undyroos

thought i'd share a little history of my 97 TL, i hosted the pics on imageshack and they didn't always load for me on the preview so you may need to refresh. hope you guys like them.

stock (except for clear bumber lights)


stopped on a green light to let a homeless woman cross the street and i get rear ended on a rainy night


all fixed with painted side skirts and inspires and dropped on GC coilovers and SPC camber kits front and rear (the suspension was a bitch to install! definitely need two people to install it. had to get someone to stand on the rotor to swap the suspension, had a shop install the front camber kit because i couldn't get the ball joint out of the upper arm and the rears were a DIY, the easiest out of everything)



Weapon R Secret Weapon intake, sounds great and gave me 1-2 MPG (yes i know my engine is dirty) you can also see the ballasts from my 4300k XenonDepots HIDS (yes i know i shouldn't zip tie them and yes i should put on my ballast covers) i got the D2S bulbs with Caspers shields



indiglo gauges and an idea i stole from the legend forums, the chrome rings are from the 94-97 accords



and here is how its looks as of today, prelude rims on 215/55/16 Falken GR Betas, one finger gap in the front, 1.5 fingers in the back (yes i know there's some condensation in the driver's side headlight, it's gone now)






and my favorite pic


next mods are red konis for the front (Legend) and yellow konis in the back (97 accord), jdm headlights and maybe an M3 style lip spoiler, oh and i want that mugen front lip

BWSmith201

Nice lookin' car! You've obviously taken good care of her...

Ken1997TL

I LOVE those wheels

KelloggTL

Wow, someone that has the Ground controls on a 3.2 TL!

How is the ride quality? Please give me(and a few others interested in the GC setup) the longest and in depth opinion that you have of them.

Thanks!

WestCoastTLS

Sweet looking ride - you take meticulous care of your car and it shows! Dig the wheels - I tried putting them on a Legend, but the hub diameters were different. Keep up the great work and care!

undyroos

honestly, it handles great like any properly done lowering would do but the ride is not the same. turns are super flat and there is no nose dive when you brake hard but i don't think the stock shocks can handle the springs. i only cut my bumpstops in half and i bottom out in the rear so many times, even going over speed bumps. i drive so much slower now that i have the coilovers in because i'm afraid of bottoming out. i drive to san francisco every other weekend and even at city speeds my car bottoms out in the huge potholes they have in sf. maybe if i cut my bumpstops some more i'd gain some more travel to absorb the bumps.

my only other concern is that when you jack up the rear, the rear springs do not remain compressed like they do in the front so the springs can move around and if you do not lower the car back down slowly then the springs may not seat properly on the perch or on the silicone spring hat.

ok, all that aside, i love the coilovers. the handling is great when the roads are smooth. i can adjust the height any way i want and i LOVE the way it makes that car look. i have the front slightly lower than the back because i love the raked look and you can't do that on springs alone (at least not for the first gen TL). would i do it again knowing all this? YES. i think the ride will improve when i replace the stock shocks with konis because when i go over bumps on the freeway, i can feel the back of the car shoot up really fast because the shocks can't cope with the spring rates.

when i was reseaching coilovers, i was afraid they would squeak with every bump and turn but they have been dead silent since i installed them. i rode with the backseat removed for a while so that i could hear the suspension and there was an annoying squeak for the longest time and it ended up being the silicone spring hat rubbing on the chassis. i jacked up the car and readjusted it and added some wd40 and its gone.

adjusting them is easy but only if you have the c-wrench used to turn the spring perch, witch they DO NOT include with the kit. just call GC and they'll send you one for free, it really makes turning the perches much easier. to adjust the front, i had to remove the nuts on the threaded shock rod so the suspension could fall as much as possible. i found out the hard way that the entire front end has to be jacked up because the front two wheels are connected by the sway bar and there is no way you can turn the perches if one wheel is still on the ground. in the back adjusting them in much easier, you only need to jack up one wheel at a time if you wish.

one more thing, get camber kits front and rear. i went with SPC and was not disappointed. you can find reviews on the 2nd gen forum but Austin512's reviews and instructions sold me on them. i got the kits for a 1.5" drop or greater. i rode for ~1000 miles w/o the kits and my tires were out of round already. i did not get an alignment after i dropped the car because i knew that the springs were going to settle and i knew that i wanted to get the camber kits on first. i got the kits on and adjusted them by eye and went to firestone and got a lifetime alignment. funny thing is when they put it on the machine, the camber was all within spec just from me eyeballing it. the only that had to be adjusted was front toe. i guess if you do a mild drop then you won't need camber kits but then you wont need coilovers either. i've seen eiback pro-kits on ebay.

cliffs notes - GC = harsh ride and bottoms out but handles great and looks even better. buy them (and camber kits f/r) and drop it just how you like it. i'll see how the ride is after i get enough $$ for the konis...

KelloggTL

I can't deal with a harsh ride. I had a camaro SS before the TL and it was great in the corners and it was plenty fast, but it rode very VERY rough on our beat up streets here. I've tried to find used ProKits for the 3.2 on ebay and cannot find them. If you come across an auction, let me know please.

