vivftp

Howdy.

I know I've been asking about a lot of different mods these past weeks, but I wanted to try something a bit different. I know the NGM car isn't exactly the most popular colour, and that does make it a bit harder to do things to it that actually look good. I have an 02 TL (non Type-S) and it's more or less as it was when the factory spat it out. I do want to do some mods to it over the next several months and while I do have several things in mind, I wanted to pose the question to all of you - what would you do if you had a stock NGM car and wanted to do it up? What would you think looks good on it?


Now I know driving style is also an important factor here, so I might as well mention how I use my car. I live in Toronto, so my car will have to be able to deal with harsh winters. In the summer I do a lot of driving out in the middle of nowhere, which also includes a lot of dirt roads that aren't too friendly. This is one of the reasons I'm not really thinking about having the car lowered, and after this winter I'll be looking to put on some appropriate tires for city driving and offroading.



So far I haven't really done much of anything to it. I've replaced the factory wipers with Reflex ones from Canadian Tire, I've replaced the factory HID bulbs with Phillips 4,300k bulbs, and replaced the highbeam bulbs with 5,000k ones. I've replaced the map lights, the dome light, the door light, the vanity mirror lights, the trunk light and the license plate light with white LEDs, as I absolutely hate the yellow/beige lights that came with the car. I also have a Garmin Nuvi 260 hooked up to a vent mount clip I bought off ebay, and I absolutely love it (both the Garmin and the vent clip)

Now what I want to do to the car are as follows:

- HID fog lights + lexan lenses, I'll be doing this very soon and will be putting in 4,300k lights
- tints - don't know how dark I want to go yet, but 25% seems likely.
- aftermarket alarm system with 2 way remote starter. I've looked at many, but can't decide which is the best one to get within a reasonable price range
- footwell lights for the front that'll activate with the dome light
- repainting the pillars
- possibly redoing all the dash lights (ie. OntarioTLs mod) + possible replacing the LEDs behind all of the buttons in the car (ie. power windows, locks, climate control... all of that)
- right now I have the splash guards on the front of the car. I think they're wonderful for what they do (ie. keeping shit off the paint), and I am actually thinking about getting them for the rear as well as I saw another NGM car with them. The only thing I'm not sure about is if I do get a skirt package, I don't think you can have both that and the splash guards (please correct me if I'm wrong)
- I'm looking into the possibility of replacing the rearview mirror with a larger one that also has a built in LCD display attached to a rear view camera for when I'm reversing. I've only begun thinking about this, but it seems like a good idea.
- I think I might want to seafoam my car, but I haven't really put forth the effort to do it yet. It's got 219,000km on it right now.

I've gone through a lot of stuf that others have done on the forum and I love a lot of it. I'm hoping to get some words of wisdom from others here to either tell me I'm an idiot for wanting to do something, or to give me some fresh new ideas I'd never considered.


Well... we'll see how this goes... thanks for anyone willing to dispense some advice

fobstylez

iTrader: (3)

I dont really think color has to do with majority of the mods. Here is what I've done with my car, Ive owned it for about 6 months now. '03 Satin Silver

Lip kit
18" rims
HID foglight conversion
Dvd w/ 7" touchscreen to replace my stock deck.
Painted pillars
Yellow foglight film
Cleared headlights
'08 type S knob
Debadged emblems
amp/sub
3A tips

All of those mods you can do on your car. If I had your color I would do the samething. When I mod my cars I start off with a plan, work on one type of item, then another. I'm almost done with the exterior, next will be suspension. But I feel ya on the lowering part. Our cars are so high but at times, its not very practical to lower it, thats probably why I'll be going for full suspension coilovers, so I can adjust the height. Since you live in Canada, I would work on lighting to prepare for the winter. Most of the stuff you have on your list you can do in one weekend. good luck

vivftp

Thanks for the reply!

I suppose what I meant on the whole colour issue is, there are some things you can do to one colour car that won't look good on another. For example for a while I'd been fascinated by doing a chrome pillar mod, but I know it'd look butt ugly on my colour car. On a black or blue TL though, it looks very nice IMO. Just little things like that.


