997 Turbo Cab Bike Rack

17th Mar 2010

Having a quality bike carrier to transport your bikes is an essential accessory for any avid biking enthusiast. But while most biking enthusiasts opt for a roof rack to get their bicycles from point A to point B, these roof mounted bike carriers can have their limitations as well. Specifically if you happen to own a convertible. This was the exact dilemma that was presented to us by a very good client of ours, which in turn led to this particular build. While opting for a universal tie-down bike carrier was certainly one option, instead, after careful consideration and much discussion, we opted to design and fabricate a more secure and aesthetically pleasing option, one which involved custom fabricating a receiver to work with an existing tow-hitch mounted bike carrier. Feel free to take a look below.Fabrication of the receiver took place completely in-house and began with 1/4? steel plating, gussets, and 1/8? wall 1 1/2? square tubing. Because the receiver sits right up against the vehicle’s exhaust, the entire receiver was ceramic coated to allow for better protection against the heat. Once ceramic coated, the receiver was then mounted to the center of the OEM aluminum bumper support via 10mm grade 10.9 bolts, which extend through the bumper to a corresponding steel back plate. Because the OEM heat shield had to be modified as well, additional head shielding was added in the appropriate areas to make up for the modifications.Lining the bumper cover up with the receiver and having both holes align precisely where we wanted was particularly challenging. While traditional tow hooks extend outwards from the bumper, in the interest of aesthetic appearance, we decided to mount our receiver to be precisely flush with the bumper cover. In lieu of what would have been an inaccessible lynch pin – the pin used to secure the bike carrier to the receiver – Ai Technicians were able to adapt double, remote controlled lynch pin cable assemblies to work with the unit. For security purposes, the cable release mechanism for the lynch pins was located underneath the engine cover, which locks. Finally, when not in use, the receiver is filled with a flush fitting steel plug which was powder coated in a gloss black to match the exterior.Some additional minor elements of this job included powder coating the Thule Vertical Arm Rack in a matte black finish as well as powder coating the wheels and exhaust tips.

It’s also important to note that everything on this vehicle remains highly serviceable, either from Ai’s standpoint or from Porsche’s standpoint, which is to say that there is nothing which needs to be disassembled or removed should there be a need for servicing of any sort.

Category: Fabrication

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