Cdinicola

Hi everyone, i recently bought my first car and lucky for me it just happened to be a 1992 Lexus sc400. V8 and only 73xxx miles on it. Now im only in higschool working part time but ever for the past 3 years cars have become an obsession, especially those from sites like stance nation and cannibeat. I always saw myself driving a Honda but discovered a completely different world in the VIP scene and decided that personally it beat the JDM cars i had always been inspired to build.

now for the stuff you guys really want to hear about, my plans for my completely stock SC

Heres a list of what im planning to add:
-Tein or BC coilovers
-nardi wood grain steering wheel
-TSW or XXR 18"x8.5 front and x9.5 rear
-new exhaust (not sure what kind yet)
-rear and roof spoiler
-Black or Charcoal leather interior
-New sound system
-Projector headlights (Spec-D)
-Smoked taillights (Spec-D)
-Gunmetal Grey paint job

Now obviously working part time and being in high school this could take a while. Im hoping to be done by the end of senior year. That gives me roughly a year and a half. wish me luck!

will be uploading current pics soon.

Kpierce007

Can't wait to see the build man! I'm also a 16 year old junior in highschool and drive a 92 sc400. As far as exhaust goes, you could just get the resonators and mufflers replaced with straight pipe with chrome tips for around $200. That's what I did and I love the sound

lilSCsteve

iTrader: (71)

Congrats on becoming a member of the forum...as well as having a mint SC4 w/ low mileage. Take care of her, and she'll last a life time. Nice choice on the mods...take your time with the build, it'll add up quick! Check out the classified threads and see what items you might be able to get cheaper here, than at the stealership? GL and keep us posted.

steve

abounly

iTrader: (27)

Go with BC coils. Don't get those aftermarket headlights and tail lights. Makes your car look cheaper than what it really is. Just get a nice set of 95 / 97+ tail lights. Exhaust, delete resonators ($60) and run a 5izgen mega exhaust "replica" , just get a magnaflow muffler and weld a 4.5 pipe on it. Wheel wise, get something with more lip. At least 9.5 up front and 10.5 in the rear.

I had a SC in highschool as well, its nice to have a lexus in high school.

1JZPWRD

iTrader: (59)

I wish my parents would have bought me a 1992 Lexus SC400 for high school. I got a 1975 Chevy C10 pick up truck. Good luck on your build. Also not a bad start for a 16 year old.

account2x

iTrader: (5)

Focus on school, goto college and find a good job. Then come back in 6 years and work on modifying the car if you still want to. Take it from someone who has been in your shoes. You don't have the money to afford to modify these cars right now. Oh and save any money you have right now for unexpected maintenance.

eknine9

iTrader: (8)

Ahh he's in high school, not paying rent, free meal waiting at home, high school is the time to mod your car.
I remember my car in high school, I had a 99 Ford Explorer with 170k on the clock, and I dropped nearly 2 grand on a sound system that took up the entire trunk with the rear seats folded down.

6.7 cubic feet of enclosure
port tuned to 31 hz
2 12 inch type R's
Sundown SAE 1000D amp clamped at 1137 watts at 1 ohm
Deka Intimidator 9a31 deep cycle battery in the rear
220 amp Irraggi HO alternator up front with an external voltage regulator
1 run of 0 guage wire to the back
Nakamichi head unit up front
Sundown SAZ 400.1 amp clamped at 467 watts at 4 ohms powering my front speaker
Phoenix Gold RSD 6.5 inch component speakers in custom fiberglass baffles in the door with tweeters mounted on the dash reflecting off the glass

Hit 136.7 dB at 38 hz measured at the dash

Off of working part time as a dishwasher at $10/hour
Go ahead and mod it man, do it now while your biggest expense is going to schlotzskys for off campus lunch and gas.

Also skip on the Spec D headlights and tail lights. They look cheap and you could retrofit a better projector in the stock housing and add angel eye's or LED's yourself and paint the housing with much better quality parts. Same for the tail lights, just get a set of 97+ tail lights and call it a day, either from Sewell or someone here on the forum.

Start slow, one part at a time, eventually, you'll get there, and you'll learn a lot on the way if you do things yourself.

account2x

iTrader: (5)

-As of right now I have a 97 SC300 with a 2jz-gte, usdm twins, 6spd trans, 6spd diff, Supra TT calipers, TT rims, bilstein suspension, rockrord fosgate sound system with a double din alpine headunit, 99 steering wheel, blitz boost controller... etc.

^ You know the most important thing I've learned along the way? It wasn't how to modify cars (btw I did all the work myself) - wasting all that time and money didn't accomplish anything in the long-term - I learned something very important after high school, it's called planning for the future.