One thing I was thinking about was how to make the car quieter when driving. I mean, there's no way to totally soundproof the car when you're driving, but I do think that I hear more noise from the outside than I should be. I've seen some people attribute this to the weather stripping, but I don't know if there's a way to fix this. Not to mention when I'm playing music with all the windows closed, you don't even have to go very loud to easily be able to hear it from outside. If there is a way to rectify without having to go too extreme on fixing it, I'd be very interested in that as well.


BTW, when you said that I should work on the lighting to prepare for winter, what in specific were you referring to?

FL3.2TL

Gold, hmm I see.

Exterior: Theme would be gold/black. Chrome housing around window frame = black, wheels = black with chrome/polish lip , kit = NGM, tail lights = tinted ( Red Area ), headlights = blacked out, outer frame of grill = color matched. All this won't make you think twice about your color unless your anal. Hahah

The mods you are going to do are on point. Now for the mudflaps and sideskirts, try getting them molded somehow with the sideskirt ( don't know how that will work or look, but a idea ). To make the car quieter, you can always put dynimat (however you spell it), nitrogen fill maybe, and just try to ignore as much. lol Good luck tho nevertheless.

slavver01

iTrader: (3)

did you check out some of the other NGM guys around here? a few of those cars look amazing!

vivftp

With regards to the splash guards, I know a lot of people hate them and rip 'em off right away due to their appearance, but I find their usefulness to outweigh their uglyness. Far too many times I look at the back of my car and see the streaks of dirt all over the paint while the front remains nice and clean due to those guards.

I've heard some people suggest painting the splash guards to body colour, but I don't know how good that'd look, and if it'd even be worth it considering how much crap is going to be flung their way while driving.


As for other peoples NGM TLs on the forum, I've taken a look at many of the other peoples cars, but can't make up my mind. My goal is to keep the car looking as classy as possible and avoid making it look like it belongs to a teenager with too much money on his hands. I'm trying to mix practicality with aesthetics... which I'm finding hard to do unfortunately.

Lofu

Woot another NGM! Represent! The first thing that you want that will really set off the car is the lip kit. The lipkit alone will make your car look amazing! Here's a minor transformation of my NGM.

Before:




After:

Jake 6MT

iTrader: (1)

x2 on getting a lipkit.

ts_vaj

X3!

vivftp

I wish I could see those pics, but unfortunately they appear to be blocked while I'm here at work. I'll have to wait until I get home for those.

Question though... can the lip kit work with the splash guards? I would love to be able to have splash guards on the front and rear as well as have the lip kit.

If it is possible, anyone have pics of a car with that done? I'd be very interested to see it


Thanks!

Lofu

I THINK you can have splash guards on the front but not the rear. In the instructions for installing the rear it said, "if you have rear splash guards on, you must removed them in order to install the rear lip"

vivftp

Hmm, that's a pity, but I can live with only having the fronts done if need be. I don't suppose there're other kits that might let me do what I'm looking for tho, eh?

Also, while we're talking about the splash guards, is there anything one could do to mod 'em a bit? I mean, say I removed them, painted them a nice dark black and is there some sort of extremely durable clear coat I could put over that? What I'm thinking about is, if I can have a nice, smooth durable coating over the splash guards and if they do get mud on them, I just do a quick hose down and wipe, and it looks good as new. Right now, it seems to take a lot of work to get them anywhere near clean.

jayunsplanet

iTrader: (1)

Since I have a little experience on this topic, and you seem genuine about learning more, I'll add my 2 cents for you as much as possible.

My thoughts in red…
Paint them a darker black or body match them NGM. Tireshine works well for temoporarily getting the flaps shiney black, but it only lasts a few days.

x100!! I got crap for it… but those people weren’t the ones washing my car and/or quick detailing down below every few days w/out mud flaps. When the car is lowered, they look pretty sweet actually, and show off how low the car is. Mine were about 2” off the ground… however, if are lowered and you painted them, you wouldn’t want to paint the bottom part because you’d scrape the paint off the first time you went driving– I’d Line-X that too.
Paint the outside portion NGM and either leave the inside (where all the crap gets flung) black, or Line-X them – that should stay pretty intact.


