Recently changed the front grill to the F-sport version. I think that took a few years off the slightly aging styling. Next I’m looking at painting the calipers. I’m torn between several colors. Since my car is silver and not an actual F-sport, the blue doesn’t seem to work. I think red with silver Lexus decals would look good but fear that red been done so much. Yellow could be cool but the shade of yellow would make all the difference. I don’t think black or silver would show thru much. Thoughts?

 

How difficult was the grille install? cost?

Personally I am not a fan of painted calipers on this type of cruiser. Looks like trying too hard. But that's just me.

 

The grill was about $300 from the dealer. The ones for the standard IS are 1/3 the price but don’t fit. I’ve also seen and read about aftermarket versions on eBay but don’t fit quite right in some way and don’t include the L emblem. This one does and fit perfect..of course. Took about 30-40 min start to finish. Getting the original one off took the most time. Lots of clips to be released. The chrome trim around the grill is retained and reused on the new one unless you also buy a new trim.
For the calipers, I think the car is just sporty and performance minded enough to justify a little flash. Again, the FSport calipers are Blue. But I see your point. Maybe black or silver would blend better without being shouty.

 

FUnny to see your "no kids," plate. We bought the ISC, for OUR kids. Rest of our fleet can't carry more than two.

 

I bought mine for my dog. The previous fun car was an MR2 Spyder so now she has her own seat!

 

Nice dog

i never got into the third gen mr2. Owned a 88SC mr2, and still own a 95 Turbo Mr2 bought new

Your black seat belts always weird me out, my first instinct being are those painted seat belts? Then I have to remind yourself in your year ISC, white interior had lots of weird black parts lol

 

I loved my little MR2 go cart and it was Miata-easy to drop the top and go..styling wise, I prefer your Gen2. Your ‘95 MR2 has gone up in value and will likely continue to rise! That’s a keeper.
And if it helps, the IS interior is actually light grey. Lol. We seriously considered a 250 with the white/cream interior...couldn’t do it. The wife loves to wear (cheap) dark blue jeans and shorts. I’m constantly trying to clean her tan Accord seats as it is.

 

Yeah instead of spyder, we added miatas to the garage. 2004 MSM and 2010 NC2PRHT.

Yeah my sw20 is a keeper. Turned 41k miles this year

 

If you have a 250 (can't really tell from photos), I would go silver or black. The rear calipers are way to small for bright colors. It really would look like your trying to hard on this car. If it's a 350, you can go with something bright as they are bigger in size and can appear to be BBK like.

EDIT: Just seen your painted caliper thread. lol Looks good!

 

What year is your car. I tried doing this to mine but eBay grill did not fit. What part number did you get.

 

It’s a 2011 and you are correct. The aftermarket ones have poor fitment or are just made for the sedan. Everything I’ve read indicates the ISC and the IS only share the hood. Every other panel is just for the C. I ordered mine from my local L dealer. Honestly can’t remember what I paid nor can I find the part number but it’s the F Sport grill. Not easy to get the OE grill off but that’s the build quality we expect, right?

 

For the IS C there are two bumpers that were used.

Type A: 2010-2012 and 2013-2015 without F-Sport used an IS C unique bumper and grille.
Type B: 2013-2015 IS C F-Sport models used the same bumper and grille as the 2011-2013 IS F-Sport sedan.

For type A bumpers, there are two grille options, the original and the Lexus USA port/dealer "F-Sport" non-factory accessory grille shown here. The part number for the accessory grille is PTR54-53100, and will only fit vehicle without pre-collision. Note that this grille is a series of "F" logos and not the typical zig-zag pattern seen on factory F-Sport grilles.

For type B bumpers, they already came with the F-Sport grille, but if you wanted to change the grille for some reason, the only option I've seen available would be to go to the non F-Sport sedan grille. The part number is 53112-53180 for models without PCS and 53112-53210 for models with PCS.

Jeff

 

It somewhat depends on if it's a factory F-Sport or not. If you don't have a factory F-Sport model, pretty much everything exterior on the front end is different on the IS C except the hood (including the headlights). If you have a 2013-2015 IS C F-Sport on the other hand, the only thing different on the front end is the fenders, the entire bumper, headlights and grille are all pulled from the IS sedan.

Interesting tidbit: on IS sedan F-Sport models the fenders are different than the non F-Sport models, they added positioning holes for the F-Sport badges. On the IS C they didn't change the fenders and just made the badges without the locating pins on the backside.

Jeff