Well I finally decided to make my GS a unicorn
06-08-13, 01:05 PM
#1
Well I finally decided to make my GS a unicorn
I've got a white GS 400
Never intended on making it black interior , but when the opportunity arose I took it.
Got the seats , door panels , armrest and dash from my mechanic.
just about everything else, from Aliga, a member on here. Rug, ceiling, seatbelts, pillars, hand holders, rear deck etc.
I didn't get to take photos to document all my steps. My friend and I had hands that were scraped, bruised, bloody at times , but it felt like it was worth it.
Not my car in the next pic. But I asked my jealous cousin to take a pic of his lol. Almost identical though.
Before
The few curve ***** ?
Well we decided to break up the process in stages. Day one we decided to do the seats and rear deck along with rear seat belts.
Curve ball there ? The old front seat belts werent compatible with my new seats. 01+ seat buckles are different. Had to drive around a few days unstrapped.
Uncomfortable and feels like you are going to be pulled over any second if you feel paranoid.
We ran out of time that day so we had to do the rug another day.
The rug dare I say may have been the easiest thing out of the things I felt was intimidating. I thought it would be hard judging by what my mech was saying. But it was OK..
Now the dashboard had a couple curves for me.
Had to obviously drop the steering column. That Evaporator DIY thread came in handy. The curve ball in this one was that the dashboard I had bought came with a harness, I thought a simple plug n play with the old and new one was in order...
Until... I realized that the audio system was spliced into that harness, the 4 channel amp was connected to what my audio guy did... So we had to unhook the harness from the new dash, and re attach the old one.
That required taking apart all the vents with the old and new ones and connecting all the connections and all that good stuff
I got an INSTANT headache when I realized I had to put all of this back together.
The radio was a pita to get back in because its aftermarket and has so many wires and cords back there . we made the bonehead move of not disconnecting the battery. But we kind of needed it to drop the motorized column as much as possible , and other things that may require it. Anyway while trying to push the radio in, a few wires must have touched and blew some fuses.
Including the dome light, climate control, radio, shift solenoid.... After that, it was dark and we just gave up and said its a wrap for the day. We will figure out the fuses tomorrow. Just installed the front seatbelts and it was a night.
Session 3
We installed the blown fuses and reinstalled the radio
The plastic parts that go around the steering column gave me a hard time, the bottom half seemed to have a metal plate with some plastic abs there and didn't allow it to fit in properly... Had to get a dremel and shave out all the excess plastic to make it fit
Now surprisingly the part that gave us the hardest problem was the sunroof shade ! We took off the roof liner and the light fixtures, but that shade was a pita.
Unless there is something im missing, we only saw one way to get it out.... Take out the entire sunroof assy. And unscrew the brackets that were from the TOP. It was our only alternative.
We got it out and slid in the new shade, then tightened up some loose screws in the sunroof assy (there were a lot. Car sounds much tighter over imperfections in the road now)
Locked up everything for now just need an airbag for my wooden wheel. And a shift **** ... Is there a way to get that original tan color off? I noticed that it's rubbing off and black under it . i also need a few little odds and ends but im pretty much complete.
. 
What ever pics I have are coming soon
Never intended on making it black interior , but when the opportunity arose I took it.
Got the seats , door panels , armrest and dash from my mechanic.
just about everything else, from Aliga, a member on here. Rug, ceiling, seatbelts, pillars, hand holders, rear deck etc.
I didn't get to take photos to document all my steps. My friend and I had hands that were scraped, bruised, bloody at times , but it felt like it was worth it.
Not my car in the next pic. But I asked my jealous cousin to take a pic of his lol. Almost identical though.
Before
The few curve ***** ?
Well we decided to break up the process in stages. Day one we decided to do the seats and rear deck along with rear seat belts.
Curve ball there ? The old front seat belts werent compatible with my new seats. 01+ seat buckles are different. Had to drive around a few days unstrapped.
Uncomfortable and feels like you are going to be pulled over any second if you feel paranoid.
We ran out of time that day so we had to do the rug another day.
The rug dare I say may have been the easiest thing out of the things I felt was intimidating. I thought it would be hard judging by what my mech was saying. But it was OK..
