Painting Grill Surround

warehouse32 · May 13, 2016

So I've been wanting to do this for a while now, I watched some you tube, read some forum threads and figured I'd give it a shot! I did have some trouble finding a clear write up for what I wanted, so hopefully this is helpful to others who want to do the same thing! Feel free to give me some pointers/comments/feedback...I'm by no means a professional!

All in all I spent about $38 on stuff you can find at any auto parts store. From start to finish this project took about a day and a half (keep in mind, a lot of that time was spent literally waiting for paint to dry...so actual work time was only about 3.5-4 hours.)

I know some guys go the plasti dip route, but I wasn't too sure of the color match or longevity, never having used it myself. So, this time around I went with the traditional primer/paint/clear combo.

MATERIALS:

200-400 grit sand paper

800 grit scuff pad

2000 grit wet/dry sand paper

Dupli Color scratch filler primer

Dupli Color Black (specific toyota match)

Dupli Color protective clear coat finish

TOOLS:

Knife or flathead screwdriver (just something to pry with)

Phillips head screwdriver (optional)

10 mm socket w/wrench

T20 torx bit driver

paper towel or lint free rag

soapy water

sponge

rubbing alcohol

gloves (latex or nitrile)

crap load of elbow grease

beer (optional...but I mean c'mon)

STEP1: REMOVE THE GRILL

This is pretty straight forward, but I should mention that I've got a 2012 taco, so I can only say for sure that these steps will work for 2nd gen's only. They might work on others, they might not.

First, remove (2) 10mm bolts from the top of the grill with either the phillips head or the socket.

After that there should be (2) pop up clips next to the headlights, (1) on each side. All you have to do is pry that center circle up with anything flat and the whole clip should come up.

Lastly, there should about (8) plastic tabs along the bottom holding the grill in place. There are (2) large ones by the headlights and (6) smaller ones along the center. You should be able to feel them with your fingers and, while gently pulling back on the grill, pop them up and out one at a time until the whole unit is out.

STEP 2: TAKE THE SURROUND AND GRILL APART

This was a bit more time consuming, but still pretty straight forward. There are (12) torx head screws size T20 to remove.