Polish Person

Alright, so, I want to move my license plate mounting point more to the side of my bumper. I bought an '09 RX8 and quickly noticed that half the holes in the grill are filled, which means my center mounted plate is covering half of the actual holes, which can't be helping anything. I know moving it won't do too much, but it'll look better and help a bit. Especially if I install a center mount oil cooler or ever FI my car. By the way, Virginia requires two plates, so I can't just not have it.

Anyway, I saw this when I was going through my MS3 phase.

http://www.corksport.com/corksport-l...daspeed-3.html

It works by simply mounting the plate from a bracket that attaches to the towing hook location. It seems simple enough to fabricate in my shed, so no need to spend $90 bucks. (Besides, the MS3 has a different size towing hook I believe.)

So, now my questions. What is the size of the tow hook bolt on the RX8? How far in does it go? Are the obvious covers on either side of the grill both to tow hook mounts? If not, which side actually has the mount? Will removing the center license bracket leave obvious holes in my bumper? And, finally, I heard that the tow hooks the RX8 has are actually tie down hooks. What's the difference?

Thanks. Sorry for the ramble.

jasonrxeight

actually if you look closely. the grill has holes only at the lower part . if you have stock mount, it wont block that much of an area but if you move to other place you either blocking more area or even the oil cooler.
I thought about moving mine too. then I gave up. unless I have lower bumper I might do a slide n' hide mount.

Polish Person

Hmmm... Would drilling out any of those holes reveal the crash bar behind the bumper? Or are they filled for absolutely no reason? Cause I might take the grill out and carefully drill out a fair amount of the filled holes. That'll help for sure.

Nevertheless, I really want to mount my plate to the side, so I do still want answers to my above questions.

jasonrxeight

theres no crash bar behind, just the chassis.
you can drill more holes.

as for tow hook size, you can take yours out and measure, its in the trunk.

Polish Person

Isn't that bar with white bits attached to it the crash bar, or rather, the actual bumper? Since most people refer to the bumper cover or fascia as just a bumper. It comes off doesn't it?

Anyways, would it show through if the uppermost holes were drilled out? And ya, I know they're there. I just don't want to measure incorrectly, and was wondering if anyone knew like the official thickness randomly.

jasonrxeight

someone on here has a different grill, you can see how it shows thru

actually I think he took off the foam stuff behind the bumper where I didnt. so its really your call. I think if you dont go too far up, it should be fine.

Polish Person

Looks good, and that answers my tow hook location question. It's on both sides. Haha.

Where can I find that sexy rotary tow hook?

RX8pwnage

iTrader: (1)

It looked really really bad with the white foam left on, had to take it off.

RX8pwnage

iTrader: (1)

RS Pantera (japan) 450 bones...is it worth it to ya? lol

Polish Person

What tow hook do you have? it looks really nice, and I don't see it in your mod list.

RX8pwnage

iTrader: (1)

Again...RS Pantera tow hook. $450

Polish Person

Haha. Sorry. Didn't notice it in the other post. Thanks.

Highway8

iTrader: (11)

Just take one of the stock tow hook, shave off the wields for the hook and modify it. You can get a lic plate bracket from your local parts store to save on some fabrication. All you will need to do is find a way to attach the lic plate bracket to the tow hook. Its not hard, might take a while if you dont have the proper tools. The tow hook metal is very dense and hard to drill through.

Polish Person

I would just weld on a piece of metal to screw the plate to, but now I wonder if the stock tow hook would weld nicely, since it's so dense. Might just find a nice thick aluminum bolt at Lowe's and go from there. No need to destroy a good stock tow hook. Might need it at the track.