TRD Pro Grill repair

I know there's a million threads already on Pro grills but here's a little different one...
While making some mods to install a front camera on my aftermarket chinese cheapo grill I accidentally made a gouge with my Dremel across the face of the grill. Tried to buff it really quick and ended up making it worse.
Does anyone have any tips to repair? I'm thinking of taping off the area with a little space around the edge and then using like a plastic epoxy filler and then sanding it down and repainting the whole thing. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

 

Sand it and repaint it? If the marks are super deep, little jb weld or plastic filler might work, sand and paint..

 

Also. I've heard that the cheaper paint could fade. I would fix as stated above and repaint the whole thing, clear it and throw it back on.. Might last longer.

 

Hard to tell how deep the marks are but you could sand it and Bondo that area then paint or plastidip the whole thing. By the way, welcome to the forum.

 

Definitely looks like you would need to add some filler, sand, and repaint by the looks of that 2nd picture.

 

Do you think the same thing would have happened with the OEM grille? (Not being snarky, seriously asking)

 

Fill it and repaint Clear coat if you want a shiny finish and no clear coat if you want a matte finish.

 

It was done by a dremel. Course it could have accidentally happened. things get away from you sometimes.

 

Can you afford to just buy a new one? Everyone says they are cheap now! You are driving a PRO, right?

 

Thanks! I've been lurking and had my taco for awhile now but have just barely started modding it.
From the responses of everyone I think i'll go ahead and use some sort of a filler and paint it matte black.

 

I could afford a new one but I don't want to wait for a new one. Additionally I already carved out the mounting holes and spot for the front camera so i don't want to have to do all that work again in a month when the bumper gets here from china. And no, im not driving a Pro haha. If I was i would probably be too scared to carve into the original bumper or even replace it for that matter.

 

You could always buy the Chinese knock offs that are $140 now to.

 

That's exactly what I did. I would just rather not order a new one and if i did i would have to wait nearly a month to get it. I ordered mine of Amazon but I know there's others.

 

I think you are askin if the material is inferior on the aftermarket (Chinese) grilles, it "feels" and "looks" the same as far as I can tell, I have a aftermarket grille and went to Toyota to check out the new Cavalry blue PRO they had and could not tell the diff in material or craftsmanship between them (from the front). I would think OEM or AEM doesn't matter.

 

Here's an update to the fix. I ended up using some JB Weld and sanding and painting it with some Rustoleum Matte finish. The fixed area is only slightly visible and i can live with it. I probably could have spent more time on it and made it totally invisible but this is fine for me. I did end up lightly sanding the entire things and giving it all about 3 coats to make sure it was all covered evenly.