Ok the story is I already had 3 SC's so the last thing I needed was a 4th one. But, my buddy that races my SC with me called and said check out this 1996 model on craigslist. Guy says it has a bent rear control arm from sliding into a curb but otherwise runs and in decent shape. My buddy and the car are 2 hours away from me, so I say hey go check it out and see if it is what he says and if so see if he will take $500. Figure I cant go wrong by picking up a 2nd parts car. He calls and sends a few pics says rear seats look ok. I say buy it.


Well my buddy didnt check the car as close as he should have, it doesnt have a bent control arm it has 4 bent left rear control arms (all of them), a broke cv axle, bad wheel bearing, broken brake line, cracked sunroof glass, and busted steering rack. I have all the parts except the steering rack in my race car stash so i put them all on and get it aligned. I replace all the spares by shopping on ebay, except for the sunroof glass which was a leftover from the race car build. So instead of a $500 plus a control arm car now I have an $1100 car with a trashed interior but fairly solid mechanically with flaking paint. Stuff adds up fast. So I decide why stop here, might as well let my other body shop buddy paint it. I thought the thing was straight and could use a little sanding and paint it white again. He looks at it says hey you have a lot of hail damage I will have to fix. He also says this car is not white, it is pearl. I am like so its a little off white. He says you don't understand the pearl additive is $250 my cost alone (actually I think it was more like $400). I am like well why stop here lets put it back factory. He finally gets around to painting it last week. Here is the end result still sitting in his shop.



The little guy in the picture is 10, name is Brody, grandson of my buddy with the body shop. He actually helped do some sanding and filler work. I don't mean pretend, the little guy actually did meaningful work on the car. He is quite amazing to have the skills he does at 10. He also is just enamored with the car. Asks all kind of questions about the Lexus, and also about the SC I race. Hope to take him out someday on parade laps at an HPDE.

Anyway, back to the car. The pearl turned out beautiful. I had him paint a 97+ wing while he was painting that will go on tomorrow. Now I just have to find some interior pieces since a good bit of the stuff is trashed. Seats, door panels, carpet, floor mats, the usual stuff that gets in bad shape on these cars. The engine and trans are pretty solid, it is high miles something north of 200k. Climate control will have to be sent off due to typical display issues. Will probably just send the ECU to Tanin or the guy on the FB SC page to make sure I don't have an ECU issue later.

I still don't know why I decided to revive this car, it really is going to be another project that ends up costing way more than it is worth. At least now I can start modding the red manual I have since I will now make this diamond pearl one my daily.

Edit: I need all new emblems (front and rear L, Lexus and SC300 on rear), anybody have suggestions on least expensive place to buy these? (Edit: bought them all on mylparts.com using the CL discount for about $85, seemed like the best deal out there other than ebay which the last ones I bought there had broken attachment posts so steered from that)

Edit again. Had not checked the wheels, two are bent. Cost just went up some more.

 

Well the paint came out fantastic from the angle shown. And you certainly have the technical knowledge to be able to keep your costs down when repairing and restoring these cars. In my opinion, it seems like the this old 96 found the right owner to give it some TLC.

And just to be fair, one bad control arm would've been too good to be true anyhow...nice find and nice work sir.

 

Thanks for the encouragement, and yeah instead of a steal I made an ok deal. I will take a close up in the sun when I get it home, that pic doesn't do it justice the paint really looks good. Time and money, that's all it will take from here to bring it back to life, but so far a pretty good start.

 

Looks like a great start towards a restoration.

 

Installed new Tokicos. Ride is much better, should improve further with new tires. Looking for 2 replacement wheels, two of the stock 16x7 chome wheels were bent by previous owner. If i get those I will start on the interior refresh.

 

PM'd about the wheels.

 

If you pay shipping you can have the wheels from me. The only thing is they are in Miami. But i've had my 4 stocks i took off my car like 5 years ago in my grandparents backyard.. for that long

 

i was able to snap a pic with the three running SC's that I have. The blue one is stuck in a barn with no engine or trans since it is just a parts donor car. I love these cars.

 

Thanks to MLeopard I now have a very very nice set of stock wheels that came on the car originally. Much appreciated.

Since the last update, I came very close to trashing the engine. I got to work a few weeks ago and heard rattling and looked down at the panel and the car is pegged hot. Can't figure how I didn't see it before. It was a blown heater hose. Car wouldn't hold water, but I think it was either a bad radiator cap or much worse head gasket/cracked head. I decided to try blue devil and bought a new cap while I was there just for good measure. So far no issues, crossing my fingers.

Now it's on to trying to find interior pieces to bring that up to par with the exterior. I have a lot to do to the engine as well, but that has to wait until race season ends in December.

 

Somehow as time went by and busy with other things, I forgot about this thread. About a year ago I was driving this diamond white pearl car to work and the heater hose that connects to the rear of the head blew and I didn't realize it until it was overheated. I replaced the hose and crossed my fingers and drove it a bit but it did the old dreaded blow the coolant out the surge tank. Well, I pulled the head, sent it to the local head shop for valve seats, guides, seals and a skim cut. Other priorities kept me from this project so I finally got around to putting the head back on a couple of weekends ago. Runs ok, the bottom end has 235,000 plus miles so it's not the strongest but it runs ok, doesn't burn oil too bad, gets me to work every day again like before the head gasket failure. I bought a good set of seats from the guy out of North Carolina that parts these SC's out, put those in the red car and took the red car rejects and put them in this white car since they were better than what was in it. That's about all on this car for now. Oh, since I am running the stock chrome wheels, I ordered a set of 1" spacers to bring the tires out to the edge of the fenders like it should be. When I put those on I'll post a few pics.

 

So today I installed the 1” spacers. I like the stance much better than before, no sunken in look with the stock wheels anymore.



When I replaced the head gasket I got mixed up on the vacuum lines, so today I got all of that straightened out. Car runs better without the vacuum leaks and the acis works again. Discovered I have a cracked upper radiator tank the other day so I ordered 2 Denso’s for $80 off of rockauto so I can replace this one and have a spare for the race car. Still need to fiddle with calibrating the idle air valve but thats for another day. Decent interior, good wheels, good tires (Conti Extreme Sports), car runs decent, just need to install the radiator when it comes in next week and its back to being a solid daily driver again.

 

I decided since this is a daily driver I wanted it to be cooler when I get in it after work. I had tinting installed all around. It turned out great.

 

Rodger out here living that SC dream life! I'd love to own another... My '96 was that beautiful white... The way it changes in different lighting is spectacular. Awesome color and awesome car!

 

Yeah, the diamond white pearl under lights at night is really nice. I have been surprised at how nice it is, never a fan of a white car before getting this one going and getting it painted.

 

Tell me more about the guy in North Carolina who parts out SC's, being in NC myself he sounds like someone I need to know.