I have just painted my tow hook red and now want to fit it to the car .I tried to fit it today and found when its done up tightly its in a 45 degree angle ,ive noticed other peoples are upright how can i achieve this.

 

Some people have used pipe wrentches to brute-force it, but that made me uneasy - I was worried about it seizing in the socket. What I did was cover the threads with silicone (clear fish tank sealent) and then screwed the hook in as far as it would go, then backed it out a bit till it was straight (about a quarter turn). When the silicone set up, the hook was held in that position. If I ever need to use the hook to tow me out of somehting, all I need to do is hand-tighten it the rest of the way - the silicone still allows the hook to be turned by hand with a little effort.

 

I wrapped mine with teflon tape. It is available at any hardware store.

 

cheers ,i,ll do that then

 

Or use a shim - aka washer(s)

 

^x2. Mine is at a 45 degree angle (aprox.) I like it. Gives it a nonchalant look.

 

Mine also had the "nonchalant" look and all I did was wrap the handle of a breaker bar 'n applied enough force for it to come to the 12:00 - 6:00 position. I've had it on/off a couple of times for re-painting w/o any issues.

 

loctite blue also works well. Apply a liberal amount of loctite and tighten it all the way. Then back it out to the position you want it in. Once the loctite sets up, it will stay put and be strong enough to not back out and even be used to tow. If you need to take it off in the future, all you have to do is wrp a breaker bar in a rag and torque it off.

Also, if you don;t want to have to keep repainting it, use plasticoat on it. It encases the bar in a rubber colored coating which wont chip under normal use.

 

i wrapped electrical tape around my threads & tightened it up to where it was even