Sewpra

Alright so I've been daily driving my LS for about a year now, it's coming up to the time where I'm actually going to start restoring and modifying the car, I pretty much have all the work outlined, the one sole thing that I can not seem to find any information on is rocker panels.

The lowdown is, both sides exhibit rust at the far back of the rocker near the rear wheels, and it looks like the previous owner failed a jack attempt on one side and the (rubber?) moulding caved in, I assume this is what happened since there is no damage on the bottom of the car.

I've jacked the car up many times and it doesn't seem to be weak in that area but this is the only area where I can find any rust at all, so naturally I would like it gone ASAP.

My car is a 91 so as stated above it has the ugly mouldings, I've looked into upgrading to 93-94 mouldings, but that almost seems to be too much trouble (read that various other mouldings are required). So having said that, I'm just looking for suggestions and maybe even fair estimates on what I may have to shell out to get some new rockers on both sides with no rust, and unfortunately, having to replace those ugly mouldings with new ones. I forgot to mention the other side somehow rusted through the moulding? The corrosion pattern is typical of rust but I thought these were solid rubber from reading?

EDIT: I just thought, is the best option possibly to hit the rockers with a rust inhibitor instead of full replacement and re fasten new OEM mouldings? Or is that too "cheap" lol.

LScowboyLS

if your rocker panels are eaten up with rust to the point that they can be damaged with a jack, are you sure it is not time to reevaluate whether this is the particular example of LS400 you want to continue to invest money in?

I think you have the right car model, just perhaps an example that is too far gone from rust to put your heart and soul and money into! - it's not a rare Ferrari or anything, there are plenty of them out there with no rust and yet still cheap to purchase, because most of these were garage kept and babied.

Sewpra

The rocker didn't get damaged by the jack at all, only the moulding caved in, they must of tried jacking it by the moulding.... I have no idea.

The rocker itself holds up perfectly fine at the jack points, the rust is not THAT severe, I would take pictures but the car is not with me right now.

Having said that, I would also like to add the point that I live in Winnipeg, Canada, one of the top 2 coldest cities in the world, the import market didn't seemingly boom here until the early 2000's, these cars are extremely rare in this area.

LScowboyLS

Winnepeg isn't 2nd coldest among larger cities, but it's definitely in the top 10 worldwide

here are 6 that are colder, for example:

Irkutsk, Russia(600,000)
Ulan Bator, Mongolia(1.2 million people)
Harbin, China(5 million people)
Urumqi China(2 million people)
Norilsk, Russia (175,000)
Yakutsk, Russia (270,000)

have you ever thought about taking a nice warm vacation to Arizona or south Florida and picking up a rust-free LS400 at a good deal while you are here? - there are tons of LS400 choices in places like Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, Phoenix, and Las Vegas!

Sewpra

http://www.travelblog.org/North-Amer...og-355408.html

Those places, especially the one in Mongolia, only record colder temperatures year round throughout the seasons. I was speaking specifically about Winnipeg's winters. We've already had numerous -50 days this winter. Sometimes car's wont even start with block heaters plugged in overnight here..... I thought it would of been obvious that I wasn't implying cold summers.

EDIT: When you go to verify that I'm wrong, make absolutely sure you get wind chill figures, Winnipeg is the second coldest major city in the world with a population of over 600,000, it's a fact.

LScowboyLS

you should strongly consider running 0W-30 synthetic oil in your Lexus, which is just fine for it, and will help greatly in the winter!

I am hoping that one day soon Toyota will back-spec our cars for both 5W-20 and 0W-20 synthetic

the Toyota 0W-20 is one of the finest oils ever made (special formulation manufactured by Exxon/Mobil), and has no problem starting right up in -50 weather

Sewpra

No I didn't consider doing that because from what I understand importing over the border is expensive, my uncle did it when he bought his W124 300D, he paid a lot of fee's to get it over. It's simply not in my interest to take an expensive vacation, purchase the car, and then take on additional more-than-moderate expenses to bring it over the border, not to mention there are modifications that would need to be done to make the car legal in Canada for a lot of models (admittedly not sure about that on the UCF10).

Sewpra

I'll definitely consider the 0W-30, up until now I've only ran 5W-30 Mobil1 full synthetic and 5W-30 Castrol Edge full synthetic.

LScowboyLS

if you are afraid that 0W-30 would be too thin, or wonder why it's not even too thin for people living in the hottest part of Florida, then read this and you will be 1000 times smarter on oil!

from Motor Oil 101 course:

Sewpra

Flickr

The car still looks just as it is there, car I loved the most was my black E34 525i stick but somebody from my school vandalized it. Too bad I didn't have photo's to offer currently of the rockers.

LScowboyLS

yeah, your LS400 looks great! - you should keep it!

what year and model is the white BMW?

Sewpra

Thanks! But alas, that rocker panel rust DOES exist. The white BMW is a 91 525iA. It's amazing how both my BMW's felt far faster than my Lex but according to all friends and family the Lexus is faster, it really is cool how much the LS400 slows the perception of speed.

LScowboyLS

give your LS400 a new engine coolant temp sensor, new caps/rotors/wires/plugs, and change the ECU caps and you might well be amazed at the extra pep, although this car was never meant to be a speed demon!

the 98 and newer models start to get pretty snap your head back, though! (VVTi)

and as far as rocker panel rust, that sounds like some mig or tig welding and some body work would fix that right up!