Satoshi Grill....

[freeze]

Anyone up for doing a Satoshi Grill Mod? I'm not really big into doing cosmetic mods but this is one that I would like to do sometime. I'm looking at finding a white grill surround for the Tacoma and then Satoshi'ing the heck out of it!

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_sO8-CLjlUoQ/SjX4xqCqP4I/AAAAAAAAAZM/lUWkVkduPBQ/s720/Offroad-Lifted-Toyota-Tacoma.jpg

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_sO8-CLjlUoQ/SisOwnLoIzI/AAAAAAAAAX4/dVt0vhfajZY/s720/lwyattl_allpro_front_bumper.jpg

More info on how to:
http://satoshigrill.blogspot.com/2008/08/05-toyota-tacoma-satoshi-grill-mod.html

[Doc McCoy]

This mod has a name? Been thinking of doing something similar to my truck for a while. Body damage repair & the slider / winch install are on top of the "to do" list right now though. However, if you are buying the toyota badge, buy 2 and I'll take 1 for sure.

[Hounddog]

Go for it guys!

Albeit not a very good pic, I've started with a new grill, and when I get a little more time, I'll be recessing the whole grill back about an 1 3/4" to give it that "Satoshi" look. I don't think I'll badge mine - kinda like the blank look for now.

http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/uu337/Hounddog/KevsBike004.jpg

[BeachBoy]

I want this grill and the block toyota letter, been thinking about it since day one.

But it's really expensive. The grillcraft is $150 USD

[iamcdn]

its on my to do list of cosmetic mods

you dont need grill craft, go buy some metal and cut / paint /rubberize it yourself

[oriontaco]

That looks angry!!! I would love to do that!!

[freeze]

Well... I think we should make it a project for an evening or weekend. It'll be a Satoshi BBQ build off!!

[Tacorossa]

I'd love to do this mod as well. Wonder what it would look like with my billet grille? That would be different.

[Hounddog]

I want this grill and the block toyota letter, been thinking about it since day one.

But it's really expensive. The grillcraft is $150 USD

If you poke around, you can find 'em for $129.00 US - that's what I managed to pay - so not too bad.

But for a Satoshi grill I'd go with the route of finding a mesh type metal as suggested in an above post and fabricate you're own. Tho only real feature that the Grillcraft offers, is a "curve or bend" that will follow the exact lines of the surrounding plastic. (perfect for a flush mount like mine) On the Satoshi, the mesh is recessed, so there really is no need for that factory curve/bend.

I'm hoping for some free time as there is some minor bondo/fibreglass work that needs to be done before I can move my grill back to create that Satoshi look!

[iamcdn]

Well... I think we should make it a project for an evening or weekend. It'll be a Satoshi BBQ build off!!

i am in for this ... if the weather ever is nice for more than an hour

if we can get a bunch of people doing it, the supplies can be purchased on economies of scale .... making it cheaper for the metals and fibre glassing stuff

[freeze]

Ok let's plan out purchasing items...

Who want's to source parts and get costs? I can help whomever with this.

Who want's to organize the BBQ? and this too I can help.

I can put together a price sheet, location/date & time once we get the parts and numbers organized.


Did we miss anything.

We have:
BeachBoy
DocMcCoy (Emblem)
Oriontaco
Hounddog (Minor mod)
Tacorossa
iamcdn
freeze

[BeachBoy]

I'm sure ed'syota can help sourcing the mesh, and/or oriontaco starting next week.

I'd like to see different options (diamond vs round holes, dense vs light, etc)

[Doc McCoy]

Ok let's plan out purchasing items...

Who want's to source parts and get costs? I can help whomever with this.

Who want's to organize the BBQ? and this too I can help.

I can put together a price sheet, location/date & time once we get the parts and numbers organized.


Did we miss anything.

We have:
BeachBoy
DocMcCoy (Emblem)
Hounddog (Minor mod)
Tacorossa
iamcdn
freeze

If we can do a group buy on the grillcraft or just do wire mesh ... I'm down with that too.

