vipers

iTrader: (3)

So a few months back i had an oops! moment and took my eyes off the road for a second due to my little girl in the back seat. Was going pretty slow luckily and when i slammed on the brakes, the front end dipped down, so all of the damage is above the frame. I only had liability insurance at the time due to me never driving the car. it just sat. So it sat for a few months while i decided to rebuild it or part it out.

Well.. I decided to rebuild! Im trying to do most of the work myself. aside from installing the core support. I purchased a Toyota Aristo nose chop front end. I found one that was thankfully the same color as my Lexus. So that will save me from a paint job for the time being. Ill update the thread as the rebuild progresses. It wont be fast my any means.

The day of the accident. I kept the car running the whole time, and drove her the 1/2 mile left to my house. Air bags didnt deply and she drove straight and no check engine light came on. Radiator cracked open, so coolant spewed out.




Tested the headlights before shutting it off for the last time just to make sure all the wiring was still good and the ballasts didnt get damaged



Picking up the Aristo front end. came with a full front end from the core support, forward. The hood, bumper, headlights and fenders. Very cool that the side markers are switched to the fenders and not the bumper on the Aristo. As for the Toyota grille. Not using that, as i just bought an 01-05 grille.



Heres where ive gotten so far. pulled off most of the damaged parts. Need to get the hood, fenders, and bumper off. Then start stripping the Aristo clip.





And just some added goodies. I bought these Advan RGII's for a good price. Gonna TRY to get them to fit. They are 18x10 +25 all around. The rears will be no problem.. But the fronts will probably be a pain. I certainly know these arent the typical style of what Lexus owners throw on their GS's, but these are more my style. They will certainly be painted/powdercoated a different color though. Unless i end up painting the whole car bright red. Then they might stay white

Lutkis

Looking good so far. I wouldn't have had the patience to do this.

GL for the project!

gsean400

I like the wheels going for the street look?

tmf2004

iTrader: (15)

so your doing a GTE swap? in for the transformation

TTurboPimp

iTrader: (12)

I personally like the wheels. Before I even opened the thread I was thinking he needs to buy an aristo front clip. Definitely the cost effective way to do it

xHyaku

Dope! Can't go wrong with the Advans. Can't wait to see where this thread goes.

vipers

iTrader: (3)

thanks guys... thought there would be more hate on the wheels! lol.. glad to see there isnt!

as for a GTE swap.. not in the cards for right now. The nose chop was just from the core support forward, basically just all the parts needed to replace what was destroyed. And i heard a GTE swap is much more difficult on a 400 vs. a 300.

mikobangz

iTrader: (1)

It's amazing that you're doing this by yourself. When I got into my accident my car looked exactly the same. Good luck man!

1UGLYGS

iTrader: (2)

18x10 +25 should be fine up front with a roll. I was running 18x10 +22 with no issues after a roll.

vipers

iTrader: (3)

was able to get more work done the past few days. Shes all ready to go to the body shop. Just need to figure out how and when to get it there.

The darn ECU box got all cracked and busted..This was a bit of a pain to disassemble! Not to mention expensive to replace for a plastic box!


Annnddd the front end is stripped and ready to go!



Then it was time to start tearing into the Aristo clip.





The intercooler! Not sure if its worth anything or not.. ill probably throw it up for sale along with the twin fan setup and overflow tank setup that came on the clip as well... maybe they could be of some use to the GTE swappers.




All stripped!! Ready to be drilled out and welded to the car!




Also spent some time trying to clean up the headlights a bit. One on the left was after i was done. Still a bit fogged up.. but they are temp headlights anyways. Dont want to run JDMs for too long.




And my mess of a garage right now! lol

tmf2004

iTrader: (15)

impressive work...i've done a few things but nothing like this...

hit that front with some black paint before you install the headlights

vipers

iTrader: (3)

Thanks! Ive never tackled repair work like this, i typically just part the car out and move on. But i really like this car! But ive stripped cars down to bare shell and rebuilt them a few times. So this isnt too much different. I just make sure to take a lot of reference pics to aid in reassembly.

as for the paint. Got that covered The body shop thats welding on the core support is also going to reshoot the whole front area in black again.

AL98GS400

Sorry to see your nice car take a hit! TY for sharing this process. I'm glad I saw this thread and how easy it seems to get the front clip off to swap it out. The guy before me hit a curve while braking heavy. Was going too fast and the noise was down. It damage the front bottom radiator support and pulled the hood latch downward. I was wondering how hard it might be to do myself since it looks to be mostly bolted on. My best friend has been a body repair man about 30 years so I've been around his shop a lot picking up on the trade in free time. I'm just curious how much different the Aristo to the Lexus clip is? The pricing vs each other a lot different or about the same? My friends shop likes fast turn over insurance work so they mostly use new parts but I'm not shy to go with good used body parts. He always says the time to clean and prep used is a loss on labor vs new but I'm at home in the garage. I could care less about that. My hood and fenders all seem fine its just the support frame for the radiator and latch all crunched up. The guy hammered it to crap to get the hood to close.

ThomasGS4

iTrader: (19)

Great progress, vipers. I'm glad to see you've chosen to give your GS400 a second wind.

vipers

iTrader: (3)

Thanks! Yeah, it sucked that it happened. But what can you do, right? Just gotta roll with the punches!

As for the differences from the Aristo to the GS, there are very few. The supports and all structural components are identical. The headlights, front bumper, and fenders are different (one difference, the GS has the side marker on the bumper, whereas the Aristo has them on the fenders, which i happen to like much better. They are otherwise identical) And depending on whether you get a V8 or TT clip, ive found that the radiator fans and overflow tank are also different (a $200 added fee for me since i have a V8 and the clip was a TT )

if those were the only parts damaged on yours, it should be mostly bolt on stuff. Except the lower radiator support is welded. And if the headlight support brackets got messed up, those are welded as well. But the front end is pretty straightforward to tear down. I say go for it! And the Aristo clip is certainly the way to go!

Thanks man! Appriciate that!