Fiting meatle grill to MX5 - Tow hooks

[poison]

Hi Colin

Glad you raised the tow hook issue, I've been meaning to ask about this. I
took mine off for cosmetic reasons, and have seen it written here many times
that they are for hold down on boat delivery only. Is this really true or just
a well propagated MX5/Miata legend?

When I removed mine I was really surprised to find they are very well fixed to
the chassis/bumper mounting of the car, far stronger than I would imagine any
possible tie down may require. The same for the ones at the back which is
where they seem to mount the tow bar. I had a good look at this and am quite
amazed that any possible damage could occur from towing. I've seen single tow
points on cars that have a much less stable mounting.

Secondly the site you refer to also talks about the boat shipping of the car,
as most of ours in NZ were made for the Japanese domestic market (which is
mostly on one island), so most would probably never see a boat, although
perhaps a truck yes.

Any chassis aligners out there that may be able to shed some light on this
please.

Gazza
"PO1SON"