Rear backs before and after

 

Nice, what’s the longevity on that? I remember I put some AutoZone leather conditioner in my ES300 and in a few months it was cracked again ):

 

Well it's dye so hopefully for quite a awhile especially considering I rarely have anyone sitting in the back.

 

In typical Amazon fashion the rest of the sound proofing foam material I ordered is MIA instead of being delivered today like it was supposed to. Nonetheless, I still got the deadener in and had enough leftover foam to cover above the fuel tank and bottom of the deck lid:







Went a little sparingly on top of the lid as I didn't want to make it too thick for the OEM deadener mat and deck cover to fit over:





Rest of trunk waiting for the foam:





Back together with seats conditioned and looking much better than they did previously:

 

Man anytime I see interior pieces moving it makes me feel like it’s harder to do than engine bay work. I feel like I would break clips.

Those seats look fresh though! Nice restoration.

What does the sound deadening do? Is it for road noise cancellation? Or are you trying to eliminate rattling due to the deck-mounted sub?

 

Thanks! I'll take interior work over mechanical any day. It's cleaner and technically easier although it can still be frustrating in its own way. I'm almost 40 and keep in pretty decent physical shape but nothing makes me feel my age more than squatting around inside the car for hours on end. Plus, the consequences for making a mistake are much lower insofar as breaking a clip or cracking a panel vs. doing something wrong mechanically and potentially damaging your engine.

My primary purpose for sound deadening is to make the car as quiet as possible between reducing road noise and eliminating any rattles or squeaks. This car has quite a bit of wind noise compared to my old 300 and I think a big part of that is that the windshield was replaced and the exterior A-pillar trim on the passenger side wasn't properly reinstalled to the body. That will be a whole other story when it comes time to deal with that though. The interior also has a few minor rattles that I think developed after I swapped everything out. As I continue to pull it all apart again to add sound deadening I'm going to soften as many points of plastic on plastic contact that I can by way of felt tape or gasket foam. Of course this should improve the sound quality as well by reducing the resonance of the body panels. I'm hoping this all will help keep the car a little cooler in the summer too since I normally always have to park outside. The closed cell foam you see me putting down over the deadening tiles has that silver backing that's supposed to act like a thermal barrier. I guess we'll see if it actually makes any difference or not...

 

I’ve been able to get all of the clips. Sometimes opening a panel shows it was missing some from another job, and replacing the clips solves a problem you didn’t know you had. It is fragile ish though.

All the work is looking good. I’m sure the payoff is worth it.

 

Looks great in there and it’ll actually pay off when it’s all back together

 

No major updates or anything but I got the trunk deadening finished up. Since the order of the foam backed foil went MIA I tried their three layer stuff. It was a bit overkill to layer it on top of the deadener I already put down but the trunk is about as silent as a tomb now and I confirmed the inner emergency release works





I also got another old school TRD goodie

 

Got the sway back from powder coating. It has some minor pockmarks because of how rusty it was but otherwise looks good. Does anyone know how to do graphic design stuff? I took pics of the TRD logo and part number before coating. I'd like to get them turned into an image that I can use to have stickers cut to put on the bar.

I also changed the forbidden honey in the diff while it was up in the air. The old oil didn't look too bad and there was next to no shavings or debris stuck to the magnetic drain plug so good news there.



I also took the time to look at the mufflers again. The TRD inlet piping is indeed 2.5" whereas the stock is 2". I really hesitate to have a shop mate them up because I'd like to be able to revert back to stock if need be. I may sit on them for awhile while I decide what to do. Maybe I'll get lucky and find a TRD mid pipe in the US because I'm sure as hell not paying to ship one from Japan

 

Oooo new paint is always nice. How much did that powdercoat cost?

 

Loving this thread. Do you happen to have the link for the PS reservoir? I want to change it on my LS 430. It's probably the same part.

 

About $130 with tax. Car is definitely driving nicer with it. It's a nice and subtle change keeping in line with that I'm going for with the car. Now I need to keep a look out for the front one.

Although the rest of the suspension is starting to talk to me so I may need to get on that sooner rather than later. The bushings in the front rear lower trailing arms or whatever they're called seem to be creaking when turning and braking at low speeds and there's a very faint knocking from the rear right that I think is the ball joint in the upper control arm. If only I could pay off my credit card as fast as I can replace parts

 

Yeah I think they're the same amongst the 3uz cars

https://www.ebay.com/itm/403065545820

 

I think caster arms is the part you’re talking about. They were kind of annoying to replace since you have to line it back up with the lower control arm, which depending on how you took it apart, might not be in the same place. So you might have to jack the whole wheel assembly up to get it to line up and pry the caster arm. When I replaced it the creaking stopped, and when I replaced my lower ball joints the clunking when going over imperfections/potholes stopped. So those are probably the exact things you have going on, hopefully!

Forward Momentum posted a video like yesterday on how he replaced his caster arms so that might help a lot. Apparently the caster arms he ordered make the installation easier.

Also wow 130 not bad, I wanna get my calipers re-painted and I was thinking powder coating is the way.