Hey Tony...that looks awesome, as everybody else has already said. Where in Mass are you...if your anywhere close to Reading let me know...It'd be awesome to get this mod done

 

2 hours away. I'm in holden, near worcester

 

can u do a write up for the front grill?

 

i would like to see that in black mesh

 

i have my grills done w/ black mesh. I just never got around to installing it yet (despite the fact that i've finished the grill about a month ago) I'll post pics of the grills (not on the car) tomorrow.

 

looks cool. i just wish they would make those air dam things so they wouldn't scratch all the time

 

how would it look if you dont cut out those horizontal and vertical pieces?

 

Check out pro street's thread. He didn't cut his. I believe he used the galvinized wire to hold the cut out mesh pieces in place.
https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=126714
If you mean placing the mesh behind the grill, it wouldn't look very good IMO.

 

Would the instructions for installing it on the main grill be the same?

DO they sell the same mesh in black? I'd def. want to to do the main grill where the Acura logo is but not the smaller pieces, for now at least.

 

The main grill is a bit tougher, but can be done. You won't have to remove the entire bumper but it would be easier to work with if you did. No cutting of the bumper is required. All you have to do is remove the plastic horizontal bars trim which is screwed on by a few screws.
Regarding the color, you can spray paint the mesh. It only comes in that silver color.

 

Mafrecola has it in black. did you see it at the meet?

 

Does anyone have pictures or directions on how the main grill piece is removed?

Btw, all the cars posted have looked really really good.

What color mesh do you think would look good on a silver TL? I'm think like a gray or something and maybe spray painting the mesh and then giving it a layer of clear coat or something to give it a bit of shine...would it work? But yea...color suggestions?

 

i'd have to say either silver or black would look nice. i have SSM too. i may take a pic of my bumper and photochop both and see how it looks

 

my attempt at photochop
i looked to see if i had a pic of my SSM in a similar position as Pro Streets, but all i can find is a night shot looks like i gotta take more pics





either way, i think it looks good. the mod is very teh sexy

 

yea.............about those photoshop skills....j/k

I may get around to doing this over Thankgiving break. I gotta take a look at the main grill to see how it comes out. I need a dremel for the bottom pieces. At the very least I'll make a trip to home depot, buy the supplies, and throw the receipt out so i have the materials laying around so that I do it as some point.

The pics ahve been helpful. Id really like pics of removing the main grill. The service manual was useless- it just told me to take the bumper out.

 

Went today and got the supplies. Still need to find a dremel or someone with one for me to use.

Main grill though still seems hard...

 

Did the mod like 3 weeks ago, and absolutely love it! 05TLTony is da MAN!!! Thanks for sharing...

 

No problem bro. Glad you're happy with the results. That's what this forum is all about.

 

For the main grill, I just looked and there are little black bars running across it as well. You guys dremeled them all off right?

 

has anyone tried just adding the chrome strip? I bet that alone would make the car look sweet. And it would kind of match the horizontal silver line in the top grill area.

 

yea...it looks great....i added the chrome strips....i want to do this mod, but im afriad to do this? wouldn't it be possible to have someone do this to your lower grill because they come out with ease? and then send it back to u....?

 

From what someone was saying, new grill inserts are only $8 each. So if you do the mod and don't like it, just get new ones and pop 'em in.

 

The A-spec lip was simple to take off. I was not a fan of the silver mesh, so I painted it black and clearcoated it as well. Surprisingly, no paint chipping yet.

 

Please note:
-Instead of using galvanized wire, I used wire ties to hold the mesh in place.
-You may notice a dent on the middle bar. That's cuz on my drive back from Houston, a huge rock hit the bottom and managed to take a chunk off the plastic piece. Fortunately, it didn't damage or take the paint off the mesh.
-Please excuse the dirt....I have not had time to clean the car.

 

More importantly, are the zip ties just to hold it in place while you put the epoxy or the whole time?

Did you paint both sides? I bought black paint in case I decided to paint the grill last minute. Still not sure. I may do this early tomorrow.

 

I used the zip ties to hold it in place, then I epoxied. Once the epoxy cured (work quick, cuz JB quickweld dries fast), I cut off the zip ties. As for the paint, I painted both sides.

