Grill Mod - Dual Bar to Honeycomb and shell questions

I recently picked up a great Craigslist find for $60, a 2011 Grill with the single bar and honeycomb for my 09. I think this grill looks much nicer than the older style. And I had been calling some dealers trying to figure out the part number difference but they couldn't help me.

Anyways I searched this and another forum and can't find my answer.

Has anyone ever taken the center section out and placed their surround around it?

There are 20 tabs of what looks like melted plastic, plus clips from the weather strip. Just wondering if its easier to paint my "new one" or swap the centers.

The new one has some broken clips, which I can fix, but looking for input.

The new grill vs the old one


And for FYI

53100-04450xx (x's being color codes)

The part number on the inner portion of the grill
53100-04420
http://i1213.photobucket.com/albums...0-6C36-4AD1-876E-7B104792E912_zpsk5dr4sd7.jpg

 

The tabs on the new one between the color shell and the center guts


And the pins from the weather strip

 

And here she is! All for less than $100. Not bad for a rattle can job, took some wet sanding and buffing, and I'll need to do it again but im pleased with the results!

 

Looks good man, I also like that grill style.

 

Nice! Just finished color matching it.
How many coats of clear did you use?

 

I used the Duplicolor Colormatch Toyota Black Sand Pearl 209 from Auto Zone.
5 coats
Then 4 coats of clear with a wet sand in between.

Then wet sand and buff

 

It depends on your level of skill, and patience. And it will require some wet sanding after you are done, look up some you tube videos. It would prolly be fine for a Satoshi or a small area, but a hood every flaw would be exposed under the sun.

Also a body shop quoted me $150 to paint my grill, and I prolly spent $60 between paint and tape and sand paper. Those little factory match cans don't go far.

 

Very nice! I bought a 2011 grille off Craigslist too, for $100. It had been painted white, including the logo. I wanted a little more depth, so I painted the honeycomb portion a graphite color, and kept the middle bar black.

I used Duplicolor Dark Blue Pearl. 1 primer coat, 4 color coats with a 600 grit sand, then 3 clear coats with a 600 grit sand before the final.

I let it dry for a week, then took 600 grit followed by 800 grit wetsand. Oddly (but surprising) I inadvertently left it out in the Hawaiian sun for about two hours, and when I went to retrieve it, the clear coat had "melted" out all the wetsanding. It had melted into a clear gloss! I did a very light Turtlewax green formula polishing, followed by Mother's carnuba wax.

I used a plain metallic silver for the logo.

I'm pleased with the results. I may paint the honeycomb flat black...Still wondering if I like the graphite color. The TRD logo is an aftermarket one from eBay.

 

Wow, that looks great and exactly what I want to do on my Super White RC

 

That looks awesome! Like a European style grille!