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Hey guys new to the forum but have been in the scene for a little bit, thought id share a build thread of my somewhat unique 2nd gen ES300 build.
I first bought that car in Dec. 2015 and drove it stock for the first few months and then decided to shell out the cash for Coilovers and wheels and everything.
^ Day 1 when i bought the car
Once i decided to buy some coilovers i started to do some research and it ended pretty quickly because it seems for the 2nd Gens the only thing i could find is D2 RS series coilovers for just under 1k, with coilovers done i picked up a set of Weds Farmas from over seas in japan and slapped some rubber on it.
From here on i liked the car and drove it for a while like this but in the back of my mind i wanted more lol.
Decided on going ***** out of what was originally was just going to be a normal daily driver.
After making the decision i wanted to get a few things about the car that bugged me out of the way.
1.) Ugly front bumper
2.) Side skirts
3.) more low
I began a long process of a 3ES front bumper conversion and 3ES side skirts.
Found a White 3ES bumper for cheap from a local pick apart along with side skirts. The side skirts where basically a direct bolt on but needed some trimming since a 3rd gen is slightly longer apparently.
The front bumper was a long process that i did over the most recent winter here in chicago. The 3rd gen bumpers are not a directly bolt on because they side deeper out and is longer in over all length and has different mounting points. The route i went with doing this project is similar to what ive seen people do with LS430s where the cut the bumpers down the middle horizontally and merge the 2 bumpers in the middle at the seem.
I needed the bumper to be rigid and hold some abuse since it was going to sit lower to the ground then the OEM 2nd gen bumper. From what ive seen online most people used an epoxy to join the bumpers together and originally i went that route untill it broke leaving a gas station a few days after putting it on the car, so back to the drawing board.
After some thought ive decided to use Bondo Long Hair fiberglass along side the whole inside of the bumper and on the outside as well and that seemed to work pretty well. after that it was just a game of sanding highs and filling lows and it was ready for paint.
I ordered paint for a local shop that does paint matching from color codes and went about painting it myself in the garage. Please note ive never done any kind of fabrication, body work or painting before and it was all a first time thing for me. Here was after painting.
I have done a few things to the car since but i will be updating this thread as more things happen to the car. Comments and questions welcomed!
nice, I picked a 95 2es not too long ago. I may try to do the same since theres a bunch of 3es around here in the wreckers.
What coilovers are you running?
nice, I picked a 95 2es not too long ago. I may try to do the same since theres a bunch of 3es around here in the wreckers.
What coilovers are you running?
According to the OP,
Originally Posted by Epbiker4
the only thing i could find is D2 RS series coilovers for just under 1k
Recently picked up some Lexus SC430 wheels from a fellow ES300 owner, 18x8 +45 but with spacers gives the effective offset of 18x8 +7. Also running 205/35R18 Achilles ATR-K tires.
Nice....been wondering and asking for along time if the 3rd gen front bumper would fit on a 2nd gen. Got a lot of ideas for this 94 ES. I too have never done any body modifications so this will be interesting. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Hey question... did you put a bondo like substance right over those tie wraps? what is best for bumpers? I imagine bondo would crack... I need to do bumper surger and am dreading it... any advise would help. thanks
02-16-17, 06:10 AM
Toosie's 2ES Build
Update
