grill question

[93XLEcamry]

hey guys....i was planning to make a custom mesh grill for my gen 3 and i searched the forum and found a diy mesh grille by midnightwathc (ty by the way) but my question is


is it possible to leave the T emblem in the grill instead of cutting the whole thing out like midnightwatch did his?? if so how would i go about approaching this??

[CrawlingEye]

I don't exactly know what their grill looks like, but as long as you have the support pieces, you can remove what you want or keep what you want. Just be aware you may need to fiberglass and/or bondo it and sand it down to get it to look good. My grille probably has more time invested in it than it took to install my S-AFC II.

[93XLEcamry]

Clear your Gen 3 Grille DIY *Pics*

thats the link to his diy grill.....so far thats how im going to approach it, but i really want the T

and i dont know what are the support pieces sorry....new at this....its going to be my first time doing it so i want it to be right..

[CrawlingEye]

yeah, just shave off the pieces around the circle around the Toyota logo. Plenty of people have done grilles similar to that.

My grille is somewhat similar to his, except I left the middle bar and refiberglassed the void the logo filled then primed/sanded and painted it to match the body color.

like I said, just cut the pieces you want gone out and if there's any voids or uneven-ness just sand it down, bondo/fiberglass what you need. If it's just an uneven spot, bondo should be fine (or putty). if you're removing an actual piece or have a void, you'll be better off with fiberglass.

dremels make life easier with the whole thing too. :P

[bigbird]

the T emblem mount is attached to the frame of the grille saparatly. jsut cut out the stuff to each side of the emblem mount and ull have what you want. you could also remove the entire inner part of teh grill and then attach the emblem somehow.

[93XLEcamry]

at what steps do i use the sand paper???

[bigbird]

after cutting out what you dont want.

[CrawlingEye]

and after bondoing / fiberglassing to smooth out the edges.

[93XLEcamry]

lol....i meant which sand paper 40, 60, 120, do i use at which step....do i use 40 after cutting?? or 60?? and is 120 for the finishing touch before painting??

[CrawlingEye]

Start out coarse and work your way finer. Filler primer is good to smooth out any minor imperfections.

[93XLEcamry]

one more question

how did you guys put on the mesh???

my grille is almost done all i needed is to touch up (redo some bondo) and to primer it (not going to clear coat it)

so i just wanted to know ahead of time

[EEngineer]

my grille ftw =]