2019 Prius Prime Advanced - Front Grille Replacement

welcome!

techinfo.toyota.com

 

Welcome to the forum, Pedro. I have a suggestion that doesn't concern your car. You probably should change your avatar to remove your home address. Just a city and state is more than enough.

 

This document is written in Japanse for Japanse Prius PHV (aka PRIME in the US). The photo shows which pins to remove. The procedure should be very similar.

https://www.aioinissaydowa-arc.co.jp/pdf/technical/technical_115.pdf

 

Did you ended up replacing entire grill sub-assembly (part #53101 in the diagram both acrylic fascia and black grill together)? Or could you just replace the acrylic part of the grill sub-assembly (shown in the diagram below with the orange arrow)? I have a crack on the acrylic fascia just like yours, but since you can't buy just the acrylic part separately, I have not touched it yet.

 

I have the same question.

@pedrocastillo how was the install?

 

I'm afraid @Pedro Castillo is no longer here.

 

on my 2020 prius prime, it was necessary to remove the entire front bumper, grill, fenders etc per this video even though the video is for an older prius. Pretty sure that there is no way to replace the grill without doing so.

 

@jerrymildred was trying to separate the smoked transparent plastic portion but found it bonded iirc. Maybe has some tips, link.

 

See post #599 on this page. Jerry's Evolving Thoughts on "new-to-me" Prime Premium | Page 30 | PriusChat

 

I posted my own thread before I found this one. My grille too got hit by a rock and has a 'spider web' mark now. I watched a few videos about repairing acrylic in general as well as acrylic headlights in particular. I am seriously considering sanding down the the mark, putting on clear coat, and then wrapping the acrylic part in a protective clear film.

My Wife offered to try with her acrylic clear nail polish, but I have my doubts if its up to specs for wind and rain over years...

 

Can't recall if I mentioned in this thread: there's a process for repairing and stabilizing small "stars" on windshields. Novus was on name that comes to mind. Might work on plexiglass, not sure.

 

If you do try to repair the crack DIY, it is very important that you do take off the grille sub-assembly parts off from the car. It must be sitting flat on the workbench. Trying to repair it on the car without removing the grille will cause the liquid solvent to run down and cause more of cosmetic damages on the surface of the acrylic. I did it on my 2017 PRIME with superglue. The result was, just say, very unsatisfactory.

I am still waiting for the WeldOn (commercial acrylic solvent) I ordered from Amazon. When I get it, I will try repairing recently purchased used (cracked) grille sub-assembly parts shown in the photo below. I will let you know how the repair goes. My plan is to repair all the cracks first with WeldOn then reinforce the cracked acrylic portion with epoxy on the back side and finally paint or wrap it in non-transparent color. I have checked with a local Line-X service center to see if it can be coated with material used for the truck bed liner. But they quoted me $200 for the job, which is too much for what I want to spend on this project. The cracks are going to happen again no matter how well it is fixed. If the surface of the clear acrylic is covered with non-transparent paint or wrap, then any future cracks are going to be much less visible thus cosmetically acceptable, I think.

 

As I understand it, the 'glue'(I think most use an UV setting cement) is applied under pressure in order to force it into the cracks. A hole might need to be drilled to allow the glue fully in.

Acrylic cements come in different viscosities. Liquid ones, like @Salamander_King will use, are known as wickable; capillary action pulls the cement into the crack. Such are used by DIYers for making acrylic aquariums.

Apiece of metal screen embedded in the epoxy will give it more strength. Not knowing what type of epoxy you are using, you want a screen size that the epoxy can fully penetrate.

 

I have J-B Weld Original Steel Reinforced Cold Weld as well as regular multipurpose J-B Weld ClearWeld epoxy, but also ordered J-B Weld 50139 PlasticBonder. According to J-B Weld site, the Original ColdWeld has 5050PSI tensile strength and ClearWeld has 3900PSI tensile strength whereas the PlasticBonder has 3770PSI tensile strength when cured. I may try using some wire screen if I can find suitable one in my garage or I may use old Bondo fiberglass tape I used for previous auto body repair project.

But my feeling is that if I am going to reinforce entire back side of the acrylic panel, adding screen maybe a good idea. But I am thinking applying the epoxy only to the part that had cracks. In that case, an additional strength may not help much. If the rock hit the panel again it will just crack the part that is not strengthened. Covering entire back side of the panel may take way too much material, again that will ends up costing too much.

 

keep us posted on the process. I will try to buff the cracks first and see if there is any difference
But will try to remove the bumper if I need to do additional work
Thanks

 

Hi. I'm hoping to fix a tear on my front bumper for my 2018 Prius Prime. I translated the Japanese PDF above to help me with the process.