JBurke034

JBurke034

2010 IS250 RWD

In searching for some info on a car I just bought for my 17 year old son I came across this forum and decided to sign up and share my build. I bought this off a friend of mine who hit a deer in the front. I liked the body style and body lines because I would be able to heavily modify it and still make it pleasing to the eye without compromising the original styling.

I do not know a lot about the specs or options for this car. I'm an old school metal fabricator, chassis builder, and adjustable suspension expert. I have extensive awards, magazine covers, and titles to back that up. Any pertaining to anything else is where you guys will be a big help.

I don't want to make this long winded so here is what you will see as I post updates:

I will be running 22x11 305/25/22 front, 22x12.5 335/25/22 rear, all metal wide body, Gen 3 IS350 front end swap including headlights.

JBurke034

JBurke034

lysis250

iTrader: (18)

Moooaaaar pics please, I feel like this will be wild. Your son sure is a lucky one.

JBurke034

Gutted the door jam and fabbed a new one so it will lay all the way out.

quick123

iTrader: (2)

Always nice to see a true metal fabricator, and I see you are like me in building an actual wide body instead of flaring the car. I am curious to see the 22s on there, as I decided to run 20s which provided their own challenges since 19s are the norm. If you want the car laid out on wheels that large, you will be getting into some extensive work, but with your background I am interested to see what you come up with. I see how you chose to cut at the body line and pull out from there. We did something similar by cutting the rear quarters at the body line and creating our own piece, and the rear door we sliced in the middle to add the width. I like the creative differences and am excited to see the progress! Hopefully you will post more updates than I do, lol.

JBurke034

Turned a Chevy hood and Ford Fusion fender into a door jam.

JBurke034

Thanks, for the positive feedback. A customiser is different in my opinion than a fabricator. A customiser chooses what he likes best out of his options. A fabricator is an artist that builds everything to represent the vision he has. Just like every artist a fabricator has a style based on his own personality that makes all his creations unique to what ever he was feeling or thinking at the time.

I want this build to be mean and clean. Basically I want it to look like a bodybuilder with a suit on.

I'm not sure on the engine though. I'm leaning towards cutting out the front strut towers and build a tubular cradle over top of the engine to hold up the suspension (getting rid of the struts and adding an upper control arm) and give me room to stuff twin turbos under the hood.

is250san

damnnnnnnnnnnn can't wait to see the outcome

heyarms

iTrader: (5)

Not sure why you chose wheels so large in diameter, I don't know how you're going to modify the body to not have it look like donks on a Chevy but good luck, your craftsmanship seems to be great so looking forward to the updates

JBurke034

I'm a master welder/fabricator and I'm very proficient at making panels and parts out of fiberglass, carbon fiber, or metal. I prefer metal because it stands up to time better, but is the hardest and most time consuming way to make custom panels. The door jam in the pics above took 8 hours to do and still needs the finish work done. I could have made it out of fiber glass in 2 hours including the finish work but it would have failed over time opening and closing the doors.

As for the donk comment I don't have to make my customizing decisions based on what the after market industry has to offer. I look at a project whether is a car, truck, or motorcycle depending on the style and look I just make what I need to get the look I want. I'm not stuck buying some 19's and a body kit so I can "look" low. The wheel in the pic is a 20 with 255/35/R20 tires. It is less than an inch smaller in diameter than the 22 wheel and tire I will be using.

You're looking at a $50k build from day one. The type of body mods and fabrication work I usually do on $200k streetrods. I'm running 22's because in my opinion it is the biggest wheel you can put on this car and still be asthetic. Anything bigger than a 22 and this car will look like it belongs to some mini trucker who stuffed in the biggest wheel he could find. I have the engineering knowledge and skills (and money) to stuff a 26×14 tucking lug nuts if I want to but it would look ridiculous because it's a Lexus not a 69 camero. You don't see 22's looking right on this car because it takes 200 hours of work to make it look right. Beside the sheet metal work I have to drop the rear k-member out and build a new one with hand built adjustable control arms. That roll the axle back an inch or so and keep the camber relatively straight.

The absolutely only reason you're getting ready to see a badass build on a Lexus IS250 is because of my son. Guys like me don't build cars like this because there are so many other better options out there.

Not only will this have 22's but it will also lay the rocker pinch weld on the pavement, have fully adjustable hydraulic suspension that will ride like stock, body mods and and transitions so smooth it's going to look like Lexus built this car. And if my 17 year old wasn't going to be behind the wheel (I don't want to hand him the keys to his coffin) I'd do a 1000hp engine swap. Instead, I'm just going show you guys how you can throw a couple of turbos under the hood because... I can!

Gville350

iTrader: (10)

So much WIN in the thread; where do I start?! Though I can respect the extensive body modification needed to fit what you want in the wheel wells, I'm very curious about the comments about the twin turbos comments. Are you going to sticking with the IS250 motor and stuffing twins under the hood or perhaps considering an upgrade to the IS350 motor? Either way, tuning these motors just recently became possible; I'd love to see someone pushing more than the 7-8lbs max that others have ran in the past through either motor via a S/C.

Lastly, would of course love to see this custom tubular cradle up under the hood; this would of course be another first for the community.

Does your son help you in the garage? Father/son projects are the best!

ISland350

in for this, I definitely can see the vision you have. I almost see this as an open interpretation of a Foose/Boyd Coddington hot rod type build put onto the 2is platform.

JBurke034

I'm running the twin turbos on the stock engine. The 350 engine isn't much better than the 250. The 3.5 is actually worse if you're wanting to do a high psi forced induction in my opinion after looking at the specs. The 3.5 has a longer stroke upping the centripetal weight that will exceed the benefit of the extra displacement. The 2.5 can achieve much better throttle response and a lower, longer, and more usable torgue curve that comes from higher and faster RPMs. If I didn't care about reliability and was drag racing in a straight line I'd pick the 3.5 all day. But if want to have some fun zipping in and out of traffic or down a windy road the 2.5 is a better choice and will still go fast in a straight line. This 250 motor should be able to handle 10,000 and 15psi of boost all day every day on the stock internals and 25psi with some pistons and rods to handle the heat.

But, first you must lower the compression ratio to around 8:1 and use the dual injector system off the 3.5. The engine design looks like there isn't enough room to make lower compression pistons so your only option probably would be a head spacer. Basically adding something like a stoker plate.

Honestly the only real reason to make this 2.5 go fast is to say you did it (the reason I'm going to it) and to give the guys who can't afford an engine swap some hope... lol! Because it's going to take more time and money not to mention experimentation to get it there. When you can just put something tried and trued under the hood for for less money and time.

If I'm going to do an engine swap I'll just stuff a turbo LS6 engine in this ***** and call it a day!

My kid driving this car is a major factor in not going crazy with the horse power. It definitely going to be twin turbo but if I have to take apart the engine to get past 7-8psi it's not going to happen. With the information I have right now (which is not much) I can see me spacing the heads upgrading the fuel and management system and pushing 12-15psi.

And yes my son does help me.