23109VC

I have a 2009 TL SH-AWD.

the other day I let my newphew drive my car and he rear ended someone. it was slow speed...no serious damage..but I have some nice gouges through my front bumper cover. the body shop will for sure replace the cover..

i am not sure if the covers they use will be OEM vs aftermarket and I"m not sure if they come pre painted from the factory or if the body shop paints them. I have the OEM skirt kit which I was about to install...and I want to make sure that I get a good color match with whatever the body shop does...

does anyone know if the Acura bumpber covers come prepainted or not?

are their OEM vs aftermarket front bumper covers and does it make any difference which one the body shop uses?

my other question is this - while they have my car..and may have to repaint stuf, I thought about trying to get htem to paint my grill.. either the whle thing, just the surround part, or maybe just the center beak part.. I surfed all over AZ and found a decent number of pics where people painted the center grill/shield part but left the exterior chrome part alone..and I saw one pic where the whole thing was painted... but i didn't see enouhg photos to make up my mind if I liked how it looked.

i was curious if any of you had thoughts/opinions, or good pics of WDP cars with grills painted in various combos to see what looked the best on a white car.

i could always just leave it stock... but the body shop I'm going to i hae used before and they are pretty cool about doing little "extras" when the car is in for insurance work...and I bet I could score a free grill paint job or a greatly reduced price.

thanks.

C8N

The bumper will not come painted.
As for the grill, personally, I am not too crazy about color matching the grill on a WDP. If any other color, I would say go for it but not on WDP. I think it looks better as it is.

23109VC

anyone who has pics of a WDP with a color matched grill feel free to post them. i know there are other pics out there - but if they were all in one thread, just for WDP, that would be cool.

i saw a pic of the grill painted 100%.. and I did not really care for it.

Advancebo

jterp7

good opportunity to replace with ronjon?

prefacelift with ronjon in my opinion looks really aggressive

https://acurazine.com/forums/showpos...6&postcount=56

lift3d_

+1 for RonJon grille....I really fuckin want one but I have a 2013 - take advantage of the fact they have one for your year!

23109VC

isn't the Ronjon grill like $700???? way expensive for just a grill... that's almost as much as the entire OEM body kit... with the A-bar in the middle it's $780...and I"m assumign that is unpainted...to me, it would be worth $150-200 max... $780 is highway robbery for a plastic grill....

i'll either leave my grill stock or paint it.

anyone have experience with aftermarket painted grills and chipping? i was curious if the paint adhered well to the grill or if they would wind up chipping and look tacky...

who votes stock vs all white vs white surround and chrome shield???

thanks!

23109VC

there was a user here named carrie lynn 6MT that had TONS Of pics uploaded..she had a WDP TL and had various front grill setups... all her pics are deleted from her original thread...anyone have any saved of her grill?

she had one with a white surround and silver or gunmetal shield..i think that might look cool and would not be too hard to replicate for not much $$ at my body shop..especially if they already have my front bumper / grill pulled off...

thanks!

JT4

^^ I agree, if I ever painted the grill I would copy what carrielynn did because her's looks great.

The only thing that held me back from painting it is the fear of rock chips.. Even if painted and prepped correctly there is always the chance of it chipping.

My OEM grill has a few rock chips on it that aren't too noticeable but I'm pretty sure these same chips would be much more noticeable if the grill was painted. And that would drive me nuts.

liquidneon

yes, more pics of WDP painted/swapped grills please!
I actually really like the one posted above by Advancebo... looks pretty awesome imo.

Brock79

Check out KarKrazes thread, I'm not sure if I spelled his name correctly, but it's in the mods section.

JWhite1387

Def go for the painted grill. I think it makes the car look 10x better then it matches the rest of the car. Also consider matching the back piece below the truck too

JT4

^^Beautiful TL

23109VC

I found a body shop that agreed to paint my grill for no charge if I give them the insurance work ..

So now I need to decide if I want the while thing painted or go with a two time setup like carrie lynn.

I found a pic if her car and will post it later.. Her grill was painted two tone. The surround that is more if a grey color was painted WDP and the center shield she painted like a titanium gray. She paint matched the rear trim piece the same gray color.

She also blacked out her headlights which looked great and she had wheels painted dark to match the dark titanium / gun metal trim.

I doubt I will paint the center shield too. The body shop is only going to paint my surround and use the leftover paint from when they do my bumper. If I want to get my shield a dark color I might have to plastidip it myself later... I would think it would be easy to plastisol the center shield piece .. If I low it dark great.. If not peel it off

I am also going to get my OEM front lip installed. Now I need to get around to buying the sides and rears!!

liquidneon

So is it possible for body shops to buy the exact same paint Acura uses? Given that it's a tri-coat metallic or whatever, don't they still need to do some mixing to get colours to match?

Heban83

I would paint it and add a clear bra around the grill to avoid rock chips. I did mine on my 2011 and turned out good.

23109VC

here is carrielynne's grill... i like this look





the body shop says my new bumper cover will have to be painted. so when they are mixing up/painting the bumper cover - they will also paint the grill - so it should match exactly.

i would paint the silver colored surround just like these pics. I think i'll leave the shield part stock..which is kind of a chrome color. if i later decide I want it darker, I can just plastidip it... that shield section would probably be easy to plastidip if I wanted.. plus have the rear trim piece done same color to match.. kind of like carrie lynn did.



