Tampa TL

Ok so first off, let me say this: it was cold as hell last night and I was just in a bad mood so excuse some of the bad/blurry photos.

Last night at about 8pm, my two friends came over my house so we could use the garage. They wanted to swap suspensions on their SRT4s but little did we know it was going to take forever... We started at 8pm and finished by 6am! I know it shouldn't take that long but we ran into more problems than we could count. For every corner we worked on, there was always some new problem.

Here are some pics:

















And now here is the little project I did. I followed subtledreamers DIY on the mesh grill a while ago, but I changed it up a bit today. This is not intended to be a DIY but really is just to show what I did and the process that it took for me to do it. I basically cut out the mesh from the original grill so now it looks like the mugen grill style.

Here is the plastic part of the stock grill I was going to cut:


The mesh used to make the grill:


The cutting tool used to cut the mesh (or use a Dremel):


The mesh part was finally cut out:



I basically just cut out the mesh part along the line of the lip where the chrome piece goes over.

After cutting that stuff out, it was time to smooth and prep it for paint:


Also notice these tabs, you can't cut those out so I had to make sure to be careful not cutting those. :


Here it shows where I had to cut out some space for where the screws have to go in:



This is the grill assembled before paint:




looking good so far

My friend with the EM2 gave me his 'H' emblems and I used the rear one but the front one looks a little too big:


Anyone know what other car has the right size 'H' that should go in the front of our cars?

Anyways, now I got around to painting:


I also had to paint the part of the hood behind the grill, the white would stand out way too much:




Then I got done with the grill, let it dry and assembled it again:




Here is thr front end once it dried:


I used some regular black car paint for that piece.

And the grill is now on:



The 'H' looks a bit big right? I might leave the front grill plain until I find the right size H:


And last but not least... my puppies!

Never Summer

It would kill me to paint my own car, especially a color other than stock, but you did a great job! I like the grill a lot.

Tampa TL

lol the only way you can see it is if you look closely through the grill. It's like painting anything else on your car. Thanx for the comment

oVerBoost

so far so good but now that the front grill looks sportier, the chrome kind of puts it off. colormatching the chrome would definitely look good. just my suggestion.

Tampa TL

I wanted to color match the chrome trim but ill wait until I get the engine covers painted and some interior parts too.

mcflyguy24

Looks great! The H doesn't look too big, but may look better one size smaller, I don't know.
I plan on using dark grill-tech inserts and then painting the chrome gunmetal in the spring. Too cold out right now to be messing around with anything here in the NE. Gotta get around to that and my headlight housings.

TLin401

Looks good.

Tampa TL

Well it's not huge compared to the A that was there, but it is slightly bigger. Maybe i'm just not used to it yet. I wanted to use the grill-tech but I said never mind once I found out this mesh cost me $2 lol and it looks good.

Thanx for the comments guys.

crazyfool

do you want to trade headlights for my painted and cleared one?

caligirl2k

great job!

AZP-TL

Keep the A!

EL19

iTrader: (4)

nice job on the grill! & nice red nose pitt....i used to breed them until they became illegal around here

BIGTUFFGUY

look good man, nice work.

AMGala

iTrader: (4)

godfather2

mario, latest mod looks fantastic. what else you have up your sleeve?

MurdaZ

iTrader: (1)

the H doesnt look big at all, looks good for it....


that type s cluster....selling?

jjashaa

iTrader: (23)

hey man, good job on on the grill! i like it. especially with the H.

02type-s

Looks good man. Now just paint it bodycolor and get the bronze wheels!

Tampa TL

No thanks lol I just got those new head lights a couple months ago. I might open them and take out the reflectors. I'll use my old ones to paint the chrome piece wdp and if it looks good, I'll put those in my new ones.

Thanks!

meh, nobody around here has the H on the TLs. I have only seen one NBP TL around here with the Inspire emblems but I'm only doing the H.

Thanx man, I love my dogs. The big boy next to my car is almost 100lbs lol. He's the father of the other dog.

Thank you

I have some more plans for the near future, but for right now I just need a new steering wheel and I want to replace the license plate LED with a small white neon tube.

I don't know, maybe you have to see it in person. If you see a 04-05 Civic coupe, look at the front emblem and tell me if its too big. The Type S cluster is going back on my car as soon as I get the flexible LED strips inside them lol. I'm replacing the LED bulbs with a whole strip of super white LEDs in there.

Thanx bro, I wanted to convert it to H for a while now.

Tampa TL

Thanx, if you mean the chrome piece on the grill, yeah I agree. When I get the chance I will. The wheels will come as soon as my sister buys my wheels lol

JpnSamurai

great work, looks great

AcuraJ32A

dude taht is deffinatly sick lookin. im probably gonna do the same this weekend if i have time but with the "A"

Tampa TL

There's one thing you should know if you are going to paint the part of the hood black. Be sure to also paint the small piece you use to pop the hood open. I noticed it today and I forgot to paint that black lol.

Billu99tl

bro thats bad ass.....hot......i would pay you to do mines i am in ft lauderdale area...lol

Tampa TL

lol honestly this is not hard to do at all. It requires some cutting, painting and that's it. It's just time consuming if you want to do it right, but you should definitely give it a try.

Malayalee King

iTrader: (1)

just get a mugen grill

@cUr@-TL

good job

was your car ever in an accident? the gap between the hood and bumper seems huge, so does the gap between the pass. door and the fender... ?

Tampa TL

I know it looks like that but the car hs never been in an accident. I know what you mean tho, in person it doesn't looks that bad, you can only notice in pictures.

Malayalee, if you can find me one for a good price maybe I'll get it lol.

AcuraJ32A

thanks man i appriciate that

AcuraJ32A

just did mine today, it was a little trouble some lol but i got it, not as nice as urs man but i like it. and ya i know she seriously needs a bath but she was bathed 3 times this past weekend lol. after i tint it later today im gonna wash it up and picture it again. post then. btw if anyone is intrested to c what the "A" badge would look like here it is

Tampa TL

It actually came out very nice. Congrats man

AcuraJ32A

thanks man