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Factory bumper next to the kit 2 weeks later when it arrived. The great thing about modifications on cars is you literally can make anything possible with the right amount of time and patience, think that i actually liked the challenge of making something out of nothing. With that being said i dont recommend this to be done for the faint of heart. Not many ppl would cut a BRAND NEW $800 kit into a million pieces to make it work. Takes alot of ***** and most of all patience!!!
This is basically where ill be cutting my factory ES front bumper to retain all mounting positions and hardware.
Like so
Essentially the same process done with the kit, they had these hideous louvers on the side i stopped before bc i knew i wasnt foing to use them on it. Actually worked out well bc the kit fell almost perfectly in place with very little trimming.
Better pic of the louvers i threw right in the trash whem done lol
Once both were cut i loosely set them together to get a rough idea of where to trim and make adjustments for the least amount of bodywork after.
Once it was all measured and cut i started drilling 1/8 holes through both bumpers and held together in place with these kleco pins so it wouldn't move when gluing.
Heres a better pic from the side. As you can see they are pretty close after a little trimming. Just have to make a filler piece for each corner and build the edges for the inner fender arches.
Another side shot. All in all took only about 45 min to get it to this point. Once i was happy with fittment i grinded front side of kit and backsides of factory bumper and used 3M panel bond adhesive to graph them together. Super durable, super strong and will give just enough flex for it.
Now I'm pretty realistic id like to think. I KNOW this kit won't appeal to everyone, I KNOW some will hate it. But at the end of the day I wanted to build an "upgraded" version of the ES while still retaining a factory look to it. I wanted something that looks like it could have been a sport model built by lexus at the time (let's call it a ES300 F-Sport lol). This was the closest option I could find to do just that.
HOLY MOLY DONUT SHOP, it keeps getting better and better. i can't wait to see the end result.
I'm considering in trying to do an "F Sport" (or TRD since thats was the thing in the late 90's) on my es300. but i think your version is way better than what i have in mind for mine lol
Thanks guys. Paint & material wise it's really not that bad. To get the car to where yall see it now probably around $1200. Luckily I'm able to do all the labor myself so I save a ton of $$$ on that aspect of it. The 1st half of the build really didn't cost alot, but the other half is where all the funds will be eaten up with things like a new carpet, new seatbelts(both oem lexus parts) suspension, wheels, sound etc. I set a budget of 5k for the car so I'm hoping I can keep it under that if not really close to it.
This is what the front looks like roughly bolted in place @ the desired ride height im going for. Hard to tell without any paint or the abs honeycomb grilles installed, but i think it suits the car pretty well.
Got a few hours of spare time at work today so i decided to jump on the back bumper and get it squared away.
Where ill be making my initial cut on the kit
Again doing away with these louvers like i did on the front.
I basically cut the section off where the inner wheelhouse is. Ill only have to fill about a 1" gap between old & new bumpers. Other than that it actually went on very smoothly with very few issues.
Off the lift and back on the ground<br/>
Pic from the rear. Im not a huge fan of the 3 vent openings in the center of the bumper so ill probably end up filling those in also to make a flat/flush diffuser section on it. Will give it more of a factory look IMO and not a regular ol' bodykit.
Care for some comments? Well, you'll get them anyways!
Why not throw in some projectors since you had the lights apart? Only reason I never did was since I was chicken. Or at least smoke some factory HID assemblies to make it "newer"... ? An example, showing the JDM corner lights & headlamps
Also, I noticed you painted the door sills. I would recommend you find some 00-01 Lexus door sills, they are MUCH nicer, don't look like they're out of a camry lol, it would really flow with everything better.
Not the exact ones, but give you an idea of the look:
Damn dude... I really want to get back into one of these now...
Honestly it never even crossed my mind about the projectorsituation retrofitted in the heaflamps. Now that they're revealed im definitely not taking them apart again LOL. I appreciate the advice on the door sills though, I will look into seeing if I can find a used set in good shape, if not purchase new.
oh man, that kit is coming along nicely. as for the interior color combo, I'm not really feeling it other than the the headliner coming out great. I"ll wait for the interior to be put on before i can say how i really feel about it. keep up the progress, all in all this is an exciting build!
07-07-16, 10:04 PM
