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Picked up my very own 2001 LS430 back in June 2023 and have been working on it for the past 2 months. Bought it for only 6k with no codes or check engine lights, had it checked by a traveling mechanic before purchase as it was pretty far away from where I live in the bay. Great looking car and I'm looking forward to making it into my own!
Last edited by MaxKechely; Aug 6, 2023 at 11:32 AM.
Previous owner must've had a dog and a kid or something so I had to clean this all out, decided to take out the seats and clean the carpets as well.
Overall pretty easy, also got the back seats out to get under there but don't have any pictures of that, it was pretty rusty under these seats due to all the food and garbage that was under them, but the entire rest of the car is mostly rust free.
This door compartment was broken so I ended up using velcro to reattach it, makes a whole lot less noise now!
Also got some sweet seat covers after this to cover up the broken leather all over, will attach pictures later.
Drained and filled the Differential and Power steering, both super dirty. I wanna make this car last for a long time so hopefully this helps, also checked the full suspension with my friend, and it's all tight and working great!
Followed Chrisfix's headlight spray paint tutorial and it came out pretty well, polished up them rims as well.
Also spraying out the grille, will add some silver to it as well!
I also just fully cleaned my throttle body and cleaned some coolant that leaked into my intake manifold.
Last edited by MaxKechely; Sep 23, 2023 at 09:13 PM.
Drained and filled the Differential and Power steering, both super dirty. I wanna make this car last for a long time so hopefully this helps, also checked the full suspension with my friend, and it's all tight and working great!
Followed Chrisfix's headlight spray paint tutorial and it came out pretty well, polished up them rims as well.
Also spraying out the grille, will add some silver to it as well!
I also just fully cleaned my throttle body and cleaned some coolant that leaked into my intake manifold.
These are just all the pictures I have up to this point, if anyone wants to see more ill keep taking pictures of my progress on the car, hopefully this becomes a nice build!
Looks like you are doing a great job! I enjoy working on and detailing mine also, very relaxing and therapeutical.
Enjoy your car, will last you a long time!
I have attached a photo of my 2002
Looks like you are doing a great job! I enjoy working on and detailing mine also, very relaxing and therapeutical.
Enjoy your car, will last you a long time!
I have attached a photo of my 2002
After about a week of painful masking and touch up I repainted my grille black and silver.
The amount of effort it took to mask this off was absolutely insane, the tape also took off some of the black paint I did earlier on it and I had to do even more touch up and clear coating.
Overall pretty satisfied with the result and it definitely makes the car look better, been driving around the past week with no grille.
Haven't been posting because I was hoping this would be done sooner, but I picked up some bunk awful dented rims off marketplace not knowing they were this bad and I have been hammering away at them to fix these dents, got one of them "fixed" as pictured above. Been using a blowtorch and a hammer, this is the only picture I had but ill take more when I finally fix this.About 500 dollars in the hole now and I can't give up now.
I haven't had an update in a while on this thread, as I have been working on a bunch of minor problems with my car, but why not post about it.
I recently installed new OEM ignition coils due to some misfiring after a little bit of sliding around
Also had to get a new trunk fuse box as the old one had some water damage from an unknown source as pictured below.
Also I have been continuing to work on these 19" PIAA JDM forged rims, getting this one polished up, and will continue to work on the other 3.
I just did a polish and ceramic coat,
then my buddies and I tackled and successfully did the timing belt,
also deleted the stupid side reflector in the headlight and re-clear coated it
The clear is looking a little hazier after, since I did 2k, might redo it with Meguiar's headlight coat
Big things coming for da lexie Got a super cheap Bluetooth option from BlueMusic in Germany, cost a total of 50 bucks and has wonderful quality.
Got slotted and drilled rotors + pads from a-premium for like 250 total and painted my calipers red had to splurge a little on these led taillights from USR Finally got my coilovers from Redline 360, went with Tein cause Tienshinhan da goat
Ballin' on a Budget
