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Very nice. Just a minor note - your car is currently two-tone, but Champagne Beige Metallic on the 93-94 has a combination that makes the contrast very subtle.
Wow!! Very nice. Is that OEM trim, or aftermarket chrome on a roll? I remember a thread on LexusOwnersClub that had a very close match to the original piece.
Also, how hard was it to take the old trim off? I see there are holes and adhesive.
Aftermarket chrome on a roll. The size is an exact match, it's just lacking the nice end pieces and the plastic clips that slip in those holes. I was able to trim the edges to match the curve of the fender and you wouldn't even be able to tell if you didn't know what you were looking for.
Getting the old stuff off was a bit of a pain. The chrome cover peeled off easily but left all of the padding and adhesive there (no pic when it was like this). Used a knife to carefully remove the bigger chunks, just leaving the 3M adhesive in most places, then used GoofOff and a plastic scraper to get as much of that out as I could. Washed the bumper with waterless rinse then used mineral spirits to prep the groove for the new strip. Used blue painters tape to hold it in place to get the length correct then slowly started peeling the adhesive cover off and pushing the chrome down as I went.
I still have a foot or so of it left over though so I can easily take it into a store for comparisons, or just try to get measurements for it... not sure how they size the stuff.
Also found that my front sway bar has a good bit of left-right play, just kinda slides in the bushings. Will need to replace those pretty soon as well, but tossing the idea around of just doing a master bushing kit front to rear.
Swapped the front sway bar bushings (Beck&Arnley) and end links (Moog) today and the front end feels more solid than ever. Was getting some sounds over potholes and rough road before the repiar but limited test driving afterwards was promising. Will report back after more miles.
Also raised the front coilovers by 1/2" each side to compensate for settling over the past month. It wound up actually raising the front 3/4" and dropping the rear 1/4". So now I have 1/2" rake to adjust for (26" front, 25.5" rear; ground to fender through center of the wheel), which I'll probably just raise the rear coilovers 1/4" on each side and hope that squares everything up at all corners somewhere around 25.75".
The sway bar bushings did do a lot for the car but I still need to tackle the upper control arms to make all noises go away. The extra 3/4" of height in the front has solved all my rubbing issues and just generally improved driveability.
Also adjusted the front dampers today -4 clicks from where they were. Settings are now L+8 in the front, and L+6 in the rear. Going to continue dialing it in, riding on a given setting for long enough that it feels normal before making adjustments, but I'm very happy with the FnF's at these settings and this height.
The old UCA's were toast. Mounting tube for the bushings rotated freely on both sides and the ball joints had no resistance at all.
All noises and unsettledness in the front end is gone and she rides like she should! Just have a brake squeal under light application to sort out but I'm super stoked
Lowered damping on the front to match the rears (L+6) now that I have UCAs that are worth a damn and am loving it. Need to pull the rear seat again to see if I can go even softer and still avoid rubbing/scraping.
01-26-19, 03:03 PM
