mesh grill conversion?

Has anyone converted from stock old design grill
to newer TRD sport mesh? (OEM)

How did you do it?
I don't mean dropping $300 on a new color-matched part

I mean finding a cheap used one, then taking it apart to keep the mesh, and swap that over.
The question is how
because usually grills are held together with plastic tabs that then get melted and flattened to hold the pieces together.

And while you could probably dremel those points to separate the pieces, now there's less material left that could make it harder to glue the new halves together (honeycomb mesh + your painted grill surround)

I'm thinking epoxy could work and be stronger than hot glue,
but it may not, and is probably not as strong as the original melted plastic
I don't know how well it would hold up to road vibration and if that would make it come apart

 

Yes. Many have. Perhaps one with a ton of experience is @HomerTaco Look him up on insta for examples.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/toywerx-05-11-made-to-order-satoshi-grills.171169/

The absolute best, handmade quality you will find. Get on his waitlist as soon as you can if you’re serious

 

Feel free to ask. I've been making custom Tacoma grills for 10 years.

I'll say that even the original "melted plastic" mounts are not super strong, I've seen several OEM grills fail. It's a poor design that was corrected in 2012 with the facelift.

 

Done. Hacked apart two grills to make one.

I just need to figure out if I did the hood release right. I forget if the old one had extra parts for that or not, and it's too late because I threw it away.
Only concerned because the first grill is easy to reach the release lever.
But on the mesh you have to stick one finger deep into the mesh hole to grab it. I'm not sure if that's normal or not.

 

When you pop hood there's another lever to release between hood and grill .This pic shows 11 and below and 12 -15 latches .Almost the same as you can see . When did 12 up front conversion took this pic .2nd pic you can see latch I'm talking about .

 

Better pic when converted .You can see top latch. Both 2nd gen and 2.5 gen top part is the same . In fact I put my 2010 latch back on and left . Lazy lol.

 

are you saying you squeeze your hand on top to move that hook?

the old grill made it so you stick your hand in by the emblem and pull a second additional release, that could almost be done without looking
which I'm guessing is no longer possible on yours with the smaller mesh
but if the top hook works, that's all that matters

 

You can open latch through grill or between hood and grill . There's enough room between hood and grill to stick your finger to lift up lever circled in blue to release safety latch .