3rd Gen Grille Installation (with eye candy!)

Replacement of stock grille with T-Rex billet grille https://trexbillet.com/c-1103996-billet-series-grilles.html Note: this "one hour" installation with "full color instructions" was a crazy experience and took about 3-4 hours with a helper. The instructions were almost worthless since they left out key descriptions that would have caused more damage had we not "measured twice & cut once" so to say.


Before photo of stock grille. The careful observer will note struts (proudly made in America) holding up the hood.



Original grille removed. Time to clean out the bugs from the radiator fins! Note: be very careful removing the plastic wire harness holders since they are a weird squeeze-to-release type. Only ruined one and didn't need it after all.



The back of grille "garnish" (the oval Toyota logo). Note the pins left and right that had to be broken to remove it. What a crappy cheap design, it can only be put on, not removed. Luckily you don't need those two pins as there are four tabs that do the work to hold the garnish onto the new grille.



Closeup of finger that had to be broken to remove "garnish".



Now the thing I am not very happy about. Poor design or perhaps bad engineering on the part of T-Rex. The ends of the grille fins are curved too far inward and do not meet the edge of the chrome bezel. This will allow birds and small furry rodents to get stuck right in the sides of the grille while I am flying through the brush like a bat outta hell. Not good. It is invisible unless you are looking at it from a side angle, but it still bothers me.



The back side of the new grille. Note the tabs. The chrome bezel (which you reuse) is removed by pushing in *GENTLY* on half a dozen tabs around the face, making sure you don't break any of them. The problem here is that the instructions failed to note that the stock grille also has tabs and the bezel tabs and grille tabs are interleaved with each other! Thus you need to push in on every other one, and it is hard to tell which tab goes to which item. Yep, one tab broken. Ugh.



Another steeper angle to see the badly curved space on the edge of the T-Rex grille replacement. In for a penny, in for a pound...



The grille replacement is nearly complete. Crappy exposure on camera makes image too dark. /sigh



Yay finished! Looks *SO* much better than the stock honeycomb plastic crappy one!


Next is to install the hard foam crap catcher insert I just received from Summit Racing https://www.summitracing.com/parts/AAF-ALL30158 in front of the radiator to ensure that only air gets to the cooling fins.

On an unrelated note, I just happen to have a stock 3rd Gen plastic honeycomb grill for sale...

<3

 

That looks pretty cool!

 

Eye candy?

 

Yeah? Where is the eye candy???

 

false advertising,
Brought my own

 

Bait and switch! No approval!!

 

By default mod sucks!

 

Woah, woah! No true Taco aficionado would ever say the sensual curves and sleek body lines of their Tacoma, their baby girl, wasn't sexy. Especially when wet...staring at the dew beading on her slick skin...reaching out and touching those headlights, poking them with a gentle soft finger...buying her new accessories all the time because she's such a needy companion...how can you call yourselves true believers?

/smh

 

No excuses. Deliver.

 

Nah...sorry