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So I've owned my car for about a year and a half now (since May 2015), and thought it was time to put together a build thread of what I've done so far. Most of the stuff you'll see below is modifications, not maintenance. Most maintenance stuff like timing belt, water pump, ect, were excluded from this.
So, let's begin.
May 2015, I buy my car. California car, 2 owner, 96k miles, and BLACK. Couldn't have asked for anything better. Got it for a steal because the bumper had a slight crack in it and the family that owned it didn't want it anymore.
About 2 weeks of owning it later, I decided to buy my first set of wheels before my BC racing coilovers came in. Enkei Raijin 19x8.5 +35 all around (weak specs, I know). At this point, I was against rolling/pulling fenders, so these wheels were perfect in my opinion.
A couple days later, the BC Racing coils come in and it's time to install them.
Now it was time to take care of that cracked bumper. Only reason I didn't do this sooner was because no junk yard within 250 miles had one. After constantly searching every day, I managed to find one on craigslist. Of course it had to be repainted, but that was taken care of.
A short while after, I sold my Enkeis and thought I'll do what every noob LS400 owner does, get Style 95s. But that didn't last long. I test fitted them, and sold them 2 days later. They were never on the car.
Instead of being like everyone else, I decided to do what I've never seen before. Buy E60 M5 wheels and put them on and LS400. Yes, still BMW wheels, but at least it was something new. Couldn't find a pic when I first bought them, but here's a picture I took before I sold them (yes they were sold later on).
And here is a picture of the car with them on. Fitment looks terrible until I decided to lower it more, then it was perfect.
Next thing was clear corners. I did the method of using some pliers to break apart the orange part inside the lens, and it made the car look a million times better.
I was planning on lowering my car more, so it was definitely time to tuck the harness. I cut out tabs in the metal so I can raise the harness up above, and drilled some holes to secure it with zipties. Painted the areas that were cut just to make sure they wouldn't rust.
Around this time, I decided to lower my car more. I had to roll my fenders in the rear, and I rolled them in the front too. Rear fitment was perfect, sat fender to lip without any rub. Front fitment was a little wide, ended up baconing my fenders even with a good amount of stretch on the tires. Sadly, couldn't find a picture of the front and how badly it rubbed and bacon'd my fenders.
Random picture in the middle of all of this, but I managed to find one of the only other modded LS400's in the state. Figured out he also went to school with me.
Soon after, I started getting into retrofits. This is one of the 3 retrofitted sets of headlights I had on my car. Sold them shortly after because I needed to pay for my next semester at college and fell a little short.
Then, I flared the front fenders about 1 inch farther out than stock, and it gave me just enough clearance to not rub anymore. Of course what came along with this was more bacon. So I did some work and smoothed it all out, priming it for paint. Since it was winter (and yes this was my daily), I didn't manage to paint it until later. I reprimed the entire fender later on and painted it.
Until spring came along, I was just playing around with how I wanted my car to look. So I made some eyelids for the stock headlights, plastidipped the grille, ect. This look didn't stay for long. And yes, sadly I thought it was a good idea at the time to put on a little rubber lip. But hey, it managed to save my brand new painted bumper from being scratched up multiple times.
Spring of 2016 came along and it's been about 8 or so months of me owning it. Time for some new headlights and Depo corner lights. Housing of the lights were also painted black to match the car, and corner lights were given a very slight smoke tint.
Then I came across a good deal of some front upper control arms by Serial Nine. I didn't want to buy some for the rear since the fitment was perfect. (You can also see in the picture another 2 pairs of headlights I'm working on, one for me, one for a customer). I didn't want to max these arms out, so I only went for around 9 degrees I believe. I don't remember the exact specs since it was almost a year ago.
Now that it was finally warm, it was time for me to paint the fenders. I set up a little paint booth in my spare house's garage and got to work.
A couple of pictures of the car during that week that the fenders got painted.
Then I started building a new set of headlights. As you can see, I was very indecisive of the direction I wanted to take my car. It was around this time that I decided to also sell the Serial Nine front upper control arms. I didn't see the need to have them since it was just making my tyres wear faster. After all, this was still my daily driver.
Several days later, my badgeless grill came in from UpGarage in Japan. I wasn't a fan of the chrome, but I would rather have a badgeless chrome grill rather than a plastidipped OEM grill. Also decided to take off that rubber lip.
It seems that I have hit the limit of how many photos I can upload per post, so the rest will be continued below.
Also, around this time, a lot of my OEM suspension parts were taking a **** on me. I replaced the entire steering rack, tie rods, tie rod end links, new front upper control arms, lower ball joints paired with Megan Racing RCAs, ect. I don't have photos of everything, but every suspension part on the front end was replaced with brand new OEM or aftermarket parts.
Last picture with the M5 wheels and the chrome grill.
