Labor Day Weekend Fun... Satoshi Style

[welmat]

First off, I’d like to thank all the individuals on here who have posted various ways of doing this mod and posting their pics. I’m a relative newbie for some of these mods, so it helped immensely seeing how others had done theirs (I decided to model mine after Gaterose’s grille as I liked his style the best). I also wanted to get rid of the chrome, and as I have a limited budget I decided on using some rattle cans. We’ll see how they stand up against the test of time and Minnesota winters. I have to polish down the outside of the grill as the clear coat is a bit hazy, but overall I didn’t think it turned out to bad. Sometime in the near future I need to do the headlight blackout mod as well, but just haven’t gotten around to it yet. Anyways, here are before and after pics from the weekend fun. Let me know what you think. I’m still debating if I should leave it plain and simple or get some lettering to put on the front.

 

[Runner27]

Nice! Now all you have to do is paint the radiator and horn black and put another coat on the grille frame. Some of the chrome in the grill is still visible.

 

[Runner27]

Nice! Now all you have to do is paint the radiator and horn black and put another coat on the grille frame. Some of the chrome in the grill is still visible.

 

[gaterose]

Looks good!

 

[futbolking]

Good job, that looks awesome.

 

[welmat]

Nice! Now all you have to do is paint the radiator and horn black and put another coat on the grille frame. Some of the chrome in the grill is still visible.

Thanks! Yeah, I need to buy some high temp paint do do the insides so you can't see them as much. Hoping to do that this weekend. The chrome on the grill is all gone though. Maybe you're seeing the haze reflection from the clear coat? Not sure what you see. I have actually 3 layers primer, 3 layers paint and then 3 layers of clear. Then I had to do it again as when I put the mesh on as I scratched the inside corners of the grill some (plus I wanted to paint the screws on the inside holding the mesh so you couldn't see them). So another 3 layers primer, 3 layers paint and 3 layer primer. I'm hoping that will work for keeping it on. We'll see...

 

[berettashot117]

Nice

 

[AleksV]

good work. now sell it to me, and make yourself another one

 

[BOSMECH]

That turned out great, nice job.

 

[seanmh]

What was the procedure for painting the chrome area?

 

[SUP3RJEFF]

Good work, weekend well spent!

 

[flnycus]

wow that looks awesome, looks much more aggressive. I would if i should do this to my grey one?! ummm. Good job.

 

[welmat]

What was the procedure for painting the chrome area?

I scuffed it up with some 60 grit sandpaper, then with 220, then 400. I then ended up using 4 different cans (see below) of duplicolor that I bought from NAPA and applied multiple layers of each. Never used the stuff before, so I’m not sure if it’s enough to keep the paint on, but time will tell I guess. I figured if I got some road rash on it I could always touch it up with the same process since it’s relatively cheap. Hope this helps!

 

[WiscoRunner]

Looks great! Looks like I'm just across the river from you (Hudson, WI) and I'll be sure and look you up if I can get the courage up to try the same mod. Blacked out headlamps are also in the future for my 07 SR5. Cheers! Have you found any good trails around the TC area?

 

[natehack5]

Nice by you!!

Not too sure how this would look on my silver SR5 sans mods though...

 

[welmat]

Looks great! Looks like I'm just across the river from you (Hudson, WI) and I'll be sure and look you up if I can get the courage up to try the same mod. Blacked out headlamps are also in the future for my 07 SR5. Cheers! Have you found any good trails around the TC area?

Hey Wisco - Unfortunately, I haven't. I don't know anyone who owns any land and the MN DNR website has some info on trails, but all the trails for vehicles are up north (more than 2 hours from here) and I haven't had a chance to get up and try any this past summer. If you decide on trying the mod just let me know if any questions. I got all my info on here and google and I like how it turned out.

On a side note - Nice to see some local flavor on here. I'm sure there's more around, but I've only seen one other modified 4Runner here in the Twin Cities at a Home Depot a couple months ago.