Satoshi with Homers mesh, color matched FJ letters and color matched TRD emblem

After about a week of gathering parts and doing body work I finally have a Satoshi on my truck.

Started with the typical cutting, filling and sanding. Then I used a finishing putty to try and get a factory like appearance.













I only semi finished the back side






I used Loc-Tite 5 minute epoxy to attach the 10-24 threaded rod to the grill frame







Homers M3 mesh painted semi gloss black, topped with neoprene washers and 10-24 Stainless Acorn Nuts








FJ letters done following Cape Codders how-to but I epoxied the stud to the letter instead of tapping the letter itself. I filled the back of the letter to make it smooth, cut the studs to proper length then drilled the proper sized hole in the back of the letter to insert the threaded rod into the hole and epoxied it in.

Studs are not cut to length or epoxied in this pic but you get the idea




I picked up a TRD emblem off ebay and decided to color match it to the rest of the grill












Finished Satoshi and reinstalled on truck. Letters still needed some tweeking to get straight

 

dude thats very nice. good job

 

Looks good ... but id go without the TRD emblem. seems a little tooo much going on with it

 

I think you're right but I wanted to see how I like it with both

 

well keep both and just switch them out when you feel like you want something different

 

Looks good man

 

Nice! I like the 2 emblems.

 

Take off the TRD theres to much going on. Also The Y is crooked lol But other than that looks great.

 

Nice work

 

Looks good I like the FJ letters. I might have to steal them off of my chicks FJ...she's not using them.

 

I agree with kdogg. Pick one emblem. I chose the TRD emblem painted white to match but really like the fj emblem too.

 

Nice job!...I like what you did with the TRD emblem. It looks like you separated out inner grill frame? How's that done?

 

Great job!

 

Very nice job,

I want to do this, but stuck because I cant decide between an expensive Color matched grille, or leaving it chrome to save cash. Id much rather go color matched but $200+ for the radiant red grille!

 

I Like It

Relocate Horns, Link in My Sig.
TRD Makes it too busy IMHO
One or the Other will look good
Nice thing about nuts and bolts,
you can swap emblems for a change

CC

 

There are a bunch of plastic tabs on the outer surround that go into the inner grill frame and are then melted over to prevent separation. I popped the melted tabs off with a flat screwdriver and separated the grill into its two individual pieces. This made it easy to do the paint and body work without messing up the factory paint on the surround.
The last step was to run beads of epoxy around the areas where the tabs were and on all flat areas where the two parts meet and clamp it all together until dry.
I used two coats of Dupli-color factory match paint and three coats of Krylon clear. The color isn't perfect but the factory paint on the surround and the rest of the truck wasn't a perfect match either

 

Excellent work, looks great. I don't see the TRD emblem as a distracter.

Cheers

 

GREAT JOB PETE!

There is a video how to in both my f/s threads... Link in sig...

 

looks great

 

That mesh is lookin good! Nice job on the satoshi, wish i had patience and did the bolt on vs the ziptie