Lexus GS400 Major Makeover
09-15-12, 05:37 PM
#1
Lexus GS400 Major Makeover
Its been a while since I have been very active on here. Life has a way of taking priority over cars. I have been working for a while on my redesign. Since the end of 2010 I have been stocking parts. This thread will document my build over the last year +.
When I purchased the car December 30, 2005 here is what she look like onStock With Chrome 5 Spokes
2006-2007 TTE Lip and junction produce Hood and Roof Spoiler added
The next major upgrades were done in 2009
They are documented in this thread:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...sbm-gs400.html
The next redesign was done in 2010 and documented:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...0-upgrade.html
At the end of the 2010 season the car looked very rough from being a daily driver in NYC.
So I decided to sell the wheels and start over.
It has been a very trying build and there have been multiple obstacles on the way to get her to where she is now. I still have a ways to go before she is complete but I feel that it has gotten to the point where I can share my progress.
The first part of any build is teardown. Teardown is exactly what happened here.
Bought a full Black Interior to replace the original Gray
Now it was time to rebuild the suspension: Decided to do bags and BC Coils
Redid the trunk setup. Managed to fit everything in the spare tire well. 2x 480 Compressors/2 3Gallon Tanks/3x water traps/Manifold
Now it was time to send out the bags to get resleeved since they had been rubbing slightly during the almost 2 years that I had them on,
I decided to cut open a hole in the strut tower so that I could get the car lower. I did not want to leave it open to the elements or look like it had been modified. So I asked Carlos (gsoup) to put his skills to the test. He did a great job in making it look as oem as possible. Thank you Carlos!
When I purchased the car December 30, 2005 here is what she look like onStock With Chrome 5 Spokes
2006-2007 TTE Lip and junction produce Hood and Roof Spoiler added
The next major upgrades were done in 2009
They are documented in this thread:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...sbm-gs400.html
The next redesign was done in 2010 and documented:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...0-upgrade.html
At the end of the 2010 season the car looked very rough from being a daily driver in NYC.
So I decided to sell the wheels and start over.
It has been a very trying build and there have been multiple obstacles on the way to get her to where she is now. I still have a ways to go before she is complete but I feel that it has gotten to the point where I can share my progress.
The first part of any build is teardown. Teardown is exactly what happened here.
Bought a full Black Interior to replace the original Gray
Now it was time to rebuild the suspension: Decided to do bags and BC Coils
Redid the trunk setup. Managed to fit everything in the spare tire well. 2x 480 Compressors/2 3Gallon Tanks/3x water traps/Manifold
Now it was time to send out the bags to get resleeved since they had been rubbing slightly during the almost 2 years that I had them on,
I decided to cut open a hole in the strut tower so that I could get the car lower. I did not want to leave it open to the elements or look like it had been modified. So I asked Carlos (gsoup) to put his skills to the test. He did a great job in making it look as oem as possible. Thank you Carlos!
Last edited by Spyder78; 09-15-12 at 06:17 PM. Reason: spelling
09-15-12, 05:51 PM
#3
I also picked up a wood steering wheel to match the Black interior
I ordered custom wheels that took about 6 months to be delivered to me. This caused a massive delay because there was no way that I could ship the car to the bodyshop without wheels.
Here is what they looked like when they finally arrived. I ordered as aggressive as I could. The company could not make more aggressive.
Front wheels
Rears
And with Tires mounted. Showing the stretch.
I tried mounting the rear wheels in order to see how much work needed to be done. AS you can see there is quite a lot of work to be done. There is no way that I could have pulled to accommodate the wheels as the quarters were already pulled to the max to fix my last set of Supremes.
Now here is where the biggest problem that I had came into play. When I ordered the wheels I let the company know that I would be using Supra TT calipers. However they screwed up and the face desk too low to fit over my calipers. I needed a 20 MM spacer in order to clear, however I had 25MM spacers already in hand so I wasn't going to waste more money for 5 mm less.
I measured the wheels without the spacers on just to see how much the stuck out. However in actuality with the spacer on the wheels were out so far that when I dropped the car, the fender was sitting 2 inches from the end of the tire.
So I knew that I had to find a body shop that could handle the build that I wanted to complete. I took Zeb's advice to use the body shop in North Carolina that he used. So after giving them a 3 page build sheet and talking for weeks about what I wanted done. Exotic Paint and Body came to pick up the car with an enclosed car carrier. Thank you for making the trip Daryl and Wes! It wasn't an easy trip as they burned out a bearing on the trailer heading back to North Carolina, so instead of being a 20 hour drive it came out to a day and a half drive.
I ordered custom wheels that took about 6 months to be delivered to me. This caused a massive delay because there was no way that I could ship the car to the bodyshop without wheels.
Here is what they looked like when they finally arrived. I ordered as aggressive as I could. The company could not make more aggressive.
Front wheels
Rears
And with Tires mounted. Showing the stretch.
I tried mounting the rear wheels in order to see how much work needed to be done. AS you can see there is quite a lot of work to be done. There is no way that I could have pulled to accommodate the wheels as the quarters were already pulled to the max to fix my last set of Supremes.
Now here is where the biggest problem that I had came into play. When I ordered the wheels I let the company know that I would be using Supra TT calipers. However they screwed up and the face desk too low to fit over my calipers. I needed a 20 MM spacer in order to clear, however I had 25MM spacers already in hand so I wasn't going to waste more money for 5 mm less.
I measured the wheels without the spacers on just to see how much the stuck out. However in actuality with the spacer on the wheels were out so far that when I dropped the car, the fender was sitting 2 inches from the end of the tire.
So I knew that I had to find a body shop that could handle the build that I wanted to complete. I took Zeb's advice to use the body shop in North Carolina that he used. So after giving them a 3 page build sheet and talking for weeks about what I wanted done. Exotic Paint and Body came to pick up the car with an enclosed car carrier. Thank you for making the trip Daryl and Wes! It wasn't an easy trip as they burned out a bearing on the trailer heading back to North Carolina, so instead of being a 20 hour drive it came out to a day and a half drive.
Last edited by Spyder78; 09-15-12 at 06:15 PM.
09-15-12, 06:09 PM
#5
So we go a few months down the road, Daryl sends me pictures of the work that he has been doing and I am floored.
Here is the work that he has done on the bumper. I had decided to remove a line on the lip kit that I went with,
Pics of the fenders and quarters.
The inner wall of the quarters was cut and section in order to make sure that I could ride as low as possible
Here is an in progress pic.
Here is the work that he has done on the bumper. I had decided to remove a line on the lip kit that I went with,
Pics of the fenders and quarters.
The inner wall of the quarters was cut and section in order to make sure that I could ride as low as possible
Here is an in progress pic.
Last edited by Spyder78; 09-16-12 at 07:30 PM.
Makes me proud to own mine! OP It's gonna be one bad/sick ride when it's done! 
