NOTE: I am in no way a professional installer, and this article is for reference only. If you’re unsure of what your doing, afraid to drill into your new truck etc, consult a professional. Overall this took me about 2 hours start to finish. Cheers.

1. Raise hood and remove the three bolts holding the upper grill assembly to the hood.

2. Once the assembly is removed, flip it over and locate the 5 screws holding the inside honeycomb assembly to the upper grill.

Note: There are four on one side, and one on the other. Don’t miss the opposite side screw and start prying.

3. Once the screws have been removed, flip the assembly over and gently pry apart the face of the honeycomb (the front bit you see through the hood bulge) away from the back of the assembly. This is heat welded together, but the joint should pop away clean. Take your time, you want as much of the female side of the front and male side of the back in tact for re-assembly.

4. Mark and drill a 1/4″ hole in the back of the assembly on the drivers side for routing the LED wiring.

I picked up this strip from amazon:

Note: If you decide to get this one, and found some value in this write up, please use this link. I’ll get 25 cents towards a cold beer…

5. Clean the back assembly, bottom inside edge, with a good wax a grease remover to prepare for mounting the LED strip.

6. Wrap electrical tape around the strip wires for further protection while routing.

7. Run the wires through the hole drilled in step 4.

8. For extra insurance I put dabs of black RTV at both ends and the middle of the strip.

9. Remove the backing from the mounting tape and starting from the left side (opposite the drilled hole) set the left side into the RTV and begin gently pressing the strip adhesive into place. Once you are sure of the location, and have pulled the slack wire through the back of the honeycomb back, firmly press into place.

10. Prepare a two part quick dry epoxy adhesive for use.

11. Apply a small dab of adhesive to each “heat weld” you pried apart in Step 3. Place the honeycomb front on the back, you should feel it gently “snap” into place with the grip left from the broken welds. Once together put another small dab of epoxy in the same areas from the top side, completed assembly. Re-install to the back of the upper grill assembly with the 5 screws. Be sure it is properly aligned before driving the screws home. Set aside to dry.

12. Drill a 1/4″ hole through the hood support in the approximate location of the hole that was drilled in the honeycomb back piece. Drill another, final hole to the left of the drivers side upper hood bolt, next to the relief hole.

13. Use this opportunity to flat black spray paint the 3 hood support and the back side of the hole you just drilled – the supports as you can see them, especially with it lit up from inside, the hole for rust prevention from the back side.

14. Route the wiring through the hole drilled in the hood support with your right hand, while holding the completed hood bulge assembly with your left. Be sure to leave enough slack of wire in the area between the rear honeycomb assembly and hood support that you can easily remove the grill components, should you need to at a later time.

15. Once out of the drilled hole, route the wire behind the hood insulation and let it hang near the windshield cowl.

16. I chose to pick up the ground at the top hood bolt just for convenience. You could pick up the ground at any of the fender locations as well. If using the hood bolt, cut the ground wire back to this location and install a ring terminal.

17. Add flex loom to the exposed length of wiring from the end back up to the hood insulation and tape/tuck as needed.

18. Run the loomed wire down and under the cowl, securing with cable ties and the newly drilled hood location, and along the hood hinge to prevent binding. From here it’s down into the engine bay.

19. At the fuse panel, be sure to loop the loom down and back up before entering the box. If for any reason your split loom catches water, you want it dripping out BEFORE the fuse box, not directly into it.

20. I used a low profile add a circuit on the 7.5 amp tow fuse. The LED’s don’t pull much, and this circuit provide the acc power on/off that I wanted for the lights.

21. Finally, I dabbed a little RTV on the back of the wire exit from the hood to both keep it from moving, and to provide rust protection on the newly drilled hole. I’m sure a proper grommet would have been better but this works for now and I didn’t want to drill a hole any larger than necessary.

Overall happy with the finished outcome. I wasn’t looking for “accessory lighting” so this was just for looks more than anything. You can just barely see the LED’s if standing directly in front of the grill. Coming down the road, it provides just the glow I was looking for. Here are some finished pics. Cheers!

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