My new grille Mod

[ncollie132]

although its not finished i am waiting for the new emblem and then i will repaint the whole thing. It only took about 1 hr to get to this point

 

[Sloan]

looks pretty sweet!

 

[Fo_SheeZy]

Awesome, it looks great!

 

[Sloan]

how/what did you use to paint your grille black? or did it come black from the factory? i want to get all the chrome off my grille and do something similar to what you did

 

[Ron Helmuth]

deets please

that looks outstanding nicely done

Details details.... please

I am also not fond of the chrome look....

 

[ncollie132]

The details

So the grille mod is super easy. Couple of things you may need.
Hack saw blade
Files
sand paper
gutter guard home depot 1.47

good primer

I had already painted the grille black before the mod. The grille was chrome when i started. I sanded the chrome with 100 grit sand paper to scuff it up good and then 150 and 320. From there i primed it with a lacquer primer and then three coats of paint. Followed by three coats of clear.
Then i saw this mod

So basically what i did was cut the center part of the grille out with just a hack saw blade. Then filed down the nubs that were left. From there i sanded down the rest to get it smooth. The gutter guard install was pretty simple.....layed it over the back cut out the factory clips where it mounts to the truck. by the way leave those when you cut the grille out. Then drilled some holes in the bottom of the grille and used zip ties to hold the grille in place. screwed the top of the gutter guard to the mounting brackets and here we are now. i will take some pics when i take it back out to finish up today.

 

[ncollie132]

couldn't wait so here are some more pics the grille still needs another coat of clear after i wet sand it again

 

[Ron Helmuth]

thanks for the details

very nice thanks for posting up some specifics.

I could destroy a grill or six trying that myself....:nerd:

 

[rollingthunder]

very nicely done....diy mods are the best....

 

[ncollie132]

new toyota emblem came in today need to take the grill out one more time to wet sand and repaint and install the new emblem......

 

[PioneerMeta4]

couldn't wait so here are some more pics the grille still needs another coat of clear after i wet sand it again

Did you repaint the plastic of the bumper too? That looks great too. I need to paint a lot of stuff on my ride, i want to do this grill mod, paint my center caps, and after lookin at your ride, i now want to do the lower bumper. It'll be my weekend summer project.

 

[ncollie132]

My runner is a 97 so i dont have the plastic on the top of the bumper. but if it did i would have painted it. The grille mod will be done this week. Then i will post new pics

 

[ncollie132]

another mod done

 

[Ron Helmuth]

that is a nice look to the Runner and the headlamps really set that off

nicely done...

 

[Sloan]

is that the logo off the new tacomas?

 

[stephenmarr]

Very like mine

 

[ncollie132]

The logo is from a landcruiser.....it was 50dollars on ebay the cheapest i found