Mesh Grill Questions

Alright, so I have gone ahead and ordered a grill craft sport grill in black, and to those of you who have experience with those, I have a few questions:
1) I hear that it seems overwhelming cutting into the grill but its not that hard to do the install- is this true?
2) Is it recommend to paint the radiator black and move the horn? If so, how do you do this?
3) IF I don't move the horn and paint the radiator, what will it look like? Anyone got any before/ after pictures?
It should be arriving at my house within the next few days so it'll be a good project for me to do over my fall break.
Thanks y'all!

 

This is mine that I was too lazy to paint the radiator, and move the horns on. You can definitely see through it, but I don't think it looks too bad.

I'm willing to live with it the way it is.

It's also a pretty open mesh, so yours will probably be less noticeable.

 

Thanks! I was honestly thinking about just not moving any of the components/ painting the radiator cause I, like you, am also lazy and I don't really want to mess anything up either so its probably going to stay put. Where did you get the TOYOTA lettering? I've got the TRD emblem that I'm going to put on it, but its relatively small- if I could put something larger over the mesh it'll probably take the eyes off the small amounts of visible radiator/ horn.....

 

There's not much of a chance of screwing anything up really, for me it was a matter of just being lazy. I actually bought some high heat paint, but when I went to do it, I realized I couldn't reach the lower parts of the radiator with the spray can, and that was it. I had to strike while the iron was hot, and after I put the grill on, the iron cooled off. I would imagine you would need a brush to reach the lower section. Like I said, I don't think it looks bad. Plus, I noticed every other vehicle I see with mesh grills, don't have the horns moved, or radiator painted black. It definitely looks better painted, but again, too lazy...

Honestly, I don't ever see the horns, unless I'm looking for them anyway.

I'm also too lazy to get you a link right now, but there are plenty of write ups on horn relocation, and radiator painting if you want to do it.

Link to Land Cruiser emblem:
https://toyotaparts.bochtoyotasouth...meT0yMDA1JnQ9cHJlLXJ1bm5lciZlPTQtMGwtdjYtZ2Fz

It comes painted white. I sanded, and repainted mine two tone (gunmetal, with a silver outline).

Your right though, it does draw the eye away from all the empty space.

If your looking for mounting ideas, I ended up super gluing bolts to the back of the emblem, and bolting it to the grill with some rubber washers sandwiched between the grill, and metal washers to help protect the powdercoat on the grill.

 

There are some good write-ups and videos about cutting out the grille. It seems scary at first, but there's nothing very hard about it if you take your time. I used a lot more Bondo than I expected (creating a lot more sanding). What's the worst that can happen?

I painted my radiator and horns, but didn't move anything. With my finer mesh you really can't see behind it unless you look close. I think I just used your basic flat black Krylon.

 

I moved my horns only because I needed the room for the lights. Can't see the radiator at all.

 

Thanks everyone! Ive been doing some more searching over the forums and I've found a pretty helpful guide as of how to relocate the horn and paint the rad. black- doesn't look too hard so I think I'm going to give it a go... I'll post some pics in the next few weeks when I get it all done. Ive also got some new xenon projector headlights coming in- once its all done I think ill post pics then. Once again, thanks for the help and info!

 

Here's mine, I didn't paint or moved anything, left it the way it is.
Black mesh grill, u can tell only if your close enough and trying to look for something

 

Nice Looking Tacoma

 

Thank bradah

 

Alright, so its taken me a while to get pictures back because I ended up doing a little bit more than the grill... I got some new HID xenon projector lights and I'm still waiting on the xenon fog lights in the mail. Anyways, Im really pleased with the sport grill from grillcraft. It was honestly a pain to cut out the original black plastic part of the grill. I tried using a dremel, but I found that using a short hack saw does the job wonderfully, and then I just sanded down where it was rough. I got the TRD emblem off of Amazon for about 10$ and ended up cutting off the back attachments for screws to screw it into place, and then just cut 3M tape in the shape of the back of the emblem so you couldn't see any extra tape from the sides.

All in all, really pleased with the lights and the grill so far.