I am dead set on completing this mod. I’ve called a few custom auto shops and they all suggest it would cost my soul. LOL I’m being facetious of course. But needleless to say it’s EXPENSIVE!
I’ve scoured the net for how to's and I’ve gathered that really Id just need the diamond pentagon grill piece, the plastic encased Acura Logo and adherer to my existing grill plate. There will obviously have to be some cutting. But I can figure out if the MDV diamond grill or the TLX would better work. Ideas? Thoughts? Has anyone done this mod? The white TL is what I did in photoshop. The champagne color one actually exists....I’ve tried reaching out to the owner of that pic and to no avail he doesn’t respond
[img]file:////Users/phillipanderson/Library/Group%20Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/TemporaryItems/msohtmlclip/clip_image001.png[/img]
[img]file:////Users/phillipanderson/Library/Group%20Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/TemporaryItems/msohtmlclip/clip_image002.png[/img]

 

Here are the images

 

I'd buy one if it's reasonable

 

I believe this info was in another thread a few months back, someone contacted a guy from Instagram who had done a few and they were $1k+ to do?

 

1k? for the grille? Thats Ridiculous. Well there goes that idea.

 

You know you can DIY it. Buy a used TLX grille and a dremel and take your time on it! Shouldn't run more than $100-$200 that way!

 

I've been working on my own custom grille for the past couple of months, and I started out by buying the TL grille base (black plastic), TL grille trim (silver), TL grille garnish (painted top piece), and the TLX diamond mesh. (I'm doing a 2012+ front end conversion, so I had to buy the extra TL bits anyway since I can't do this on my 2010 grille).

If you're willing to put in the work, it's a worthy project if you take your time and do it right. For me, once I realized that I couldn't easily source any used parts (this was back in Oct/Nov) and the emblem was $200, I gave up on the TLX mesh idea and sourced some powdercoated black hex mesh instead. I also wasn't a huge fan of the giant emblem (it's literally the size of my own face, according to the hole in the TLX mesh that I ordered), plus I like the idea of having my own custom 1 of 1 grille lol.

If you're not comfortable hacking away at your current grille, the replacement TL parts alone will run about $200-300 depending on if you get eBay replicas or good condition used parts. The TLX parts are ridiculously hard to source used (I just happened to find 1 entire grille used on ebay for $450 with scratches, but there was nothing when I originally started researching months ago), so sourcing everything new from the dealership will run about $530, cheaper if you can find the replicas on eBay (1 OEM used grille minus the emblem is on eBay for $150), but realize the emblem alone is $200 because it's the cover for the crash mitigation radar... not just a simple emblem.

Reusing your current TL parts, very best case scenario if you can source them is that $150 eBay TLX grille + $200 emblem = $350 in parts + the hours of labor needed to properly cut and mount everything into place. Include the TL replacement parts, that's $550-650 in parts. No used eBay parts available? $800 in parts alone.

Since I haven't seen a single close-up view of those grille swaps (only front views from a distance), I can't tell exactly where he mounted the TLX mesh, but more than likely it was mounted inside of the TL grille base which is going to need significant dremel'ing to remove the stock material and make room for the TLX diamonds. I don't think you could get away with just gluing the TLX mesh on top of the TL grille base without removing material mostly because the TLX mesh has a lot of open spaces between the diamonds, and would look like garbage if you could still easily see the TL base underneath. With my current experience hacking away at my own grille, I'd think that requires:

1) Modding the TL grille base to remove the entire center
2) Modding the TL grille trim to remove the brackets needed to mount the silver shield thingy
3) Modding the TLX mesh to fit within the envelope you created inside the TL grille base
4) Modding the TLX front grille base to reuse the emblem mounts, since you've just created a giant hole in the center of the TL grille with nowhere to mount the emblem
5) Anything else I forgot, and with this being a custom DIY job, there will be things you didn't originally think of and have to fix on the fly.
6) Mounting things into place

Maybe that guy has an easier method, maybe he doesn't, but considering the parts and handcrafting skill involved, I can understand someone charging $$$$ for this.

 

As someone who has done several one of Custom Mods, I can safely say that very few people will understand the effort and time that is required to fabricate Custom Parts.

Generally ,the Cost of the Parts alone can be prohibitive.

I have been approached many times and asked to replicate Parts that I did and always refuse simply based on the time alone.

DIY, pay for it or forget it.

 

This man speaks to the truth because I feel his pain with custom DIY's

 

Lol,thanks.

Yes, you would know because you have also done a nice job.

Custom Parts that are well executed are a mix of Art, Patience and Passion.

 

Did you ever get this done ? What year TLX is appropriate to fit a 2012 front ?

 

I am a body man of 10 plus years. I have a stock grill I could try to modify but i don't want to buy an extensive tlx grill to see how possible this is. If it's doable, i would for sure do this mod for peeps but by the looks of it idk if the finish on this would look good.

 

Let me now what you need. I can help fund the project. Feel free to DM me.

 

Have you made this mod yet ?