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It all began in July. I was in a meeting at work and some retard decided to speak and mentioned a phrase that went something like "who wants to buy a $400 Lexus". I'm not one to do impulse purchases but my hand went up so fast it hurt from the massive amount of g-forces. I immediately said "I'll BUY IT!!!". I didn't have a clue what I had just bought. I whipped out my wallet, which is very thin and started flinging $20 dollar bills at this dude like he was some hot chick at a night club. I figured $400 dollar car...what could go wrong? I figured worst case scenario I throw a coat of wax on it and try to flip the thing in South Atlanta.
This dude drives it over to my shop in the pouring rain with no windshield wipers and what appears to be some Harbor Freight flashlights taped to the front end...I immediately wanted to withdraw my "I'll buy it!!!" statement. Feeling like a true retard, I now had the title in hand to some 20 year old Lexus and this dude smiling as he went away with my $400. He couldn't go far, I was going to see him at 8AM at work the next morning.
I had ended up purchasing a 1994 GS 300, or a Toyota Aristo. Still have no clue what this thing is, other than it has a horrible transmission, rough 2JZ, and no power steering. I parked it and went home with my tail between my legs thinking "I could of really spent that money on better things...". **** happens, I'll make some more and spend some more on this ridiculous car.
Behold, "thinwallets" 1994 Lexus...
I don't want to spoil all the cheap fun tonight. We have done quite a bit to it so far in making it "race" ready. I'm really not sure what I will be racing against, probably other slightly under paid humans that have the same interest as we do. My brother and I plan on having fun with it. Race it, cage it, wreck it (probably sooner than later).
Welcome to the club!! Car looks to be in decent shape for only $400!! I saw that mentioned Atlanta, I live about 30 minutes north and there are a few more guys in the area too. Always good more clean 1st Gen GS in the area.
The next stage was to clean it up and see what we had actually purchased. It was pretty rough. It had sat outside for one year with a dead battery in the GA climate (hot, humid, rainy, etc). The paint was moldy, interior smelled horrid from mold, and the tires were pretty low. All in all, a 3/10 overall. The pictures make it look in good condition. But there was surface mold on quite a bit of stuff.
I didn't get many pictures of before. But we spent about 4 hours scrubbing the interior down, trying to revive some of the OEM color. It turned out pretty good for what we had to work with.
We called it a day and headed home. Feeling good that we had begun this long project and I look forward to sharing it with you guys. It'll be a slow one, but in the end it'll be worth the wiat
Yeah besides the mold you got a pretty decent example of a GS! Definitely in better condition than I paid for mine ($750 with a blown auto transmission)
New springs, full buff and deep cleaning of all paint and rims, etc. Tonight starts the roll cage and transmission tear down. Gutted the entire interior except the two front seats. We plan on replacing them with FIA seats.
We are shedding even more weight before the cage. Dropping the transmission tonight and plan on clean everything thoroughly. We can't do a 6spd swap due to time limitations but that is in the future. Still looking for a FIA seat to install. Sunroof also needs to come out and replaced by a aluminum panel.
On a side note. This thing will SHRED tires now. With no weight over the rear axle it is a total blast to drift.
The doors have been gutted, all unneeded wiring removed, AC ducting pulled out, most of the dash board is out, and the sunroof has been removed.
Let me say this, when you remove 68LBS from the roof of a vehicle it transforms it. I will say, if you don't use your sunroof, REMOVE IT and weld in a aluminum panel. It handles like a go cart.
10-16-14, 09:13 PM
Our story, our build, our mistake...1994 GS 300
