Alright guys,

Just recently got my TL kit in the mail, and I'm working this summer on doing the front lip and the side skirts, I'm opting not to do the rear lip, just because I don't know what my exhaust plans are, and I like the way it looks without the rear lip. Anyways, I started about 3 days ago, and having to work around law school, 40+/hr work weeks, etc. I'm pretty far along on the front lip. It's actually fit up pretty well, once I cut it into three pieces they actually lined up pretty well. Here are the first couple pics and then more long drawn out explanations to follow...


Taking off the front bumper, remove the interior plastic upper covering of the front bumper


A closer view of the piece removed


Remove the bolt on the inside wheel well, another DIY says you might have to remove your wheels, I have 17's and got to it just fine by turning my wheels in either direction, however maybe if you have 19's or are lowered you wouldn't be able to get in there, not sure.


The front bumper is off! Just takes three screws hidden by the plastic piece, the two bolts in the wheel wells, and really stubborn plastic screws underneath the bumper (I honestly just Dremeled them out, and they can be either stuck back in or zip-tied, if you don't have OEM plastic screws)


You have to trim up the lips, I removed the upper areas of the lips so they wouldn't get in the way, you need to do this for the entire lip and also I did triangle cuts in the lips where I needed them to bend especially, such as on the side curves and right in the middle, helped them flex and line up really well

CAUTION: make sure when cutting you use safety glasses, such as the high fashion "south florida" gucci-look glasses found on the golf course last week.


More cutting of the lip


Lining the front part of the lip up, I also duct taped it into place as I went (this also helped block the epoxy from leaking through)


The entire lip lined up, you'll see it actually fits together really well


Here is what it will look like on the car (minus the color and the duct tape of course, looking god!)


I ofcourse got ID'ed for the spray paint, I love being 22 and looking 15. I told the guy I was going to make a flame thrower with it, because explaining fitting a TL kit onto a CL was going to take too long.


All paint sanded and primed


Make sure to etch out your bumper where the epoxy will sit, this will give it more surfaces to bond to.



Alright guys, thats it so far. It's actually a bit farther along, but with my hectic schedule I couldn't get any pics, I'll upload some more tomorrow, the entire lip is glued and set, waiting to get some bondo fill and repainted, etc. But it's looking good! Up to this point (with lip set, excluding waiting for the glue to dry) it is taking a lot less man hours than anticipated, working out well!

Keep you all updated!

-Evan

 

nice job!

 

I was waiting for someone to do this to a NBP. Considered doing this myself as well. Looks good so far can't wait to see the final product!

 

x2 ... good shit. can't wait to see the finished product.

 

search lippstuh...

 

Damn, someone is actually cool enough to post a useful thread on this topic. Thanks mang!

 

nice project, maan


i'm really starting to consider going for the TL lip kit... there's still 3 months left of summer

 

nbp? im not anymore =P


anyways would have been better if u didn't cut the tabs off the middle but gj, biter....

 

not sure if you're calling his car NBP or if u're saying in general u were waiting to see it done to a NBP....cuz his car looks Anthracite to me

btw evan great job, im starting my project(s) THIS WEEKEND (no side skirts tho)

 

Damnit! Where are you guys getting these lips from! blahh i cant find any... What do you use to glue on the lip to the bumper again?

 

Ok, so since I promised an update (I really didn't but I'm just a nice guy.) Here's how the lip sits as of 9:00am this morning. Most of all the epoxy is dry, and it's probably "Driveable" if I were to bondo it up and leave it, however I want this thing to be tighter than the elementary school security next to Michael Jackson's house. I am going back to my parent's place this weekend to pick up some left over fiberglass I had from projects I did to my Prelude and going to reinforce the back. I'll probably start feathering in the bondo and buffing out some of the left over epoxy residue that seeped through the outside of the lip (which you can see in the pictures) but all in all it's coming together quite nicely. Enough pointless talk...


Recycle bins are the new saw horses


Side of the lip, you can see some of the left over epoxy that seeped through


First cut of the lip, it actually fit together really nicely when brought back to meet each other


second cut of the lip, this one wasn't AS nice, but it still isn't much to complain about


Other side of the lip, that epoxy might look bad, but if you use a buffing dremel tool and goo gone it slides right off

om/albums/kk203/ef93si/IMG_8340.jpg[/IMG]
Just incase you guys didn't really get what I meant when I said I made cuts to help flexibility, you can't see these cuts with the bumper in place and it aids in helping it flex where it needs to (because the curve of the TL front lip is an inch or so different than the CL)


More of the cut


This is the triangle cut I made to allow the angle to fit properly


had to put the lip on and take some pics for fun, let you guys see what it's going to look like



It actually lines up really nice!


Not bad...


Full head on shot



Now it's just ready for some preliminary bondo and then fiberglassed back, and then it's done!

 

I saw one on ebay last week....try terms like "TL aero kit" I think that's how I had seen it.

