--

My God! Your patience is unbelievable. The good side of all this is you will know your car litterally inside and out.

--

 

haha yeah I’ll be telling my wife that’s why I’ve been spending so much time away.

I planned to do a lot of this anyway, I just didn’t think it would be before I could actually drive the thing.

 

While sorting the discharge warning light I removed the cluster. Since I couldn’t make progress anywhere else I decided to clean up the cluster some.

This pic shows why you pay extra for a Lexus. Even new cars often don’t have this type of quality materials to keep rattles away.






The turn signal lenses had something on them that didn’t clean up.



So I removed the lenses. You need to be careful to release one side while lifting and then the other side while continuing to lift.


I used 1500 grit and then compound then polish.

 

Replaced the rear lower control arm outer spherical bushings.




I used the ball joint press from OReilly to remove, and this bushing tool with a 35mm socket. No surprises.

I couldn’t resist putting the new rear wheels on, but I didn’t get a picture.

Im hoping tomorrow I will have time to do the front #2 arms then see what the ride height and new wheels really look like.

 

This picture tells the story of an idiot previous owner who wired a plug backwards.


Pins 1 and 3 on Plug G2 were switched! I’ve not reworded the plug yet to test for sure, but yeah very expensive free fix. (Battery, alternator, 10 hours of trouble shooting).

I did get the coilovers finished and the refinished wheels mounted while I was suffering for some else’s mistake.

 

This was the outcome of the bunk G2 plug.
I was so glad to see the battery light come on.



I still need an alignment. It was really far out on my little test drive.

 

I got the car aligned yesterday. It was a wild ride over 40 MPH.


It feels so good now to have a great stereo, great suspension, and nothing mechanically wrong.

I even parked outside my office window just to stare at the car all day.



I need a break though, so other than polishing the car and fixing a tear in the rear seat, I’m just going to drive it.

 

Excellent work! Shame on whoever butchered that poor car. I just bought a GS430 with similar mileage out of state and plan on doing the same type of "soft" restoration. I love these cars and it's a shame looking at the ones for sale all over the country by owners who slammed them on wheels while neglecting everything else.

 

So I felt like the car was set (more on feelings later) and decided to tackle the last really annoying cosmetic issue with the car.

Someone used a dirty rotary buffer to apply wax or something and the car was covered with dense swirl marks in a buffer type pattern. I never took any intentional pics of all the holograms, but I’ve never seen anything near this bad.

So I clayed, two passes of M105, one pass of M205 and Griots wax of some sort I went from

This:



to this:


Which doesn’t show the M205 or wax just two passes of M105.

This:



to this:


The before doesn’t really show how faded it is.

Not sure how long before the faded look comes back.

I felt giddy about how good it was turning out and took photos all day the first day.







Even sitting by the window during lunch just to watch it.(creep)





So I test the car out on its maiden voyage of its main mission as a family town car.

On the way I hear a noise just after the highway we carry on to dinner. On the return trip on the highway there is a noticeable rumble from the front particularly above 60 mph. (Edit: loose lug nuts )

 

--
The noise could be from your trunk. Check there for bratty kids acting up.

--

 

I am amazed at how much YOU did yourself. If I was able to do even half of this - I'd be buying a project car every week lol

 

Wow! Awesome job!

 

Thanks! It’s been weird to find all these problems. The alarm is acting up and apparently it has the wrong transmission dipstick.

 

Had some family stuff which kept me away from the car.

I did have an alarm issue, but I sorted it and posted here: Wireless lock and alarm

it just need the car reset by touching the positive and negative terminals. This is slightly trickier because I have a 1 fared cap in the stereo… so I have to be sure that doesn’t discharge.

The whole time I’ve owned the car, I looked away from the transmission and focused on other things.

I decided I smelled ATF burning often enough I should check the level. I did. And it was didn’t show on the dipstick.

So I added 2/3 of a quart and still nothing on the dipstick…. So I got to really examining the dipstick and decided it was the wrong one for the car. I confirmed that through eBay pictures.

Sode note, the dipstick tube is loose, not attached to the block so I have to hold it in place to use the dipstick.. smh.

So I call the dealership… out of stock for the 430 I think you can still get the 300 stick.

I searched eBay, I called Lexus yards all over the country. Everyone with the stick had a transmission that needed it….

Luckily a kind soul on Facebook pulled one from a yard and sent it to me.

The maroon handle is correct. I didn’t get a great photo of the correct stick, but I think. Someone could at least see the marks enough to make a new stick if they needed to.



So the transmission was 4” too full!!! Luckily I didn’t drive on it like that.

I used my vacume pump to pull the extra fluid out of the dipstick tube.

All is right with the world again..

 

I’ve been getting some miles in and making a list of to do items.

Drivers door needed the door bumper near the latch and the trim piece behind the door handle.

The cover for the shift lock override was missing and the glove box had a rubber bumper missing.

The passenger heater blend servo needed replaced.

Along the way several interior bulbs were out.



Its getting there.

I still need to finish the trunk part of the stereo install, and decide if I really want to make the steering wheel controls work. but after that I’m out of things on the list.