Finally got some modding time in. Started out with painting the ACURA on the bumper and black mesh in the lower grill mod. I used some good, powder-coated aluminum mesh off eBay and basically followed the DIY's in the Garage.



The grill is not quite ready for a big write-up or DIY. It took a half dozen trips to Pep Boys and Home Depot and I think I've got the final design down. But the execution wasn't quite a home run.



The Cliff's Notes version is:

• remove bumper and disassemble center grill
• remove the chrome, outer cross bar trim piece
• cut out most of the middle of the grill insert
• paint everything that's going to be visible a flat black so it contrasts with the new mesh grill
• install a molding trim around the edge of the 'mouth'
• cut mesh to tuck in behind the molding - I pooched the trimming and that's why there are more screws than I'd like
• cut hole in mesh and use the emblem mount and emblem to hold the mesh
• bolt emblem mount to the cross bar mount that's molded in the rest of the bumper cover

It's a little bit Frankenstein in execution while I designed it on the fly, but I learned my lessons and it will be a cleaner install next time. The wifey patiently put the honey-do's on hold for a couple weeks, so I don't think I'll be able to do more until spring. I ran out of daylight to put my a-spec front lip on and I just don't see the weather and my weekend schedules cooperating until then. But for now it'll do and I'm satisfied my TL no longer looks like the other twenty TL's in the parking lot at work.

 

looks good bro...keep up the good work!

 

looks nice

 

nice

 

I agree with your statement in regards to execution... The center bar is really visible still.

Lower grilles look nice.

 

Great start can't wait to see the finshed product.

 

Thanks, all. The look is as I envisioned it, but I'm waffling now. The facade looks a little 2G-ish or possibly RL-ish, not that there's anything wrong with either. I think I might go back to the drawing board to make the mouth open more, so the face of the mesh goes back and under the nose of the hood. It flows nicely and the profile looks cleaner as it stands, but I think it needs a little rake or something to make the mouth a little more aggressive...somewhere between what I have now, and the other extreme of the imported, $200 mesh grill on eBay, which has the mesh way back.

 

Nicely done! The first time I took my grill apart it was a pain in my ass. I can't imagine doing something custom like that.

Like others have said, I'm not a huge fan of the center bar being visible but I'm sure you'll tackle that eventually

 

Chessie, if you're not looking straight on, you don't see the center bar too much. From the pictures, it's not too bad.

 

Do you still have the 4 screws in the picture holding the mesh in? If those were gone and the center bar was gone I would like it!

 

Nice grille

 

Couple more pics. Aside from the screws, I think it's a clean mod, and personally I can live with the bar. The gloss of the grill draws your attention more in-person and at certain angles is even less noticeable.



I think the profile looks just as custom as the straight-on view, but for some reason I'm not smitten by it. It's not that it looks bad... Something about it just seems to echo the looks of another car and it's bugging me a little.

 

not too bad. it's growing on me for sure.

 

The new shots work! Very clean indeed.

 

Look like an American car? but the bottom grill looks cool

 

Cause the TL is an American car! =p