Today we have taken our Civic down to our local indespention centre to have its old redundant Bulldog bracket removed, along with our Shiny stainless steel hitch/bumper protector, which was an expensive add on when we had our towbar fitted.
We have searched for a new protector with just one side fixing for our new 13pin Jaegar connection to be fitted onto our new CRV towbar when it arrives, but we have been told that no one makes them. So this looks like we will need to have the existing one from the Civic refashioned to fit the CRV by trimming away the unwanted 2nd socket pertrusion, so the big question is, whats the best way of cutting through stainless steel to make a smooth polished edge please?
My OH is brilliant at woodwork, but not so good when it comes to working with Metal, so any help would be very much apprieciated.
Julia
------------- Just love to be out amoungst Nature and Wildlife
Celebrating 37 years of Caravanning in 2019, Recently Considered Retiring, but Totally Addicted for Life!
For me it would probably be an angle grinder with a good quality cutting disk. Depending on the composition of the stainless steel it could be that it is softer than simple mild steel. Make sure you do it well away from the car and use appropriate PPE.
------------- 'A sure cure for sea-sickness is to sit under a tree'
Thankyou everyone for your excellent advice as usual
Im very suprised to find the Ebay seller is actually Indespention, the very same company that informed me yesterday that no one made them!
OH believes that the dummy second socket or reflector may be the way to go, simply because the protector we have is made of a very good quality and fairly thick gauge of Stainless steel. We need to speak to whoever fits our towbar next month regards the capatability of fitting this gaurd as we are uncertain if it would effect the line of vision of the reversing camras at all on the CRV.
Still toying with the idea of whether to go for the Honda tow pack fitted at the dealership for £679, or to go for the cheaper option of the Indespension fit for £450+vat. What l dont want to end up with is Honda contracting out their towbar work to somewhere like Indespention, and l end up with the same job done for a marked up price thanks to Honda and their Brand name.
Julia
------------- Just love to be out amoungst Nature and Wildlife
Celebrating 37 years of Caravanning in 2019, Recently Considered Retiring, but Totally Addicted for Life!
A lot of dealers use independents for tow bars. Most of the local dealers in our area use a place in Shrewsbury, who are very good. They also come to you or you can go to their workshop by appointment.
An angle grinder will easily cut through the stainless!
------------- DS-There's more to life than football!!!
Dealer arranged for a tow bar fitter across the road to fit a Witter tow bar to our new IX35 at a cost of £275 (dealer showed me the bill from the tow bar fitter) so they didn't even add anything on for doing it.
They also confirmed that it would not affect warranty.
Halfords sell bumper protecters for £9.99 which don't have a socket receptacle on either side it just has the holes in for the tow ball bolts to pass through. Its quite thick metal too.
Thankyou for all your help, l will probably end up with letting Indespention fit the tow bar, they fitted my last 2 cars and made a decent job of it.
Im quite exited now, the dealer rang today, and im collecting my new CRV on Wednesday, after a 6 week wait. Sad to see the Civic go as it holds some special memories for me, like fetching 4 of my grandchildren home from the maternity unit as newborns, and all the University runs we did at all hours of the day and night in her, when our daughter ran out of food, or needed to come home for a few days when poorly, it really was mums Taxi!
Julia
------------- Just love to be out amoungst Nature and Wildlife
Celebrating 37 years of Caravanning in 2019, Recently Considered Retiring, but Totally Addicted for Life!
Hi Romany , what model did you get. I have just got my 1.6 diesel on Friday and love it to death. I managed to negotiate the factory fitted detach tow bar in the deal,along with other things. I just played 3 dealers of against each other and it was amazing how cut throat it was. Started of with one dealer asking for the SE model , and got what I thought was a good deal, moved on to the next dealer ,who upped it to the SE-T model for the same price. And then finally got the SR model ! With metallic paint , mats, the tow bar for £200 and a full tank of diesel thrown in. All for slightly cheaper than my original quote. Really impressed with the car and you won't be disappointed . Cheers Scoobz .
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Topic: Stainless steel cutting, hitch protectors
