R3c0nf1gur3d
 

Hello all,
10 years on CL finally starting a build thread (the right way).
I will try and keep it interesting but a lot of stuff you guys will see you've all ready seen on here one way or another..

To start things off here's my first Lexus. it was a 92' LS400 C01 (Silver) in color with grey leather seats. Clean. got it from my long time friends' used car dealership in NJ.
Didn't do much to it just slapped on some cheap rims and swapped stock radio out for a Pioneer AVIC-N1. Oh, and the climate control mod. (screen fix) that's it.

Decided I wanted a GS..
 

The LS was nice but I all ways wanted a GS..

Old to the New (all most new)
 

Bought a GS in the summer of 06'.
Had the Nakamichi audio system (which later on I gutted out).
Other than the optional audio system no other options came on the car everything else was standard for a GS400.

Too short a season..
 

In the beginning I didn't know **** about this car and that was a bad thing.
Ended up wasting money on stupid things like cheaply made 20 inch chrome rims and LED tail lights (the ugly ones..lol)
If I would have known the GS3 came with a 2JZ I probably would have held out for one. modding the 1UZ is a pain in the ass because there is limited aftermarket support. But I havent let that stop me.

Enter ClubLexus..
 

I found CL looking for forums on how to mod my (then) cell phone.
I thought well if they have a forum on how to mod cell phones, lets see what the have to say about a GS...
Then things started getting serious.
I hated how my cheap rims looked on the GS. The ride height of the stock suspension with the 20's made it look rediculous (no offense to the Donk, Box, and bubble ridin' bros).
I knew about suspension upgrades and mods from my very young hangin' around Corolla, Mark 2 and 3 Supra and Nissan (when it was Datsun) days but CL is where I learned all about what would work and fit on the GS.
After a bit of research and $1200 dollars later I added a set of TEIN CS version 2 coilovers to my 1UZ.
I have to say to this day even though the rims were heavy and garbage (compared to what was really available at the time) the CS's drop made the car look nasty!

The dark cloud..
 

It was during this time that I had a stretch of bad luck with the GS. I had gotten rear ended. Was racing another GS and got hit with a big ass piece of plywood denting my hood and cracked the front driver's side rim going over the GWB. You would think I would have learned not to get 20's again after I cracked a pair on my old LS. NY/NJ roads and most of the roads in the north east suck ass. Dark cloud indeed.
During that first stretch of bad luck (Yes there was more than one) only thing I added to the GS was a Carbing under brace which I had to repair about 3 times cause it kept rusting out.

"Rookie" status
 

Here are some links to My early threads and posts. A lot of members were friendly right off the top and of course there were the thread flamers but like everything else in this world you have to take the good with the bad. I did appreciate the warm welcome from the good guys though.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...-a-rookie.html
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...-a-rookie.html
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sus...-these-go.html

Retrofit, here we go..
 

After a few years owning the GS and not adding anything for a while I decided I wanted to retrofit the headlamps.
Found these LS460 Projectors for a decent price and decided to give it a shot. After a few tries I finally got them to look the way I wanted, for the moment..lol.
When I first retro'ed my headlamps I had chrome bezels, cleared the turn signals, and had cut the original bowls and glued the projectors on to them.
Later on I "upgraded" to aluminum brackets from Luxury Mods and went with green tinted bezels and smaller ballasts.
The ballasts which were the smaller ones from a Prius were a PITA because they kept getting wet. I tried to seal them as best I could but ultimately after dealing with them for the longest time I went back to OEM. Cracked a couple of housings as well. Got board of the green tinted bezels and decided to paint them graphite gray (the color I wanted to paint the car then.). That lasted about a year before I decided to paint the bezels black mirror chrome and add non fresnel Subaru WRX lenses and high beam projectors (cant recall the brand but I got em off Amazon) but not before I went with Aristo housings which have an added bulb socket.
I'm still having little issues with this mod. My headlamps are HID and The LS460 projectors seem to be a bit heavy for the small black tabs in which the beam adjustment screws go into causing the head lamp beam to flutter when driving down the road. I tried gluing the tabs to the brackets but that didn't work because the tabs actually have to slide back and fourth to allow the computer to adjust the headlamp beam level. Going to see what I come up with during the winter down time.
Here are some issues I ran into while installing the LuxuryMod brackets:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/lig...460-retro.html

A little obsessed...
 

After the headlamp retro I did small things to the GS.
Dazien swaybar bushings and caster arm bushings (which I later switched for SuperPro). durring this time I decided to mod another GS.. (well not exactly..)

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...-obsessed.html

Good bye Cheap rims..
 

