Decided to put my "HEMI" license plate that I punched out of scrap aluminum back on the truck. My old winch carrier had a flange on the bottom with holes for a license plate, but the new one does not. Was gonna simply drill a couple holes in a piece of angle iron, weld it on the bottom of the carrier and paint it red to match, but I decided to kill two birds with one stone and make it into a fairlead cover. This is gonna mainly help anybody with a winch who lives in a front license plate state.

I'm gonna assume you have a license plate and you know how to pick up a plate holder for all of about $2.00 at Wally World. So in addition, you'll need a MagLite "D" cell flashlight bracket, available for about $5 at Wally World, Ace Hardware or just about anyplace who sells MagLites. A few various small bolts, lock washers and nuts will do it. Now because I was mounting my "HEMI" plate, I needed some dark backing so the letters would stand out, so I made a blank. But if you are mounting an actual state license plate, you won't need it.



If you don't need the backing, simply choose a license plate holder with a back to it. Now you need to measure the holes in the MagLite bracket and drill a pair, centered in the backing or back of the plate holder. The holes need to be 1 1/4" apart for each bracket and 8 5/8" from bracket to bracket.


I used an adhesion promoter before I painted the back plate as the aluminum is very smooth and slick. For the paint, I didn't get anything special, it's just the backing, so a $1.69 can of indoor/outdoor flat black was fine.


Now mount your MagLite brackets with a couple of flathead screws, lock washer and a nut.


Then it's just a matter of bolting your license plate on and slipping it in your license plate holder. This is just a cheap plastic plate holder I had laying around the garage. I'll probably opt for a nicer chrome or maybe diamond plate plate bracket at some point.



In my case, I only had to buy the MagLite holder, so this was a $5.88 mod. But even if you gotta buy the license plate bracket and bolts, etc., this is no more than a $10-15 mod...

 

As always looks awesome, New Sig pic

 

very nice hammer thats pretty inventive....

 

very cool man!! you better pop it off before you leave your truck at wally world!! or someone else may!!!

 

i was thinking the same thing but thats bitchion . dammit think i need to look for a winch

 

Thats sick dude.

 

do those shackles bump/rub up against your paint on the bumper??

 

Hey that is a good set up!

 

Im tellin ya man you need to start an ebay store or something, you'll make quite a bit of spare $$$ with all these things your creating.

It does look really sharp on your truck though.

 

Then I prolly need to stop doing DIYs, eh?