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Well I figured I should start a build thread to document the things I've done and the small things I plan on doing until I get her to where I want her. (If that ever happens ) You may have noticed the title says 2.0 and yes this SC is named after my first SC300 (Avi pic) that I recently gave to my mom for her birthday after owning for 3 years since she loved driving it and I had recently picked up this new (to me) SC. There was no build thread on my first SC even though I wish I had created one.
As of right now I am not too sure which direction I plan on taking her aesthetically, but NA-T (350-400 whp range) is definitely something I'd like to do within a year or two. side-note: Most pictures were just saved from my snapchat which is why they look crappy and are 9:16/16:9 future pictures will look better I promise!
Pictures taken within the first few days of buying her (03/24):
(06/01):
How she currently sits (07/02)
More on my build, her story soon to come! Also would you let me know if I should resize the images? thanks
Curious why did you sand it down to the bare metal? That's kinda drastic (and definitely not recommended). The paint looked like it was in good shape before.
I guess I should start on how I bought her, It was march 23rd, I was at work surfing craigslist for SC parts like any sane person does and found a COMPLETELY stock looking Y2k cinnabar pearl Lexus SC300, BUT it didn't have an odo number listed so I was kind of skeptical. By how clean it looked minus some minor oxidization (turned out to be a bit more) and for $3k I nearly got up and left work because I knew I had to AT LEAST look at it in person before someone else swooped it up.
Here are a couple pictures from the listing:
For sale sign was in the trunk.
But cooler heads prevailed and I shot out a quick text asking if they were still selling it, how many miles were on it and if there was anything wrong with it. They replied 181,xxx and nothing wrong with it, i'll admit though I wasn't too excited about the mileage but my other SC has 246,xxx miles and I know that with care they can last a lifetime so we arranged to meet up at around 7 and I started the 34 mile trip at 5:30 (LA traffic ). At 7:30 I finished checking for common problems all SC's have (cracked vents, leaking PS hose, cracked upper window trim, window regulators, etc,) I got the price down to $2800 due to oxidized roof/rear bumper/cracked tail light, we talked about why she was getting rid of it and any maintenance done to it, turns out it was her daughters and she recently upgraded to an isx50 and didn't drive it anymore, by 7:40 we were signing paperwork and she handed me a single master key and I was on my way!
The very next day I took off early from work to get her smog checked and she passed with flying colors so I took her next door to an exhaust shop to get the mufflers deleted and replaced with stock diameter as well as double walled tips and as soon as I heard her start I just knew she would do her very best to leave me broke. After registration fees and a ticket a few days later I knew I had to slow things down.
Exhaust work (03/24):
That brings me to April the first where I purchased (impulse is my excuse what's yours?) a set of new 19x8 fr 19x9 rr (don't remember the offset but i know the rears were lower and I believe they had an offset of 32) BBS LM reps with brand new Accelera tires 235/40/ZR19 fr 245/40ZR19 rr, trust me, had I known i'd run into problems with them later on I would have just bought tires separately. Either way they looked awesome on the car although the back did slightly rub around corners if I took them a bit too hard. You can see a bit more of the oxidization in these pics. Tire stack to the left btw.
(04/01):
A couple of days later I had the super light factory tint on the windows (slightly green?) removed and replaced with 20% to match the rear quarter and rear glass window and it came out better than I thought it would, kind of light but at least the cops won't mess with me...hopefully.
Around this time (04/11) I purchased a mint passenger tail light because I could not stop staring at my busted one, it was so bad in my mind I would reverse into every parking spot just to not look at it until I found one for under $200. I'm serious, they're that expensive and those are the cheap ones! (I still have my cracked one in case someone needs it, PM me and we can work something out)
New Tail arrival (04/13):
Curious why did you sand it down to the bare metal? That's kinda drastic (and definitely not recommended). The paint looked like it was in good shape before.
Thanks I actually was not the one to sand it down to bare metal but it was due to the amount of door dings and body work needed to the fender after a friend offered to roll my fenders. Spoiler: Horrible idea.
The body shop I took it to recommended it, I don't know if it was necessary for the entire car but I figured they knew what they were talking about To the paint, it was oxidized pretty badly on the roof and rear bumper cover and becoming worse each time it rained/moisture from morning dew. Here's a couple pics, I'll post more as I continue to update.
It was at this time (04/12) my brakes had begun to squeal like little piggies, I knew the rotors and pads were fine, they were just glazed but I saw this as a great excuse to "upgrade" to drilled and slotted rotors. I then lasted maybe 2 weeks before buying a set of 14kg fr, 10kg rr 32 way Toyota Supra CXracing coilovers, a 35w kensun hid kit as well as the anti flicker harness, and some new trunk shocks as mine would only stay up if there was a gust of wind, and trust me I learned to work fast in those 2-4 seconds or face the consequences of the guillotine we call a trunk lid.
