badvoltron

iTrader: (1)

Hey fellas! This is my introduction thread with my very average 1995 LS400. A few years ago I moved from California to Kentucky and with the price of car ownership out here being so low and the utter lack of car laws I found myself getting sucked back into the car hobby a bit. About six months ago or so I bought an 04 Chevy Silverado SS on a whim which led me to start looking for a different daily driver after I realized what a beast that truck is to drive.

A good childhood friend of mine out here is a toyota nut who has been talking up the LS400 to me for years. After doing some research I knew I wanted to give one a try. I ended up with this, here are a few pics from the original dealership ad:
http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps5f419448.jpg
http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps05f5b567.jpg
http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps5cdb69d1.jpg

So this is a two owner car (I am the third) with 209K on her when I bought it, no accidents. There was extremely detailed and complete service records that came with it. The previous old man owner looked to be quite a complainer, the dealership service records go into great detail about him complaining about all sorts of silly stuff and paying to replace any part they mentioned might be the problem. Anyways the car is in pretty amazing condition. The only real wear is on the passenger seat, and stained and sun bleached carpet, the previous owner replaced the drivers side seat cover and center console cover so it feels and looks good, the rest of the leather is slightly firm but not bad. The steering wheel and lexus floor mats were in great condition when I removed the protective crap grandpa installed. The engine bay is extremely clean and unmolested, I still havent found any rust on the car. Outside and underneath it is in very impressive condition

I overpaid a little and I am ok with that. I had a limited amount of time to find a car and the pickens are slim around this part of the country, but I am very happy with the vehicle I ended up with. In fact I am quickly falling in love with this bastard the more I work on it, you have to love 90's toyota engineering. I think a LS will always be in my car lineup from here on out.

So far over the past few months I have:

Had the timing belt service done with water pump and the rest of the recommended ancillaries
Replaced caps and rotors, plugs and wires
Replaced the tranny pan seal (it was a bit damp looking) and the fluid that drained out
Replaced the bank one o2 sensor
ECU recap
Replaced the broken power antenna with an ebay chinese TRD knockoff special
Scrapped off all the nasty 20 year old tint (what a pain in the ***)
Replaced engine air filter and cabin air filter
Replaced upper glove box door, previous one was cracked
Fixed a rear non functioning window (turned out to just be an old crusty connector)
Performed the power tilt steering fix I read about here
Replaced the main trunk seal
Did the JBradley cold air mod including head light seal removal
Muffler delete
Bought and installed a set of TRD replacement SC430 wheels that popped up local on craigslist, they have a a fresh refinish on them with powdercoated centers and polished lips, these also included a fresh set of dunlop direzza 40 series tires

So here she is as she sits now (except the rear door panel has been reinstalled):



The things left to do on my list are:
needs new rear rotors
Dr paint chip
Drivers side sun visor needs replaced
Fuel pump and filter
A/C service
Check motor and tranny mounts
New battery before winter
Rear diff fluid change

So anyways there she is and here I am!
These forums have been an utterly awesome resource. So much useful information here and tons of helpful members, it seems like a great community. I've really enjoyed my lurking over the last few months and promise to start posting from here on out. Thanks for all the help so far fellas.

badvoltron

iTrader: (1)

So I am curious what you guys think of these wheels? Be brutally honest, it was very hard to find pictures of these wheels on anything else and at first I was back and forth on them, but they are starting to grow on me, I know they will look much better when I am lowered and they are spaced. That being said I may pick something else up later. If anyone in the Louisville KY area has a set of clean SC430 stock dish wheels and would like to trade hit me up.

Also I am thinking of starting to gather parts to do a partial interior color change next summer and am thinking of vinyl dying the carpet black. Im curious how it looks up close and wears over time. Ive seen build threads of other people doing this but Im curious what it looks like after a few years of use. So if anyone has experience with this please let me know.

Thanks for any replies.

sha4000

iTrader: (1)

I was looking at these wheels years ago but decided against them because I saw them on a lot of cheap beat up cars. Sorry......

badvoltron

iTrader: (1)

Update!

since the last post I have:

sold those wheels and am back to rolling on stockers until I find something better.

Pulled the original carpet kit out and vinyl dyed it black
I also dyed the carpet on the bottom of the door panels to match as well as the material over the speaker grills
I also vinyl dyed the steering wheel and column black
The black carpet and few dyed touches really helped break up the brown interior and give it a new look inside

I replaced the broken stock pioneer cassette player with a new pioneer multimedia head unit. Finally having blu tooth in one of my cars is an awesome upgrade. My car didnt have the factory subwoofer option so I didnt loose use of it. I do have some subs and an amp to install but I will save that for another post.

I had the windsheild replaced, the original had a ton of fine scratches which was pretty dangerous to drive with at night or in the rain. Also put new bosch icon wipers on after the windsheild install.

I also bought and installed 4 new kyb's and front lower ball joints.



Here is the car with a friends 2000 platinum LS400 on one side and another friends 2000 GS300 on the other side

The "to do" list is getting short now, next I want to refinish the interior wood trim and do something about the ugly shifter trim.