J-SpecTL

iTrader: (1)

you beat me to it!!! i wanted to get lude rims in-place of my stockies. looks dope!

hinesktchp

your car looks like sex

WolfpackBill

The car looks beautiful!! Now I want to get some Accord chrome rings for my stock gauges.

On another note...do you have any problems with the TCS light after installing the Secret Weapon?

mblackmarr

That is some funny ass shit, Longest and most indepth opinion. I was thinking the same thing bro.

spooky3ce

and


Car looks goooooood... very well taken care of... x10

and i'm gonna have to jack your idea of those chrome rings around the gauges... make them reverse glow gauges loook awsome...

Mikes96TL03CLS

Looks good man I like. Very clean and smooth!

undyroos

J-SpecTL - i thought you had some black 19s. i always loved the prelude rims and the 5th gen prelude in general then i saw some lude rims on a black TL on this board or the other tl board and thought they looked nice but i dont know where he went. then when i saw a dropped right hand drive first gen TL with lude rims on an ebay ad and i had to put them on.

WolfpackBill - no problems with the TCS light...just make sure you get the right one for your car

thanks for the words guys...i'm going to try to make it to the last bay area acura meet of the year on the 15th...hope to see some of you there!

TLBaller

joined 2002 and only 9 posts? c'mon bro! lol jk nice ride..im loving it!

DJRamzy

Secksi!!!

klepto

looks good, im in davis too. if you ever see me around, honk or something

HQuakers

Looks great. Love the OEM Honda parts swap (Prelude rims). Looks clean as hell with those sideskirts painted and the inspires.

Sexy.

Lof8

Very good lookin car. Anyone have suggestions as to where to find those chrome accord rings around the gauges? They look sweet and would probably go real well with a chrome shift plate.

J-SpecTL

iTrader: (1)

yea, i still got em on but theres times when i take them off, for whatever reason that may be, i want something still stylish.
thats exactly where i got that idea from... the ebay auction!! tahahaa

undyroos

i got them off of ebay...$6 or $7 dollars if i remember correctly...

here's a link to one i found
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/94-97...spagenameZWDVW

HQuakers

Yeah, those rings are a very nice subtle touch..

KADAW

undyroos.. can i see pic of ur hids on/ night pic? and where did you buy em? if i can ask...

undyroos

washed the car, lowered it a bit more and took a few pics with the m3 spoiler on...can't go to the bay area acura meet on the 22nd so i had my own mini-meet

rear shot

closeup of the spoiler, $10 off ebay!

LEDs in the corner lights, they look good by themselves but they dont match the HIDs



older pics, i like the perspective on this one

HIDs on, this if for you KADAW, sorry it took so long to get the pics up, the lights are from xenondepot, get them off ebay (cheaper), i got the 4300K kit and paired them with caspers shields

ON

OFF





my favorite

next mods, new headlights, koni yellows, and a remus exhaust

ljmushock

Absolutely beautiful....

Ken1997TL

I approve

vishnus11

Dazaaaaaammmm. Yo car is CLEAN!

Ghetto language aside! your car is really classy and subtle. I love it man. I would have thought that I would hate 15' prelude rims on the 3.2TL (I have some on my accord) but they look real nice. Wonderful, wonderful job, and hopefully your TL will be around for years to come.

P.S. I just wish there was a way to lower our TL's without sacrificing ride quality.

Sniper 55

WoW! i'm not a fan at all of The 1st Gen TL's But your's is Clean as F*ck Nice Job

desired_speeds

damn, i wanna make mine just like urs, haha

KADAW

Thanks, thats cool.
Very beautiful..

varunverma23

that is the nicest first gen TL ive ever seen. i used to have a 2.5TL before my second gen. thers just something about them that the 2nd gen cant compare to.

desired_speeds

so how did you get the fogs to run inderpendently? Ive been searching, but the people replying weren't really sure n kinda shaky still

UnsanePyro

I'll check tonight and get back to you.

Cornflake

Damn dude, that is hella clean. I was thinking of using the Gunmetal RSX rims before as well, but those 'Lude rims are ALMOST as perfect as my Type-S wheels!! ;-) And just so you know, I am teifing your chrome ring idea as well... :-P

Mizouse

damn the 2.5TLs for having 4 lugs

Ibn Rushd

I have to find a cool parking garage like that. i Love the pictures that are taken in there at night...gotta do that for my three Acuras.

Mizouse

yea, luckily for me we have a parking garage that looks idential to that place

suprised i never went there to take some photos yet..

undyroos

hi guys,

Just got these goodies today...here's a little teaser for everyone...and yes this is for a 3.2 TL



sshhhhhh, dont wake the cats...i'll get to the install this weekend...i'll try to remember to take pics...
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here's a real pic

and i got these too

desired_speeds

nice!

KrayzieDxC

nice ...why they gotta make yellow..tell us how it rides