Beginning with this post, I’m going to start displaying most pictures inline rather than with links. I’ve had a little feedback that indicates that people who look at these updates almost never click on the links, so they don’t see the pictures.

Unfortunately, I again neglected to take any pictures until I was finished.

Because of the location of the exhaust, the hitch is a bit to the right of the center line. I don’t expect this to be a problem and it was far less complicated that trying to both center it and stay out of the way of the header.

After mocking it up on the bench in several ways, I decided that the easiest would be the simplest, too. I cut a piece of 2″ x 1/8″ flat mild steel and cut a semicircular hole in one edge. I then ground it to match the profile of the bumper tubing at the angle where it meets.

I sanded all the paint off the contact areas of the receiver tube, clamped the plate in the proper spot and welded the plate to the receiver tube. I then mocked it back up with the bumper and tack welded the flat to the bumper tubing and the back of the receiver tube to the bumper tubing there.

I flipped the bumper over and welded the flat to the bumper tube and as much of the contact area at the back of the receiver tube as possible. This back joint looked too small to me, so I sanded more paint off the bottom of the tube and welded a small flat piece to bridge between the receiver tube and the bumper tube.

I also added a mounting tab for the license plate. By its location, it will also probably hold the interface for the O2 sensor. Sorry for the funky upsidedown pic. No, that is not a small anvil stuck incongruously to the bumper tube. It is actually sitting on the step of the workbench with the face on top, but I wanted the license plate bracket to look “normal”.

I dressed and sanded all the joints and it’s ready to hand off for powder coating!