ohyaar

Gosser

How hard is it to find that black wood from Japan spec GSs? Carbon wrapping is another option, and I know a guy that would do the steering wheel too, but it gets pretty pricey at that point.

ohyaar

I read about the wrap as an option but I want something different. The trim still has that wood look even with everything off. So I'm going to dye/stain it and put a gloss over it and see how it looks. I think it might work.

Briangs

mine has woodgrain and e shift. Had tan from the factory(98 gs400) and I replaced it with an 03 sport design that's wood and eshift

sbagdon

Also a call-out on the E-shift. To the point of thinking of finding a worn/used steering wheel, and sending it off to a steer-wheel rebuilder, to match the look, with wood grain.

TW99GS300

98-00 GS400 uses single stage air bags. 01+ GS300 uses dual stage air bags. The detonation charges are shaped and mounts differently.
You can't swap the entire bag assembly over from 98-00 to the 01+ GS3 wheel due to cover size. But you can go the other way around.
You can search for the Silk Blaze wheels from Japan. They are designed for the 98-00 with E-shift and uses the same covers as the 98-00 GS4

Gosser

Alright, I think it is finally time for a bit of an update! My dad, brother and I put a solid 8 hours each in the other day swapping over everything except the headliner and dash.

Here are some in-progress and then some before and afters:

Just with one door card on and we were all getting excited!



I then realized where I get my OCD from when it comes to cleaning under carpets/behind panels that never get seen, he spent a solid 20 minutes cleaning all the nooks and crannies on his own accord!

Before:

What we accomplished in the day:






I couldnt believe my dad was not apprehensive about any of this! I guess he was fully committed when we pulled a complete interior from a junk yard at -20*C and dropped 500cad on the table in January, but still, to tear all this out was a huge milestone. It was 95 degrees out all day, thankfully we were working in the shade. Its funny to think , we removed the interior from the yard on probably one of the coldest days and installed in one of the warmest! The cinnabar red on black looks phenomenal, I have no idea why Lexus didnt do this from the factory in NA. I think RoW got the red on black combo, but havent looked seen a stock photo of it yet.

Overall, the whole project has been a success so far. Despite still needing to do the dash, which we might tackle next weekend, it has transformed the interior completely. We are probably going to leave the entire tan headliner, since the grey barely looks any different. If anything we might dye the pillars black but that might be it. The B-pillars are 100% different, so we kept our 400 b-pillars.

The seats needed the locating pin ground off as expected.

Will get into the steering wheel when we do the dash.

We have an airbag light on, but that might be a missed connection at the base of one the b-pillar connections. We did not re-pin any of the seat conneectors, so if it is not a missed connector, then its probably something to re-pin from the 430 seats.

We also nabbed some 430 tail lights and popped those in some time ago which also really updates the rear end:




I'll definitely post an update once we slam in the dash, since that will probably have the same amount of impact as the rest of the interior did.

Agent$mith

iTrader: (2)

It's good to see family time spent on a car. My dad and I just finished upgrading the speakers and radio on my 2001 Lexus GS300 this past month, and it was quite fun working with him esp during these covid times. We just did a Q45 retro on the headlights too. I hadn't modified my car much until recently

gs30

Very cool and informational thread, congrats on the swap. What are the rims on that gs by the way?

Gosser

What stereo did you go with? And where did you get the Q45 lights from?

Wheels are Enkei PF01. 18", but not sure of the offset or width though.

We tried to tackle the dash today:


Everyone complains about swapping the 400 dash harness over to the 430 dash. I just put my dad to task and I only heard one curse word when he stabbed himself with a little pick tool.




We had to remove the center console again, but no big deal. We managed to get the 430 pad and passenger side all buttoned up but got hung up trying to re-install the steering column. The shaft retracted a bit, mis aligning the column brackets to the chasis studs by an 1". It sounds like this is normal, unless you clamp a vice grip onto the shaft before actually dropping it. We messed around with it for quite a bit and managed to get it to extend back out, but took a great deal of effort, hopefully it didnt wreck anything. We called it quits just after that.

I dont have a photo of the pad installed, but it already looks pretty amazing.

Gosser

Our efforts in pulling the column shaft out worked! It was slow going to pull it out, but it worked! nothing binds, but havent taken it out for a test drive yet, since we dicided to goto the junk yard to check out a new arrival:



We went to scope out the passenger mirror and trunk lid, since ours has some rust bubbles starting but they werent any good. HOWEVER despite the front end impact, and the bumper long gone, we did manage to find a passenger washer cap in perfect condition in the glove box!!!


It was also funny to see that this GS was going through a black interior conversion of its own as well:

All door cards, center console and door seals looked good, but we passed on it all. Took the washer cap and ashtray and will be going back for the 2J at a later point in time.

Got the steering wheel mounted and the driver side panels all sorted. I had to remove the bracket under the column cover, which only holds the yellow airbag wiring, but a simple zip tie held it in an alternate location.

Just need to install the stereo, but we're going to save that for another day since we need to solder a wire for the coil over dampener controller.

Here is a photo of us walking the shaft out, vyse gripped and a pry bar, it worked best using two pry bars at the same time. It never auto retracted, so I must definitely compressed it while pulling it down:

This must be hydraulically operated to compress in the event of an accident or something. We could not pull it out if it was attached to the knuckle and just pulling, so it definitely has to pulled from the car out to be drawn out.

Gosser

Buttoned up the project. Swap completed:












I've said it before and I'll say it again, the Cinnabar on black is gorgeous! Everything works, no lights on the dash, truly just a plain and simply plug and play swap . Only thing that doesnt work is the ML center tweeter. Shout out to my one brother who helped rip out the interior at the yard in the freezing temps and to my other brother who slammed it all in with me in the heat! And of course my dad who was there for every step of the way and letting us do this to his favorite child! I think he likes it more than I do. Now just some small maintenancy things to look after.

I've updated the first post with our findings.