 

the way you mounted, you could have just not cut it into three pieces and cut the tabs....

 

I tried it like that, it wouldn't have worked. I had all the tabs cut off and it would have put too much pressure on the main stress points of the curves. It would have been a lot harder to bond and I didn't want a lot of pressure on there because it would be more prone to breaking from the epoxy. It might have fit up, but I dont think it would have lasted long.

 

props to doing your own bodywork.

 

question...how is it that on ur kit u have much smaller gaps where the side pieces meet up with the middle section? other attempts at this lip kit have had like a 1-2 inch gap around the middle section. urs looks a lot easier to work with and make look good. plus, less work.

 

what color are you now? and at your "biter" comment.

 

True that

 

so sick

 

jbp... at least when i get it back

 

nice job man. glad to see someone tackle this without asking every single damn step. make sure you reinforce the front gaps so that the lip doesn't tweak and crack at those locations. also do not use bondo, use a product called polyflex, available at local body paint supply stores or online. it is mixed just like bondo except it offers some flex, as bondo does NOT.

i'm still dumbfounded as to why you don't have the same gaps in the front. did you leave the end pieces on the front lip so that they hook around the back edge of the bumper?

 

Kevins came out perfect!

 

isnt there 2 TL front valences, what year did you use?

lookin really good. i didnt think it would take that long to finish. seems like other threads or talk ive seen about the front took quite a long time to do

 

jbp?

 

java black pearl... sti black =D gold flakes

 

its because the middle tabs were cut so it



when i mounted mine, the side pieces were mounted differently than in this picture... maybe thats why my gap was pretty much identical with yours.... it looks like its mounted with the middle portion a little lower, or might be the picture, but regardless it looks good

 

I didn't make myself clear... What I meant was that his car is close enough to see what it would look like on a NBP. I have yet to see a tl lip on a dark colored cl. Either way nice work, props for doing it yourself.

 

Thanks guys,

I'm not really sure why mine is turning out with "tighter" pieces than others, I'm sure it's just a different style of mounting, but probably no better or worse than any other lips around here. I believe this is off a 99 TL? Not sure, it's the OEM aero kit, I was always under the impression there were two, this one, and the one with the fog light areas.

As far as the bondo goes, I am going to use bondo to feather in the upper parts of the lip to the bumper, I'm going to use this "plastic weld" crap I found to fill the gaps in the actual lip. Then sand it all out, paint it, and done.

I'm going to finish it and mount it all up, drive around for a bit, but when I start to tackle the sides (next week...ish) I am going to take it out and put some fiber glass behind the lip just to really sturdy it up.

Oh and as far as leaving the end pieces on, yea I didn't cut those at all, the only thing I did do is I carved out a notch in them so they could conform better to the bumper. I'll throw some pics up of that as well.

I'm doing some work on it tomorrow night, expect some more pics then! Thanks for the compliments guys!

 

uhhh i got the tl lip on my nbp



any updates?

 

looks like his doesnt have the gaps cause it was forced in tighter. you can tell by the lack of flare the lip has at the bottom towards the ends.

 

this makes me wanna do it more...knowin u can have such a little gap between the pieces. requires much less filling=less time and less fuckin it up.

 

yup, didn't want to say anything, but look at the picture i posted above, you see its not a straight line on top of the lip

 

So post a pic then, or a link. Cause I have never seen it.

 

i don't have an official photoshoot yet since its still in paint. should be coming sometime in the summer but here it is with only the front lip. only picture i got:

 

Well, I'm not sure why because my lip is fitting better it's assumed that I did something wrong or it's not lined up... I don't know where on the lip it doesn't look straight, but it's pretty straight. Anyways, onto some more pics of the progress on my lip.





I filled the cracks w/ some "plastic weld" that i got, kind of hard to tell, but it did a pretty good job



Other separation of the lip



Bondo-ing some of crack still remaining



More bondo-ing.


Alright guys, thats my work for the night, long day. I'm going to clean the whole thing up and re-primer tomorrow then it will be on the car!

 

here i'll show you where its not straight, i had a lot of help from ross + kevin on my project, i measured and taped off and drew a line to show where the top of the lip was supposed to line up before i put the lip on.

anyways it won't be noticeable so no worries.



here's mine:

 

My lip follows the beveled line that was in the bumper stock, it makes it much easier to line up and lay on the bumper to follow that line instead of try and wrap it around a larger area of the bumper. Even if it might not follow a line you used. Remember, it's not a lip for our cars, it's not "supposed" to go anywhere. Just because someone does it differently than you doesn't mean its wrong guys...

 

its not "wrong" but i thnk you could have used better bonding materials and maybe a little better planning instead of just sticking it on there.

i commend you for doing it on your own tho. it is a pain in the ass trust me i know.

 

forget it

 

LIPPSTUH, do you have the full kit on? 6MT?