Exterrior
Exterrior Mods
20% Smoke Gray Tint
September '08 - Done by The Tint Shop, located on Nothern Boulevard in Great Neck. I'm sufficiently pleased with them, but the workman ship could have been a bit better in places.
Deck Lid Spoiler
October '08 - Discreet and understated. Adds just the right touch of sportiness to a class luxury vehicle.
Photos of the tints and decklid spoiler. 1 month into owership of vehicle:
V-LED License Plate and Superlumination Reverse LED's
September '08 - If there's anything that ruins the look of a vehicle, it's dim, yellow tinged lighting. To remedy this, I've gone with V-LED license plate light LED replacements and Superlumination REverse light LED replacements. Besides also looking good, the reverse lights brighten up the view when using the rear view camera. Photos to follow.
Nokya 2500K H8 Fog Light Bulbs
December '08 - I also changed the fog bulbs to Nokya 2500K bulbs for that yellow look. I suck taking photosl, but this is the best I could do. The HID's are OEM and are about 4300K. I got alot of colors going on right now though so I'm working on a plan to get everything on the same page.
TL-S Tail Lights and Rear Side Markers
February '09 - New for 07-08 are 2 new tail light designs. As can be seen in the photos above, the all red tail lights were replaced with a red and white variant under a clear lense for the base model. The Type-S received red lenses in a smoked chrome bazel, again under a clear lense, as seen in the photos below. The rear side markers on all 3G bade TL's are red. The TL-S has gray rear side markers to match the front. I replaced these as well as I feel they flow better with the tail lights.
V-LED 68 SMT 9005 LED DRL's and Harness
March '09 - I recently installed new DRL's. For anyone familiar with the 07-08 Acura TL in both base and Type-S versions, DRL's were added in place of the old fog lights, and fog lights were added in the lower grill area. The OEM DRL's are regular 9005's which produce your typical yellow-ish color. Many have tried to replace these bulbs with other bulbs that have a higher Kelvin temperature, but we all soon realize that these DRL's, similar to those in a Lexus, are under powered and even the higher color temp bulbs never get to full white since they are not getting enough juice. Well the answer to this seemed to be LED's as they require less power. Well, of course there is no easy solution. It turns out that the plugs are wired together in some weird way which results in them not having an even power output...grrrr. Finally, V-LED's came up with a solution. There is one harness that is plugged into the passenger side light sucket with a resistor to simulate a bulb and the keep that pesky DRL light off on the dash. Then there is another harness which plugs into the passenger side, and plits into 2 plugs for the LED DRL's. I went with V-LED's 68-SMT 9005 LED DRL's. Here are some photos of the harness and the end results.
Acura Front, Side and Rear Underbody Spoilers (AKA the "A-Spec Lip Kit")
March '09 - The A-Spec lip kit is another Acura OEM accessory. I installed this in March of 2009. It consists of a lip that add onto the front and rear bumpers, and side skirts that replace the OEM ones.
Shaved Rear Emblems
May '09 Like they say, less it more. I prefer the clean look.
Painted Brake Rotor Hubs
June '09 - With the new wheels, the hubs of the brake rotor are exposed more than with the OEM wheels. The problem with this is that of the brake rotor is prone to surface rust. Behind those shiny new wheels, it looks terrible! Solution to this is some high-temp brake paint on the center of the rotors.
Page Directory
Page 1 - Intro
Page 2 - Engine Mods
Page 3 - Suspension Mods
Page 4 - Exterrior Mods (You are here)
Page 5 - Interrior Mods
Page 6 - Wheels and Tires
Page 7 - The Future