I'm not going to get into it about my friend's attempt at rolling my fenders/sanding down the oxidization to keep calm lol but here are a few pictures. I didn't take pictures of the fenders after the 'rolling' process but just imagine how they'd look after being beaten with a hammer.
After I installed the coilovers those meaty tires came back to bite me, it took me a while to get it right but after going as high as possible I got her to a drivable height. I had no choice but to go get a pair of tires with a lower profile tires and what do you know they scratch my front passenger rim, and its not like a scratch, its closer to a gouge, but all in all we worked it out.
And onto the 9th of may, I finally cracked and just HAD to find an auto body and paint shop to get my car finished. I had checked yelp for a few hours reading reviews of local shops in the IE and went and checked out economy paint where an owner gave me a $1500 estimate but that whole place gave me a bad vibe, it was if the owners treat you as you don't know ***** about anything and get really defensive if you point something out to them that you'd like them to pay special attention to.
I wasn't expecting much from the name or the price they'd paint your car for but geez...so all in all I ended up going back to a place where I previously had my 95 SC's fender repainted and it was on the opposite spectrum from economy paint in terms of customer care. Price? Other side of the spectrum as well, just not in the good way but I had a good feeling about them and decided I'd go with them because you know how it goes, gotta pay to play!
(05/10)-(06/01)
Anyways, fast forward almost two months and I finally got her back and it was definitely worth the wait. (07/02)
looks good. scuffing and blocking would have probably done the trick but hey, bare metal is cool too, right? I think the end result is awesome though. a nice bright red SC. keep it up!
My Supra had to be stripped to bare metal as well due to already being repainted once. The body shop I used would not warranty it unless we stripped all of the paint due to not wanting 3 coats of paint on it. I don't blame them.
You are not wasting any time, great progress. Car came out great.
Yeah, progress will probably slow down a bit though since most major things have been done, Thanks man I appreciate it!
Originally Posted by jimmymac30
looks good. scuffing and blocking would have probably done the trick but hey, bare metal is cool too, right? I think the end result is awesome though. a nice bright red SC. keep it up!
I wasn't too sure about them going down to bare metal but I trusted that they knew what was best so I let them, and yeah nice and bright so now the cops can pick me out of traffic easier lol thanks though!
Originally Posted by LionsTent
Great write up! Car looks even better in person, as opposed to the original Craigslist ad that sucked you in. Hope to see more of your progress.
Thanks man! Hope to see you on the 29th and I'll keep an eye on your SC's progress as well
Originally Posted by 1A1
My Supra had to be stripped to bare metal as well due to already being repainted once. The body shop I used would not warranty it unless we stripped all of the paint due to not wanting 3 coats of paint on it. I don't blame them.
Steve
That's completely understandable and is most likely what happened in my case, thanks for the insight Steve
Nice transformation on this car. I remember looking at the craiglist ad when it was first posted for sale. I would have never guessed this was the same car if you hadn't posted those pictures.
Nice transformation on this car. I remember looking at the craiglist ad when it was first posted for sale. I would have never guessed this was the same car if you hadn't posted those pictures.
Thanks! Wow really? That's pretty cool thinking about it. Any chance you'd happen to have any of the other pictures in the listing saved by chance? I only saved two, it's a long shot but hey, doesn't hurt to ask!
Thanks! Wow really? That's pretty cool thinking about it. Any chance you'd happen to have any of the other pictures in the listing saved by chance? I only saved two, it's a long shot but hey, doesn't hurt to ask!
06-28-16, 07:05 PM
Lucy 2.0
) You may have noticed the title says 2.0 and yes this SC is named after my first SC300 (Avi pic) that I recently gave to my mom for her birthday after owning for 3 years since she loved driving it and I had recently picked up this new (to me) SC. There was no build thread on my first SC even though I wish I had created one.
side-note: Most pictures were just saved from my snapchat which is why they look crappy and are 9:16/16:9 
future pictures will look better I promise!
). At 7:30 I finished checking for common problems all SC's have (cracked vents, leaking PS hose, cracked upper window trim, window regulators, etc,) I got the price down to $2800 due to oxidized roof/rear bumper/cracked tail light, we talked about why she was getting rid of it and any maintenance done to it, turns out it was her daughters and she recently upgraded to an isx50 and didn't drive it anymore, by 7:40 we were signing paperwork and she handed me a single master key and I was on my way!
I actually was not the one to sand it down to bare metal but it was due to the amount of door dings and body work needed to the fender after a friend offered to roll my fenders. Spoiler: Horrible idea. 
To the paint, it was oxidized pretty badly on the roof and rear bumper cover and becoming worse each time it rained/moisture from morning dew. Here's a couple pics, I'll post more as I continue to update.
