The 12 Steps

I made several errors along the way and will point them out so as to save you some time and trouble.

1. Remove the grill - Open the hood and drape the (cool) engine with something to catch the bolts if you drop one. Break/slightly loosen the eight 10mm bolts holding the grill to the hood before using any kind of power method to remove them, otherwise you risk damaging the plastic receptors they screw into (my first error, repaired with Automotive Goop). Remove the bolts, pull gently to separate the grill from the hood, then rotate the grill as needed to disengage the rod from the hood release latch.


2. Disassembly – Remove the chrome horizontal front center piece (has the oval Toyota logo on it) and the lower black metal inside framework. Both are attached by Phillips-head screws. There’s also a small black plastic piece that overlaps the edge of the grill (at right in pic). Save the black metal piece frame, small plastic piece, and the mounting screws for each as all will be needed later.




3. Tape grill – It’s a good idea to go ahead and mask the part of the grill that’s either chrome (SR5 & Sport models) or painted to match the body color (Limited) to protect it during the subsequent steps. Didn’t do this until later and it didn’t cost me, but I realized that was pretty much dumb luck.