Neofate

iTrader: (1)

Hi,

For my fathers 99 LS 400, black OEM, his emblems and wheel center caps/covers have gold logo's. We priced a new cap at the dealership but they claim they can only order the silver.

I've searched a bit, but have found nothing that exactly matches without some 'wonder' -- ie: sites with no contact information, or others with 'replica's and so on.

I hoped you guys might be able to point me in a direction to be able to order the OEM cap for this year lexus with the Gold emblemed center cap?

It is stock, so I think wheel size is 16", not 100%... I don't have the car with me so I cannot check at the moment.

Any help would be great.

Thank you,

billydpowe

iTrader: (1)

Yes the stock wheel is 16, some models had chrome wheels others the alloy.
you can find them sometimes on ebay, or craigslist, or salvage yards. the dealers probably only carry the gold option for the last few years. you might also find a dealer with some by emailing them and sending a photo of what you are needing..
my chrome with gold look like this... is this your wheel also?

MicahBerry

At the Honda dealership I worked at while going through school, the gold was applied to the emblems at the dealership by a local guy before the customer took delivery of the car. You may want to do a local search (yellow pages) in your area for auto detail or body shops. If you source a center cap from Ebay and go to a body shop for the gold work, you'll get the job completed quickly, if it doesn't match, they can fix then and there. Even better would be to take another center cap for reference. As I recall, applying gold didn't take very long at all - like 5 to 10 minutes per emblem once the machine was set up.

Micah

Neofate

iTrader: (1)

Billy: The wheel is standard alloy, not chrome. So it is like yours minus the chrome. I've checked some salvage and they generally won't go 'look' for it, I tried one an hour away a while back and they said they had them but wouldn't verify anything. "I had to come find it myself".

So I took a chance, and not only were they not gold, but they were very beat up.. would not have been acceptable, plus they wanted $30 per cap in this condition. Suffice to say I didn't buy beat up , silver emblem, caps there.

I've searched ebay, but nothing appears for my make/model.. other years , but not so much for the 98-2000 models center caps.

The replicas aren't something I'm interested in either, .. I just want a replacement cap for the one wheel in gold. I didn't think it would be quite this problematic to find. It doesn't have to be absolutely brand new perfect, but pretty clean would be nice. I would happily pay 50-60$ if someone had it and could ship, etc.

Micah:

Yes, I do believe this gold was done by someone contracted by the Lexus dealership. They used some quick process as you describe to 'gold' the metal. Not sure if it is an ionization or what, but something to do with electric current.

Most body shops can do this golding you speak of? And they can match it pretty close?

I know you might not have a clue, but any idea on price.

It is just a plastic center cap,.. so I wouldn't want to get much over the 50-70$ price range all said and done. I still have a cap on it, the emblem has just come off. It is obviously purely cosmetic, but keeping up with these smaller things keeps a car from becoming cosmetically a piece of junk.

Any other ideas, opinions, or sources would be great.

I just thought sewell or another parts supply might have something like this in stock.

Kansas

I've checked the specifications in the past and again yesterday and I have never found information that said that gold packages or emblems were ever official Lexus options. They appear to have all been aftermarket although I'm guessing that the U.S. distributor of Lexus vehicles may have organized the sale of these items since the same items were offered through most Lexus dealers.

The Platinum Series wheels that came on my 2000 LS400 also came with wheel centers with gold "L" logos. The wheel centers with the gold "L" logos are no longer available from Lexus dealers so several years ago I replaced them with OEM wheel centers with chrome "L" logos that I purchased from Sewell Lexus in Texas.

If you have aftermarket wheel caps with gold logos, don't expect your dealer to provide replacements. Consider converting to OEM like I did.

Neofate

iTrader: (1)

I found a website that had OEM gold emblem centers for $18. Used, but in good condition. It should arrive early this week, will report.