Silver Sky Metallic Grille Surround Conundrum...

Hey everyone,

Obviously this is not an immediate issue, but I have a silver sky metallic (paint code: 1D6) 2015 TRD-OR and I really do not like the look of the chrome grille surround. This past summer I tried purchasing a silver sky metallic painted grille from a genuine Toyota parts store (I believe it was Toyota South Atlanta, but could be wrong) and the purchase went through but after 2-3 weeks I received an email from the parts retailer saying that the grille is back-ordered and they refunded me my money.

I have thought about painting my chrome grille surround myself, and I've seen a bunch of informative walkthrough tutorials on here and on YouTube, but I am super inexperienced with any sort of painting, primer, and/or sanding. The process seems fairly straight forward but my OCD-wired brain would definitely prefer an OEM style finish.

This week, I randomly came across a silver sky metallic painted grille surround (the entire grille part + emblem is included) in pretty good condition on Facebook Marketplace for $130, which would be at least $70+ cheaper than the grille I attempted to order from the Toyota part dealer. Now, since owning my truck (granted, I've only had it for a little over a year), I have never once come across a silver sky metallic grille on Marketplace, Ebay, Offer-Up, etc. I'm also a busy college student and the Marketplace seller is a little over 3 hours from me (they don't ship) so I'm not sure if it is really even worth it but I do want to swap out the chrome at some point. I should mention that the seller offered to sell me the grille for $100 for the inconvenient 3 hour drive, which is definitely enticing, but their profile is somewhat sketchy (their username is a random assortment of letters and numbers, and their items contain "[hidden information]" codes) and I've never done a Marketplace/Craig's List type exchange.

Yesterday, as a last ditch effort, I scoured Ebay, some OEM Toyota dealer Ebay profiles, and Marketplace a final time. Absolutely no silver sky. I also made contact with another genuine Toyota part dealer that was "selling" a silver sky metallic grille on their website for ≈$177 but they confirmed in an email this morning that the part is on national back-order.

Sorry for the long post but I just wanted to hear some feedback on what I should do. Should I just say "F" it and drive 3 hours to buy the Marketplace grille? Should I try my hand with the DIY painting? Or, should I just wait to see if another silver sky metallic grille pops up on Marketplace/Ebay. I'm super indecisive so I'm a little stuck. Also, if anyone has any alternative solutions to finding a silver grille surround, I'm all ears!

Thanks in advance!

 

For what it's worth I bought the same silver sky metallic (1D6) grille for mine off eBay back in like 2021. Even then they were hard to get considering it was just old OEM parts being sold off by dealers for a truck that was already out of production by 6 years. Cost me like $200 but worth it to not see that ugly chrome.

Three hours is a decent drive and I can understand for a college student probably not going to help your budget. But if you can get it for $100 plus whatever your fuel costs are it's probably worth it versus painting one. Also probably worth it versus any other headaches trying to buy one from online dealers and then having to waste time and get burned because of back-orders. Just my 2 cents.

The only suggestion I can give is to go on car-part.com and search for one at junkyards. You never know, may get lucky and some wrecker yard close to you might have one. Maybe some distant dealer has one but maybe they can ship it and still save you some money or at least time of that 6 hour round trip drive.

Good luck and hope you can ditch your chrome too. If you want an unethical life tip maybe you can donate plasma and score a couple bucks to feed your Toyota parts habit now. Back in the day when I was in college we used to do that for beer money - most kids don't drink nowadays so hey what better to sell your body for than truck parts? (OK I'm mostly joking here so don't crucify me people, but still just saying there are ways when the budget is tight...)