All ABS Satoshi

Pardon the mess (rough draft / no pictures) but I've received a number of messages asking for this - this write up is a work in progress - I still need the pics. If someone lives in the Huntington Beach area I would be glad to help someone make one and we'll get the pictures for this write up. - You would be a great candidate if you have a black bumper that you want to trade for a black one...

All ABS Satoshi Grille

What you will need
1 Original Equipment or Equivilent Toyota Tacoma Grille Assembly
1 10” X 30” piece of Mesh Material (to more closely match the existing mesh use…)
A coping saw (hand jig saw)
1 pair of aviation type tin snips
30 inches of 3/4 “ wide blue tape
Pair of leather gloves
1 toaster oven
1 oven thermometer
Eye dropper or disposable syringe

1 can of Satin Black see notes below labeled ‘Paint Color & Sheen’ below
1 can of ABS solvent/glue (home improvement/hardware/plumbing supply store)
1 ABS Pipe Hanger (Home Depot) used to mount the mesh to the grille assembly
20 ____ Screws
20 ________ washers
1 8” X 8” piece of cardboard

Why All ABS
The traditional method of making a Satoshi grille is to use fiberglass to fill in the voids that are created by removing the center portion of the grille. Fiberglass is great for repairing fiberglass – surfboards, original corvettes, fiberglass port-o-potties, etc. ABS is great for repairing ABS. This way the material will behave the same way the original grille material behaves – especially how it bonds to itself and how will handle vibration over time.

What is ABS?
ABS is a thermoplastic, meaning that you can heat this and reshape ABS plastic and it will retain its physical characteristics. It can be ‘welded’ with a plastics welding tool. If you have one of these available to you (they can be purchased for as-low-as $40 at Harbor Frieght) you can weld the seams. On this project, we will be using ABS solvent/glue that can be purchased at Home Depor for $3 a can (more than enough for this project).

Step 1
Remove the existing grille.
If you have an ‘extra’ grille that you will be using for this mod, obviously skip this step.

Picture of the attachments of the grille



Step 2
Remove the center portion of the grille. Be gentle since the part that you remove will also be used to make other parts for this mod.

Start by taping the grille about 1” away from the cut zone (optional but I did this to minimize extra scrapes in the plastic that would need to be filled and sanded).

- Pic of ‘cut zone’



Removing the Center Section
Use caution while using the coping saw to limit the number of scratches that you put outside of the saw cut area (this leads to more work later).
Start at the top and work towards the bottom being carefull – if you do it right, you will be making your cut clean and at the same level as ‘mouth opening’ – this is for two reasons: 1) less sanding/grinding later and 2) will allow you to form your four inserts to form the curve on the inserts to fill the void on the grille.


- Pic of cutting from top-to-bottom

Clean Up of "Mouth" Opening
Using an electric orbital sander, smooth down the ridges where the center section was removed.

Void Inserts
Remove the bottom two wings of the grill center

- Pic of removing bottom wings

Cut out the flat section (horizontal part of center opening) of the grille center (both sides).

- Pic of flat section

Cover the smoother side with blue tape and draw the outline of the voids in the grill surround

- pic of tracing of the insert pucks

Cut the inserts out by carefully cutting on the traced line with the aviation type tin snips - makes it very easy and creates a nice cut.

- pic of cutting puck

Forming of the Inserts
The purpose of heating the inserts is to form the slight curve in the inserts to conform with the shape of the existing grille. Do not overheat the ABS! It will burn! You only want to heat it enough to allow you to gently reshape the insert.

With a small torch (I used the stove), heat the insert peices so that the tips will be able to be bent to conform to the curvature of the "mouth" opening of the grille. Hold in place for 30 seconds to allow insert to cool enough to retain its new shape.
Repeat for the 3 other inserts

Cut out the Doublers
Cut doublers (to use as back reinforcements for the inserts) from the scrap abs (flat pieces) that with the tin snips

Installling the Inserts
Mask the voids so that only 1/16”-1/8” of the material around the voids are showing. Installing one insert at a time, wet the edges of the insert and the voids with the ABS cement (the wet bead should be about 1/16” – 1/8”)

Place the insert into the opening and hold for 10 seconds
Wet the backside of the doubler
Wet the backside of the grill opening ½” -3/4”

- pic of glue on backside

Hold all three pieces together for 10 seconds making sure that they are located so that the new insert is flush with the grill opening

- detail of flush

Repeat for the other three inserts and the upper disc

Filling the depressions (optional)
Tape the backs of the depressions with blue tape as shown.
Use the eyedropper or syringe to fill the depressions just enough to fill level with the existing material.

- pic tape of voids

Install the Screw Bosses
Making the screw bosses take the pipe hanger and cut between the marks to make 12 screw bosses. Sand one side of screw boss as shown

- pic

Sand the backside of the grill opening in the following areas
Apply adhesive to the sanded areas and press together and hold for 10 seconds
Repeat for the four other screw bosses

After completing the installation of the inserts, the filling of the depressions and then allow the adhesive to dry for approximately two hours to let cure.

Trim Mesh Material
Using the template that you made in [ ] above, cut a piece of the mesh in the same shape as Install the door ding protection around the perimeter of the mesh as shown

- pic

Now set the mesh assembly aside.

Once the ABS adhesive is thoroughly set, sand the ‘flashing’ from the glue flush with the grill opening being carful not to eat in much on the existing grill opening material with 240 grit sand paper. Once the glue and filler material is level with the original grill surround, finish sanding with 400 grit sand paper
Sand the backside edge perimeter to make sure that it has a nice curve.

Painting the grill surround.

Attaching the Grille Insert
Screw the mesh material to the grill assembly as shown below

- pic

Installing Your New Satoshi Grille …


I cant think of a better thing to cover with a good coat of desert dust!

 

Nice write up bud! A+

 

What an excellent write up! I'm more of a visual person so hopefully those pics come soon but can't wait to see them and see how it turns out!

 

I live in HB and would be able to assist. Pls let me know. thanks

 

Thanks for the writeup. I can't wait to see pics. I'm definitely going to try this method, since I work at a plumbing warehouse and can get my hands on all this stuff.

 

good write up can't wait to see it

 

any status on this or pix?

 

I just got my grill parts (mesh metal, emblem) today and I'm interested in banging this out the way youre talking about.

Edit - I also saw an abs/plastic welding kit on harbor freight for like 30$, with materials. I googled and found a few tutorials, interesting stuff.

 

Any update on this yet?

 

Subscribed.

 

picssss