Resources

One of the most common questions we’ve been receiving as as of late is if we sell our grille with a color matched backplate. Unfortunately, we don’t. Our mission was to produce a grille that we could sell to budget conscious Tacoma owners for under $300. Color matching backplates would cause our prices to increase by more than just a few bucks, thus increasing the price for you… which again, doesn’t align with our mission.

This doesn’t mean you’re SOL and can’t get a color matched backplate, you’re just going to have to put in a little sweat equity to get it that way. Color match painting your backplate is easy as long as you do it before the initial install. If you wait to do it at a later point in time, you’ll have to pull the entire grille piece from your truck again and pull it off.

Color Matching Your Grille Backplate

We’ve heard from a few people who’ve purchased grilles that they just went down to the local Home Depot, got some spray paint that was a “close enough” match and painted them that way. We guess this works if you don’t have a cool color like quicksand, inferno, or blazing blue. If you’re looking for a true color match, you should check out Automotive Touchup. You can buy spray paint from them that is color matched to the exact paint code of your truck. We buy all of my touch up paint pens from them and they are awesome!

Here’s a really awesome shot of one of our Tacoma grilles with a quicksand backplate.

BEFORE INSTALLING YOUR GRILLE, PLEASE MAKE NOTE THAT YOU DON'T WANT TO OVER TIGHTEN ANY OF THE BOLTS. IF YOU DO, YOU WILL SCRAPE THE POWDER COATING AND INCREASE THE CHANCES THAT YOUR GRILLE WILL OXIDATE.

Here are the instructions for installing your new grille insert.

Tools Needed

• Flat head screw driver
• Phillips screw driver (or drill bit)
• Rachet
• 1/4 inch socket
• Drill
• 1/4 inch drill bit
• Small pair of pliers
• Dirty rag
• Soft blanket

Step 1

Remove the entire grille and outer surround from the truck by removing the two bolts (top two arrows) with a phillips tip screw driver or drill bit and the two push pins (bottom two arrows) with a flat head screw driver. With the two push pins, just pry up the little round tab and pull it out.

Step 2

Grab the top of the grille and start gently wiggling. Once it starts to break free, grab the front and pull straight out.

Step 3

Once the grille has been removed from the truck, lay down a soft blanket (or cardboard if you’re me) and remove these eight screws.

Step 4

Once the screws are out, you need to start popping out the insert and bezel. To do this, you must apply light pressure to the clips while you pull on the outer bezel piece and grille from the front. These tabs will snap off very easily, so be careful. Make sure to get them all!

Step 5

You will have to drill out 8 of the holes with a quarter inch drill bit. Don't worry, this doesn't affect the ability to remount your stock grille if you choose. Drill out the marked holes below and the final two screws go into two of the horizontal slats in the bottom of the grille.

Step 6

Attach the brushed stainless steel back plate to the grille using four of the included locking nuts. You may need to pull the laser paper if yours came with it. That will be the side you want facing out.

Step 7

Attach the grille following these steps:

• Start with the top center hole
• Insert the bolt
• Grab the bolt head with a rag and a pair of pliers (to keep the powder coating from chipping off)
• Use the ratchet and 1/4 socket to tighten the bolt from the back of the grille (don’t tighten all the way)
• Go around the remaining 9 holes following these same steps
• Once all bolts are in and lightly tightened, finish tightening all of the locking nuts

Please note, powder coat will chip like paint. This grille is made out of aluminum and may oxidate if the powder coating is chipped or scratched. If you notice any chips or scratches, please make sure to touch it up with touch up paint as soon as possible.