Custom metal grill with hidden TSS unit on TRD Sport - pic heavy

I just finished my custom metal grill from Matt at customcargrills.com and wanted to show you what I did. I ordered the 2016/2017 grill which doesn’t have the cutout like the 2018/2019 ones which have them on the bottom as I wanted the TSS to be hidden. The mesh came perfectly cut and bent and I glued it to my existing grill surround which I plasti-dipped. He has a video showing how to glue the grill using Goop and I just followed his instructions. I also got the TSS mounting hardware from him. His hardware is made to mount the TSS units on the bottom of the grill so I had a local steel fabricator bend me a piece of 9.5” long by 7” wide steel to form a “C”. The height of the C needs to be 3.25” which makes mounting the TSS unit right in the middle of the grill. I bolted the “C” to the underside of the unit from customcargrills.com and then bolted it to the bottom of the factory grill nose piece. An opening needs to be made in the mesh so I cut it out using a cutoff wheel with a Dremel rotary tool. I made a plastic dam from a piece of pvc gutter downspout and glued it around the unit with Goop to seal out water. I also made another dam out of a Rubbermade waste basket and glues it on the inside with Goop to make sure no water gets to the unit from the back of the grill. I drew up some TRD emblems and Hector (Yo_Hec from Tacoma World) CNC’d then out for me out of plastic and they came out really nice as I couldn’t find any the size that I wanted and painted them black and red like the factory ones.


The whole thing cost me around $260 total. I Used mainly tools that anyone would have except maybe the Dremel to cut out the opening in the mesh for the signal to pass through.


It seems to be working all right as I haven’t gotten any warnings yet. It looks like the TSS can work through plastic fine.


Sorry for the long read.


Any questions, I would be happy to answer any.

Rob

 

Rob,
Came out excellent, thanks for sharing