'06 Quicksilver Z06

Like many, I have often wondered why there was no front tow hook for the C6 Z06, and like many others, I have looked for solutions.

At least one vendor offers a fixed tow hook. I don't know what the potential legal implications of running a fixed tow hook are on the street, and as such, I was looking for a removable solution.

At least two forum vendors offer such a solution, and I decided after reading a few other threads, on the Phoenix front tow hook. I don't run SCCA events, so I don't need a a rear tow hook too.

The Phoenix tow hook, is described here. It is sold here It offers a fixed base with a removable screw in tow hook.

In looking at removable tow hook options, I felt that the bolt in setup with the Phoenix, was a very solid one. It is bolted to the frame in a different manner than that of the other removable tow hook offered for the C6 Z06. However both options are of course bolted to the frame.

One removable option, the Phoenix, requires removal of the front fascia, the other does not, but requires an air driven right angle air drill for making the bolt holes.

Removal of the front fascia is described in this thread.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-z...ll-how-to.html

Removal is not hard. Reinstall though is a little bit of a different story. It took me longer to reinstall the front fascia than it took to remove it.

A few tips.

1. Definitely tape your carbon fiber fenders and do so generously, or you are very likely to scratch the paint on them due to the metal reinforcement piece at the back corner of the fascia. I used duct tape as opposed to the painter's tape, and by the time I was done, I was glad I did. The duct tape had taken a beating.

2. You may have trouble getting the fascia back on and over the edges at the very front of the hood area, but keep working with it.

3. On the driver's side where the push pins go into the slots, shown in the 11th photo or Poor-sha's write up, be careful that this piece lines up, mates up with the piece it attaches to via push pin, when you reinstall the fascia. It can easily get inside of that piece if you aren't careful.

4. They say to align the eye vertical. In the pics, I have turned the eye horizontal. It's tight but I could get another 90° on it and bring it to vertical. I didn't want to run the risk of stripping it after the effort put into installing it, and my spring hook from my winch will work for it without hitting the paint while it's horizontal.

5. I disconnected the battery. I probably didn't need to, but figured that I was working around some of that air bag $**+, and didn't want to take any chances.

6. The black vent trim piece in the very front middle of the fascia above the emblem, is held with dbl sided tape at the bottom, and a **** poor "lock in" arrangement up top. I ended up having to remove the old tape and reapply a new square of the dbl sided tape as the vent trim piece fell out during removal of the fascia. You can see it lying on the floor in the first pic.



Widening the existing frame hole in the crossmember to 3/8" and boring the new one the same diameter was easy. Using the tips in this thread, I was able to get the nut and washer onto the bolt and secure the screw in base to the frame.

But a couple of pointers about that.

First off, notice how he rigged his wrench to the stick with duct tape. I found an unlucky broomstick and sawed it off and did the same thing. This meant that I could not, and did not use the C clamp because the broom stick is round. No problem though as it worked fine. I fished it in with the wrench nut and washer taped accordingly from the driver's side and over the hole. Captured the nut with the bolt and tightened it down..... Bingo, right????

Only problem was, once I got ready to do the second bolt and nut, the first nut was in the way and I couldn't fish my wrench/broomstick from the driver's side and up and over that first nut......so for the second nut, I had to come in with my wrench taped to the broomstick from the passenger side. A longer distance. But once you get over the hole, if you can keep the wrench steady by whatever means necessary, you can capture the second bolt with the nut.

Looking back, a flat piece of wood, which would have allowed use of the C clamp to hold everything in place, would have been the way to go.

Make sure you duct tape your wrench to the stick real good, because once you torque that bolt down, the wrench won't want to come off the nut without a good bit of effort. If you pull your wrench off your stick, then you'll need to fish a straightened out clothes hanger with a hook bent into it in there to fish your wrench out.

The reflection in the following pic, makes it look as though two bolts are on one side of the base. However the pic which follows this one shows that there is one bolt on each side of the base.



I cut a square out to allow for the fit of the tow hook when it was screwed all the way in flush. Not making this hole, lead to the hook butting against the uncut portion of the grill when screwed all the way in.







The wide base of the hook is shown here. Screwing it down flush, meant butting against the grill. The square was cut so that the hook would not contact the grill when screwed all the way in. As the cut portion is for the most part invisible when the hook is out, I didn't mind cutting that small section out.



With the hook installed.






Now it's ready for this bad boy.

Hirohawa

Nice!

Hercules Rockefeller

I know that a lot of the track guys install a tow hook to help them in emergencies... but are these things solid enough to pull the car regularly onto a trailer? Also, what is needed to power the winch? Can it be powered off a typical 12V car battery?

tim414

Don't have a clue regarding the durability of the hook itself and routinely pulling the car onto a trailor. Suspect it would be a matter of you get what you pay for.

In so far as the winch working off 12vdc current, YES, they will. Like what's stated above, it would depend on if it's made (winch) to operate with 12vdc, which I would think most would be.

I have a winch on one of my 4-wheelers. It works like a champ off the the four wheelers electrical (12vdc) system.

Add: BTW...to OP, great post....thanks

Werks

Tow hooks are there for an emergency, I'm not sure that I would use it all the time to pull the car up on a trailer.

'06 Quicksilver Z06

Doing the install and looking at that aluminum cross member, I'm not comfortable using that winch to routinely put the car onto my trailer. I'll drive it up. The hook will be there in the event of an emergency, so that I can get the car off the track and home if it can't make it onto the trailer under it's own power. I only take the car to the drag strip, so no need for a rear hook.

