That's my question. What are you using for the outside trim? Thats my big question, I looked at Lowes and couldn't find anything I liked. I was thinking about that black polyurethane trim and using a cauterizing blade to cut it, but now I don't know where to get a piece that big

 

If it was me, I woukd draw up some accurate templates and base your cutting off of that. Get a cheap grill shell off of craigslist or ebay, make the cross member cuts first then find some cardboard or poster board and draw it out. If I had all the dims for it (every angle, height, depth, radius of the grill) I could make up a full size sketch here at work with my cad program which would make up a good clean template when printed out.

 

thats exactly what i did. but i had to draw the template by hand since i dont have a cad program or anything that sophisticated to work with. just did it by hand with poster board using my current grille as a base. the reason for the different drafts is the cutting. i have to cut by hand so its not coming out as clean as i'd like but its getting there.

 

i actually decided to use 1/8" thick acrylic from Lowe's. its cheap in case i mess it up, its much easier to cut than metal, it's flexible enough to bend to the grille's contours, its strong enough to not dent or ding with road debris or whatever, and it'll never rust. once i have it done i plan on taking it to the window tinting shop for extra super dark tint. this should give it a nice glossy black coat without the cost of painting. if you want chrome a sign shop could overlay some adhesive vinyl for pretty inexpensive too.

 

Anything new on your grille? I just painted mine instead...

 

hey that looks really awesome! i hadnt seen anyone do that yet but i like it! what kind of paint did you use? no i was just about to head out to the garage and try to work on it a little more. if i cant get it as perfect as i want i was thinking of buying these inserts and painting them black for a similar look:

 

I used duplicolor adhesion promoter, duplicolor sandable primer, duplicolor metallic black paint (almost color match) and duplicolor clear coat. Yes, duplicolor is what my local auto store has obviously.

Thats the look I wanted but I wanted to build it and I just couldnt figure out what to trim it with. And I didnt want to cut my horizontal bars

 

quick update on this thread: basically i got fed up with trying to do it myself. it just wasnt coming out as nice as i wanted it to, and i started getting too busy with work and lost interest in the project. i did have a chance to see the 2pc RBP grille up close and in person though, and to be honest i was not impressed at all. not for the cash they wanted for it. if you look closely at the pics of those grilles you'll see that they dont fit too well, especially at the center crosshair. the RBP inserts just dont line up with the design of the grille, plus those little chrome rivets are just pieces of cheap plastic. so instead of buying that, i had a friend who does this stuff for a living custom fab the grille i wanted the way i wanted it. he used stainless steel for the outer frame & steel mesh welded to the inside of the frame, then powdercoated the whole thing in black and installed true chrome-plated steel bolts instead of plastic rivet thingys. waiting until after my lift is on to install it, but here's a pic of the final result. it came out with a much nicer fit than the RBP version and built from materials that will probably outlast the truck!

 

that looks really friiggen good how much does he want to reproduce these and in the early 3rd gens? maybe intrested that is sick we want pics when installed of course.....

 

he has been talking about doing more of these as well as some 1pc versions (no center crosshair). it cost me about $600 for the prototype so i'd think he would be charging somewhere in that range, maybe a little less. the chromed bolts alone cost almost $300. i'll find out for you though, maybe he'd be willing to do a discount for DF members or something