 

I did my lower grills over Thanksgiving.

All I can say is don't make this harder than it is. Very simple modification. I thought I'd like the black mesh (painted), but I redid them with the galvanized. My TL is Anthracite, and the galvanized really complimented the silver in the grill. The whole process (even doing it twice) still only took a couple of hours (including drying time).

I am going to do the upper grill as well, I just lost motivation. I did put the mesh behind the Acura emblem on the grill, and really liked how it came out. This whole thing cost less than $20, and makes a HUGE difference in the front of the car. There are a bunch of TL's in Fort Worth, and I'm happy to do anything that sets me apart a little.

I, too, have the A-Spec front lip, and it is so easy to remove. I did buy some 3M stick to re-apply when I was done. No problem. I'll just say this, even my wife could believe the difference, and she is entirely dispassionate about anything cars (weird I know).

I'll post some pics when I get the front grill complete. Thanks for the great post. I certainly took advantage of this idea, and couldn't be happier.

 

that looks really good. very mercedes-ish with the black grill. i will definitely have to try this soon.

 

I Have pics and will post them up but I gotta say 2 things: Mod looks good and I dont think, at least for me, it was not as easy as it seems. Even with the dremel and all the little attachments, I thought it was tough to make some of the cuts and make it looks good. perhaps painting it after would help. Also, the epoxy is annoying to work with.

Be patient doing it if you plan on starting. Ill post a pic tomorrow.

 

I'm thinking about doing a couple extra of these mods and then selling them on ebay. How much do you think that would be worth if you could buy one from someone and put it in right away without modding your own car?

 

depending on how nice it looks;
the extra grills alone cost about $20 for the pair, and materials are what...another $20? So that's about $40 out of your own pocket right here, plus the time you take the do it, so i'd think $80-$100 is fair.

 

I would pay at least that for 'plug-n-play' convenience. If you do make them, please put me on the YES list

 

By the way, I should mention that I just bought the stuff right now do make them in black color (I think it looks cleaner and classier), but I could very well do them silver as well.

 

I just order 2 new sets of the grill pieces new for myself. If you are looking to do these for sale, I might be interested in sending them to you and you could send me the product back if that interests you. I need to see. I may want to try again.

 

Are you saying you've done it and it didn't turn out good? I have yet to actually do this to my own car, so I'm not sure how easy it would be or how good it would turn out yet. I'm planning on doing my car this weekend. I'll post pictures and say whether I think it would be worth it to do more.

 

It came out...okay. On a SSM, I don't think the Silver unpainted looks good. The contrast between the silver and the black plastic and then the metal looks ehhhh. That and I made a bunch of mistakes doing it. Definetly use zip ties, you need a dremel, and mix the epoxy well.

What I had trouble was knowing how much of the grill to leave on the edges for the epoxy to stick to without it being so much that it wouldn't let the grill piece in. When I'm home for winter break I will attempt again.

I thought you had already done it and were looking to start selling your services in which case I was gonna ask you how much you would charge to paint the metal for me and install it on to grill pieces I would supply.

Post pics when your done and throughout the process, especially the painting, when you do it.

 

Well the plan was to do it to my car and with some of the leftover material, order some extra grill pieces and make a couple extra to sell my services. But first thing was to see how easy it was to do it myself. It didn't seem that bad from the instructions, which is why I was putting this feeler out there. I've got 2 extra grills on the way, so I'm sure I'll at least be looking to sell two of them so I don't waste the money by buying them. Probably black only though, since that's what I've got for paint. I'll post pics after I'm done.

 

Just thought I'd throw this out there...if you find it's easy to do and plan on offering your services, I believe you will need to contact one of the Admins. You can't just peddle products and/or services here. Astroboy is out of the office at the moment, so I would suggest you contact Soopa (if that's incorrect, I'm sure he or one of the mods will let you know who to get in touch with).

 

That's why I was planning on using ebay. Just wanted to see if there was interest if I were to do it. I know there's no marketplace section on here, so my intention isn't to violate the policies here.

 

I would purchase a set at a resonable price (no 50 dollar shipping charge!)
Black grills would set off my WDP very nicely.