My New Unicorn! Base model sc300 (no sunroof and factory cloth seats)
09-27-17, 04:29 PM
#31
Picked up a set of temporary wheels today. They were cheap, the offsets and sizes where within the right range and they have usable tires on them. Unfortunately, part of them being cheap is that the front two have bends 
. I'll get them repaired tomorrow or friday and I should be back in business. Oh, they're Work Schwert sc1 19x8.5 +35 front and 9.5 +35 rear. I like them, but the car needs to be lower to make them look right... time to relocate the harnesses and get moar lows 
might keep them if I like them enough... but something tells me when I get my SSR Gartmaiers back I won't be able to resist throwing those on the car. Also ordered a front lip for a mk4 supra, saw somewhere that they're same size and should fit with a little modification.
. I'll get them repaired tomorrow or friday and I should be back in business. Oh, they're Work Schwert sc1 19x8.5 +35 front and 9.5 +35 rear. I like them, but the car needs to be lower to make them look right... time to relocate the harnesses and get moar lows might keep them if I like them enough... but something tells me when I get my SSR Gartmaiers back I won't be able to resist throwing those on the car. Also ordered a front lip for a mk4 supra, saw somewhere that they're same size and should fit with a little modification.
09-28-17, 11:39 PM
#34
Here to add to the list of people who's minds are blown by what we see....Could this be a case of customers specifiying what they'd like their car to be like before it's built? I read once on here that this was an option and that people were even getting factory manual SC400's this way...never saw any confirmation though....
09-29-17, 12:01 AM
#35
I have a kind of weird 1992 SC300, in that its a 5 speed manual. But it has all the luxury options like pearl white paint, the light tan leather seats, power seats both sides, leather steering wheel, leather parking brake handle, leather center arm rest, leather on the door panel arm rests, heated seats, sunroof, 12 disc CD Changer(no Namakatchi sound, but I don't think that was an option on 1992 models).
Still I'd trade all that luxury bull**** if they spec'ed my car like the Soarers in Japan. 1JZ-GTE twin turbo inline six engine with 270ish hp, bigger 16" wheels with wider tires, bigger brakes, limited slip diff, all those performance goodies, stronger 5 speed manual. Early SC300's had ****ty looking 15" wheels with the wrong offset, smaller brakes, and of course a lot less power due to no turbos.
Also I don't mind the dealer installed mud flaps, they look pretty clean and integrated into the body, kept the rockers from getting chipped up.
09-29-17, 01:19 AM
#36
The manual steering column shouldn't surprise anyone. These cars were a 1990's design and not every "luxury" car at that time had an automatic telescoping and tilting steering column as standard equipment. Some of the highest end models did and sure even most SC's were optioned this way due to the way the packages were ordered by the dealers who stocked them.
Aron, when you see many of the Toyota Soarers that came with the 1JZ engines, R154 transmissions and limited slip differentials you'll find that quite a few of them had the basic cloth interiors, manual steering columns, solid roofs and standard stereos, sometimes without the trunk mounted CD changers. A lot of those cars were, however, optioned with power folding mirrors (parking spaces in Japan are often very tight). All Soarers got the high tech looking digital dash though. A lot of Soarers got many of the luxury options too but many of the 1JZ's, especially manual models were ordered with fewer options.
This was a car designed for the Japanese and North American markets and while Japan's version had options that emphasized a personal driver's luxury sports GT machine (or just a cruiser GT) the North American models were denied the important mechanicals and dealers and Toyota mostly ordered/built them to sell as luxury cruiser GT's, hence why most of the SC's we're familiar with had a lot of "luxury" features standard.
Meanwhile in the 1991-2000 Z30 Soarers equipped with 1JZ engines are one of the best muscle cars ever sold in Japan.
