My ‘99 GS400 came cursed with tan guts.. Uhg, I have been watching for an opportunity to swap it out with a black leather and it’s been a disappointment for a decade now, it’s been rare that ever even see black interior that was in available vehicle, and the ones I have found was always destroyed. So when I got an email notification this week about a black’05 GS300 that was a new arrival. Then I happened to be near there today and decided to stop and see if there was anything that I could use. I was quite surprised to find a low mileage Sport Design out in the bone yard. The car hit some pretty hard and destroyed the front clip, so the headlights were unrecognizable, and some *** decided to pull the stereo using a sawzal and sledgehammer and destroyed the whole dash and center console! What’s the matter with people? I managed to find the center Blackwood trim piece, and pulled the door panels, also the front door seals, while I was trying to figure out how to haul this treasure back to the front counter I noticed the shift **** in mud puddle under the car! There was several other people who showed up and saw what I they had missed, made nervous about leaving any of it unattended. So I had what I couldn’t carry in the trunk of another vehicle. But I get all up front, the total cost for the first pull? How about $107 total! I pulled eBay and there was almost nothing available right now, it took a minute to find comparable stuff and the total listing price for everything was over $1500!!! The seats and carpet are my next visit, this has been something that I have always been interested in, I get so jealous reading other members share their experiences and ease of locating good donor vehicles, and had pretty much given up, after today it seems so satisfying

Get the new door panels all cleaned up and installed today, they are in just about perfect condition, I have to admit, seeing them all installed gave me some serious wood

I am still amazed that last didn’t know what the value would be. I don’t think wrecking yards ever but a car with a cat to recycle, seems like us ‘Mericans want to squeeze every penny out whenever possible. I guess I figured that all GS owners know the premium for black interior and tall the people who would be interested I would have handed over $500 to do a swap before It went to the junk yard, so they would have probably got triple

As someone who is trying to do the same, I am super jealous!

Of course with the windshield half gone so the whole interior was pretty dirty, I figured once I cleaned it up, the leather would have a shine to it, cause that’s how it always looks when I see it in other cars. Now that it’s all cleaned up, it’s like a matte black, the way it was when brand new, the donor car must have really been Cherry before it got wrecked. I hate to see these in the wrecking yard, but especially nice ones.
I am like feeling really excited about my car again, I can’t wait to get the carpet and seats swapped out.

Good stuff!

Very nice find! I’ve encountered a black interior GS once that nobody touched. Unfortunately this junkyard has constantly raised prices to the point that it’d save me time buying half of it on Craigslist/Facebook/forums or even eBay. The one affordable junkyard doesn’t get many Japanese cars in here.

You got a good price for it all. Hopefully you can the seats and everything else you need when you go back.

oh no, this place is not immune from the recent jump in pricing on their parts. You’ll notice I stripped out all the window switches and the gutter lights etc, plus I opted to forgo any warranty or exchange protection to get the prices down to as low as possible plus they charges me a core and I need to return my old parts as part of the deal. Ever since Covid when the new car and parts market went through the roof, all the wrecking yards in my area started getting attacked by teams of homeless people who were stripping out anything that they could pull quickly and easily to put on eBay and the wrecking yards raised their prices to get their cut. Funny thing though, they haven’t increased what they pay people for these cars…

I love pick n pulls! Remember all the "free" fuses, nuts, bolts, and whatever else would fit in your pockets from there? Lol nice find.

Very nice find.

Share some pics of your swap status. Would be nice to see.

how do you think I got the matching window switches, I felt so dumb stealing them but they were going to change $60! **** that! I decided that they tried tried robbing me first so, that decision was made

I do like your Rear Bumper Decoration Frame Cover Trim but was wondering if you were considering Mud Flaps as well?

Dang, but at least you got a lot of good parts for a reasonable price. One of our local junkyards charges for every button on a window switch, no matter what the button does. I had to pay $50 for a black driver side window switch on my SC300, that turned out to have broken window switches. They won’t even let you return anything unless you buy their ridiculous warranty now and the warranty is like 50% of the price of the part.

That’s interesting about the homeless people snatching parts. I think the giant fences with barbed wire deter it from happening here but I wouldn’t be surprised if people have tried. Of course they haven’t increased what they pay for cars. Aside from find parts like you did, the big junkyard here has gotten to expensive for me.

Very true! Otherwise you’d be paying an extra $100+ for some bolts and tiny stuff like window switches.

Some guy on one of the FB groups found an L-sportline rear bumper and posted some pics of the car. Turns out it was a 430 that had L-sportline parts. Told him to go back and grab everything. He also came back with Injen CAI and I think a nitrous kit.