[mattisz]

So as the title states, I have an '09 Accord Sedan (black) that I want to make some inexpensive visual adjustments to. Additionally, as of now, my car is leased it's a 2009 on a 3 year lease that is up in February of 2012. I am seriously considering buying out the lease very soon because I've fallen in love with the car and want to have more creative freedom with it. I'm pretty new to the forum so please cut me a little slack if I don't do something correctly. I have some ideas but want to hear some feedback from other users of DA before making any final decisions.

Current Mods:
- 20% tint all around (excluding the windshield)
- LED Glow 7 color interior lights (6 tubes all aimed at the front and rear footwells with a wireless remote)
- LED interior/trunk/license plate lighting

Future Plans (in something of an order):
- http://www.anzousa.com/pages/products/headlights/head_honda.html (one of these sets of headlights + a 55w 6000k HID kit from DDM Tuning) $378.37 (shipped)
- A rear white AMP'D Emblem like this one http://www.ampdemblems.com/images/honda_whitecomp_5h1n.jpg $99.45+shipping
- Remove "ACCORD" emblem (undecided on this one but it would definitely emphasize the AMP'D emblem)
- 70%-80% (% subject to change) smoked taillights (I understand that many believe this is a risk, personally I have accepted this risk and frankly, I'm not getting rear ended especially not with the AMP'D Emblem on)
- LED cupholders + coin tray
- Chrome door handles from College Hills
- LED exterior door handle accent lighting on unlock (like on many BMW models)
- Rims and tires

This list is just a work in progress and I'm not going to be doing most of these mods if I ultimately decide not to buy out the lease. With the exception of any tinting done, I have done and plan to do all future mods myself and am more than capable of doing so. If anybody wants pictures of my accord in it's current state just ask and I'll post them A.S.A.P. as of now it's pretty stock though. The reason I want to do rims and tires last is because my sister is learning how to drive on my car because my mom's car (2010 Jeep Wrangler Sahara) has odd proportions and a bunch of blind spots so my parents didn't feel that she should learn on it and there's no shot in h3ll that my dad would allow her to learn on either of his cars (2004 Corvette + 2010 Acura RL) so of course I got stuck lending out my car for the learning process and I fear curb rash like the plague. Seeing as the current state of my stock rims is pretty terrible, I don't care at all what she does to them but won't be changing them until I can be certain that she won't be driving my car.

Thanks for reading, sorry for rambling on about personal life and whatever. Just looking for some cool aesthetics to make the car look both more luxurious (LED interior, LED accent lighting, chrome door handles, HIDs...) or more young-adult (footwell lights, scraped emblem, AMP'D emblem, window/tail light tint, the above mentioned headlights in black...). Any ideas are much appreciated. I am 18 and live in the Greater New York Area if that makes any difference.

-Mattisz

 

[lastingxcauses]

I dont think you should get those head lights, i did some reviews and read that they are made cheaply and are bad quality, since your going to pay that much buddy your should get some retros done to your head lights instead. :thmsup:
But for everything else it sounds and looks good :banana:

 

[mattisz]

Thanks for the concern, vote and quick response lastingxcauses! I'd be interested to read where you read about the poor quality of those headlights. I don't doubt you because I was skeptical at first but there is a whole thread on them (http://www.driveaccord.net/forums/showthread.php?t=41109) and those who have them seem to like them. While most of them claim that the light output isn't much better than the stock lights, I don't have the money to get a retro done or the skill to do it myself so I figure those headlights with a 55w HID and they'll be brighter than stock. Additionally, the cutoff line for the lights is actually half decent. I definitely understand the concern but unless there is another thread with people bashing them, those who have them seem pretty happy. Additionally, seeing as the mods are for aesthetics, I've yet to see a retro that looks as good as those lights. I'm sure they work better but I don't think projectors look natural in the stock headlights IMHO.

 

[namegoeshere]

Even if you don't buy out the lease, you can still mod the car. You'll just need to return it to stock when you turn the car in. Then you'll have to sell off the mods and parts later.

