After my recent purchase of my '03 GS3. I've been thinking to myself what the most logical order of putting mods on the car is. Since most of us can't afford to just go out and drop 10k and put all the mods on the car at once. I've put an order together and wanted to run it by you guys. This is based on keeping the car looking good all the way through the modding process. You know how cars look with 20's and not being lowered or with a body kit and stock wheels...Just not very aesthetically appealing. Anyways so here it goes.

1.) window tint - inexpensive mod, good way to get your feet wet
2.) suspension - lowers the car nicely and you can make the stance work with your stock wheels
3.) wheels/tires - since you're lowered, you'll be riding nice with the 19's or 20's of your choice
4.) exhaust- should be put on before the body kit so that you dont have our dinky exhaust pipes hanging out your bigger rear bumper cut outs on the aftermarket rear bumper
5.) body kit - personally i think that it should all be installed at once, stock pile the parts untill you can put the hole kit on together. I'm talking front lip or bumper, side skirts, and rear bumper. if you choose to do a different rear spoiler, roof spoiler or grill (although the grill could really be done anytime before this) then install them now or anytime after this
6.) tail lights - once you've gotten to this point your car is looking real sharp, putting on a set of LED tails is going to take it to the next level
7.) BBK - once again, just another mod to take your car to the next level
8.) stereo - not everybody chooses to add an aftermarket stereo, and this can be done at any point in the modding process, since it has no impact on exterior aesthetics, but for me personally, it is one of the lesser important mods
9.) power adder - if you really want to be a Big Boy in ClubLexus, then you've got to have a power adder on your ride, there's only a few GSs on CL with power adders and there is probably a reason for that...it takes some serious coin to add one of these to your ride.

Thats about all I can come up with, call it common sense, but I thought it might be an interesting topic for us to discuss... Thanks gentlemen!

 

your order seems great. Itll workout perfetc if you go in that order without changes. Always lower first THEN rims. Exhaust can be before body kit as you can get exhaust custom.

 

The list looks good to me!

 

Saddle, I think your order looks pretty good! I think a lot of it though boils down to what is important to you? Looking good? Handling better? More performance? You've really got to weight the relative costs and your personal preferences.

 

Personally, I would switch the order of these two because once the body kit is on, you would want to fit the exhaust to it with extending or shortening / raising or lowering the exhaust to the body kit.

As far as rims and tires, I would say if your going with height adjustable coils, then it might not really matter which order rims and suspension would go. If your going with non-adjustable, then I would say that you should know exactly what rim offset your planning on going with as that could adjust your decision on spring hieght.

Just my opinion.

 

I'm glad you're taking a logical approach. Mine is purely impulse.

 

thanks for the input guys. to answer dave's question, since i went with the GS3, i'm not going for the performance side, i'm more into looks. And to answer what mole had to say. I'm planning on going with the CS v2 so like you said, the order really doesn't matter, I just hate the look of a nice Lexus with nice wheels and then a 2 - 3 inch gap between the fender and side wall, not my idea of how a lexus should ever look. thanks again guys.

 

That list looks great, very systematic and logical. Not to mention great taste.

 

I think Dave hit it dead on.. iMO its about personal budget and what you can afford at the time.. There's definitely nothing wrong with stock piling and buying little bits here and there.. Thats pretty much how we all started...and your mod list looks great GL... and pics as always of the progress..

 

Sounds like a good plan to me

 

Seems like you have it right on the money. I wish I would have lowered my car first. A lowered GS on stock wheels doesn't look too bad, while a raised GS with wheels looks horrendous. That was a hard 3 weeks.

 

123486579 Imo

 

In my opinion your list is great but the only thig i would add right before body kit would be suspenion mods (chassy braces and such) thats what i did .. because to be honest our gs cant handle too well so with susp. mods it handles like a dream haha

 

overthinking modding a car...kinda takes the fun out of it.

 

The list is great...but there is truth in Emerald's statement. Sometimes a great deal, e.g., wheels, exhaust, body kit, comes along and you've gotta jump on it! The impulse does add more fun to the modding.