ArmyJoe

I am sure we have all seen this before but I am considering taking the front grill guard off the front of the LX. I will not have pics in here until this Friday, but here is the problem. I picked up some 23s and they are chrome (not my first choice but the price was pretty right and they fit, so thats that). I have the Black exterior with the gray bottom trim. IMO the tint is reflective/brown... something to that effect and it needs to be redone.
So, from the side of the truck I am seeing, chrome, gray, brown,a little bit of amber (easy fix) and black.
I would like to change that to
Black/Chrome. (nothing chrome but the wheels)

I have the grill guard on the front, I want a clean look to the truck. So, I believe it would have looked better with some 18's or 20's in black also. The grill guard is black. I have heard all the who-ha about if the guard does anything, originally I liked the way it looked. I have picked up a painted spoiler, but not installed yet.

So, I am thinking this is the correct corse of action for a clean look, in the most cost effective order:
Remove some badges (who cares if is a V8?)
Install the spoiler
Remove grill gaurd (sell to local Land Cruiser/LX owner)
Clear Corners lights (no more amber period)
Have the tint redone (issue see below)
Painting the front grill black.
Paint the bottom gray trim black.

The Tint freaking tint. We have reflective/brown/ugly (may have been OEM dont know) Trim on the back two side window. The front are tinted lighter and the rear is tinted also. I DO NOT want it to be TOO dark or TOO illegal. In other words, the days of Limo all the way around and 35% down the windshield are long gone. But I am thinking that A clean, fairly dark tint all the way down the side and a light but still blackish tint on the back (a middle of the road very light tint). But down the side the tint HAS to match this time. Plus, I am scared to think what a place may want to charge to pull all the old crappy tint. Anyways, welcome to thoughts and pics to come.

Max707

You need to take this question to www.ih8mud.com they will steer you in the right direction

LX470Pilot

If your truck is '00-'03, I believe you'll find that the grill is chrome under the black paint.

Pick a spot not easy to see from the outside, and scratch a little - there should be chrome under there.

Other than that - actually, for better info on that, and everything else, I agree with Max707 - bring your question over to ih8mud and they'll help you get sorted.

-LX Pilot

1loudLX

I did this only the V8 though - Remove some badges (who cares if is a V8?)

Thought about it but didnt - Install the spoiler

had a centerguard, took it off to replace with an ARB bar soon. Remove grill gaurd (sell to local Land Cruiser/LX owner)

Did this mod also. You have to rewire the lights unless you get the jdm stuff. you will still have amber in the tailights unless you bake them and open the housing and then unscrew the little cap. - Clear Corners lights (no more amber period)

Have the tint redone? Its within the windows, to update your windows to black, you have to actually REPLACE the windows. I just darkened it to 5% all around and gave up with worrying about the reflective part. - Have the tint redone (issue see below)

Front grille black? Thats a nice mod i thought about painting mine the color of the truck but opted for the cheap route, just chrome it. I might paint it back soon - Painting the front grill black.

I kind of like my two tone, but if my truck was black i would do it - Paint the bottom gray trim black.



If it was just crappy tint, my shop that i got my tint done would only charge 100 bucks to peel it off. I wish it was that easy!

If you were to replace the windows with the newer OEM windows, 20% black on the front two windows and 70% on the front window would REALLY set the truck off. Anyways good luck.



Also to max and pilot, why send him over somewhere else for me to end up just answering the same questions. lol!

aedgington

Very interested to see the look with the grill painted black... I had thought about this also.

On the flip side, I do like the front of my truck now, with the clear corners and the chrome grill.

I had also considered painting the trim black, but I've decided I don't like the look as much as I thought I would (see pic below).

I also removed the V8 badge, I think it looks much cleaner without.

All black w/ clear corners:

ArmyJoe

Wowsers. Well LoudLX you ruined my dreams. Your telling me the windows are that way from the factory for sure? That is so very terrible I am pretty upset.

Whose truck is that above? I watched my wife drive last night when I picked her up from the airport. The truck looks good. The tint seemed like the easy fix but not if this is the case. Does anyone have any successful window tint done that did not include replacing the windows? Dang it thats crappy. They got me good with the 2 tone and the reflective brown tint.

The chrome on the grill, I am back and forth on it. I dont remember what it looks like right now, but I believe its the ring around the whole grill like above. If tht was painted black (so it was glossy) it would be a subte trick from the old S4 days. (color matching the RS4 outer ring to the car for a clean look).

The wheels are huge. They have grown on me quick, the truck is a pretty good size too so they look pretty good. I might install the spoiler today.

The rewire can not be too hard..... is it just splicing? two or 3 wire. I must be 3 if there is a running/turn signal light in there.

I had not even thought about the tails. They are ok for now.

Besides that I need it to be above freeezing so I can go wash this thing. I will sell the grill guard to anyone locally for $100. I have the LC hardware also. Guess its time for craigslist/Ebay/CL post on that part.

Well thanks guys, we will see how it goes. Dang it the tint has me ticked off. I was hoping that a $200 fix would really make it clean. The worst part is it cant be covered I guess becuase its still reflective.

1loudLX

from the inside my windows look black, but at certain angles in the light, tahts what you get. I had thought about putting a light film of reflective stuff on, and then put another layer of tint to make it dark, but i wanted it dark, asap.

Max707

You need to take that back to stock. That looks bad

1loudLX

it doesnt look bad at night, and thats when i roll. I took the chrome handle things off and the brush guard is off now.

That little bit of reflective stuff though, at night...basicly makes the window black. You cant see in even with a maglight shining right in. Yay!


And taking it back to stock, would basicly mean just peeling the front windows, which im definately not doing. Already paid a ticket for those things.

EWOK363

My buddy has that same problem with his 02 LX. The stock tint is a tempered glass which means its a tint thats in the actual glass, not the film tint like usual tints. This being the case YOU DO need to replace the glass and cannot strip that tint since its the actual glass that has the tint on it. I myself like that tint and wanted to match the fronts with the rest but havent found a shop that can PERFECTLY match this. On my old rx330 we had a shop match the fronts to the stock tints in the back. From the outside it was the same percentage although from the inside the stocks had a brownish tint to it and the fronts that they matched had a grayer tint to it so it was noticable from the inside but not the out. On my buddys 02 he had the fronts done and had the backs tinted over the stock tint to match the percentage in the fronts and it looks just like this LX with the mis-matched tint and this was done all around the whole vehicle. So good luck in trying to get this done, if i do find a place that can perfectly match the fronts i'll send their info on here and i'll post pics when i get them up! GOOD LUCK.

ArmyJoe

Here is a small pic.

ArmyJoe

Ok, so here it is clean.
Quick fixes....
Remove the front Grill
Remove the Amber
Get spoiler installed... I looked at it today. It looks pretty easy, will have to do it tomorrow. Well, working tomorrow so may be sunday.

1loudLX

joey, you could try to get these windows, probably would be alot cheaper then getting the black tinted windows...then you could just get the windows tinted. And you could change the color every few months if you wanted, hah.

Max707

Put this picture on on the chat section at www.ih8mud.com with your planned mod's I bet they could give you some great recommendations. They are all LC/LX guys with a lot of experience. Let us know if you post it over on Mud so we all can learn from their recommendations. Good luck with your customizing job.