I've recently come to learn that Lexus/Toyota hasn't ever really entertained special customer orders anyway. They mostly just build what *they* think will sell and leave it to dealers to move whatever they decide to give them. Maybe it was not like this in the 1990's if a customer was very adamant about specific option combinations and got in at the right time during a dealer's allocation slots during ordering time but generally as far as rare US-spec SC's like maynanator's are concerned I think this was probably one of a few very basic SC300's dealers ordered to have cheaper models in inventory with just an automatic transmission option (because god forbid more potential buyers should have discovered how fun one of these coupes are with a manual transmission).
I like the automatic steering column in my SC but I can't imagine Toyota's manual column setup that saw great prevalence in the Z30 Soarers would be comparable to what you'd find in a Tercel from the early 90's.
The thing we forget in the U.S. is that only until the last few years did Lexus even exist in Japan. Much as it's the same story with BMW, Mercedes and Volvo in Europe, in Japan it has been perfectly acceptable for an automaker to sell cheap and inexpensive cars at the low end of their lineup, more expensive and better featured/optioned cars in the middle of their lineup and considerably more expensive/optioned cars at the high end of their model range. Only in the U.S. do we have this dealer-franchise reinforced notion that a company known for good, reliable and mostly inexpensive cars can't also make more interesting and aspirational cars that sell in much higher price bracket. Lexus the brand is more an idea of luxury cars first than it was a truly good space to fit an Americanized version of a car like the Soarer Z30 2.5GT and Aristo V300.
Because of this weird idea that Toyota could never sell a great car that isn't mostly cheap we got Lexus and rebadged versions of already high end Toyotas that originally made a statement in Japan by what kind of car they were, how they drove and what options could be ordered if the buyer so desired. In the USA Lexus versions of these cars were all about some idea of "luxury" and thus got a lot of top-line creature comfort options but leaving no price value room for the powerful engines and drivetrain features they were designed for in Japanese sales.
Anyway, maynanator, you're off to a great start with this car!
Aron, when you see many of the Toyota Soarers that came with the 1JZ engines, R154 transmissions and limited slip differentials you'll find that quite a few of them had the basic cloth interiors, manual steering columns, solid roofs and standard stereos, sometimes without the trunk mounted CD changers. A lot of those cars were, however, optioned with power folding mirrors (parking spaces in Japan are often very tight). All Soarers got the high tech looking digital dash though. A lot of Soarers got many of the luxury options too but many of the 1JZ's, especially manual models were ordered with fewer options.
This was a car designed for the Japanese and North American markets and while Japan's version had options that emphasized a personal driver's luxury sports GT machine (or just a cruiser GT) the North American models were denied the important mechanicals and dealers and Toyota mostly ordered/built them to sell as luxury cruiser GT's, hence why most of the SC's we're familiar with had a lot of "luxury" features standard.
Meanwhile in the 1991-2000 Z30 Soarers equipped with 1JZ engines are one of the best muscle cars ever sold in Japan.
I've recently come to learn that Lexus/Toyota hasn't ever really entertained special customer orders anyway. They mostly just build what *they* think will sell and leave it to dealers to move whatever they decide to give them. Maybe it was not like this in the 1990's if a customer was very adamant about specific option combinations and got in at the right time during a dealer's allocation slots during ordering time but generally as far as rare US-spec SC's like maynanator's are concerned I think this was probably one of a few very basic SC300's dealers ordered to have cheaper models in inventory with just an automatic transmission option (because god forbid more potential buyers should have discovered how fun one of these coupes are with a manual transmission).
I like the automatic steering column in my SC but I can't imagine Toyota's manual column setup that saw great prevalence in the Z30 Soarers would be comparable to what you'd find in a Tercel from the early 90's.
The thing we forget in the U.S. is that only until the last few years did Lexus even exist in Japan. Much as it's the same story with BMW, Mercedes and Volvo in Europe, in Japan it has been perfectly acceptable for an automaker to sell cheap and inexpensive cars at the low end of their lineup, more expensive and better featured/optioned cars in the middle of their lineup and considerably more expensive/optioned cars at the high end of their model range. Only in the U.S. do we have this dealer-franchise reinforced notion that a company known for good, reliable and mostly inexpensive cars can't also make more interesting and aspirational cars that sell in much higher price bracket. Lexus the brand is more an idea of luxury cars first than it was a truly good space to fit an Americanized version of a car like the Soarer Z30 2.5GT and Aristo V300.