Now the most recent picture of the car. This is January 2017. Imported some Auto Couture Supreme wheels from Japan. Decided to go with some time period correct wheels, and they look amazing. Grill was also painted Black Onyx 202 to match the car (not plastidipped this time).
I will try to remember to update this post every time I do something new to the car. I don't have much planned, since I feel this car is close to how I want to look.
I still have a ton of parts sitting in my closet ready to be put on or made, but it's too cold outside to be working on my car. I have an unpainted lip waiting to be painted and put on, I have 3 spare sets of fog lights I want to mess around with and possibly make dancing LEDs, I had 3 spare sets of corner lights I might want to making into dancing LEDs. Who knows.
Nice, good to see a nice write up, sometimes it's better to wait until you're done to do a build thread, lol. I am sure it's not ideal but it happens. You looking to get rid of a pair of corners by chance? Shoot me a message if you would also, I'd like to chat with you about some things as I am set to start putting all the random things I have to put on here soon. I see a few things here that interest me and might want to seek some advice... Looks great, you have some nice subtle mods and that keeps the car looking right man!
Nice, good to see a nice write up, sometimes it's better to wait until you're done to do a build thread, lol. I am sure it's not ideal but it happens. You looking to get rid of a pair of corners by chance? Shoot me a message if you would also, I'd like to chat with you about some things as I am set to start putting all the random things I have to put on here soon. I see a few things here that interest me and might want to seek some advice... Looks great, you have some nice subtle mods and that keeps the car looking right man!
I'm so indecisive on everything, I don't think it will ever be "done". Even if I swap/modify every part on this car, I'll still get bored of it 3 months later and do something different, changing the look entirely. That's why I started the build thread now haha.
And as for the corners, I'll have to see if I can sell them. The reason I keep 3 sets of most things is because I keep one set for going back to OEM if I ever need to and 1 set to modify (for example corners and fogs I want to make some dancing LEDs). The last set is there as a spare so if I made/modified the 2nd set correctly, I usually make a similar pair and sell it to make a few extra dollars. That's the same reason I've had 4 different headlights in the past year if you include OEM.
Also, if you need some advice on anything, message me through Facebook or Instagram or Snapchat. It would be easier and quicker than waiting for a reply from me when I log on like once a week on the forums.
Haven't done much recently due to lack of time, but replaced the power steering pump and did some other small things for maintenance. I got a small start on the interior with the diamond stitched floor mats. Next on the list is diamond stitched seats, and then headliner + door cards. Focusing more on interior this year.
I see a couple guys have installed those mats in the 430's as well. I'm really starting to like those more and more. You've got a great looking car and I like the direction it's going. Stance looks great on the LS400. It's such a better looking car than the 430...
Where'd you get the mats off the guy in the FB Forum? How are they? Message me so we can chat about them.
Originally Posted by t4l
What brand floor mats are those? Are you happy with them? I've been up in the air about buying a set.
Floor mats were bought from a guy on Facebook named Rich Hsia. They fit pretty good, but not 100%. For the price I paid and the price you can get them for from him, I couldn't complain.
Funny actually, I paid him for a set including what he was asking for shipping and then he decided to try to get more money from me saying he "had a big box and a small box he could send them out of." I said ok, whatever send them the way you think is best "his reply the bigger box," I was like ok cool. Then he tries to hit me up for $40 more. I said "I paid you for shipping," and he was like blah blah blah and I told them send them however. He said "nevermind I'll just refund you're money." Now keep in mind I already paid him to include the higher rate he asked for shipping. So, I just feel that dude is shady and he probably had someone offer him more. Then when I checked him on it he tried to play a tough guy, lol... was kind of funny in the end but he is basically sorry in my opinion for how he handles business. But I digress, the car's coming along great man.
Funny actually, I paid him for a set including what he was asking for shipping and then he decided to try to get more money from me saying he "had a big box and a small box he could send them out of." I said ok, whatever send them the way you think is best "his reply the bigger box," I was like ok cool. Then he tries to hit me up for $40 more. I said "I paid you for shipping," and he was like blah blah blah and I told them send them however. He said "nevermind I'll just refund you're money." Now keep in mind I already paid him to include the higher rate he asked for shipping. So, I just feel that dude is shady and he probably had someone offer him more. Then when I checked him on it he tried to play a tough guy, lol... was kind of funny in the end but he is basically sorry in my opinion for how he handles business. But I digress, the car's coming along great man.
Well at first he packaged up one box and left it over night to see how the mats would sit. He basically had to fold them in half with the smaller box, so he gave people the option to either stick with the smaller box, or pay a little more for a bigger box. I paid for a bigger box and didn't have a problem with it. I've dealt with him before when I sold him my Serial9 upper control arms. I'm positive he isn't try to be shady, I just think he was having trouble managing all the orders because he isn't used to being a distributor for parts.
01-29-17, 11:24 AM
Auxive's 98 LS400 Build
