Help me! My paint isn’t matching 1G3

Long story short.... I bought an MGM truck..... I thought.

I buy an MGM 1G3 grill from eBay and it didn’t match.....

first pic.

then I buy another MGM grill from a member and install it today only to find it doesn’t match either.

second and third pics

so how dumb am I? What is going on?!

door tag last pic

 

Do the surrounds you bought match each other? It almost looks like the plastic tab bits below the headlights match pretty well, but the bumper doesn't. Hard to tell thru the computer screen.

Paint fades over time. Also wonder if that bumper was ever repainted.

 

Yes unfortunately both surrounds I bought do match......

but the rest of the truck matches my bumper



I see what you mean about the inserts under the headlights.... I’ll check them again in a minute

 

1G3 is your color. Toyota's VIN tag is not a liar. Unless you are a professional autobody painter you probably wouldn't be aware of variances.
Let me break this down. The manufacturer uses one supplier for its paint material, then the other manufacturers then need to match that formula. Each manufacturer sources their own base materials that will come as close as possible to emulating the original.
So, one supplier uses product 'x' to make their color, and the other supplier uses 'y'. There is where the issue arises. Most companies will try to copy the original formula, they might be off slightly. They make a variant of this to try and develop a better match. This then happens with the other paint manufacturers and suddenly the same code is available with any number of variances from each manufacturer.
It would seem to me that either somebody mixed the color a bit off, or just used a prime variant and the part went out the door like that. Either way the 'grey' of your body IS 1g3. The grille looks either desert sand, or a light pyrite mica. Unless you can live with it like that it will need painted to be a better match to your vehicle.

 

I stopped in to the body shop to have my MGM grill shell color matched with the truck when I got rid of the chrome grill. There’s about a dozen MGM color variants. The body shop owner said MGM is a very challenging color to match. Mine’s not quite as off as yours but it’s certainly different. I left it as is.

 

1st picture looks like pyrite mica. 2nd picture looks like the SR grill, it's a gray color that is only used for the grill.

 

That grille looks more like pyrite mica than mgm

 

I agree with above, first photo is pyrite mica second is the SR grille. You’re getting sent the wrong grille. This is why I didn’t want to chance it with eBay, I just ordered from my dealer. You want PN:5310004481B1. I believe I paid $180 for the entire assembly.

 

I’m gonna wash the truck tomorrow and compare the surround to other parts of the truck.

kinda thinking my front bumper has been painted maybe now that I keep looking it over

 

You have a base model grill, I went through the same drama when I was trying to do my paint match

 

It’s messing with my mind so I went and took pics of both grills I received

Then both grills next to my bedside

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/fs-12-15-complete-factory-base-grill-surround.640294/

Looks like you bought my old grill

 

I don’t know wth I’ve got going on here lol.

your post 37 there looks MGM but obviously it’s not huh.

I’m guessing the bottom one in my pic is the pyrite mica as it was the first grill I bought...... the one with pro insert is one I received today.

 

The Tacoma base models have there own gray that is unique to the base model, that’s what you have

 

both of them?

 

@81Trekker is correct. I had the exact same thing happen several years ago.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/what-color-grille-is-this-solved.379134/#post-10404784

I ended up buying a brand new MGM surround from TW vendor Camelback Toyota that matched perfect.

 

Try Royal South Toyota Scion. I got my Spruce Mica grille there and it was a perfect match, paid $212.

 

I can get a complete grill from
Dealer for $212. I’m going to stop in today and see if it’s possible to buy just the surround.

otherwise I’ll end up with 4 complete grills here just trying to get rid of the chrome lol

 

How about stopping at a local body shop or two and seeing how much to have them spray the surround?

 

This is definitely an expensive lesson for my dumb ass.

Going to a couple shops on my lunch break