Duct_Taper

Picked up this 2012 TL SH-AWD Tech back in May as a CPO with ~65k kms (~41k miles). Figured I'd start myself a progress thread. No really big plans for it, mainly progressive small upgrades keeping it close to a stock look but improving things (e.g. lighting) to where I think they should have been from the factory.

Anyway, some photos to start off...

Day of purchase:


A week later on the way home after picking it up:


First modification - 3M 1080 vinyl on the front grille and rear trim:






Next on the list: going in next week to get Formula One Pinnacle ceramic tint!

purextc

Looks good! Nice job.

KarKraze

Welcome to Azine and congrats on the new car.Nice to see another Canuck on the forum.

Pinnacle Ceramic tint is an awesome upgrade and you will love it's clarity at night.

Duct_Taper

Thanks! Pretty excited about the tint... I chose the Pinnacle Ceramic in part based on the good reviews on this forum and the pictures of your car in the Tinted TL pictures thread. I went with the 30% as well so I hope it looks as good on mine as it does on yours!

Other minor things coming up:
- LED license place lights ready to be installed (went with Philips XV 6000k, didn't want to be that much brighter than oem, just whiter)
- took advantage of the TRS July 4th sale and ordered LED bulbs for the puddle lights and trunk light, and the XB Type S fogs.

More pictures to come...

Duct_Taper

And the tint is done...








Pretty happy with how it turned out. I did notice that there is a bit of light scattering around the defroster lines on the rear window at night... hoping that will improve a bit as the tint cures over the next week.

carbonTSEX

Tint looks good. I would of told the tint shop to tint over the 3rd brake light. It looks much better but nice progress. Also looking forward to see your new lighting.

Duct_Taper

I definitely considered asking for them to tint behind the 3rd brake light but in the end I decided I was happy with not reducing any of the light output from it - better to be safe, imo.

As for the other lighting, I got around to changing out the license plate lights. I looked at a few options but ended up going for the Philips XtremeVision 6000K (129666000KX2 is the part number) as I wanted something that was a nice clean white without being ridiculously bright, and I trust Philips to produce something of decent quality. It seems like most 194 LED bulbs are trying to be as bright as physically possible in the package size but I don't feel the need to blind people behind me. The Philips bulbs are also a forward-firing LED which is perfect for the TL's license plate bulb setup. Anyway, on to the pics (sorry for the poor quality and the dirty car!)

OEM incandescent bulbs:


Philips XV left, OEM incandescent right:


Both Philips XV:




The new lights look fairly bright in the photos but in reality the light intensity is a pretty good match with the parking / tail lights, which is exactly what I was hoping for. The 6000K gives a nice 'high-end' look as well.

This photo gives a better idea of the actual brightness:

Duct_Taper

A couple more minor updates... first, I was getting a little fed up with the faded/chipped silver paint on my key fob, so I tried covering it with a bit of the leftover vinyl from the trim project to see what it would look like:





I think it's alright - maybe a bit better than the crappy silver, but I didn't do a great job with the vinyl as I was rushing it. I think if I took my time and used the heat gun a bit it would actually look pretty nice.


And second, scored a deal on these:





Any recommendations for tires? At the moment the main ones I'm considering are the 245/40R19 Potenza RE760 Sport, the 255/40R19 Pilot Super Sport, and the Pirelli P7 Cinturato Plus in either size.

KarKraze

Nice progress,the diamond cut rims look awesome on a black TL

I have the Pilot Super Sport, very good tires with excellent dry/wet traction.