So far, my theme is clean sporty – lip kit, lowered, sporty smaller wheels. However, I’m changing that up this winter…..
Classy, I would go with or without a lip kit and chrome/silver wheels. But you HAVE to lower the car for aftermarket wheels to look right. This car has horrible wheel gap up front and everything but Type S wheels look bad. And even they are goofy looking. To me, the 2nd generation TL’s do not not look attractive at all stock. Where as the 3rd generation TL’s do… Modded, however, I love 2nd gen’s low sleek line more than the 3rd gens high body lines and roof – while that’s a personal preference, I’ve heard it from others who don’t own either generation TL.

I personally really like a gold/black theme – especially black wheels w/ a chrome lip. (If I was ballsy enough, I’d do the z3ro black hood, roof, and trunk… that looks sickJ But, I’m getting the feeling that’s not really the OP’s style though.

I am actually working on this, but don’t see it turning out too well. I’m not trying to drill up the skirts, and the mudflaps don’t mount quite right w/ the skirts even with cutting.

I’ve heard many people say they raise their cars in the winter. I really wonder how much snow their cars actually see/drive in. In not taking the time to raise my car for 3 or 4 inches of snow. However, snow is generally soft and smooth. You driving on rough dirt/gravel roads really will be a bad thing with a lowered car, especially on stiff coilovers. Driving on brick roads IS HORRIBLE. I give this anaolgy because unmaintained dirt roads are similar. It feels like the car is just going to fall apart.

Stock TL suspension is like riding on a pillow of marshmallows compared to even just Tein coilovers on almost the firmest setting. I’ve ridden in much much stiffer cars. I however, don’t have experience with turning the dampening all the way soft, although I could in less than a minute. This might be a feasible option for you for when you need to go to your back road adventures. Definitely warrants EDFC (electronic damping system for Tein coilovers).

I had Tein S-Tech springs on OEM shocks and they were still fairly smooth over bumps. The rebound, however, was pretty bad. If you hit a large low spot, the car would go down, and then back up and then back down and back up, etc. (And no, it wasn’t blown shocks) With coilovers, the car just bounces right back to normal <3

Everyone says to get a "kit"... but honestly, I liked my car lowered w/ my RSX ASPEC wheels. The kit gives the car a different kind of look, which is nice. I got the kit mainly because it is becoming increasingly difficult to find one brand new. I found a NGM one from a dealer for a great price, so I jumped on it. I'm waiting on getting the Wings West rear lip. I didn't want the tiny worthless Acura rear lip.

/essay.

jayunsplanet

iTrader: (1)

Here is my car with various setups that you might find interesting to see. I know I would have loved to see different setups like this when I first started out. Especially with NGM, I had a hard time picturing it in my head -- Photoshop was semi-helpful though, haha. However, I did get some hints from fellow NGMers like z3ro, HockeyMan0920, and VoLLy_1llusioNz.

Tein S-Techs on OEM shocks w/ out mud flaps. (Removed at the same time as putting in the springs.)


Same setup with 25% window tint


Same setup w/ CL-S wheels (Note, CL-S NOT TL-S wheels. CL-S' are whiter and don't have a lip and they look much much nicer.) I loved these wheels... but they have an "incident" with a curb and I sold them.


Model debadge


Tein SS-P coilovers w/ mud flaps back on.




Same setup but with ASPEC RSX wheels


Test fitted just the front lip


Brand new, from the dealership, front/side lip kit. Also, removed 25% tint


Re-applied new tint. 3M 20%


M3 style rear lip spoiler


I took the ASPEC wheels off to clean them and put on the TL wheels. This is the only picture I have of them, but you get the idea. Lowered + lip kit. (On wood because I can't get the jack underneath the skirts. Trunk jack works, but it's a PITA. Wood is quick.)