Because of this weird idea that Toyota could never sell a great car that isn't mostly cheap we got Lexus and rebadged versions of already high end Toyotas that originally made a statement in Japan by what kind of car they were, how they drove and what options could be ordered if the buyer so desired. In the USA Lexus versions of these cars were all about some idea of "luxury" and thus got a lot of top-line creature comfort options but leaving no price value room for the powerful engines and drivetrain features they were designed for in Japanese sales.
Anyway, maynanator, you're off to a great start with this car!
Last edited by KahnBB6; 09-29-17 at 01:34 AM.
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ThomasGS4 (10-18-17)
09-29-17, 03:29 PM
#37
it's like with the new 2018 brz. owner's can't "custom order" a car, they have to either find one with the right options that's already been allotted at a dealer, wait and hope one will be allotted with the options they want, or give up and buy what's available. That's how it was for the performance pack brzs, you just had to wait and hope your local dealer's allotment was the spec you were looking for (and by wait, wait 8 months for the performance pack to actually catch up with the rest of series production cars)
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KahnBB6 (11-26-23)
09-29-17, 03:40 PM
#38
I sent the wheels off the be straightened and the curb rash cleaned up. Can't wait to get them back on the car, already missing them lol.
My front lip came in today, and it looks like I'm gonna have to do some messing around with it to figure out mounting it up. The easy solution would be to throw screws through the front of it... but that would look so out of place. I saw a cool system where you epoxy a plate that has a nut welded to it to the back and you can then bolt whatever it is you're mounting without having visible fasteners from the outside. Might see if I can do something like that.
Going to tackle a few wiring things and some maintenance this weekend. I'm 90% sure my fuel pump ecu is dead so I'm gonna bypass that so I can drive the car again. I need to tuck the fender harnesses so I can go lower, and if I can I'll get the supplies to do a brake job too, which would give me a chance to throw my spare ls400 brakes on the car. Also gonna clean the iacv to see if that cures my random idle issues (though I'm wondering if that's the fuel pump ecu causing that)
and I have another very nice upgrade for the car that I will tackle if I have time.
My front lip came in today, and it looks like I'm gonna have to do some messing around with it to figure out mounting it up. The easy solution would be to throw screws through the front of it... but that would look so out of place. I saw a cool system where you epoxy a plate that has a nut welded to it to the back and you can then bolt whatever it is you're mounting without having visible fasteners from the outside. Might see if I can do something like that.
Going to tackle a few wiring things and some maintenance this weekend. I'm 90% sure my fuel pump ecu is dead so I'm gonna bypass that so I can drive the car again. I need to tuck the fender harnesses so I can go lower, and if I can I'll get the supplies to do a brake job too, which would give me a chance to throw my spare ls400 brakes on the car. Also gonna clean the iacv to see if that cures my random idle issues (though I'm wondering if that's the fuel pump ecu causing that)
and I have another very nice upgrade for the car that I will tackle if I have time.
09-30-17, 04:57 PM
#40
Hahaha, thanks man. I'm a bit of a wheel ***** if I'm honest. I really do think I might keep them though. It's just... I really do have like the PERFECT set of ssr gartmaiers for the car, if and when my friend actually goes and picks them up from his dad's place in Atlanta (he took all his stuff that could with him when he evacuated because he didn't want anyone looting his place when harvey hit) they'll end up on the car.
Last edited by maynanator; 09-30-17 at 05:05 PM.
