custom hitch

[bravekozak]

I bought a hitch cover on the Bay and need to have it installed on my Festiva for the Woodward cruise. The problem is, it was designed for a 2" Class III receiver. Since I will never ever tow anything with my Festiva, I do not require it to be bolted to the rear bumper or to both rear tow hooks. Besides. It would look ugly going around my polished stainless Bosal muffler.

I decided to start by mounting the receiver to a ring, mounted on the spare tire well.

Picked up the ring today. I had it cut from 1/4" hot rolled steel. It is 20" outer diameter and 16" inner diameter.

http://bwbronze.com/festiva/hitch1.jpg

My next post will show how I mount it. Now to drill some holes on my 22" drill press.

[bravekozak]

receiver

I picked up my Curt receiver today at Hitch City. E-9 \ 49060

http://bwbronze.com/festiva/hitch2.jpg

Ready to assemble

http://bwbronze.com/festiva/hitch3.jpg

Check for clearance on the hardened locking pin. No problems.

http://bwbronze.com/festiva/hitch4.jpg

Next to buy a .25" X 2.5"W x 29"L flat stock and weld.

[bravekozak]

drill press time

I decided to drill six X 7/16" holes today. I first laid the ring inside my spare wheel well and marked where the depressions were. ( I need all the clearance I can get for my Aspire space saving spare.)

I then clamped the circle on my Craftsman 20" drill press and proceeded to drill and chamfer each hole.

http://bwbronze.com/festiva/drilling.jpg

I laid it back down in my spare tire well and drilled through the sheet metal.
Notice there are two places where I didn't drill. That is where the 1/2" X 2.5" bar will be welded

http://bwbronze.com/festiva/spare.jpg

Then I went underneath and did a trial fit to see what length I will cut the spacers to.
I have decided on 1/2" spacers. To clear one of the large rubber hole plugs.

http://bwbronze.com/festiva/trial_fit.jpg

I will finish welding and painting it up this week.

[skinnypin]

looks real good. cant wait to see it finished. might steal this idea from you. my dad is a welder and we were just gonna weld something up. but be nice to be able to uninstall it whenever needed.

[Charlie1717]

Sweet, can't wait to see it finished. Keep up the good work

[bravekozak]

almost finished

Primed and painted my hitch today.
It's getting close to installation time.

http://bwbronze.com/festiva/hitch5.jpg

[DriverOne]

How much to reproduce those?

[bravekozak]

heavy

This hitch is made with hot rolled steel (for ease of painting). You should be able to reproduce it locally. I bought the steel at the Metal Supermarket and walked the piece over to the machine shop two doors away in the same plaza to have it plasma cut. It's just a simple circle with a piece of flat stock welded in line with the tailgate latch. I had it welded at a custom metal fence fabricator in the same industrial units where I work. It would cost more to package and ship than what the fabrication costs. Material cost was about $45. The 6" Curt receiver was $30 at Hitch City. Fabrication was about $50.

[bravekozak]

rtba

What do you think about sticking on a decal from the Bay to match my hitch cover?