Here goes nothing... Satoshi Grill mod

This weekend I will be attempting the Satoshi Mod. This is pic of my grill as it was. It has been taken apart, smoothed out and the fiberglass is hardening up at the moment. More pics to come tomorrow.

 

Good luck!

 

Hope it works out for you. I went out tonight to buy some of the stuff i will need to do this mod. Now if I can just find the time.......post pics when you can.

 

This is the fiberglass laid and set before trimming. I used the Bondo brand fiberglass repair kit to to this. I used the masking tape on the inside of the grill to act as a guide for the fiberglass cloth and resin. make sure that you put the tape a good inch above the sides of the inner grill so that you will have some to trim off (see next pic).



Here I stood my grill on end over a piece of paper and traced the contour (grill craft has a curve in it) then transferred and cut that contour out in the fiberglass. Fiberglass was cut with a Dremel tool and a metal cutting/grinding attachment.

 

Bondo.... sand... bondo...sand....bondo...sand...bondo...sand. Think that sums it up. This took a LOOOONNG time, I get kinda OCD about stuff sometimes and wanted it next to perfect.



Tomorrow morning I will do a final clean, tape off, prime and paint!!!!

 

Taped off and ready for primer.

 

I'd love to do this mod but the only thing stopping me is getting ahold of some grill mesh. There is no way I'm paying >$100 for a piece of metal mesh

 

Try to find a metal fab place near you. You could probably score the amount you need for cheap. I bought a 4'x4' sheet of mesh awhile back from a local metal shop for $20. Now, it's not stainless and pretty but with a little primer and paint it worked great. I used it on the grille of my Cherokee.

 

Go to a wholesale steel mesh store. You can get a 5'x3' for like $20+.

It will be heavier, but that just means that you can only make the Satoshi mod stronger.

 

Flat Black Paint on the inside.



Only in South Carolina could it snow last week and be near 70 deg today. While painting I grilled a pizza and got my first sunburn this year. SC rocks!



Epoxy is now on the bolts and setting up. I will bolt on the grill tomorrow and put it on the truck! I plan to leave the TRD emblem on for now and I'll begin looking for the style TOYOTA FJ grill emblem that I like. I think it came out ok... after putting the flat black paint on the inside I was not happy with the primer coverage over the bondo. Gonna run it for a while and redo the paint/bondo someday soon.

 

Mmm that pizza looks good!

 

This pic is the side of the grill viewed from the rear. The template really helped keep the contours of the grill matching up with the recessed lip. To bolt it all down I bought 3" 8/32 bolts from lowes (had machined nuts included) and cut the head of them off so it was just a threaded stud (which were epoxied to the back of the lip). I bolted the Grillcraft grill down by using rubber washers, metal washers, then the included nut.

 

All finished. When I install on the grill back on the truck I will take some Hi-res picsk with my Nikon. The iPhone pics will have to do for now, kind of hard to get the full effect on the iPhone with the flat black paint.

 

Looks good man.

 

Thanks! More pics to come later.

Only passed through, sounds about like our weather. Don't know about you but I am ready for it to warm up!

 

X2.

 

got any left over supplies? I'm in cola at USC and I'm dying to do this mod.

 

Sure do. Bondo, fiberglass kit and primer. That would cut both of our costs way down. SGrappone (from Tacoma world) is stopping by tomorrow to put in HID's and front bumper vinyl. Feel free to stop by man (Forest Acres about 8 min from USC). Kind of a mini mod day complete with beer, chicken wings and grilled pizza.