Anybody painted a chrome '06 - '09 grill?

momo.75

momo.75

Registered User
I was looking at maybe doing the face lift on my '03 and have come across several chrome grills for sale. I was curious if anybody had color matched one of these with real paint, not Plasti-Dip? I was also curious if they were actual chrome plated metal grills, or if they were just plastic grills with a chrome coating, like the inside of the headlights. Any info would be appreciated!!
 
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Terri (mytoy4) had her new 06' style grille color matched. I'm sure there are others as well, but her's jumps to mind. Don't the LTD's come colormatched? I see them all the time. I do remember her saying that it has already been repainted at least once because of chips.

Also, most people that Satoshi these color match them as well.

They're plastic with "chome" coatings.

Hope that helps.
 
Cool. I wish i had a wrecked one to play with. I am pretty sure i could strip the chrome off leaving a good surface to bond paint to.
 
97BlackAckCL said:
Would love to see examples of color matched grilles
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Just click that link in my first post to Terri's build. It's on like the first and second page.

I was bidding on a used one on ebay this past week to have something to play with... Was thinking about doing like a Satoshi... The guy was asking $55 so I bid $40 and it held for a long time. Ended up selling for like 60 something... Ah well... I figured if I could have gotten it for 40 bucks, then why not? Wasn't willing to pay more than $50 for it though.
 
like even the new fella, pepedog that just posted a build thread. He posted a shot in the general discussion photo game and his LTD has a color matched grille I'm sure.

That's how 4runner and sequoias have always been I think...LTD's = color matched grilles.
 
superman3043 said:
Just click that link in my first post to Terri's build. It's on like the first and second page.

I was bidding on a used one on ebay this past week to have something to play with... Was thinking about doing like a Satoshi... The guy was asking $55 so I bid $40 and it held for a long time. Ended up selling for like 60 something... Ah well... I figured if I could have gotten it for 40 bucks, then why not? Wasn't willing to pay more than $50 for it though.
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I am kind of in the same boat. I actually like my '03 lights, but want to try a Satoshi grill. Just don't know if it is worth trying to make one out of an '03-'05 grill.
 
momo.75 said:
I am kind of in the same boat. I actually like my '03 lights, but want to try a Satoshi grill. Just don't know if it is worth trying to make one out of an '03-'05 grill.
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Actually, I might be the other way around on this. I like my grille (after the paint and plasti), but I want the projectors and have been dying to replace the peices beneath the headlight because mine are chipped to hell.

I don't care for the 06' style grille, but I DO like the Satoshi's. I just figured if I could get a used one cheap, it'd give me something to tinker with when I was bored and didn't have parts (or can't afford parts) to put on the rig.

I'm not a fan of the 03-05 Satoshi'd at all. Gaterose did a great job on one and it looked like a pain in the ass to do.
 
superman3043 said:
I'm not a fan of the 03-05 Satoshi'd at all. Gaterose did a great job on one and it looked like a pain in the ass to do.
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I'm not a fan of the 03-05 either, but you're right Gaterose did a great job using on 06 one.
I did have a chrome grille and 'real painted' it to color match. It's been painted twice actually due to rock chips and a very picky owner :)
Though, I will be changing over to the Satoshi grille.
I think Gaterose said that he also bought his 06 grill on ebay for $60.
 
yeah, the 06-09 satoshi grills look much better. I would love to do the face lift, but just don't have the scratch to do it right now. What is the piece below the headlights called? I have been racking my brain trying to remember
 
superman3043 said:
...have been dying to replace the peices beneath the headlight because mine are chipped to hell.
...
I'm not a fan of the 03-05 Satoshi'd at all. Gaterose did a great job on one and it looked like a pain in the ass to do.
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I have those pieces! Already white, PM me if you're interested and I'll dig em up.

Thanks for the compliments on the grille too! The 03 wasn't that bad, just a lot of work, wish I could remember who I sold it to... He was supposed to have it finished by a body shop and mounted.
 
momo.75 said:
yeah, the 06-09 satoshi grills look much better. I would love to do the face lift, but just don't have the scratch to do it right now. What is the piece below the headlights called? I have been racking my brain trying to remember
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It's funny... If you look at rockauto, they call the 06 style a bumper filler and they're $11.50 a peice. 03 style is called a grille molding and it's $1.70... HA!
 
gaterose said:
I have those pieces! Already white, PM me if you're interested and I'll dig em up.

Thanks for the compliments on the grille too! The 03 wasn't that bad, just a lot of work, wish I could remember who I sold it to... He was supposed to have it finished by a body shop and mounted.
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gaterose said:
Wow that's cheap... I paid $30 each for the '06 piece
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I definitely appreciate the offer Matt! Not gonna trouble you though. I'm guessing you have the old style and again, if I plan on "face-lifting" it would be for nothing. Especially with the pieces being that cheap new. Don't know that you could ship them to me for any less than that, haha.

I'm on the fence about the "face lift" though. It's all a matter of personal preference anyway. I can appreciate the projectors and LED tails, but I didn't care for the face-lift that much at all. The only real portion I liked of the revision was the fog light housing in the bumper. And that wouldn't matter if I plan on going aftermarket bumper anyway. I like that the tail lights are LED's, but something about the layout of the housing that I just don't like. It just looks softer to me. I actually think they softened the look of the truck up a lot in the 06's. Don't care for the rounder fender flares, rear bumper, and those chrome handles, ugh! I like the grille and headlights, but I think the 03' style look just as good.

Anyway Momo, so really you can just find or order a color matched LTD grille and pretty much all of the Satoshi's have been color matched. I don't actually think anybody has plasti-dipped the entire 06' style grille. Most people just do that center bar from what I remember and leave the frame chrome or color matched. Guess you don't really realize things like this until you think about it, but there are plenty of examples of what you're trying to see out there.
 
Actually I never thought much about them when I had everything else done. Not sure why. I do plan to have them done. What's worse, is that I had my hatch painted too... and I kick myself for not having the molding done too. Thank goodness my husband is an auto body tech.

4runner4girls.jpg~original
 
Mytoy4 said:
Actually I never thought much about them when I had everything else done. Not sure why. I do plan to have them done. What's worse, is that I had my hatch painted too... and I kick myself for not having the molding done too. Thank goodness my husband is an auto body tech.

4runner4girls.jpg~original
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Yeah I noticed that too. The rear hatch piece and door handles were color matched in the 03-05's. Guess they thought going to chrome in 06' was an upgrade... Blang Blang!
 
So the 06 grill won't fit on the 03-05 bumper because the dip in the bumper is wider on the newer bumpers. My plan is to buy the raw black unpainted one, do some cutting and some fiberglass work. Then take it to a body shop as have them paint it. I just don't have the resources to paint. They do sell the matched ones but I feel like I would have to repaint it anyways. I'll let you know how mine goes and post plenty of pics
 
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