The "Satoshi" Grill Mod - Part II
By: Bob_98SR5
Date: 2/15/04

Step 6: Cutting the Grill Material
The best way to make a good template is to take a piece of cardboard, cut it to the approximate shape of the back area of the grill and put it up against it. Next, take a black pen and from the front, trace the outline of the grill. Lay the grill up against it and mark the outline with masking tape. Put on some heavy work gloves and use your tin snips to cut. Sorry, no pics for this as my hands were busy (and in pain)!

After cutting the grill material, attach the door edge guard to the outside of it. To make it easier to attach to the grill, take a flat bladed screwdriver and run it through the channel of the edge guard. This will allow it to open up a bit. Start from the bottom left hand side and work it all the way to the edge. Repeat this up at the top. For the sides, you'll have to cut and trim to fit.

Here are the cut points (C)		Here's a close up pic of the edge guard

Take your grill material with the edge guard and do a test fit inside the actual grill. If its too snug, you'll need to trim the grill material and re-attach the door edge guard. Just trim a little at a time at a time because you don't want it to fit loosely---it should be snug. It took me two passes before I actually got it right.

Grill removed...		Here's a test fit with just the cut grill material and the edge guard only

Step 7: Metal Support Stays (Pipe Strapping)
Take your painted black pipe strapping and lay them along the back of the grill material. Space the stays according to the dimensions below:

Once in place, zip tie them into place at the upper and lowest most points. Next, do a test fit within the grill. If it fits, move onto the next step. Next, mark and bend the support stays. Take your black marker and mark the areas to bend the support stays. If the support stays are too long, mark a line and an "X" to denote where to cut it with your tin snips. Mark all 4 support stays on each side.

With gloved hands, bend the support stays *forward*, making sure that the stays are flat with the inner grill frame. Completely bend each stay before proceeding.

Point (Z) is where you secured the support stay to the grill material. Point (B) is the bend line. Point (L) is the pipe strapping that needs to be cut off		Here's the support stay bent over the outside edge on the back side of the grill

Step 8: Drilling Pilot Holes and Securing Grill
Using a drill bit, drill a total of 8 holes through the top of your support stays and through the grill material. I drilled about 3/8" from the edge. These holes will allow you to securely fasten the grill material to the grill itself. You'll need to determine how far from the edge you want to drill your holes.

Once drilled, thread a bolt through the grill and out the other side (inside part of the grill). Attach a nylon washer and nut and hand tighten down. After all 8 have been hand tightened down, use an adjustable wrench and an allen wrench to completely tighten the strapping down. It should be very secure now.

Here's a top view of the pilot hole drilled through one of the pipe strapping holes. It was a coincidence that it was in the right place		Thread the bolt from the inside (black) part of the grill and secure it down with a nylon washer and nut

Step 9: Attaching the Emblem
The emblem should be positioned according to the following measurements:

After getting the emblem into the proper position, it's a good idea to take some masking tape and outline the outside the emblem. You'll be flipping the grill around to fasten the zip ties so i'll move out of position if you're not careful.

Thread a zip tie from the back to the front, over the bottom emblem support bar, and back into the zip tie fastening part. Pull semi-tight but not all the way. Repeat with the other side.

Making sure you've got your emblem completely and perfectly aligned, hold down the fastener part of the zip tie with a pair of needlenose pliers and pull the other end of the zip tie. You need this to be pretty tight. Repeat for the other side. Now snap your grill back onto your 4runner and be done with it.

The Finished Product
Here's one of my favorite pics to date of my 4Runner, complete with the Satoshi grill mod and my new Stubbs Welding Sliders. It definitely gives my 4Runner a unique retro look:



Again, thanks to Steve "Robinhood" Uchimura (for marrying Miki), Miki Uchimura (for being gracious enough to translate), Akemi Miura (for paying attention in English class in Japan) and of course the man himself, Satoshi Miura (for his creative genius). Domo arrigato to all of you. :)

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