[oriontaco]

i am in aswell, what parts do we need I can start looking

[BeachBoy]

wire mesh mainly

diamond shape http://www.customcargrills.com/products.asp?id=1
hexagon http://www.customcargrills.com/products.asp?id=27
perforated http://www.customcargrills.com/products.asp?id=56

then glass fiber and resin, but we can deal with canadian tire stuff

[iamcdn]

If we can do a group buy on the grillcraft or just do wire mesh ... I'm down with that too.

there is no point to a group buy on grillcraft. guys over at TW have like 50 people and they are getting $10 off. not that great if you ask me. the cheapest i have seen is $129 on ebay, but not sure what shipping would do to you.

[BeachBoy]

I would prefer a straight grill anyway because it's recessed.

I'm going the plain 'ol mesh from a fab place. if it rusts I'll simply pull it out, repaint...

I'm going the "T O Y O T A" route I think, or the little TRD int he bottom corner

[oriontaco]

wire mesh mainly

diamond shape http://www.customcargrills.com/products.asp?id=1
hexagon http://www.customcargrills.com/products.asp?id=27
perforated http://www.customcargrills.com/products.asp?id=56

then glass fiber and resin, but we can deal with canadian tire stuff

OH GOD!!!! The crap at crappytire is horrible. Maybe I will look after getting the fibreglass supplies and Bondo.

I have used many types of bondo over the years to cover fiberglass and Rage Gold is the best for adhesion to Fiberglass.
Also a good waxed resin from Canada Composites works amazing and you can hammer the MEKP to it to get it to harden fast. I built many many many fiberglass enclosures with these products and never had any adhesion problems or non dry pockets in the cheese you find when sanding.

[Tacorossa]

wire mesh mainly

diamond shape http://www.customcargrills.com/products.asp?id=1
hexagon http://www.customcargrills.com/products.asp?id=27
perforated http://www.customcargrills.com/products.asp?id=56

then glass fiber and resin, but we can deal with canadian tire stuff

Hexagon looks good. It would match the tiny plastic grille inserts on each side of the main grille.

[Tacorossa]

The beauty of the Grillcraft is that if you don't do such a great job Satoshi'ing, you can always install the Grillcraft as it was intended, and cover up any mistakes.

I guess the same would be true for my billet grille. I had to cut out the center of my factory grille to get it installed, so my Satoshi grille is already half done :)

[iamcdn]

Can't host the BBQ now that I have moved into a condo. Willing to organize the food run though.

I will head over to the other boards and do some searches on the write-up for guys read up on. from there we can decide what we need.


Ok let's plan out purchasing items...

Who want's to source parts and get costs? I can help whomever with this.

Who want's to organize the BBQ? and this too I can help.

I can put together a price sheet, location/date & time once we get the parts and numbers organized.


Did we miss anything.

[iamcdn]

down with the hex ... looks sick!

[Hounddog]

there is no point to a group buy on grillcraft. guys over at TW have like 50 people and they are getting $10 off. not that great if you ask me. the cheapest i have seen is $129 on ebay, but not sure what shipping would do to you.

That's what I paid for mine. They charged me $11.00 for shipping to my door. It showed up at dinner time. My wife was unaware of this purchase. My Hella's showed up the next night at dinner time too. My wife was unaware of this purchase too. I now need another shipping address....

Getting back to the mod. We can use my GrillCraft as a template if that would help.

[iamcdn]

anything going on with this?

[freeze]

good question... how we doing on the parts side?

So far I understand we'll need:

Fiberglass
Sand paper
Dremel (I've got one)
Duplicolor for each truck
Clear
Mesh grill
Toyota Emblem

We'll plan to do this when Chris (oriontaco) is back next week.

Let's set a date!

[iamcdn]

good question... how we doing on the parts side?

