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Hey CL, it's been about a year and a bit since I've joined CL so I thought I should post up a build thread.
Bought the car December 23/24 2015 with 103,000 km and just minor cosmetic imperfections. Car was stock but came with two sets of wheels - Enkei RSF5 18x8 w. Michelin Pilot Super Sports 225/40/18 with approx 25% life left and OEM Lexus 17s w. Michelin X-Ice 3s almost new. I've lost my pictures for when the car was stock and the minor modifications I've made in the beginning. Replaced pads and rotors with Hawk HPS pads and Centric Premium Pads and Centric Premium E-Coated Rotors. Replaced both rear calipers due to seizing and replaced the heavily oxidized headlights with a set of smoked DT Moto/Ebay headlights with the LED Strip.
a couple of months pass and I purchase a Tanabe Medallion Touring Exhaust off Amazon which took almost 3-4 months to finally arrive. By that time I had ordered a set of BC Racing Coilovers which arrived shortly after I installed the exhaust. Dropped the front 1.5 inches and the rear 0.5 inches.
the car sounded nice and deep now but I wanted something more when I went WOT, so then comes the F Sport Intake
Got bored of the stock front end... got an Ebay F Sport replica front grill
That was it for the nice weather so reverted back to winter form... stock suspension and replaced the OEM 17s that were flaking and yellowing like no tomorrow with a set of Mazda CX5 OEM wheels. Also got a carbon fibre ISF spoiler while I was at it.
felt it was time to deal with the carbon build up issues our cars are so infamous for so I scheduled an appointment with a local BMW/Subaru guy.
bought a Mishimoto baffled 2 port oil catch can to assist in the reduction of carbon deposits
Next up... F Sport Sway Bars F+R. The guy who did my walnut blasting offered to help me out with installing the sway bars.
I think I'm pretty satisfied with where I'm at now. The car handles and sounds the way I like. Next up... RR Racing USRS, Spec D Tail lights.... then maybe... just maybe... more aesthetic mods. Been salivating over that Artisan Spirit Front Bumper type B with the quad fog light setup or maybe I'll just get a carbon front lip and call it a day.
The only thing I like more than driving the car is washing and detailing it. One day I'll learn to use a rotary tool to polish and compound but until then I'll stick to wash, clay, and wax. Forgive my lack of tire dressing.
I'm contemplating a couple of exterior mods for this summer. Will update when I decide. In the meantime I've got new lug nuts on the way to replace my chromes since they are starting to chip and rust.
Was debating between getting some new smoked fog light lenses to replace my hazed fog light covers or restoring them. Didn't want to bother with the whole headlight and fog light aiming procedure as well as the extra cost of new lenses so I went with restore route. Bought a Megiuar's "heavy duty" headlight restoration kit from Canadian Tire for $30. The results aren't too bad. Maybe if I sanded them better or polished for longer they would be even clearer but it's at least 50-75% better so I'm happy with how it turned out.
Thanks man, more to come I've got a lot of catching up to do compared to a lot of the long time members here. Would be further along if not for a whole bunch of maintenance(passenger airbag sensor $1700 seat cushion + $300 labor, cv axle $900 + $200 labor, walnut blasting $600 Q.Q). I must say the whole walnut blasting procedure with the before and after really opened my eyes and I have you and the walnut blasting DIY guy to thank. I can say that I'm now quite an advocate for walnut blasting.
Car looks great. I like the wheels and how it sits. I'm a fan of subtle mods that keep the car stock looking. You can tell something was done...but it's not overdone. Great work.
Car looks great. I like the wheels and how it sits. I'm a fan of subtle mods that keep the car stock looking. You can tell something was done...but it's not overdone. Great work.
Thanks man. I lowered it to the theoretical limit of the AWD platform - I think 24" ground to fender? - so it's lowered but I can still do 90% of what I used to be able to do. I feel like switching up the wheels in the future to something fancier with more spokes but right now it's so easy to clean a 5 spoke wheel that I don't want to go back to multi-spoke. In due time I'm going to start adding bits and pieces to make it stand out a little more.
Thought I'd give an update to this thread. Ordered a set of Project Mu lug nuts for my car but they arrived in such crappy condition that I had to send them back... still awaiting a new set but will post when they come in. Also got a new pair of Michelin PSS since my front tires had the infamous inner tire wear and was down to the stitching.
Also I've just ordered a 2011 Lexus ISF Steering ECU. Hoping it turns out as good as the forum makes it to be!
Wow , those things definitely got beat up! Nice car though.
Yeah, pretty disappointed with the customer service response time on them... I just hope the new set comes in and I can forget about this headache.
Thanks man. right now I'm a little torn on whether my money goes into cosmetics and aesthetics or performance mods or whether i want to go all out for this car, but so far I think it'll keep it's stock look and be performance(handling) oriented.
Yeah, pretty disappointed with the customer service response time on them... I just hope the new set comes in and I can forget about this headache.
Thanks man. right now I'm a little torn on whether my money goes into cosmetics and aesthetics or performance mods or whether i want to go all out for this car, but so far I think it'll keep it's stock look and be performance(handling) oriented.
eBay from a seller named xtremeautosalon but was shipped to me from modifymystang, a little weird but I didn't really mind as long as it came to me. Still waiting on the replacement set to be sent... they gave me a tracking number for the package but the shipping tracker only says that the label has been created and it's been a couple of weeks now... compared to getting them within a week for the original set. I've messaged them about it and so far no response.
They had the best prices at the time but now I'm thinking that it's not even worth it given all this hassle. I'm waiting for the delivery window to be over to enter into another eBay CS resolution because they clearly don't really care about answering messages. I've never had problems ordering things from eBay before.
04-22-17, 09:25 AM
Aspect's 07 IS250 AWD
I've got a lot of catching up to do compared to a lot of the long time members here. Would be further along if not for a whole bunch of maintenance(passenger airbag sensor $1700 seat cushion + $300 labor, cv axle $900 + $200 labor, walnut blasting $600 Q.Q). I must say the whole walnut blasting procedure with the before and after really opened my eyes and I have you and the walnut blasting DIY guy to thank. I can say that I'm now quite an advocate for walnut blasting.
