Caved And Got Billet Grill - Pictures

Well after admiring some of the Tacos here with billet grills, and recently seeing a Lincoln MKX with a nice chrome billet grill, I decided to make the leap.

The 4-piece billet grill from eBay seller Goody4Less was US$120 + shipping. Reasonably priced and a quality item. They also have a 5-piece for those with the wart on the hood.

http://myworld.ebay.com/goody4less

This pic shows the various parts, along with my grill removed. Apologies for the quality of these "in-process" pics. I should have gone inside to get my Canon instead of taking pictures with my cell phone.



To remove the grill, two plastic clips and two screws on the top of the grill must be removed. And two small plastic clips on the bottom need to be pinched or squeezed to allow the grill to come off. This took about 60 seconds for all 6 fasteners!!! The bottom fasteners stay in place upon removal of the grill and will snap back through the holes in the grill upon re-installation.

The next step is to use a Dremel with plastic cutting attachement to remove the center crossbars of the original grill. Remove only the crossbars leaving the lip all the way around.






Put the larger center billet portion into the opening. Press it in so that it is flush with the chrome outer trim. You will eventually feel it "bottom" and reach a flush natural position. A second set of hands is worthwhile to hold it in place while four holes are drilled through the mounting tabs into the inner black lip of the Toyota grill.

I wasn't too happy with the screws and speed nuts supplied. I will probably replace these items with nuts and bolts along with a dollop of Loctite.



I removed the Toyota emblem from the original grill by unsnapping three clips. I removed all but the two larger top tabs from the emblem to be able to mount it to the new billet grill. I used automotive "Goop" glue in generous amounts and applied it to the back of the emblem. I used zip ties to hold it in place. I will leave these on for a few days as it is cold and it will take a while for the glue to set up.



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That Goop glue dries clear and should work great for the very light emblem.

Before putting the new grill on, I took some black spray paint and painted the end caps of the silver coloured air conditioning condenser unit. From installs I have seen here, this shows up behind and detracts from the look of the new grill. Several coats were required for me on this cold day. The paint ran after the first coat, exposing the silver colour again.



This ends the cutting phase of the install. Every other part goes on without any further cutting. To mount the small outer pieces, however, a hole will need to be drilled into the waffle-pattern plastic inside each of those little holes. This takes little time.

These two pieces are different. The hole in each little piece should go towards the center.

The bottom portion that goes into the bumper is attached by two hooks and the supplied screws. The location of the grill piece is obvious and the fit was precise. There is no need to remove the factory plastic crossbars. The directions to mount this portion and the other pieces were pretty good.

In my opinion the billet grill looks great with the chrome trim on my silver truck. I have seen some painted black or covered in the rough truck bed liner stuff on dark vehicles, and that looks nice, too.

Here is a picture of the final product:



The pattern looks like it has dark diagonal regions running through it, but that is a function of the camera. The look is pretty slick. The vertical supports in the grill are painted black and not very noticeable.

The passenger window kinda looks like it is open, but that was a pattern left by the direction of the recent light snowfall.

Very happy I finally did this mod.

 

that looks great

 

i dig the shit out of your front plate...

 

nice

 

looks good man!

 

Looks great!!! I want to do that to mine.

 

Thanks, guys...(and gals)! And it only took a couple of hours.

I think the front of the truck would also be improved by an aluminum front skid plate!

 

looks great. I am thinking about doing the same setup.

 

Looks nice!
"...Oh by the way...which one's Pink?"

 

Looks great, I have always liked that look.
Now time for behind the grill light mod...............

 

Well I'm not a likely candidate for this particular mod. I'm not partial to the "light behind the grill" look really. I'd rather have them out in the open loud and proud!

Speaking of which, saw some guy in a pickup on the highway yesterday with four off-road lights on his rollover bar. He was driving with them turned on.

 

truck looks good! First thing i thought of was that your window is open too..lol

 

haha thats the first time i've heard the scoop called a wart!

 

Looks good man! Love the plate. If you were closer to my coast you could have my aluminum skid.

 

Why isn't it on your truck?

 

Looks good. Nice pic w/snow building up on truck.

 

Well I took it off and was going to paint it black, I have a black truck. Since taking it off I'm kinda liking it. the skid sticks out a bit and with it being silver on my black truck I'm just not a fan. I plan on getting some budbuild skids one day... maybe when our dollar is worth something?

 

Nice grill. Well done.