Now the dashboard had a couple curves for me.
Had to obviously drop the steering column. That Evaporator DIY thread came in handy. The curve ball in this one was that the dashboard I had bought came with a harness, I thought a simple plug n play with the old and new one was in order...
Until... I realized that the audio system was spliced into that harness, the 4 channel amp was connected to what my audio guy did... So we had to unhook the harness from the new dash, and re attach the old one.
That required taking apart all the vents with the old and new ones and connecting all the connections and all that good stuff
I got an INSTANT headache when I realized I had to put all of this back together.
The radio was a pita to get back in because its aftermarket and has so many wires and cords back there . we made the bonehead move of not disconnecting the battery. But we kind of needed it to drop the motorized column as much as possible , and other things that may require it. Anyway while trying to push the radio in, a few wires must have touched and blew some fuses.
Including the dome light, climate control, radio, shift solenoid.... After that, it was dark and we just gave up and said its a wrap for the day. We will figure out the fuses tomorrow. Just installed the front seatbelts and it was a night.
Session 3
We installed the blown fuses and reinstalled the radio
The plastic parts that go around the steering column gave me a hard time, the bottom half seemed to have a metal plate with some plastic abs there and didn't allow it to fit in properly... Had to get a dremel and shave out all the excess plastic to make it fit
Now surprisingly the part that gave us the hardest problem was the sunroof shade ! We took off the roof liner and the light fixtures, but that shade was a pita.
Unless there is something im missing, we only saw one way to get it out.... Take out the entire sunroof assy. And unscrew the brackets that were from the TOP. It was our only alternative.
We got it out and slid in the new shade, then tightened up some loose screws in the sunroof assy (there were a lot. Car sounds much tighter over imperfections in the road now)
Locked up everything for now just need an airbag for my wooden wheel. And a shift **** ... Is there a way to get that original tan color off? I noticed that it's rubbing off and black under it . i also need a few little odds and ends but im pretty much complete.
. What ever pics I have are coming soon
Last edited by KingNasGS4; 06-08-13 at 02:25 PM.
06-08-13, 02:00 PM
#4
Lee ! *denzel voice* my man....
Yeah we installed them front belts the second session man. Had to drive around holding the belt with my right hand pretending to be strapped in
Also another PITA was the pillars I bought not fitting... Since my car is a 98 the pillars from an 01+ don't fit beside the C pillars. So that's another thing..
Also the glove box was another issue because I wanted to keep the lock cylinder.... But one was brown and the other was tan... Solution was to pop off the plastic pieces and pop in the black ones that came with the black glove box... A lot more difficult than I expected. Those little clips are really lodged in there.
Yeah we installed them front belts the second session man. Had to drive around holding the belt with my right hand pretending to be strapped in
Also another PITA was the pillars I bought not fitting... Since my car is a 98 the pillars from an 01+ don't fit beside the C pillars. So that's another thing..
Also the glove box was another issue because I wanted to keep the lock cylinder.... But one was brown and the other was tan... Solution was to pop off the plastic pieces and pop in the black ones that came with the black glove box... A lot more difficult than I expected. Those little clips are really lodged in there.
Last edited by KingNasGS4; 06-08-13 at 02:31 PM.
06-08-13, 08:05 PM
#10
Damn. I feel like I'm being a douche. But I really like that saddle arm rest. Makes mine the only one out there like that . just pops out at you. Not to mention that I had to beg to BUY it. Not even free
But anyhow I hope everyone appreciates or at least respects the work that it took to get this to where its at right now....
But anyhow I hope everyone appreciates or at least respects the work that it took to get this to where its at right now....
06-08-13, 08:42 PM
#11
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Looks good! Converted my interior to black as well. I dyed most of my interior but I ended up finding a great deal on a semi-complete black oem interior from the junkyard. I have yet to change the parking handbrake to black lol.
06-09-13, 11:31 AM
#15
Lexus Champion
lol..nice! i actually jus recently Unicorned my car too! the dash was definitely a PITA..still need lil pieces but definitely loving it coming from gray interior..just like that E-brake release..mines still gray too! lol