Hey everyone, I feel compelled to make a thread for this since it's the first thing I've ever tried modding from scratch without any plans. So, here she is! 
Before mod:
You can see there is just a gaping hole, where I left the trim outside and dremel cut the middle part with the bars and logo. The idea was to have a "Cobra" style look with no grillwork and just a floating Toyota logo, but plans for that got complicated when I lost the logo. Plus I had alot of people saying that it looked like I got in an accident - not the look I was striving for. It was time to start building...
First, I went to Customcargrills.com and ordered a 7"x35" sheet of powdercoated black mesh from their scrapyard - $22 shipped. These guys are great at returning emails, and service was prompt!
I used some wire cutters to trim it to the shape of the opening. No big deal there, just trying not to warp any of the links. Once it was cut and fit well, I drilled holes into the outer trim for some zip tie action (there was no other feasable way to get the mesh to stay in place - epoxy would have been a mess and a nightmare.
Once the zip ties fit into place and it looked all set, I tried to superglue the TOYOTA and SR5 emblems onto the mesh. Not so good, as superglue apparently doesn't work so well on the painted metal:
So I borrowed a friend's epoxy and went to work.
Here it is as it sits now. I will eventually redo the zip ties, but it isn't too big of a detail. Any suggestions on what else I should put on it?
Before mod:
You can see there is just a gaping hole, where I left the trim outside and dremel cut the middle part with the bars and logo. The idea was to have a "Cobra" style look with no grillwork and just a floating Toyota logo, but plans for that got complicated when I lost the logo. Plus I had alot of people saying that it looked like I got in an accident - not the look I was striving for. It was time to start building...
First, I went to Customcargrills.com and ordered a 7"x35" sheet of powdercoated black mesh from their scrapyard - $22 shipped. These guys are great at returning emails, and service was prompt!
I used some wire cutters to trim it to the shape of the opening. No big deal there, just trying not to warp any of the links. Once it was cut and fit well, I drilled holes into the outer trim for some zip tie action (there was no other feasable way to get the mesh to stay in place - epoxy would have been a mess and a nightmare.
Once the zip ties fit into place and it looked all set, I tried to superglue the TOYOTA and SR5 emblems onto the mesh. Not so good, as superglue apparently doesn't work so well on the painted metal:
So I borrowed a friend's epoxy and went to work.
Here it is as it sits now. I will eventually redo the zip ties, but it isn't too big of a detail. Any suggestions on what else I should put on it?
