the lizard king
+1y
Just an update... I bought a chrome grille from partsgeek.com (part #17639-04012020). The cost was about $45 shipped. It came without an emblem, so I went to the local Mazda dealership and purchased an OEM emblem for $20 + tax (Mazda part # G03051771). As you can see in the 2nd photo below, it fits perfectly.
So, this was what it looked like before:
The OEM grille was painted charcoal gray with the rest of my truck from Maaco for about $600 a couple of years ago. I got tired of the "wall of charcoal gray" on the front of my truck. And as noted before (page 2 of this thread), I wasn't too happy either with the larger gap between the bumper and the grille on the driver side vs. the passenger side. You can sort of see it in the photo above.
So, while replacing the original grille with the aftermarket chrome one, I decided to even out the bumper a bit, and this is the result:
There are four 10-mm bolts that hold the center piece of the front bumper on, which can be accessed easily once the grille is off. I loosened all of them. As I tightened the two passenger side bolts, I actually STOOD on the bumper on that side (all 200+ lbs of me) to push it down as far as I could. Once that side was tightened up, I then put a hydraulic jack under the bumper on the driver side and raised the bumper such that the weight of the truck was squeezing down on that side while I tightened those two bolts up. The result is what you see above. It's still not 100% perfect, but it's a heck of a lot better than it used to be.
Anyway, I'm happy with the results.
I also noticed that the emblem on the original grille is quite a bit bigger than the replacement chrome one that I purchased from the local Mazda dealership. Kind of odd, but whatever. I'm still happy.