Rokas

(I'm out of data and there's no wifi at this hotel but I WILL add pictures very soon)

About three months ago, an acquantaince of mine crashed his LS400. The dummy lost control in his neighborhood and I think he hit a mailbox. The reason I say that is because the bumper was only scratched. What was destroyed was the hood, one headlight, condenser, and radiator.

This car also had a bad power steering pump. Leaking like crazy.

Long story short, it didn't make sense for him to fix it because he would be paying mechanics. I did all except the PS pump myself.

Oh yeah. Also the dash doesn't light up when you turn the headlights on and I can't use the driver's side buttons to roll down the other windows. It works SOMETIMES (connection issue?). I can roll mine down and the buttons on all the doors work for that specific window.

Anyway, to be restored mechanically, this is what was wrong and fixed:
-Radiator had to be replaced
-Radiator support has to be replaced. I have the part but it's not important for now so I'm gonna do that job when I take off the fenders to replace my hood hinge
-Hood was bent, new one from junkyard (the original was actually bent into an A shape before I stood on it)
-New vacuum hoses for the cooling system that I replaced three times before finally getting a fuel line instead. Atleast at Advance, the vacuum lines they have are so weak that the force of the coolant twists it and it starts hardening from the heat (FL)
-Replaced coolant temp sensor. Was trying to fix the temp gauge which wasn't working. Found out that I should've replaced the temp SENDER for the gauge. But I got a lot of power and increased throttle response.
-Fixed the temp gauge which was my biggest concern since I got this car. Remember - I replaced the radiator and I live in FL where we're having record heat temps. The actual problem was that the needle was stuck and I believe the original sender wasn't working because of a bad connection. Fixed by unpugging it and plugging it back in a few times. I got the needle loose by banging on the dash (not TOO hard)
-Power steering pump replaced
-Oil change. The oil was so bad that changing it gave the car some power back if I'm not mistaken (sure felt like it)
-Changed rear brake pads but I was a dummy and didn't get the rotors which are on the way.
-Driver side headlight was smashed. Replaced it with a junkyard one.
-Seats and center console ripped up. I got seat covers and I will reupholster the armrest when I have some time.

What's left? The hood is crooked because a hinge got bent when I stupidly drove the car when I first got it without tying the hood down (I figured 30mph wouldn't lift it up). Cracked the windshield too which is free in Florida if you have insurance.

Dash light doesn't work. I can barely see the speedometer during the day, let alone night. How do I replace that?

I have one minor problem but I don't want it to become a big problem. When I insert the key into the ignition, I have to point it downward and sometimes towards the right to get it in. It also seems to get caught on something as I turn the key. I know something is out of alignment.

Speaking of,

-The car needs an alignment

Long story short, I bought it for $300 and put another $1100 or so in parts. $1500 for a nice LS400 isn't bad. Actually my main goal was to learn more about working on cars (and damn did I) but also to save this great car from death. It has another 200k miles in it at least...

I had the check engine light go off even but it came back on, AGAIN leading me to believe there's a contact issue possibly with a sensor or something.

One thing I like about this car is that the engine is new with about 100k miles when the car has 200k.

This is all stage 1 - getting the car looking and running like new.

In stage 2, I will be replacing the exhaust and MAYBE change the OEM airfilter. That's as far as I will go with mods. I want that nice sound!

So guys, I will add pictures of all of this stuff when I get to a place that has wifi.

Thanks for reading and feel free to throw out suggestions. The car is black and before I can get nicer rims, I'm gonna repaint these the original color because they're really scratched up. But I was also considering flat black. The exterior is black, the seats are black, so I think black rims might look good. They looked great on a turbo Saab I had but that's a different car. Anyone have a pic of an LS400 with black rims? Or other colors.

Rokas

Hey guys. I can finally upload some pictures.

I think I'm at about $1500 total including price of the car. Some might say I'm stupid and I should have just bought one in good condition but one reason I bought it is to teach myself to work on cars. Overall this is priceless - it's actually the first car I bought myself that is the kind of car I wanted, a model I had always loved, and that I brought back to life. So yes, it's special to me.

I'll start from most recent going down to earlier projects.



Always wanted dice for my car so I ordered custom ones from an artist friend. They're BIG - 3x3in.



I changed the rear rotors (I got Centric but I had someone else order them and they got the wrong ones - I wanted to get the painted ones but these are great nonetheless.

Look at the pic tho and see if you notice anything missing. The screws and rubber plug maybe? Gonna have to get that from the JY.



Vacuum lines for coolant. (It's a bad picture, I know. I'm holding both the new fuel line which is connected to the engine and the old vacuum line. I don't have a problem witth the return line which IS a vacuum line, not fuel. Look close.) Don't get normal vacuum lines. I went through three in a couple months because they suck so I bought fuel lines instead which work WAY better. Check engine light went off...



I changed out the smashed headlight. The hood doesn't sit right because the passenger side hood hinge is bent (hood opened while I was driving - didn't expect it going 30mph max).



This is the new one. I want to fix the hood so bad but I haven't had time and I've never had to take off a fender which I need to do to replace the hinge properly.

For now, I'm gonna end the pictures. I have everything going back to when I first got the car in crashed condition. Will come back soon - have two days off.

Guys, I WANT YOUR OPINION. I want to change some exterior colors.

I plan on painting the rims the original silver color. However I LOVE flat black rims on dark cars. Anyone have a picture? I'm leaning towards the silver but I might do flat black.

Rear headlights - black them out or leave them alone?

Front headlights. Eventually, I want yellow LED bulbs. I was also thinking of blacking them out a little aswell (less than the back ones).

I want tint eventually. I think the car would look bad*ss blacked out BUT I also like that clean look (let's say I leave the lights alone and paint the rims silver [I'm painting them either way because they're pretty scratched up]).

What about that little trim line? I noticed that it's metallic in the middle but the front and I believe back are a different material and color. I was thinking of painting those black completely or leaving the metal ones.

GoldLex99

I think the all black look is a bit overdone, If it were mine I'd go with something dark but not quite black like graphite, anthracite or a dark copper. You could tint the windows in mirror copper, do the same with the chrome strip on the side add copper accents in the headlights when you get there. Call it the "bad penny".