So far I understand we'll need:

Fiberglass
Sand paper
Dremel (I've got one)
Duplicolor for each truck
Clear
Mesh grill
Toyota Emblem

We'll plan to do this when Chris (oriontaco) is back next week.

Let's set a date!

i am running over to advanced auto this saturday (July 25) to get a spray can of my paint color and would be willing to pick up specific colors and clear. I think it is $11 a can of clear and $20 color (taxes in)

i know etienne is gone today, but hopefully can chime in with his mesh research.

and someone else in an above post was going to source fibreglass.

im not adding the toyota emblem until i find the one i want at a reasonable price (70-100 is WAAAAY to rediculous)

[BeachBoy]

I think advanced would have the fiberglass stuff.. we only have mesh to source.

[Tacorossa]

I'm out of the province tomorrow until the middle of August. Secretly I was hoping you guys would forget about this until then... :)

I'm still in if this hasn't been done by the time I get back.

[freeze]

haha.. ok well I'm in no super rush so we can wait till you come back... in the meantime.... how's it going on the parts side?

[BeachBoy]

I don't even know who's supposed to get what.

we need mesh from any metal distributor here in Calgary..

[oriontaco]

http://www.metalsupermarkets.com/MSC-storefinder.aspx

They should either have or be able to get what is needed

[BeachBoy]

I am going to check on mesh tomorrow.

(I also bought LEDs for my interior / 4x4 switch)

[BeachBoy]

I bought material for 4 grills. It's the perforated one, regular metal. $25 each.

I can also buy mesh, it's "lighter" i.e. you'll see more behind.

So now who's getting fiberglass so we can start this?

[BeachBoy]

well I'll be buying some fiberglass and probably doing it this weekend.

[freeze]

where are you going to get the fiberglass from.... Does the cdn tire stuff work for this. I can pick it up as well.

[BeachBoy]

I am buying from a composite material supplier, will be way cheaper (or same price) but certainly waaay better quality.

I'm going there tomorrow am.

[Tacorossa]

I am buying from a composite material supplier, will be way cheaper (or same price) but certainly waaay better quality.

I'm going there tomorrow am.

I hope you take lots of pictures and notes! I intend to get started on this when I get back to Calgary.

I'd like to see what the mesh looks like that you bought. Can you take a quick picture of it? Thanks.

[Hounddog]

I am buying from a composite material supplier, will be way cheaper (or same price) but certainly waaay better quality.

I'm going there tomorrow am.

Do they sell the resin in small amounts? I've got mesh kicking around the garage, but I'm in need of some resin. Or do you suggest Canadian Tire to pick this up?

Oh, and a friendly suggestion when you're cutting out your grill. I left my grill on the truck - I didn't remove it to do the cutting as the above article suggests. I found by leaving it fastened to the truck, it was rock solid; no movement or danger of it slipping while your cutting. I used my recip saw, (sawzall) with a 18 pti blade. No control issues what so ever, but I'd suggest a 6" blade as no to puncture the rad. I also relocated my horns and temp sensor.

The horns easily relocate and mount to existing holes on the inner fender on the drivers side so you need not worry about where to mount them. The temp sensor wire will have to be lengthened in order to maintain it's location, however it shares the same wiring as the horns. I haven't lengthened mine yet, so my temp gauge reads in the 50 C. Of course, relocating the horns is a personal choice, I found it looks cleaner, plus I needed room for my lights.

[BeachBoy]

they do sell resin, but like a pint is the smallest I think.

I have some left, I'll try to sell it to the next one doing a satoshi but if it doesn't work I'll let you know.

It's really harder than I though to do I must say. Not sure I would redo it heheh.

[Hounddog]

Was it one of those projects that takes a liiiiittle longer then anticipated? Then I know how ya feel!

Perhaps, a few of us could throw in a few bucks to buy that resin from you?

Looking forward to seeing your Satoshi Grill in person.

[BeachBoy]

still not done after 2 short afternoons of work

left to do is sanding, priming, painting.

the grill is cut, bent, primed and the attachments are glued.

