Saturday, October 30, 2010

My First Mod. Upgrading to a One Piece Grill

Headlight Relocator Mounting Kit for late-model 1st gen. grill installation onto early model ac core

Alot of people and websites and car dealers etc etc will tell you that you either need a new core support or a "Headlight relocator kit" in order to install the newer first generation 'one-piece grill' in place of the original 3 piece. The kit is about as useful as a pet rock. It costs upwards of $50-$60 and the only things you need in it are the 2 pieces of sheet metal that actually mount your lights in a different spot, and 4 extra headlight mounting screws. They package Toyota headlight bezels that are weak as hell that are the same size as your existing ones, and springs that just bend the aluminum foil bezels. Lucky i found a website that is selling just the brackets and are made of good quality and are on sale for 4$. Relocating Brackets



Step 1: Go to Autozone/Napa/O'Reilly's/CarQuest/Parts America and pick up 4 headlight mounting screws (just like the ones you have already, about 2-3 inches long with a plasic butt that snaps into the core)

Step 2: Go home, take a nap. Wake up and tear your grill off.

Step 3: Remove your old headlights and bezels and set them aside. Unscrew your old headlight mounting screws completely out of the core support. Hold the sheet metal in place, and screw them back in halfway. Snap 2 of the new screws in the square holes, then screw the originals all the way down.

Step 4: Repeat on the other side. Mount your headlights back on with the new screws, and line them up so that you don't send oncoming traffic into trees.

Step 5: Put your new grill on, and let out the biggest wicked laugh you can at the kit-making corporate thieves - the ones that you just bent over and made call you "Daddy".