But if you're happy with the car, then keep it and mod away. Besides, it makes more financial sense to buy/own a car than to keep leasing.

 

[mattisz]

Well, namegoeshere, that's the issue. I can't mod certain things because those things won't be able to be returned to stock without actually buying a replacement for the parts I'd be modding. At that point, it's almost not even worth it.

 

[bkzdragon]

+1 if you enjoy the car, its better to just buy it out. Though there are certain mods that are easily reversible (led license plate, stuff like that). I would hold off on debadging though because it would be a pain in the butt to reattach the accord emblem to the rear. I, for one, am against the aftermarket headlights as the optics arent too good. You really get what you pay for and I wouldn't mess around with something like headlights. You can get a decent retro done at around the same price also. Itll look way better and give you much better performance at the same time.

 

[glen e]

I'm buying mine out next year as it still looks brand new and you can't really argue with a 12.5K buyout figure. But all my mods could easily be removed and returned to stock if I change my mind between now and then.

 

[next_milenium]

I wouldn't start modding until you buy out the lease first.

Then, another "cheap" mod you can do is the M3 style roof lip spoiler. I think you can get it $70 painted and shipped from ebay.

Oh, and reconsider the tail light tint. It only takes one !diot eating a hamburger while driving to ruin your day (as it happened to me). Then, they and police will be all over you about the tinted tail light and you'll be responsible.

 

[mattisz]

next_milenium, your comment inspired me to read up on NYS tint law. As it turns out, something most police officers don't know is that there is no law banning tail light tint. The actual law states that one's taillights must be visible (when on) from no less than 1000 ft away (NYS Vehicle and Transportation Code, Title 3, Article 9, Section 3). I was only thinking about doing 50-70% tint so if i go with 70% I should be right on the money as far as the law and insurance is concerned.

 

[foulmouthedleon]

My last two Accords have been modded and both leased. Not anything over the top, but my '04 had Acura TL rims on it, was 44K over the lease limit and had tinted windows and they just shrugged it off. My '08 had leather seats, seat heaters, EX wheels and rims as well as an EX-L wheel and was 6K over the lease limit. Either my particular dealership doesn't really care or I just got lucky...twice.

I've already added cargo hooks and a crosstour leather shifter knob to my '11 and will add a sunroof visor, spoiler and body side molding in the next 60 days too.

This is just me, of course, but thought I'd share.

 

[Acc0rd 3.5]

next_milenium, your comment inspired me to read up on NYS tint law. As it turns out, something most police officers don't know is that there is no law banning tail light tint. The actual law states that one's taillights must be visible (when on) from no less than 1000 ft away (NYS Vehicle and Transportation Code, Title 3, Article 9, Section 3). I was only thinking about doing 50-70% tint so if i go with 70% I should be right on the money as far as the law and insurance is concerned.

this sounds like a great thread for me to find. I am also 18 and am just as interested in doing mods such as yours. So far i've been looking into getting my headlights changed out. I cant decide if I would rather these plain HIDs ( http://www.retrosolutionsllc.com/servlet/the-147/DIGITAL-HID-XENON-CONVERSION/Detail ) or buy a xenon projector kid ( http://www.retrosolutionsllc.com/servlet/the-303/9005-9006-HB4-HB3/Detail ) so your opinion on this would be helpful as well as anybody who may have the projector kit!

*also* would you mind posting some pics of your interior in your spare time? it would help me out with what i am looking to get for my ambient lighting. so far i'm thinking about oznium.com LED flexible strips. extremely cheap and seems quite easy to install. Let me know what you think!! :thmsup:

JW

 

[amedad]

I would also like to replace my I4EX-L door handles with chrome. I checked the college hills site and didn't see them. Where's the best site to buy from?

 

[ShocknAwe]

Hey, if you like the car, it makes good financial sense to buy it out. Better to own than rent a car, especially right now. Cant beat Hondas reliability either.

