilling required. I literally used a thin tree branch to fish wires through from the license plate into the trunk. I had to remove 1 rubber grommet. My goal with my car was not to damage anything factory so I didnt put a hole in it, I just fished the wire through the side. Where it is located will never see water anyway.

I used Posi-Taps to tap into the reverse light wire and grounded it to a bolt in the trunk (forget the exact location). I ran the video cable under the rear seat and up the passenger side door sill (no wires visible).

My camera was a cheapo $50 license plate frame with IR lights on it. It serves its purpose and upgrading, as others have mentioned, is a snap since all the wires have been run. But, personally, I feel like it does its job as-is.

Here are some pics: https://imgur.com/a/OEe2J

 

Thanks! I did some digging over the weekend and discovered the opening with the grommet and ran the cables the same way (using a coat hanger). Then ran the power wires and video cable exactly as you described. I'm installing things in stages as I work towards my double DIN install in the next couple of weeks.