Wow. Love to see project stuff like this. Plus, you've given me a lot of things to look for. Keep up the good work...I just re-read my response. I sound like a bot.

 

Thanks for the kind words. I should be able to drop the rear subframe with all of its components tomorrow. Two '95 LS400's pop into two different junkyards somewhat near me in the morning so I am planning to get up early and hit those yards looking for the usual parts. Clean front seats and EGR pipes, and of course whatever else looks good. They may well be crap cars but there is only one way to tell.

If I can get the subframe dropped tomorrow I'll post a few pictures of what it looks like.

 

The junkyards were pretty good to me today! I did not find any great condition seats (my pass seat has some slight tears starting to happen) but I got some great stuff making the trip worth it. The two locations were 1.5 hours from me each and about 1 hour apart from each other. So, it was 4 hours of driving to get back home. Both cars were 95's. Both weren't wrecked. I ended up with 2 solid EGR pipes, a perfect condition CD changer bezel, a rebuilt 1995 ECM (for flipping), another CD changer as the last one I got was bad, and 2 good condition Bosch Icon wipers (they sell them for like $1 each). But my favorite part floored me. I couldn't believe it when I checked. I thought I would NEVER come across one of these in brand new condition. An OEM tool kit that's not missing a single thing. The flashlight is still in the plastic and the batteries that were shipped with it were still in their shrink wrap with all of the acid leaked out. It's in new condition. The lug wrench doesn't even have a mark on the inside. Big time excited for that one.

I like collecting the EGR pipes when I see good ones because Toyota doesn't just give those away and they are very common to crack and leak.

Total cost from both yards together: $107

 

Great job on the tool kit! Mine is missing the flashlight. I should start visiting our local yards and collecting stuff I know I will need in the future.

 

I returned the ECM today as it's an early firmware version and is plagued with drivability issues, repaired or not. I didn't feel right selling one with that firmware to someone.

I dropped the rear suspension today. It's really the only way to go when wanting to swap a few components on the rear rather than doing it piece by piece. Disconnect the parking brake there at the bell crank where it connects to the main cable running forward, disconnect and push through the connectors for the wheel speed sensors and brake wear sensor, disconnect the brake lines from the calipers and pinch them off to prevent leaks everywhere, remove the two lower strut bolts, then remove the 4 big bolts holding the entire assembly to the body. The rear crossmember, control arms, spindles, brakes, sway bar, axles, and diff all come together. Just the way the factory put it together. I used two dolly's from Harbor Freight and some plywood for the assembly to sit on and used a floor jack on the diff to lower it all together. Rather easy. The assembly could be picked up with a guy on both ends and moved around but I elected to roll it around instead. If we don't make plans tomorrow I'll drop the suspension on the black car and install the good suspension.

Again, the reason I decided to do swap the parts are as follows:

• 70k less miles on the white cars parts
• Diff has service records painted on it showing it was somewhat taken care of
• Diff bushings are loosey-goosey on the black car
• Suspension arms are bent on the black car from someone placing jack stands in the middle of them

Once I get the rear suspension installed on the black car I'll just need to install the prop shaft and the exhaust and she'll be ready to test run. After that I'll swap the interior and we'll be good to go!

 

The white cars rear subframe and suspension is bolted up and torqued to the proper 133 ft/lbs on the body. I've still got to torque the strut lower bolt & strut upper nuts, replace the brake hoses, attach the prop shaft to the diff, reconnect the sway bar end links, reconnect the parking brake cables, and reinstall some heat shields and things like that. Then reinstall all of the exhaust, hook up the prop shaft to the trans and I'll be done underneath for the most part.

It's coming along!

 

Looks good, about how much do you think that assembly weighs? Old brake lines may not like that pinch off method, keep an eye on them.

 

Fascinating reading here. I have to give you credit for seeing these projects all the way through. No pics of the white LS after the incident?
keep up the good work!

 

Yea dicer, I only kinked those brake lines to stop fluid from leaking out while replacing the suspension. Those hoses are never going to be used again as I have two new ones in the box. I agree, that would be a bad idea if you were reusing the hoses.

 

Agree with the other guy, pics of the wrecked car? And no guess of the weight?

 

I'm out on a trip right now but will take a few of the wrecked car when I get back.

I would guess the weight of the entire rear subframe assembly with brakes and all at 250-300 lbs.

 

Alright, by popular demand, here are a few photos of the dead LS400. It was hit in a very soft spot so it's crushed in big time. The rear wheel wasn't touched so the sheet metal took all of the force. It was a pretty soft hit from inside as the rear of the car absorbed it all. The entire rear clip is shifted to the left which is why you see the big compression dent on the side opposite of where it was hit.

As for the black car, I'm nearly done underneath. I need to tighten the band clamp on the exhaust and screw in the downstream o2 sensors. I got the exhaust, heat shields, driveshaft and all that jazz installed today. New hardware on the cats. I went after the rear cat flanges and front pipe flanges with a wire brush on my grinder today to knock the rust off and clean the sealing surfaces up for the new gaskets. Some of it is eroded away. I did the final touches with a dremel to the point where the sealing surfaces looked sufficient to do their job. After installing and torquing the rear cat bolts there is a small gap allowing you to barely see the new gasket where some of the flange eroded away. If I had it to do over again I would grind a little bit off the areas where the hardware goes as there is no corrosion there. This would close the gap. If I get leaks here I will do this. I could reuse the gaskets as they would crush more with the metal removed.

If you haven't seen what the OE exhaust gaskets look like I've posted a few photos. They're nice.

The rear end is done. Every fastener torqued and new brake hoses installed. The wheels are back on now.

You could see nearly the entire width of the tire from the rear with this much displacement.
Compression dent from rear clip shifting over.
Rear of one of the cats.
Exhaust pipe flange brushed up. I'm less concerned with pitting on the outside circumference than on the sealing surface.
OE gasket seated ready for install.
Close up look of the OE gaskets.

 

You should pull that small dent out.. I've seen cars on craigs list just like that for 2500

 

The small dent on the right side? LOL

 

I had some time to day to work on the car. I finished the mechanical bits under neath except changing the oil filter and such like that. I got the radiator installed and hooked up but still need to replace the return hose that connects to the power steering reservoir. Other than that all of the exhaust is installed and everything underneath is done.

Then I turned to the interior. The interior is now stripped out ready to clean and install the white cars interior. The white car hasn't been dismantled yet. That's for tomorrow. The carpet on the black car is trash as well as nearly everything else that was inside the car. The Nakamichi head unit has a messed up display but works. I may sell that cheap. The dash had to come out as the Nakamichi system has a different dash harness than the Pioneer. My Nakamichi dash harness is in good shape so I may sell that as well. If someone wanted to do a Nakamichi conversion you would have to pull the dash to change the harness, but to someone it may be worth it. The Nakamichi amp may also be worth something. Both front seats are going to the land fill after I pull the motors off the bottom. The rear seat bottom is in decent shape but the rear seat back is garbage.

I should have the car complete on Thursday. Once I'm through with the job it should be cleaner than most 2 month old cars. I'm going to vacuum every spec of dirt out and shampoo the carpet after it's removed and prior to install. I must have found $5 in change in this friggin thing as well as every sort of piece of trash that you can imagine. Crazy.

Even the nastiest car is pretty clean once you get all of the interior and carpet out.
Nakamichi dash harness