[freeze]

is that why we didn't see you today on the trail... :)

how's it looking?

[Doc McCoy]

http://shanewakely.googlepages.com/worthless.gif

[iamcdn]

this project is taking WAAAY longer than first anticipated.

few kinks had to be worked out along the way, and trips to home depot for supplies takes up a bit of time too.

[BeachBoy]

it's not that long, just split into many short periods, which makes it seem way longer.

[City_Rider]

I'm glad you are the test subject, this way you can show us all what not to do!

[freeze]

Hopefully you've got some pictures of the process!! I smell cheap tricks and mods write up!

[iamcdn]

Hopefully you've got some pictures of the process!! I smell cheap tricks and mods write up!

no pictures unfortunately.

[BeachBoy]

finally:

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/1059/p1000921.jpg

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/7264/p1000922c.jpg

[BeachBoy]

I have colormatched everything including the two plastic triangles.

[874runnersr5]

wow, thats a beauty!

[jreid]

wow! Looks hot. Is that your stock grille or a non OEM replacement, the color match seems slightly off. Not that badly off though, and it could be just the lighting.

Love the way the truck has come together.

[BeachBoy]

it's regular mesh, and a cut/molded stock grill.

the color match is perfect but the light is different as it's not on the same plane

I still have mesh for two more grilles, $25 each.
I still have resin and cups also. someone would need bondo and fiberglass mat to do one.

[freeze]

Lookin' good!! I've gotta see this in person!

[dragon]

looks good,
now you just have to relocate your horns down lower and paint the rad to really finish it off

[iamcdn]

Simply beautiful. Some may describe that as a master piece.

[Tacorossa]

Beachboy, what was it about doing this mod that you didn't like so much? I read in your other thread that you would rather do the LED's 300 times more than the satoshi.

I got a quick look at it last night but didn't get a chance to talk to you about it.

Was it the sanding and painting that was a pain in the butt? Or was getting the mesh to fit properly?

Yours looks great in person by the way. I'm impressed with how good it looks.

[CalgaryRider]

So I think I will break down and spend some more money on my truck and do the grill (debating the Grillcraft vs. Satoshi) but I do know I want to run a set of lights behind my grill like Hounddog cause I want to try and save the lights from the Alberta / BC road rocks. Right now it looks like the cheapest grillcraft one I can get is $166 USD, so potential... Anyone know of a shop in the city selling grillcraft grills? Or is it worth it to spend the 2 days of the weekend Satoshi'ing it?

[CalgaryRider]

So I am starting on this project, I have a color matched surround/grill on order should be here this week. I am still up in the air regarding if I go full Satoshi, or if I go with the grill craft look, or do something unique and split the difference and put the grill in the middle. Too many choices I will have to cut out the stock insert, clean it up and then look at the best placement. Hey Etienne, do you still have some left over materials? I like the look of the mess you used, so can I grab one off you?

[jreid]

So I am starting on this project, I have a color matched surround/grill on order should be here this week. I am still up in the air regarding if I go full Satoshi, or if I go with the grill craft look, or do something unique and split the difference and put the grill in the middle. Too many choices I will have to cut out the stock insert, clean it up and then look at the best placement. Hey Etienne, do you still have some left over materials? I like the look of the mess you used, so can I grab one off you?

I asked Etienne at a coffee night a few weeks ago about this, I don't believe he's got any mesh left.

Where'd you order your grill from, and how much was it, if you don't mind my asking?

I like the idea of a "shallow" satoshi, I saw somebody was doing this on TW, they cut down the width of the grill to end up somewhere between a flush grillcraft and a deep satoshi. Gives you more room to run driving lights behind the grill, compared to a straight up satoshi

[CalgaryRider]

That sucks that Etienne, might be out of the mesh, but atleast we can talk to him about where he got it from.

I know a few people who work at auto body shops so I was able to source one through them. Its going to be $200 CDN delivered so not too bad considering they are going on ebay for $140 USD. If others are looking for the part, I might be able to talk to them about picking up a few more of the color matched grills.

