Ok write up number three. I recently added a S*ittybilt SRC sting bumper, and I live in a Province (Like a State in the US but Canadian and so much cooler) where you are required to have a front license plate. So being as I may be one of the cheapest and MacGyverishest persons on the planet I thought, "I can make that". So my plan was to create a winch roller fair lead license plate mount.

Now there are quite a few other options I am sure and the one that came up most often was the Maglite flashlight holders. Well I searched the entire town I live in and could not find these clips anywhere. But MacGyver would not need maglite clips and neither do I.

Here is the finished product, and this is what we will try and recreate.





So the first step would be to aquire a license plate to use as a template. Go ahead and use your neighbors we will be quick and he/she will not mind. (This is a Federal Offence DO NOT DO THAT). Next figure out what kind of material you are going to use. I originally used a large plastic Rubbermaid lid and traced out my license plate onto it and then cut it out. The plastic one I made did work alright but I would recommend something that is not too 'flexy' as it will be easier to install and remove to the winch's roller fair lead. Also the plastic did not hold onto bedliner very well so I have since switched to some thin aluminum plate I had around. Get creative here as there is more then one way to get this done look around the garage and house you will find something I am sure. Here is a picture of my original plastic version of the mount.



Nothing fancy to that step really trace out license plate on material, cut material, mark out the holes to be drilled for mounting the license plate to the material.

Now here is where the MacGyver part comes in. So we now have material to mount the license plate to we need something to mount this to the rollers on the winch. So I found a piece of black pastic ABS pipe 1 1/2" diameter. This is the common household sink drain stuff. This can be purchased I would assume at almost any hardware store. Probably sold by the foot and we will only need approximately 4".



Now we need to cut off 2, 2" pieces from the pipe. A hack saw makes short work of cutting ABS piping.



Now we need to turn each section of the pipe we have cut from the letter 'O' to the letter 'C'. Dont worry capital 'C' or lower case 'c' both are acceptable so have fun with this. Go ahead and lay down the section flat on the bench and cut it end to end as if it were a hot dog bun ie. cut only one side. Here is what we are after.



So from the picture you can see we need a second cut to get an approximate 1 3/8" gap to create our letter 'C' so go ahead and measure and make that second cut.



Now take that piece and attach it to winch roller fair lead to make sure it fits. You should have to press it on pretty hard and be difficult to remove so it will stay on there nice and tight. Make any necessary alterations (file works well for small adjustments) to the gap distances at this point. When you are happy with the fit of this move onto the second piece we cut earlier.

Now cut the other 2" section end to end like we did on the first piece and using the first piece as a template make the second cut as well, something like this.



There, now stuff the two of these pieces inside each other so you get this. Make sure they are even inside each other and that the inner one is centred inside the outer, we want everything symetrical.



Now we can drill two holes in this piece for mounting these clips to our license plate mounting plate. I don't recall what size hole I drilled but that will depend on how you plan to mount. I used a standard small bolt and nut but I imagine rivets would work as well. Here is a picture.



Now go ahead and attach both pieces onto the winch roller fair lead again and get them centered up and down on the rollers with the holes we drilled facing as straight forward as possible.



Now we take a piece of standard sized letter paper attach a piece of tape to one side and lay that across the roller fair lead, we are using it to make a template for mounting our clips to the license plate mounting plate. Attach the tape to the back side of the roller on one side so we can use one hand to hold the opposite side of the paper nice and flat across the face of the rollers. Using our remaining hand to locate and punch out the holes on our clips through the paper with a pencil or similar apparatus.





Now using this paper template we can mark and drill our holes on the license plate mounting plate. Don't forget to centre this as much as possible, a tape measure is your friend.



I used fasteners along these lines to affix those clips to the mounting plate and ended up counter sinking the bolt head into the roller side of our abs platic mounts.





Okay now we should be looking at something like this minus bedlined. Yeah, yeah the mount looks way crooked but somehow it actually is not in person.



We can now drill out the holes we marked when we traced out our license plate mount so we can attach the plate to the mount. I got fancy and used some rivnuts I had left over from installing my body armor recently.



Now go ahead and hit that baby up with some color of your choice via spray can. I opted for bedliner, cause it is sexy. Let that dry, give it another coat, and let that dry. Now we can go ahead and put it on the roller fair lead and call it a day.



There we are done. Congratulations you cheap bastard nice and legal for a fraction of the alternative. Plus doesn't it feel nice to create something with your own hands? Or at least to have copied something made by a genius like myself and then wrote down with lots of pictures so a monkey could do it?

So I hope this is helpful, as always I am open to CONSTRUCTIVE comments and suggestions and go ahead and post up some of your results. DO NOT however bother posting "I bought the Blankety Blank brand one and spent X ammount of dollars on it." I am aware of alternatives and realize I was not the first person to think of this.

BobbY SpaghettI

 

Great job!

 

Nice job. Does everybody get the macgyver reference, it was all filmed here in van....

 

Nice write-up. Quite a few states here in the US require a front plate as well (Fla doesnt ). And I'm pretty sure most get the Macgyver reference. At least those of us over 25 years old.

If necessity is the Mother of Invention, Macgyver is the Father.

Charles

 

So THAT'S what MacGuyver would do!

 

Kinda off topic, but is that how you spell MacGyver in Canada? Similar to colour, flavour, harbour, ect. in England?

Just wondering. Not trying to bust chops or anything...

Charles

 

Yup, that's the Canadian spelling, eh!

 

Well then. You learn something new every day!

Charles

 

So yes I do need to add something in case this falls off. I climbed a snow bank today and got home and the mount was gone. Went back to snow bank and no license plate. Ended up running it over on the road looking for it. Rebedlined the scuff marks and changed out the broken abs pipe clips. Now to come up with a tether so I don't lose it for good.