Cdinicola

Here are a few shots

Cdinicola

Also to everyone who is telling me not to modify my car or wait or whatever. I get it, in the long run it will mean nothing to anyone else but me. But to me its very important and i hope to find a career in car design or automotive engineering so this is just going to give me some prior experience. and i am saving. most of my paycheck every time i get payed, which is exactly why this build is going to take me loooooooong time.

1JZPWRD

iTrader: (59)

Lets do some supporting here...

I think the car looks great for being a 92 and its miles. Its your car, and you can do what you want...

account2x

iTrader: (5)

No you don't get it. In the long run it won't even mean anything to you.
Go take a look in the for sale section. You'll see tons of cars for sales or tons of part out.

At some point all those cars were important to the people owning them but....... as time went on their priorities changed. Today installing suspension seemed so cool and amazing.... tomorrow it seemed like a waste of money and I can live with stock ride hight.

I've worked with a lot of different people now. One of the guys was a petroleum engineer from texas. He was making over 90k a year and he flat out told the that he was going to sell the supra after the single turbo gte swap for a viper. But I mean if you are making that much money a year who really cares? It's a different situation when your a high school teenager without a real job. He needs to focus on getting the kind of job where he can then afford to blow his money on cars like the petroleum engineer.

KahnBB6

iTrader: (5)

When I was in high school I was very, very lucky. I got a 1969 Ford Mustang fastback with a 302 and 3-speed automatic back when they were selling for a quarter of what they go for now.

I modified my car: custom dual exhaust, long tube headers, Edelbrock aluminum manifold, Holley 650 four-barrel carburetor, chrome five-star 15" mag wheels and plenty of learning, hard lessons and general fun with owning a classic performance car.

Then I caved and ended up selling it because I needed something else to take with me to college-- which was still a "tuner" car albeit a MUCH newer and more reliable one.

I don't regret a thing about owning that Ford. I once regretted selling it too but after some years to reflect on it, that car was mine at a time when it meant the most to me. No, it didn't help in any way toward my education in my profession. It was a car I feel lucky to have owned and LEARNED how to maintain at a time in my teen years when a nice car, if one can be afforded, can be a very good experience to have.

And that's just my experience with a very special car, since that's the topic of discussion. It has nothing on the experiences and education I gained to have a career.

So Cdinicola, I have this to say: any car can never come first, to the point of being so broke and focused on it that you neglect the extremely valuable experiences and opportunities you have waiting for you every day as a young man to figure out what you want to do with your life. Those decisions DO NOT begin the day you graduate from high school. You don't have to but you CAN make a career dream set into motion before you graduate from your public education and decide what, if anything, you will do with a college education and/or internships.

But... I don't see owning an SC400 at your age as a bad thing at all. Your list of proposed modifications is optimistic, however, at this stage. Focus less on making it a perfect dream car and just learn how to maintain and repair things that will go wrong (and they will, this being a 21 year old automobile).

I'd suggest a good but *inexpensive* set of wheels, any HID conversion (stock headlights are unsafe, especially for a newish driver), LS400 front brakes (also for your safety more than anything else), and any new set of shocks and springs. An axle-back exhaust like an M2 will be great but expensive enough for a car while you're still in school.

The only other thing I'd suggest is a W58 manual transmission swap which would be a very good learning experience, however the reality is that the above modifications I mentioned plus regular maintenance will cost you plenty already. Seriously. Consider the time and effort involved versus your goals that have ZERO to do with a car. If you're still figuring out what those long term goals are, which all of us were at that time, you can't factor the SC400 into that. It's nice but it is just a car, and there are millions of them in the USA alone.

Other than that caveat, I say enjoy your car and learn from it! Just don't let it be your entire focus, let alone your main one. You cannot afford to make an SC400 perfect while still in high school working part time. You can enjoy it for what it is, however

1JZPWRD

iTrader: (59)

I totally agree with your thoughts and ideas on getting established first. I also make over 90K a year compared to an engineer. Yeah I have 2 degrees, but in the end, I am still a firefighter. I chose to mod a 21 year old car. Prolly have over 30k in her, but I still love it every time I crank it up. I wanted this thread to stay on focus and become a useful thread for other younger people to start thinking about. Money is tight for everyone right now, well almost.

In the end, everyone needs to get them established, before jumping right in. It took me many years to get where I am today. I thank GOD that I have a great job and wish that everyone is successful in whatever their dreams are. Some are more fortunate than others.

1JZPWRD

iTrader: (59)

Well said.........