Front Grill Mounted Lightbar (1 Viewer)

[RobRed]

Took a page from @Eric Sarjeant and mounted a 30" Rigid Adapt Lightbar in the grill of my 2017 Land Cruiser. Appreciate his help and blazing the trail.

I felt that spending $1400 on a new HE grill to cut up wasn't much of an advantage in my build so I cut the stock grill. I choose not to grind down the headlight mounting tabs to make room for the standard Rigid brackets so with the help of a friend and his shop we fabricated new, 2 piece (per side), 1/4" aluminium brackets that bolted (using rivnuts) into the steel bumper / grill frame. The light brackets are then bolted to the base bracket. By creating baseplate to mount to we now had a very rigid and level mounting plane. Super strong.

We also added an additional bracket from the back of the RADAR frame to the center grill support just to have extra rigidity in the grill - totally optional.

I'm moving to black out the chrome on the truck so you may notice some rough sanding spots on the grill - you wont see any of that post paint / de-chrome.

 

[kcjaz]

How about a pic with light bar on?

 

[TheGrrrrr]

That looks awesome. I really need to come up with a solution for my 2013.Bumper plans were put on hold due to home purchase, so something like this is in play.

 

[RobRed]

How about a pic with light bar on?

I'll get to that - I'm changing the control setup tonight so prob tomorrow for light show.

That looks awesome. I really need to come up with a solution for my 2013.Bumper plans were put on hold due to home purchase, so something like this is in play.

Thanks man! Team effort for sure.

Pull your grill and take a look at the lower headlight mounts and make sure your light of choice can clear the tabs width wise, with the mounting bracket. On my 2017 (2016+) the Adapt 30 just clears those tabs width wise but not with mounts. As mentioned I didn't want to grind those tabs down so we created a reversed bracket to fit between the tabs.

 

[TheIcemanCometh]

What prevented you from using the mounting brackets that came with the light bar, except using the left bracket on the right side and the right bracket on the left side? Not enough clearance for the bolts??

And when you cut out the grill what remains on the rest? That is once cut could it be sanded flush so once painted over it looks like it was never there?

Over all looks very nice - though ya forgot to anodize the aluminum

 

[fos373]

Looks great!

 

[RobRed]

What prevented you from using the mounting brackets that came with the light bar, except using the left bracket on the right side and the right bracket on the left side? Not enough clearance for the bolts??

And when you cut out the grill what remains on the rest? That is once cut could it be sanded flush so once painted over it looks like it was never there?

Over all looks very nice - though ya forgot to anodize the aluminum

Nothing prevented using the original brackets however the answer has a couple of factors - The standard brackets are slotted for vertical adjustment - when flipped the adjustment slot moves to the rear orientation. That change slightly limits the adjustment range. Still workable but I felt I wanted to keep the Adapts original adjustment range. Additionally I wanted a flatter and solid mounting for the light. By creating the larger mounting plate and enlarging the foot of the lights bracket the whole mounting arrangement is way more robust the the original Rigid brackets mounted to the bumper / grill cross member.

Check the additional photo. The section the light occupies was cut out of the grill. The whole upper half as well as the surround is just as Toyota made it. Also note I choose to leave the forward camera mount under the Toyota logo. If you look in the photos you can see where some sanding took place in preparation for paint. The body shop will finish the prep and fill if needed (though we did a decent cutting job so minimal) prior to painting. The intention is to paint the grill and all the chrome a satin black color like the TRD Forged wheels. When done it should look like the grill came that way.

The second photo above was for illustrative purposes. The 4th photo shows the brackets and mounting ears painted with some bed liner rattle can black. The hardware was upgraded to black stainless fasteners.

 

[TheIcemanCometh]

Thanks for the additional details. I have thinking about painting the front grill as well. Too much chrome for my liking.

 

[Brown McPherson]

Here's a solucion for a pre-2016 LC

 

[Brown McPherson]

Here's a solucion for a pre-2016 LC

View attachment 2988614

Using Rígid E Series

 

[Brown McPherson]

I just purchased a 2018 and have done the same upgrades I did on my 2013.
1.5" OMU/ARB suspension kit, Bridgestone Revo 2 tires, fire extinguisher and Rigid E Series light bars.
We installed the light bars behind the grill. I had been concerned that it would limit the light output this way.
But, as you can see from the pictures it works great. And, a side benefit, a lot harder to steal the LEDs than the installation on my 2013.
Really pleased how it looks and how discreet it is.