Once you have come this far it is time to start taking things apart. There is a step by step process to remove the rear bumper cover. You must first manually raise the spoiler and remove it. There are a couple of tricks I learned but they are all covered in other posts. (see
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ99bDEesu4 as an example).
Once the bumper cover is off you can start making your hitch bracket cardboard template. At this point leave the bumper attached to the car. I used 2 pieces of cardboard. 1) 10x5 (not pictured because my welder lost it), This one is mounted flat against the rear face of the bumper. The 2nd piece is 10x6 (pictured). The latter was flat on one side and 1/2 round on the other.
