Hey guys,

I'm looking to make a few changes to my '05 TL and I was wondering if anyone had any advice before I got my hands dirty.

The main things would include:

- Repair curb rash with Bond-it and spray paint gunmetal gray, most likely with http://www.duplicolor.com/products/wheelCoating/

- Self apply vinyl tail/headlight tinting
http://www.rvinyl.com/Tail-Light-Tin...ACU-TL-04.html

- Professionally window tint up to 35% vis (legal max for KS)

- fill the indented "ACURA" on the front bumper with cut out vinyl so I can remove if wanted later.

- Replace the driver side lock actuator

- Try to fix Bluetooth. The HFT does everything but pair with my phone. Possibly with the capacitor swap?

Here are some Photoshopped pics of what I am thinking.








What do you all think of the look? I really like classiness of the stock TL, but I want to add a little to set it apart and make it look a bit more sporty.

I was also thinking about painting all the chrome decals on the front and back ('A's, 'TL', 'ACURA', and the Powercat) the same gunmetal gray and possibly paint the brake capillars white.

Thoughts? Anyone try any of this themselves? Anything I should be careful with? I would love to see some real pics if someone has something similar.

Thanks,

Josh

 

Please do not tint your headlights or tail lights, it's going to look terrible.

Look up customizing your headlights by clearing/blacking them out.

Look up customizing your tails by either cutting them open, or sending them off to AckTL

Everything else sounds good though. Check the photography section for ideas on what you want to achieve with your colour. Especially the picture thread which will have a bunch of pictures of your colour in one thread.

 

So you're saying the quality of the vinyl light covers don't look very good? What attracted me to those (besides price) was that I could remove them if I wanted in the future.

 

Hey man, nice car! I agree with Story05 on the headlight/tail light thing. I mean you could vinyl them....but there are some users on this forum that can do some pretty awesome headlight/ tail light customizing. Im currently working with AckTL on doing my stuff. I'm pretty excited.

As your badges/decals/embelms. You should try plastidip!

 

I just cleared out my headlights a few months ago. One of the best things I did for my car so far... And also put a clear reflector in instead of the orange one

 

Oooook. So after an Acurazine binge that lasted past 4 am last night I think I have a better idea of what I want.

That plasti dip stuff looks amazing. I will definitely be picking up a can of the smoke and shine today after work to darken the emblems. I am also going to try and use this on my tail lights. I know a lot of people don't like the look, but I might as well give it a try considering how cheap it is and that it is removable. I'm thinking about two coats on the whole thing then another 2-4 in a pattern that somewhat resembles the '07-'08
's tails would look sharp. This would also be perfect for filling in the 'ACURA' on the front bumper

I was thinking about doing exactly that. It makes the car look soooo much better. How easy was this for you to do? I'm not going to lie some of the steps I am not exactly comfortable with.. mostly with bumper the removal. Also where did you find the white reflector to replace the yellow with?

 

Josh you're going to end up wasting time and dip by doing your tails. It's going to come out as a matte finish and it's going to make the output of your brakes and turn signals splotchy. Just trying to save you the hassle, but if you're set on doing it then go for it.

Also plasti dip is great as a base coat to apply actual spray paint to. It gives it a nicer finish. And it's still reversible if you don't like it. I had my grille dipped and then sprayed with gloss black and it still came off perfectly:

 

That's really interesting. So a combination of a couple coats of dip with some VHT NiteShade on top would look sharp in addition to being completely removable?

 

I used gloss black engine enamel from duplicolour, which is a really nice and deep black. And yup just do a bunch of coats of plasti dip first, then use the actual spray paint. The more coats of plasti dip you use the easier it'll come off. The actual spray paint ends up cracking as you lift up the dip when removing. Not sure how niteshades would look, since it's purpose is for spraying over lights.

 

Just ordered myself 4 cans of anthracite gray dip for my wheels and decals. I know this is not as good as painting, but I just want to get the feel of the color before I go with anything permanent.

Also, within the next day or so I will be picking up some clear drip to act as a primer for a spray tint on my tail lights. I will add pics when I get these finished!