But yes, even though those bolts holding the hook run transverse to that front cross member, it is aluminum.

Also, a 6 ft V bridle with T or R hooks into the frame holes is an option for getting the car onto a trailer if you have no tow hook. Probably a better option for routinely pulling the car onto the trailer if you aren't going to drive it up. So in an emergency, there is the option of the V bridle or just hooking into a tow hook to get the car up and onto the trailer.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-c...rom-today.html

Again though as there is no perfect option, I'd have a concern about the nylon of the V bridle coming into contact with roughened or hot areas of the undercarriage. Or even damaging the front fascia of the car, depending on the angle the car was being pulled at to make it onto ramps if I didn't have a tilting flatbed type trailer that I could flatten the angle out every few feet it needed.

Finally, forum member Fast & Lazy in this post shows where he made use of a V bridle and two screw in type tow hooks for his Z06.
http://ravelfamily.com/carphotos/06%...20Tow%20Hooks/

Werks

That's what I would probably use also for regular use. I would think that you could just push the car up until the front wheels hit the ramp and from that point I would think that you should be ok using the winch with a V bridle in the frame holes. If you are unable to move the car and need to drag it up onto the trailer then you probably got bigger things to worry about than possibly scuffing/damaging your front spoiler anyways so at that point anything pretty much goes in order to get the car loaded and home with you!

'06 Quicksilver Z06

Agreed. I don't think I have ever seen a V bridle used on a C6 anywhere else but on a flatbed with the ability to tilt and change angles as the car started up. There are some car haulers out there that will do the same thing, though pricey and just something else to have go wrong from a maintenance standpoint.

I broke an axle awhile back, rendering the car undrivable. If I had my own trailer back then, I'd have felt a lot more comfortable putting the car onto it with a tow hook as opposed to a V bridle which might possibly do damage to the front fascia to go along with that broken axle, as the car went up the ramps.

Biggest concern I saw with the "routine" use of the V bridle for trailering the car was the hassle of putting it on and taking it off. You have to get on the ground to do it. Then once you get the car where you want it, you have to unhook the bridle and then insert your other hooks and tie down straps and commence to strapping the car to the trailer.

Much easier to just drive it up the ramps and onto the trailer if you can, than fooling with that bridle and then pulling it up, and then having to remove the bridle once the car is in place.

Other consideration I had was in the event of a failure on the track surface. A tow hook vs a V bridle in that situation is a lot quicker. Track officials just hook to the tow hook with their ATV and you can be off the track ASAP if need be. A V bridle might not even be handy unless you brought your own.

I really look at my winch and tow hook as somewhat emergency equipment.

I know myself, and I'm way too lazy to hook up a V bridle every time I want to put my car onto my trailer. I'm going to drive that sucker up there, put my hooks in and ratchet down my tie down straps and get moving.

And if I have an emergency, then that's what the winch and tow hook are for.

'06 Quicksilver Z06

12 volt battery with 650 CCA will do it.

I'm also told that a good jump box will power it too.

OnPoint

Looks great, Quick.

Semi-gutsy project, too.

whatcop?

Why can't you just pop the grille out and install it that way instead of removing the whole bumper?

'06 Quicksilver Z06

Thanks for the compliments guys.


That would get you to the bottom of the crossmember.

I don't know how you would get a nut onto the end of of any bolt you put up through the bottom of the crossmember if you only took the grill out and nothing else.

whatcop?

If I am correct if you pull the radiator shroud it would be accessible.

'06 Quicksilver Z06

The back part of it would be.

But removing the grill, to give you access to the bottom of the crossmember, you would have to bore your hole into it from the bottom up, and you would not be able to put a nut onto the end of any bolt you ran up through the bottom of the crossmember.

The top of that crossmember is covered with that styrofoam piece which is beneath the nose part of the fascia. So removing your radiator shroud would not gain you access to the top of the crossmember. I believe that all you will see if you remove your radiator shroud, is the back of the aluminum crossmember. Not the top of it.

If you look at that indentation in the styrofoam at it's center point, or at the stryofoam's thinnest point. It is about the thickness of the crossmember and the crossmember runs beneath the styrofoam along the width of this area and from right to left for the width of the frame.

The radiator shroud is behind this and can be seen in the pic as well.

The painted fascia of your car, covers the styrofoam in it's entirety .

So you can see, removing the radiator shroud would get you a good view of the back of the crossmember. But it still would not grant access to the top of the crossmember. The fascia and styrofoam cover the top of the crossmember.



But if gaining access to the back of the crossmember is the goal, then you can gain access to a good part of the back of the crossmember without removing the radiator shroud.

That's how this tow hook described below is installed.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-g...post1579885395

Dirty Howie

Very nicely done and very nice tutorial


DH

whatcop?

I see what you mean now. I was definitely having a brain fart when I was thinking it through in my head. Thanks for clarifying.

cruzin2

great write up.... my only comment is a recommendation to use gaffer tape instead of duct tape. Gaffer tape is very similar to duct tape but leaves less residue and will not take off the paint like duct tape can due if left on too long. just a suggestion.

'06 Quicksilver Z06

Good point.

I have the clear bra on mine so I wasn't too worried about the glue from the tape taking my paint off, but you are right, about duct tape in that it can remove paint.