09-30-17, 05:04 PM
#41
Took care of some "maintenance" today. Did the 12v pump hardwire mod and now the car starts 100% of time without a hitch, honestly... everyone should do this just as preventative maintenance as easy as it is to do. Also relocated the wheel-well harness and removed the fender liners so I can go lower when I get my wheels back . Going to take it on a drive to see if it still has an overheating issue. Hopefully it was just low/bad coolant and not something else wrong 
. Going to take it on a drive to see if it still has an overheating issue. Hopefully it was just low/bad coolant and not something else wrong
10-06-17, 09:33 PM
#42
Finally got the wheels back today. Threw them on the car and got to get the ride height where I want it after what seems like forever. The front is maxed out and the rear is about 2 turns from the lowest it'll go. Unfortunately one of the front tires has a puncture in the sidewall, so much for not having to buy tires... 
Borrowed a voltmeter from my cousin to test the alternator output... and it's a full 14.5 volts off a cold start, decided to throw a new battery in and see how that does. fingers crossed that fixes my charging problem.
Next things on the to do list is to roll the fenders because the fender lip is literally sitting on the rear tires and get a new front tire, or just get all 4 since the rears are low on tread and slightly dry rotted.
Also... *spoiler alert* gonna be chucking this boat anchor of a motor in favor of another, better, factory mill that makes choo choo noises (just need to commit and click the buy it now button lol and wait). Really can't wait to actually get some stuff done on this car and finally make it something worthwhile. Need to start rifling through all my random junk to see what all I have of the manual swap parts I bought a while back and order what I need to complete the list. Choo choo noises and clutch dumps coming soon
Borrowed a voltmeter from my cousin to test the alternator output... and it's a full 14.5 volts off a cold start, decided to throw a new battery in and see how that does. fingers crossed that fixes my charging problem.
Next things on the to do list is to roll the fenders because the fender lip is literally sitting on the rear tires and get a new front tire, or just get all 4 since the rears are low on tread and slightly dry rotted.
Also... *spoiler alert* gonna be chucking this boat anchor of a motor in favor of another, better, factory mill that makes choo choo noises (just need to commit and click the buy it now button lol and wait). Really can't wait to actually get some stuff done on this car and finally make it something worthwhile. Need to start rifling through all my random junk to see what all I have of the manual swap parts I bought a while back and order what I need to complete the list. Choo choo noises and clutch dumps coming soon
10-17-17, 12:45 AM
#43
Ordered a bunch of parts for the car. Picked up a clutch and flywheel, a clutch pedal and master cylinder, and the 5 speed shifter trim . Will need to drag out the w58 of the parts pile and have a look at it and see what sort of stuff I might have to get (if the slave cylinder is good, how the trans mount looks, and if the carrier bearing on the factory driveshaft is still good or not). Also got 2 new front tires for the 19" wheels. Sorry things have been slow, been super busy with family stuff and work. I promise there will be some updates soon. Also, back to my last post, I'll be picking up a 1jz soon and will hopefully have this car swapped before the end of the year. The goal is to have this car in a "finished" state before I leave for Navy basic at the end of december, because if I don't get it somewhat finished now Idk when I will. 
. Will need to drag out the w58 of the parts pile and have a look at it and see what sort of stuff I might have to get (if the slave cylinder is good, how the trans mount looks, and if the carrier bearing on the factory driveshaft is still good or not). Also got 2 new front tires for the 19" wheels. Sorry things have been slow, been super busy with family stuff and work. I promise there will be some updates soon. Also, back to my last post, I'll be picking up a 1jz soon and will hopefully have this car swapped before the end of the year. The goal is to have this car in a "finished" state before I leave for Navy basic at the end of december, because if I don't get it somewhat finished now Idk when I will.
Last edited by maynanator; 10-18-17 at 07:06 PM.
10-18-17, 06:47 AM
#44
Nice work so far! Welcome to the club - I too have a 92 hardtop 5spd cloth interior as well. Will be posting build thread soon : ) I have all of the original paperwork with vehicle and just FYI the "base" model was a special order in the US so you definitely do have a unicorn! Looking forward to seeing your build.
