Roadmaster Base Plate Installation - 2002 Honda Civic
Products Featured in this Video
How to Install Roadmaster Base Plates on a 2002 Honda Civic
Today on this 2002 Honda Civic we are going to install base plate from Roadmaster part number 521537-1. These base plates are going to mount to the frame, sub frame, and the bumper behind the fascia. To begin our install what we are going to have to do is take down this lower plastic cover here. There are about 10 fasteners that hold this in place so we are going to go through all of these and take this down. There are a couple of screws we have to take out too, one on this side and one on the other. Next we will work on the fasteners that go up inside the fender well. Next we will start on the fasteners for the bumper fascia itself. We will start from the top and then work our way down to the sides. We can take out this body screw right here and go back to the passenger side and do that one too. Be very careful, this panel just unsnaps pulling it straight out. Once you get both sides loosened it is a good idea to have an extra set of hands to take the fascia off. 01:05
Next we are going to take out two bolts. We are going to take out this small bolt here that goes to the bumper assembly and then on to the sub frame assembly, there is going to be a bolt right here. Lets hold them into place with a driver side bracket and you will see where it is going to mount up at. One hole at the top and a bolt down here. We are going to reuse the factory bolt and put it back into place. We are going to snug this bolt down to hold everything in place because we still need some movement. I will install this bolt right here and that will be the eight millimeter bolt, lock washer, and a heavy flat washer. Make sure that this flange right here is pushed towards the rear of the vehicle away from the curved part of the bumper structure. 02:06
Now we have got our bracket snugged down into place and now we are going to do a test fit with a draw bar. We are going to install it and then lock it into position and check for clearance back here. As long as it is not hitting any radiators or anything like that we will be okay. The next step is to install the U bolt. The kit comes with two U bolts, one has a flat plate and this one has an arch. This one with the arch will be going on to the passenger side. When we tighten down these U bolts we want to do a few turns on each side to put the torque evenly over the U bolt. Next we will drill a hole with 1/ 4 inch pilot bit and then we will go back with a larger bit. With the holes drilled it is open behind the bumper structure so we can just in our plate and our bolt. Then we will install the lock washer and nut. We have got the one side installed now. We are going to start work on the passenger side now which is going to be identical to that and then when we have both sides installed we will torque down all of the bolts as specified in the instructions. 03:17
At this point we are going to take the bumper cover and put it back on as far as you can and then mark the areas you need to to cut out openings for the draw bar and the receivers. We are going to take a motor tool and cut out the plastic we need. Our second cut on this bottom edge, there is a piece of steel that comes out in a vertical plate and we are going to cut out and make room for that too. Now we are going to make room for our plastic on the bottom. You will notice that the bracket for the tow bar is pushing down on the plastic and it will not reach into the original attachment points so we are going to make a line going down on each side just enough to push the center section up to make contact. The bottom flap guard we are going to essentially have to do the same thing. Next we can put the lower splash guard back into place and all we are going to do for now is attach it by the sides. Next put the two bottom screws back in and attach it to the bottom of this splash guard. Since this will not line up do to the bolts from the brackets for the tow bar we are just going to drill some holes on the bottom side of the splash guard and then run a zip tie over the bracket itself to hold this against the steel so it will not go anywhere. Next we can install our safety chains and we are going to use this D ring that is going to go in the hole provided in the base plate and then we will put our cable on to that and thread it back together. Do the same thing on the other side. Now we can install the braces and all this does is slide in and then rotate it and it locks into position. With that, that finishes our install of the base plates part number 521537-1 from Roadmaster.
Info for this part was:
Video Edited:
Zack K
At etrailer.com we provide the best information available about the products we sell. We take the quality of our information seriously so that you can get the right part the first time. Let us know if anything is missing or if you have any questions.