I don't personally care for the all white grills where the entire grill, shield and surround are painted white... and if I do it two tone...I want the surround to be white to match and leave the center part silver..that makes the overall grill smaller in appearance.. kind of more like a 2012+...but keeps the more aggressive/angular lines of my 09..which I prefer.

my car goes into the shop next week sometime.. i'l post pics eventually..

Joe FB

Paint the beak, not the whole grill. Take a look at my TL. The beak is painted black but the rest is left alone. I believe this brings out the curvature in the hood which is unique and seperates the car from others and gives it a performance look. My car was parked next to a 2014 Black TL and my wife says, "why is yours so sexy". I am 52 so this was not a compliment. She is an Interior Designer so knows a few things about design.

liquidneon

I like the reverse better. Paint everything but the beak.

23109VC

They are going to replace my front bumper cover and it has to be painted

So the body shop will have to mix WDP paint and spray the bumper cover. They agreed to spray the grill at the same time since they will already be painting the bumper the same color. It's simply a bit if extra paint and some prep time to sand and prime the grill

I'm going back and forth between wanting to paint the surround part like carrie lynn did... Or painting the beak and leaving the silver surround stick

On carries car she blacked out her headlights... And made her beak gray.. The whole front end had a nice clean white/ gray theme. I however have stick headlights and have no plans to mod my ligjts. So my ligjts will be silver inside which ties in nicely with the silver surrind.. They are the same color ..so I wonder if on a car with stock headlights it might look
Cleaner to keep the grill surround silver and just paint th center chrome part white...

I found this pic of my proposed setup.. But it's off the car. Can't find an installed pic



Opinions??

TXL

If you paint the whole grill WDP, I'd also go with blacked out headlights. It looks a lot cleaner IMO.

Painted surround with beak unpainted or darker looks good also. ( My next mod )

23109VC

car is at the shop as of today. I opted to paint the surround part WDP and leave the center "shield" part silver. If I decide to play around with darker colors for the center shield section I figure I can always plastidip it - see if i like it, or not.

As to blacking out my headlights - how hard is that really? to me it sounds like a lot of work... and I'm afraid of getting condensation in the lights if they weren't done perfectly... I think it would be something I'd have to have done for me - not a DIY job! - and I don't want it done bad enough to pay for it....

i will post up pics once the car is back from the shop!

Nexson

I would have gotten it all painted for free at one time so it all matches and just buy an extra shield and swap it out or black it out to play around with it. Won't get an opportunity like this again.

liquidneon

awesome - that's exactly what i would have done. cant wait to see the results!!

TXL

If you're not into working on cars I'd pay someone to do it. Prices usually start around $1xx.00 + depending on what you would want done.

JNC on this forum does headlight services: https://acurazine.com/forums/4g-tl-2009-2014-123/g-001-4g-custom-headlights-jnc-718846/

I took a risk and did it with a friend, added TSX-R lenses. 6 months later no leaks ( no rain here in California & regular car washes ).

Top Grid my lights were dirty from handling

23109VC

Nexsons idea was good - paint entire thing and get a spare shield.. I think it's too ate as shop already sprayed my car Friday... I hadn't actually thought of that.. Is it pretty easy to get the grill or shield off? Or does bumper have to come off to remove both / either?

I hope finished product looks good! Stay tuned for pics

I like the look of blacked out lights... I'll wait until my car is back to see if I think it really needs it... The silver in my headlights may look ok as it will see at tie in with the silver in the shield..

Nexson

You have to remove the bumper to get the grille off. The shield removed easily with like 8 screws.

23109VC

Nexson-

What do you think of my idea? Paint surround WDP to match car and leave the shield silver? I didn't really like the all white grills nor did I like the cars with the beak painted white and the surround left silver - to me it made the white shield part look more like a big buck tooth.

I liked the all Mayan bronze look on your old car but for some reason I didnt care for it as much in white. Given you have a lot if experience painting cars and seeing a lot of different color schemes - what do you thnk would look best on a WDP car?

Nexson

If any car does not need the grille painted, I would say WDP doesn't. If you ask my opinion, I would put the 2013 front end on but that is a different ball game. Honestly I would paint the surround WDP to lessen the size of the grille and then just leave the shield alone or paint it black.

liquidneon

i agree... not too much contrast with WDP, so not really a priority mod for me

23109VC

I picked up the car today. I am really happy with how it turned out. I had considered different color options for painting my grill...but my final choice looks great. I was worried that what looked good in the photos might not look as good in real life - but I was pleasantly surprised.. it looks great.

Thanks to everyone who gave me suggestions, opinions, or posted photos. eVeryone's contribution helped me make up my mind - even if I went with a combo different that what you had! variety is the spice of life, and it would be boring if all our cars were the same!

I only have the front lip for now - but will add the rest soon. It doesn't look blatantly unbalanced with only the front on - but I can tell they are missing. i'm sure the average lay person won't know. My wife told me - it looks fine you don't need the rest of the kit... don't worry... I"ll get it. my bday is coming.. :too cool:

BEFORE



AFTER









this was also at the body shop today... I was hoping they would mix up keys when I was picking up my car... :roll eyes: no such luck... what a sweet ride!



thanks again for all the help and suggestions. Hopefully i'll have my kit finished soon. I do love how WDP TL's look! especially dropped with the body kit.

liquidneon

Looks great! Thanks for sharing.

PrinInvest119

Awesome job...The White Grille against the White body looks great!