jptl04

iTrader: (1)

You can get the exact paint to match your car here
http://www.paintscratch.com/apple.html

just type in your Paint code, pens, brushes, spray cans... I got some touch up brushes and the match is perfect.

jkarl

Thanks for the link

kapo

yo that shit cameout hot, mad work tho, but i realy want to do that, or mabe finde a way to buy that shit alredy made.

kapo

yooooooooooo u a life saver , i was wondering how to take the little scratches on my passenger door without wasting mad money, but my car is anthracite , u think it will work?

acura_dipset_tl

iTrader: (40)

Thanx again maddizn for the great write up finally did my headlights.
https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-photograph-gallery-96/finally-cleared-out-my-headlights-type-s-diffusers-custon-clear-reflectors-778106/

jmiller0805

can't wait to do this! looks awesome

wil318466

I just got finished this project on a 2005 Acura TL, reading pretty much the guides and using the guide on Youtube that showed how to take off the bumper.

I will put everything together in a nutshell right here : anyone who tells you this job is "easy" is smoking crack.

It was a LOT of work. When I mean a lot, I mean I needed help multiple times. I never even wound up putting the angel eyes in, but I did clear the headlamps of the orange reflector, which is really my goal in the first place. I think it looks SO much better without the yellow reflectors it's almost astonishing how much better it looks. I felt obligated to come here and post so that people who are thinking of taking on this project get a regular joe-shmoe type of review on how this is done. Keep in mind I am NOT mechanically inclined at all, but I'm not an idiot. I can take off bolts, screws and clips, and this project took me well over 8 hours.

Follow the guides. They help, but they are far from perfect if you already have a bodykit on your car. Mine does, so there are a few extra clips/bolts I had to just kinda "figure out" on the fly. It was frustrating. The front bumper actually isn't that difficult to take off, but you have to find each and every clip/bolt and then just pull it off. It says 20 minutes? It took me 3 hours to take off bumper. Not kidding.

Start early in the day. I ran out of daylight on the first day, and just had to stop at 8pm or so simply because of the lack of light. Don't even think of doing this project without having someone "around" the house in case you need help. Don't even think of doing this project if you need to use your car to get somewhere in 6 hours. Don't even think of doing this project if you want to feel your hands for the next day or so. My hands just straight up hurt right now from the amount of bolts I've fastened and unfastened, and messing with those plastic clips. Don't believe the guy in the video, taking those clips out are NOT EASY the first few times you do it. Maybe his were loose, or mine were extra tight, but I jammed my fingers a lot trying to pull them out.

Pretty much everything can be done with a 10mm socket wrench, screwdriver, and phillips head in terms of taking the bumper off and taking the headlights out. At least that part was easy. There was ONE part where having an extension to the socket wrench helped me immensely. That was for the metal support under each headlight. You'll see when you get there, it's directly under the headlight and needs 3 bolts to unfasten, but its deep in there. On the passenger side it's behind the winshield wiper fliud resovoir, I believe. These were the only ones that were a pain in the butt to get to. Get an extension, trust me.

Here are some hints : on the right hand side, remove the resovoir so you can get your hand under it to get to the screws directly above it. On the drivers side, take off the plastic airflow thingy to get to it. I'm not sure if the airflow part is on a standard tl, but it was there with my bodykit.

If you have the time, write down where every bolt /clip goes. I have extras. Don't laugh, you'll have a few extra bolts too.

Use 2 people to get the headlamps apart after you bake them. Here's a HUGE hint - find a corner, pull it apart by jamming a screwdriver in there and prying it apart. Wiggle it in there, and pul it apart best you can, hold it open and have someone else with another screwdriver or thin metal object start "cutting" the glue off. I'm glad my girl helped me with this, as this part would be impossible doing myself for the regular TL headlights. work down one side, then do the other side, then go back and do the other side. You'll see, you need to slowly pry it apart. It's not horribly hard, but when I started it I said to myself "oh my god I don't know how to do this". Another tip : do ONE headlight, leave the other one alone. When you are done, you might be a bit confused on how it goes back together again, look at the other one to make sure you put it back together properly. Remember, you bake each headlight twice. Be super careful with the sticky stuff, I got some on the front of the headlight and it was just a pain to wipe/scrap off. It's not hard, but just avoid getting anything on it in the first place. After it comes out of the oven mine had a bit of sticky stuff around. Lay it on an old rag/towel/whatever.

Biggest tip : don't even think of bending the angel eyes. They break. Unforunately, I know because I broke one. It didn't fit perfectly around the cylinder part so I was messing with it and broke it. 100 dollars in the trash. Whatever, like I said the main goal was to take the reflectors out, and I accomplished that so I'm happy.

Like I said, I'm a complete and total noob at stuff like this. I got a little brave after reading the guides and people saying it wasn't that bad, I figured "hey, if they can do it I can do it" and I do have to admit, I did get through it, but I'll tell you this right now : if someone offered me 300 dollars cash to go through that entire process again right now, I'd say hell no. My back hurts, my hands hurt, I have 3 blisters on my hands and 2 cuts, and I lost 2 lbs of sweat from laying down on a towell with my head under the bumper trying to take out bolts.

I would have paid someone a few hundred bucks to do the job for me, easily, if I knew how I'd feel afterwards. I feel good I accomplished it, but even THINKING about doing that again is laughable. There were at least 3 times when I said "I give up" and then I thought "I took apart the whole bumper, I can't give up now" and kept going. Like I said, I'm only writing this reponse for people who are just like me : normal guys who can follow simple instructions and are NOT used to working on cars.


But, if you have the time and the energy to attempt it, it is doable, but it's FAR from enjoyable.

Good luck.

-Wil

wil318466

Hm.. I guess I can't edit my posts, eh? woops.

winkyyy

I've been thinking about doing this but not sure if it will look good on KBP. anyone got pics?

iChinese

I've got a question why does the headlights need to be baked?

Phambam12

to heat up the glue to take apart.

Phambam12

bump for those searching*

gotta do this again. my headlights had moisture inside after it rained. it was hard to find this thread for some reason.

umit

Thanks a lot for the write up man... Made it very easy to do mine...

http://www.4shared.com/folder/b4dHmkHy/corners.html

bduncan5

Oh Oh.. you might want to get the hyper white bulbs for the turn signals and just put them in while you're doing this. No need goin' through all this again to replace the bulbs. I gotta say the stock ones are FUUUUUGLY , but I couldn't tell b/c it was covered by the amber before. They're all yellow and dingy!... i guess i gotta go through all this agian when i get those replacements. ah well. CHEERS! [/QUOTE]

Do your turn signals blink amber??

zoostation

iTrader: (1)

I like the list of mods you've done. Question, what brand fogs did you go with? I picked up HID Extra about a year ago, finally got around to installing today (attempted anyway) and they don't fit in the fog assembly. Looks like they were made for 04-05.