Acura debadged. As it sits currently (Sans, new tires)




At a car show


For spits and giggles, here is my car on coilovers w/ 350Z 18" wheels. I was at a friends garage adjusting my ride height and he had his stockers sitting around, so we mounted them on one side for a laugh.

VoLLy

iTrader: (8)

nice post jay, what exhaust do you have?

VoLLy

iTrader: (8)

Oh and here is a quick shot of my car:

CL-Slick

iTrader: (7)

jayunsplanet, that has to be one of the greatest looking NGM TLs I have ever seen.

6MTUA5

iTrader: (2)

I love the progression

vivftp

jayunsplanet thank you very much for all of that, and yes, I definately do like the look of you ride, especially with the splash guards on the front and back. I think I'll definately add that to my list of things to add. If it prevents me from adding a lip kit, then so be it... if I can find a kit that'll work with 'em, then I'll go for that.

Any suggestions on what the best brand and model is to get?

Replacing them from Acura seems to be a very expensive thing to do, and I'd much rather throw that money into something else. I think I can live with painting 'em, and there're tons of DIYs out there for doing it so I should be fine.

Oh I don't have the balls to do this at all, nor the skill and knowledge. I don't know if OntarioTL is willing to offer his services, but if he is and depending on the price of the mod, I would love to get him to do it. I was look at my dash lights on the way home tonight and they just seem so pale and dim.

I'm also thinking about doing pure white on all of the interior buttons. I figured if I'm making all the other lights in the car white, I might as well do that too

As I mentioned above, I was wondering if it would be possible to take the guards, clean 'em up, paint them, then slap on a double coat of some extra hard, extra durable clear coating (I have no idea what type of product could do that). My thinking is that if that could be done, the paint will be protected and it should be far easier to clean off any dirt from the surface of the smooth clear coat.

Tell me if that sounds stupid, but it seems to make sense in my head

Yeah, I really don't know about lowering the thing. When driving around on dirt roads, there can be all sorts of random crap around and I figure the higher the car is, the less chance there is of something scraping up against the underside of the car. I know lowering it does make it look better, but I honestly don't think it'd be practical given what I use my car for.

I looked into the Line-X product you mentioned and it claims to do what I want, but I'm just wondering if it really is as good as it claims. I have no doubt that a coating of it would eventually get worn down due to crap being kicked up by the tires, but how long do you think I could reasonably expect such a coating to last on the splash guards? They do take a helluva beating on a constant basis...


With regards to wheels, I still have to do my homework for after this winter to see what the best type of rubber to put on the car is for both city driving and off roading. I was thinking about putting 17's on it at that point... but that's still months away. I'm just gonna leave the rims be for the winter.

jayunsplanet

iTrader: (1)

It sounds like you just need to sell the TL and get a WRX...

vivftp

Hell no, I wouldn't want one of those.

Anyways, the 02/03 TL is the car I've wanted for many years now.. now that I've got it, I want to keep it for a good while


BTW, why would you say that would be more suitable for me?

Hockeyman

how can you not like NGM? It's secks!

mcflyguy24

Finally getting my shocks (tokico HP) this weekend and then buying lowering springs (not sure which ones) the next. NGM isn't a bad color you just have to compliment is right (ie dark tint, gunmetal wheels, ect...) Here's my basically stock 02 NGM TL-P:




Dirty engine bay.

mcflyguy24

Sorry about that one HUGE ass pic. I didn't know it was that big until I posted it...

vivftp

Hmm, well thanks to all for the tips and suggestions in this thread. There's definately a lot I want to do to the car and will eventually get done. Unfortunately some of these mods might have to be put on the shelf for a few months or so. I decided in the past few days that I'm tired of wearing glasses and decided to mod my eyes... with Lasik surgery

As that'll put a severe dent in my wallet for quite some time, I won't have much money to put into big mods. I can still do some small stuff like painting the pillars and whatnot though.


Thanks!