Sucellus

WT was nice enough to come by this weekend to help me, a dremmel-less comrad, in the installation of his exceedingly cool mod. Thanks WT! He also brought his camera. We took pictures throughout the installation process to aid anyone else who wishes to do this inexpensive, and good-looking mod. I only chose to do the grill and not the valence as my bumper is slghtly bent, and I didn't want to put effort into something that I may replace in the near future.

The pictures can be found here: http://community.webshots.com/user/sucellus

If you do not know of what I am speaking, please refer to WT's original post on the subject here: https://www.yotatech.com/forums/show...&threadid=9820

Happy Grilling!

delboy

Very nice! Has become a really popular mod! And cheap!

Vato Loco

Looks real nice! WT is a really good guy, he got me the adapter for me and sent it to me to help install the gauges. Now Im just waiting to get them in the mail.

WT

Looking Good !! That gray grill does match real well with your truck.
Then again it was a easy cost effective Mod

Yeah Vato Loco I would think that should be getting there in the next few days I would think. Keep us updated on how things turn out after your install.
Always nice to meet other 4Runner folks in town ... and help out when I can.

4runner4lyfe

is it me or am i the only one that just hates the look of that grille?

i dont mean to flame, but i just dont like the fact that you set the Toyota Logo emblem out by itself. I think it would look better to remove the emblem and lay that new grille over the entire thing.

i would personally go with a billet grille overlay like the ones from www.sporttrucking.com

but than again, maybe thats just me.

sabre

It looks so much easier on that style grill. I gave it a try the other day on a newer grill and it was a PITA. The newer grills bevel out and there are no flat surfaces to lay the guard on to mark the cut lines. Plus half the guard goes on top and the other half goes on the bottom, not fully across like on those grills you guys did them on. I have seen what they look like on the style grill I have and they look great but they arent a natural fit. Needless to say I am jealous.
For anyone who has done it on an '01 style grill please feel free to let me know what you used as a template to cut the guard. I have a few pieces left and I want to get it right this time.

Vato Loco

Is yours the chrome style? If it is wanna trade? PM me

sabre

You want my style grill for the older one? I dont want to get rid of mine, I really like the way it looks. I am just looking for a template to cut the guard to fit it. The older style is a lot flatter and doesnt have that chrome bar in the middle that bevels out. Thanks for the offer tho.

midiwall

Aiye! There are three of us up here in the PNW that finally gave up trying to find 5" material locally... I did a "Yet Another Group Buy" from a distributor on the east coast yesterday.

So there's about to be 3 more of these running around the road.

pfdaxe

Lowes has the the wider gutter guard versus the gutter guard that Home Depot sells.

Sabre:

chech my site for pics of my '00 grill. I also did this to a '01/'02 grill. Just lay the mesh on the grill and use a perm marker to trace around the opening. Use tin snips to cut and mount with picture hanging wire. Not that hard

midiwall

Nope, not up here in the Seattle area. It's weird...

We've done a total of 4 Lowe's and 3 Home Depots... The two Lowe's by me don't carry _any_ metal guards, only plastic. The HD's carry only the 4" size.

We've also looked at Ace Hardware stores (no luck) and a couple of private contractors. The contractors can order it, but for over twice the price of buying it online, plus tax. At the online price and splitting shipping between 3 folks, it's real cheap.

sabre

That is sort of how I tried it. I didnt have tin snips tho. Just some large scissors. I cut the heck out of my hands trying to cut the lenght of the guard. I will give it a try again once I have some time to really sit down and put effort into it.

pfdaxe

It takes alittle time to get it to fit just right and you have to place your mounting wires in the correct place to make it fit into the curve. Once I had the shape(which was alittle bigger than the opening)I bent about an 1/8" of the ends of the mesh so it had a cleaner look instead of just a cut edge.

Good luck

pigcake

Those gutter gaurds rust like a mutha. I don't know if it has anything to do with being on a roof, but the ones on my gutters (from Lowes) were wired rust mesh in less than a year. It looks really cool on the grill and are cheap enough to replace. Just curious if anyone has looked at their gutters recently?

FattyCBR

Here's a pic of mine without the center Toyota Symbol and all the bars cut out, it's been on there for over 1.5 years and no rust. If any of you left coast guys want me to buy 10 sheets or more let me know and I'll package some up and send it to someone. It's around $1.40-$2.00 per sheet.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/...72337338aJAJWW

sabre

What happened to the piece under your passenger side headlight? Just curious if you did that intentionally or not.

SLC Punk

I think he did it for an air "ram" effect, since his airbox is behind that headlight.


Looks good guys!!

FattyCBR

I removed that piece beneath the headlight to try and get more cold air into the engine compartment at speed.

Sucellus

Yes, they will! I didn't believe you earlier, but as it has been raining non-stop in richmond for longer than I can remember, the gutter-guard has been put to the rust test. I'm afraid it did not fair so well. I am looking into a way to clear-coat it(perhaps some transparent acrylic spray paint?). Luckly WT had helped me make a couple extra in preparation for the un-expected.

Sorry to bump this older thread, but I just felt that it would be irresponsible to not report this. If anyone has done this mod, just a heads up before it rusts and you have to go through cutting and all again.

midiwall

Dang... Okay, maybe some clearcoat...

Actually, at this point, it's still becoming an issue to get the stuff in the PNW! I ordered some on 5/12 and it's still not here... sigh. The company's customer support is a bit funky as well... I don't think they're used to trying to handle such a small order.

Thanks for the heads-up Sucellus.

Mark