Parts List to Date
2012 OEM LED Headlights
Blacked out grill & window trim
Authentic Tom's Carbon Fiber Front Lip & Diffuser
AIT Carbon Fiber Side Splitters
eBay Carbon Fiber Plate Frame
Tein H Tech Lowering Springs
Linea Corse LC818 Matte Black Wheels (Sold)
Forgestar CF5V Gloss Black Wheels (19x9 & 19x10)
Bridgestone Potenza RE050a Tires (255/35 & 285/30)
Joe Z PTS Exhaust (and gutted primary cats)
HPS intake tube
Wald Replica Trunk Spoiler




At the end of May, I traded my IS250 in on this 2008 Lexus ISF. The car had just 43,500 miles on it and was completely stock.







The car is in very good shape for an 8 year old vehicle.





I didn't waste any time... the day after buying the car, I bought a set of updated headlights to help modernize the front end of the car. This turned into a massive ordeal (click here to read about my problems with eBay seller Lexmaniac2), so these lights ended up being returned.......



When I had the bumper off to install the headlights, I decided to paint the grill black. What a major change with just lights and some paint... it looked great!





My original plan with this car was to only make subtle, inexpensive (other than headlights) changes until next year since I had just spent a fair amount of money on the car itself (this plan didn't last long as you will see...).

So my next mod was to simply black out the chrome window trim using vinyl tape.




Next, I borrowed a fender roller to make some room for the wheels I would eventually buy.




I could sense that the car was just a little too heavy, so I decided to obtain a carbon fiber licence plate frame for weight reduction




I decided I couldn't wait around to mod this car, so I found a good deal on a used Tom's rear diffuser and front lip.




I put in an order for some LC818's in a matte black finish.





I also picked up a used set of Tein H Tech Springs from a forum member...




I installed the front springs & wheels, and the car was starting to look good..... but something didn't quite feel right to me.







About 3 days after mounting the LC818's, I sort of fell into a great deal on these Forgestar CF5V's in a gloss black finish. So I traded my OEM BBS wheels for the forgestars and sold the LC818's.




In the end, I was very happy with my decision to go with a gloss black wheel... this just felt a lot better to me overall.





To complete the carbon fiber accent along the bottom of the car, I installed some AIT carbon fiber sides



...Pause for car wash pic...





With the car clean, I decided to stop and do a proper photo shoot on my way home.

 

My subwoofer sounded blown & rattles like crazy... so I decided to disconnect it and will add a little extra bass.... still need to install everything, but the box fits extremely well and looks like it was meant to be there






And a recent photo from yesterday (November 2016)... I love how mean this silver/black color combo looks.

 

last pic looks great.

 

Last pics looks very nice. What size wheels are the Forgestars and is that last pic showing the car with only the front lowered?

 

Thanks - wheels are 19x9 and 19x10. Yes, I've only lowered the front. The car squats quite a bit with oem springs, so lowering the front helps even it out quite a bit IMO.

 

One of the MM Fs I model my car after! Looks great, especially the last pic

 

Really impressive build, everything works together perfectly. The effort was definitely worth it, that is one nice ISF.

 

Looks great!

That last picture especially really highlights how good the gloss black wheels look against the silver paint.

Any further mods planned?

Really like what you've done so far.

 

Thanks guys!

Well I need to find the time to paint my brake calipers then install my subwoofer & exhaust... I am planning to get a wald replica rear wing & perhaps a carbon steering wheel, but other than that I don't have a whole lot else planned.

 

Nice keep it up !

-Josh

 

What size tires?

 

Bridgestone Potenza RE050A
255/35
285/30

 

Have you seen any noticeable drop in gas mileage with the wider tires vs stock? Probably a question no one cares about but I do a good bit of daily driving so i'm trying to keep this thing reasonable.

 

Sorry, one last additional question. What offset?

 

I'm not sure.... I had the stock wheels for all of 4 weeks before changing.

I get 17ish in the city and as much as 27 with a full tank on the highway depending on speed. My car is also driven daily... rain, shine, snow, whatever.

Offsets are +35 | +45