2012 Grille Replacement

Going to get rid of all the chrome on the new truck in the next month or so. What grille would you guys recommend? Do you think getting a paint-matched border is worth the money? Should I blackout the rear bumper while I’m at it?

 

Personally, what you do to the grille surround I'd match the bumper to it. Cheap and easy is to Plasti/Hyperdip them your color of choice. Red pairing with black is always solid. I like color matching though.

The grille itself, you can get one of the many knockoff TRD Faux. There's the original Pro replica and a 2.0 that mimics the 3rd Gen honeycomb. Your preference, either deletes the Yota logo and gets you legacy TOYOTA badging which is a plus.

 

FWIW, I think for any color other than Super White, it's worth it getting the color-matched surround if you have the funds. I installed a TRD Pro grille center on my 2014 with the SR5 chrome surround, with plans to swap it out to color-matched when I got some birthday/Christmas money some day. I have never done it. The chrome surround seems to pick up the white color of the hood and other surrounding white areas and blends it in. At casual glance the surround looks white from most angles.

If you are going to go through all the work to paint the rear bumper black, you might consider color-keying/matching it to the color of the rest of the truck. No "add-on/after-market rear end damage look." I like the chrome bumper... I know: it's an old guy thing. I bought the black overlays two years ago for the lettering on the the doors and tailgate, but never installed them.... Baby steps. I wish the door handles and mirrors were color-keyed though.

 

I just completed the de-chrome on my 2009, started with removing all the badges a while ago. Just a couple days ago, I installed the 2011 honeycomb grill and Bumpershellz bumper covers paint matched.

 

a raptor grill to keep the Hyundais away

 

I do not recomment plasti-dip. The coating will turn gray over time and any rock chips will make the chrome show through. There are aftermarket grills that come with the surround that you could paint or pay a professional body shop to paint.