DIY Tow-Hook Cover Plate Mod

[Yarisduder]

Here’s a silly little DIY that I did myself this afternoon.

You may have noticed that the Yaris sedan has a strange little circle on the lower passenger side front bumper plastic; this little doo-dad covers up the threaded hole that your tow hook goes into. I’m not sure if the hatch backs have this also, I’ve noticed a square one on a couple of cars so who knows? Not me!! Anyway… one day I decided that a Yaris that’s not being towed, is a happy Yaris, so the tow cover should have a smiley face on it. This is what I did.

Step 0: Find yourself a Yaris sedan, any year, or color will do, road grime/bugs optional. If you can’t find a sedan, check that the tow hood cover plate is circular (actually it’s more of an ellipse...) If it turns out you have a square cover, maybe you could put a Sponge Bob®, or one of those Slammer things from Mario Bros®.

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Step 1: Pop out the tow cover, after putting some little dings in the paint that (thankfully) mostly rub out, I discovered that it pops out with absolutely no trouble if you stick the tool in on the right hand side, you might even only need a fingernail!

Step 2: There’s a silly little plastic string to keep you from losing your cover, don’t yank at it, be gentle and you can unthread it from its holding place.

Step 3: Wash all the bugs and road grime off the cover, maybe even prep it with denatured alcohol.

Step 4: Gather your tools and supplies: I have a bunch of high-vis smiley stickers from the dollar store, a cutting board, and a sharp knife.

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Step 5: I discovered that the darn stickers are only bonded to the sticky stuff around the circumference… so I cut a little slit in the sticky stuff, and I removed all the sticky stuff then went into the basement to find…

Step 6: double sided carpet tape to my rescue!

Step 7: Put the carpet tape on the cover piece, (if you’re luckier than me, you’ll have wider carpet tape and there wont be a line across your smiley, it don’t mater though, you don’t notice it from far) and now the hardest part, remove the backing to expose the stickiness. Next, carefully place your smiley, don’t put it upside down!! If you can’t remember which way is up, look at the back of the piece, the up for the writing is the same up for the front side.

Step 8: Trim the excess with the sharp knife on the cutting board.

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Step 9: Remove the excess.

Step 10: Go back to your Yaris sedan, gently replace the plastic string back into its holding place.

Step 11: Drive your smiley cover home (that is to say, into it’s hole in the bumper) and…

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Step Done: Enjoy your tricked-out tow hook cover!!!

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*Thank you for taking this with a grain of salt if you think it isn’t a “slamming” mod.

[bst82551]

Your Yaris has a bit of stubble. Definitely could use a shave.

[falkor_99]

It's pretty cool. It would be funny if someone put a Domo on there =P

[Yarisduder]

Originally Posted by bst82551

Your Yaris has a bit of stubble. Definitely could use a shave.

LOL, yes a shave would be nice, I should look into that.

Domo? Is that the weird brown monster? That could be cute.

[eTiMaGo]

hahahah I like that!