I was also thinking that the half satoshi would give me the look, but also still leave room for the lights. I really just need to put the time in working on it and see how it ends up.

[BeachBoy]

I bought the mesh from Metal Supermarkets

Metal Supermarkets Calgary‎
3 56 Avenue Southeast, Calgary, AB T2C 2B5‎ - (403) 720-2267‎

http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=metal+supermarkets&sll=51.017858,-113.983498&sspn=0.097729,0.209255&gl=ca&ie=UTF8&hq=metal+supermarkets&hnear=&ll=51.004763,-113.981137&spn=0.024439,0.052314&z=15

They cut the 4ft wide board. You'll need about 2ft tall in order to cut it properly. You can choose the type of mesh.

The bondo and stuff I got from IPP

Industrial Plastics & Paints‎
5558 1 Street Southeast, Calgary, AB T2H 2W9‎ - (403) 252-8368‎

http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Industrial+Plastics+%26+Paints&sll=51.006086,-114.051948&sspn=0.024439,0.052314&gl=ca&ie=UTF8&hq=Industrial+Plastics+%26+Paints&hnear=&ll=51.007112,-114.057226&spn=0.024438,0.052314&z=15&iwloc=A

You can buy everything over there.

Make sure you mix the bondo top-bottom and not in circle like your chocolate-milk.

[FJeff Cruiser]

I really like the look.

[Hounddog]

For interest. http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/group-buys/69672-grillcraft-group-buy-again.html

Edit:I paid $129.00 US for mine, so this isn't too bad of a deal. It takes about 15-20 minutes to install. Very friendly.

[Muttle]

Saw one of these grills today on a truck in the local toyota showroom. Have to say it looks even better in person than in pictures. Makes me want a new Taco...... anyone want a sas'd 87 short box? hahahahahaha

[CalgaryRider]

ok, now I am sooo torn, Do I jump in on the TW group buy and get the grill craft for $140 USD + $25 shipping, so pretty much the same price as I paid from the new color matched grill, or do I fully satoshi my grill, and do it all myself for a fraction of the price..... DAMN!!! too many choices!!!

[tacotaco]

Do it yourself!! don't be lazy, be crafty LOL!!

[Hounddog]

I think you've got an ideal set up. Because you have another grill for your project, you can work on it at your leisure. Go for the challenge! Satoshi!

[Brazenhead]

Saw one of these grills today on a truck in the local toyota showroom. Have to say it looks even better in person than in pictures. Makes me want a new Taco...... anyone want a sas'd 87 short box? hahahahahaha

I also saw the one in Toyota's showroom here in Lethbridge. I don't think that one is a satoshi grill, I noticed that there was a Grill Craft emblem in the mesh. Did you also notice that they used the "Toyota" from the grill of an FJ Cruiser.

I know how you feel when you say you'd like a new Taco after seeing that particular one, but after seeing their price tag I changed my mind. $46,900 is ridiculous.

[Muttle]

I also saw the one in Toyota's showroom here in Lethbridge. I don't think that one is a satoshi grill, I noticed that there was a Grill Craft emblem in the mesh. Did you also notice that they used the "Toyota" from the grill of an FJ Cruiser.

I know how you feel when you say you'd like a new Taco after seeing that particular one, but after seeing their price tag I changed my mind. $46,900 is ridiculous.

I didn't see the grill craft logo but I really did like that they used teh toyota letters from the FJ. Hahaha ya that price was pretty high, I definately wouldn't buy that particular truck.

[CalgaryRider]

So I got the grill last night, I will bring it with me to coffee tonight, and the build should start next week!

[tacotaco]

Shane if you do yours can I use your grill (chrome grill) and do my version without the fiberglass.

[tacotaco]

Shane if you do yours can I use your grill (chrome grill) and do my version without the fiberglass.

I forgot about this thread, I should have posted my thread here.