Also, please don't tint your tail lights. I can't believe people think it's OK to do. It makes seeing your brake lights extremely difficult, and with a ton of things to pay attention to on the road, you really do not want to add that one more thing for drivers to have to notice. Brake lights light up bright for a reason. That plus if someone hits you and you have tinted tails, it will be 100% your fault once the LEO's get there. So there are a few different reasons not to get them tinted, depending on what your motivation is.

 

[EXLAccord2011]

cup holder

How did you get the cup holder to illuminate? Where did you get the part, kit? Did you have to take the console apart? Love to do this...Do you plug it into the 12 volt of aux jack or tap into the main wiring?:thmsup:

 

[mattisz]

I respect your opinion but it is not my own

To all of those trying to sway me from tinting my tails, I understand that you don't like it or that you think it's a poor judgement call but as I stated before, this is my car and it is something that I want to do. I know my laws and I know my rights. As far as I'm concerned, it's not against the law where I live so I can do it if I want to. That's not to say it's entirely unregulated, there are simply no laws banning it in New York. I'm sorry if this post seems rude but 3 of the 16 posts prior to this one are just trying to talk me out of it and that's considering 4 of those posts are my own.

To everyone else, thanks a lot for commenting and I'm going to get back to all of you as soon as I can (possibly right after I post this).

 

[mattisz]

this sounds like a great thread for me to find. I am also 18 and am just as interested in doing mods such as yours. So far i've been looking into getting my headlights changed out. I cant decide if I would rather these plain HIDs ( http://www.retrosolutionsllc.com/servlet/the-147/DIGITAL-HID-XENON-CONVERSION/Detail ) or buy a xenon projector kid ( http://www.retrosolutionsllc.com/servlet/the-303/9005-9006-HB4-HB3/Detail ) so your opinion on this would be helpful as well as anybody who may have the projector kit!

*also* would you mind posting some pics of your interior in your spare time? it would help me out with what i am looking to get for my ambient lighting. so far i'm thinking about oznium.com LED flexible strips. extremely cheap and seems quite easy to install. Let me know what you think!! :thmsup:

JW

Well, I wouldn't recommend the plain HIDs, they're illegal in most places in a regular reflective housing because they frequently blind oncoming traffic. On the other hand, those 9006 projectors look pretty neat. Personally, I'm probably going to wait to either buy out the car or not. If I do choose to buy it out, I'm going to do my own retro and write up a lengthy DIY because I've yet to see a really superb one on here for the 8th gens.

As for the pics of the interior, I've been quite busy lately and my car interior is quite messy. After I get a chance to clean her up a bit I'll definitely post some pics for you to check out if you still want them. LED flexible strips are definitely cheap and easy but they definitely limit your options in that they are going to be single color (unless of course you're a circuitry wiz) and if you don't set them up with a button that you'd have to mount yourself somewhere, they're always on. Personally, I say spend the extra couple of bucks and get either OEM Interior Illumination if you want a very dim blue or get something from LED Glow or (if you want to drop a ton of cash for top of the line) Street Glow.

Hope that helps. Good luck with your car.

 

[mattisz]

I would also like to replace my I4EX-L door handles with chrome. I checked the college hills site and didn't see them. Where's the best site to buy from?

While I don't believe anybody could determine the "best" site to buy the chrome handles from one place you could purchase them is, http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/auto/jsp/mws/prddisplay.jsp?inputstate=5&catcgry1=ACCORD&catcgry2=2009&catcgry3=4DR+EXL-V6+%28NAVI%29&catcgry4=KA5AT&catcgry5=FRONT+DOOR+LOCKS+-+OUTER+HANDLE. Unfortunately, I don't know which pieces you would need exactly, I just know that they're on that page.

 

[mattisz]

How did you get the cup holder to illuminate? Where did you get the part, kit? Did you have to take the console apart? Love to do this...Do you plug it into the 12 volt of aux jack or tap into the main wiring?:thmsup:

You probably got confused between my current and future mod lists but that's OK :thmsup:. I've yet to do that and really can't until I decide on whether or not I'm going to keep this car. Forum member Sparky on the other hand did complete this and posted a DIY here that's actually pretty solid so definitely check that out.