During this time is when I finally decided to get rid of the 20's. I went with some 18 inch G35 rims just to hold me over until I decided what other rims I decided to go with. I still have the G35 on the car. I decided instead of spending money on cosmetics that I would concentrate on performance first. But I got tired of the stock color of the rims so I decided to get em powder coated.
For the longest time I didn't like the Jade pearl Mica (6Q7) color. I know.. why did I buy a car with a color I didn't like? well I got it for a very good price so I was willing to deal with it at the time. I think it was the interior mostly that I hated. that damn tan color was annoying. and I didn't like the color contrast against the body paint. It felt dated.
But before I did the interior over I had did the LS400 BBK mod.
I had the LSBBK's only a short time. I didn't like driving around with shaved tie rod ends and I felt like the LSBBK's were really heavy for the front end.
After about a year I sold em and decided to go with Willwoods instead. They are a nice set I gotta say. Clean install. had to shave the bracket a hair to get em to fit right but that was probably my OCD kicking in. I love the Willwoods. Excellent stopping power, no rotor squeal and no pedal pulsating (from the slotted and drilled rotors).
There is one caveat; the pads that came with the Willwoods produce a LOT of dust (seen in the pic). I decided to deal with the dust since I didn't wanna replace the original pads with ceramic ones and the rims are dark in color. Currently I only drive the GS on the weekends so the dust is not that big of a deal.

Got the interior for a steal..
 

Wintertime..
And by this time I had bought a house and finally got a garage for the GS to sleep in.
I managed to finally swap out that ugly tan interior color for black leather. one of the best mods I've done to the GS. The Black interior meshes quite well with the dark green. it seems to have breathed new life into this car for me. I love the black interior and I managed to get the entire set up (everything!) for a couple of hundred bucks. Of corse for this price, the interior had issues but nothing that I couldn't deal with. Learned to sew in the Marines (yea they teach you that too..lol) so I put my skills to work and replaced the ripped seat panels for both the driver and passenger side front seats. I washed the carpet and cleaned out all the dust, hair, coins etc. collected over the years. I also decide to do a the wood steering wheel mod which unfortunately due to my car OCD I had done this mod over several times..

Need a blackwood shift knob?

1 off Steering wheel..
 

This one off steering wheel I decided to to do took forever. I just didn't like the way It came out. I was trying to make a blackwood steering wheel of my own.
the stain wouldn't take the way I wanted it to. I know now that I should have tried soaking the wood in alcohol over night to open the wood up more but it's too late for that now. Now that look at the pics it actually came out decent. but I've since then painted the wood portion of the steering wheel black. I matched the leather I placed onto the steering wheel with the same leather that I used to patch my seats with. I plan to retro an IS steering wheel the same way but this time around I Know what mistakes not to make again.
I also wrapped portions of the interior with 3M carbon fiber vinyl, installed blackwood door sills and center console. I don't like the look of the blackwood shift knob so I opted to install an FSport carbon fiber one instead.
I had the got my hands on an updated instrument cluster bezel but like an ass I put it on a high shelf in my garage and of course when I went to reach for it I dropped it and it fell to the ground. got a nice big ass scratch on it so I decided to vinyl wrap it as well.
Also installed are a Rockford Fosgate sub into the stock speaker port, (placed in its own sealed box and mounted under the rear deck) Infinity Kappa's into the stock door speaker boxes, an old Pioneer Z120BT head unit, (to be upgraded to an app radio hopefully) an Alpine 5 channel amp in the trunk, EDFC controller, in the stock alarm location, a NEO molded into the ashtray and a wideband installed into the cup holder; a sort of prelude to the super charger I hope to acquire..
Here is the Wideband install DIY:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/per...d-bracket.html

But before all that..
 

But before all the interior stuff I installed a K&N CAI (a couple of years after I got the GS) and finally got my hands on some headers.
You would think I would be happy when I got those headers right? Nope.
I purchased a set of used headers from a member in the classifieds. Unfortunately the headers that I purchased were not only the wrong ones but were also damaged. The seller listed them in the GS classifieds but later on when I tried to install them I found out the hard way that they were they wrong ones. Before I notice that the headers had hairline cracks as well too much time had passed to be able to try and get my money back. This was very upsetting and I really had no one to blame but myself. I should have done more research and confirmed that the headers that I purchased were the correct ones, and I should have looked them over more thoroughly. I bought them in the winter and my garage doesn't have heat so I kinda just opened up the box made sure they were there and locked them away until it was warm enough to install them. The seller didn't want to return my money so I took a loss. It happens, lesson learned. I've given stuff away on CL so I expected to be treated they same way. A mistake that I would not repeat in the future.
Summer was approaching, the GS's exhaust was in pieces and I wanted to get the GS back on the road so I decided to purchase the headers brand new from Figs Engineering. At least I knew I would get the correct ones.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/per...r-headers.html

The aftermath..
 

Some time had passed after the header fiasco. I had got the interior swap in and completed to my liking; the whole interior is black. I painted the roof liner and other items to match.
Finally after all that work, fixing my fender (that some ******* decided to crash into) putting the exhaust back together, new motor mounts (didn't wanna crack my new headers right off the top..lol) new front sway links TRD sway bars, and Superpro LCA#1 bushings I was ready to get the GS back on the road.
Lasted all summer with no issues. Until I found out that I had a valve cover leak...
Winter was coming... and it was time hibernate the GS anyway and plan the next round of mods to install...