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went over my new purchase today. cleaned up spiderwebs underneath the car, checked my caster bushings, drivers side is shot. Found a nice oil leak - appears to be pass side valve cover leaking. and polished up both of my headlights. Im starting to like this thing!
Hahaha! You were already liking it when you said "I do!" And got her off the dealer's lot!
Hahaha.
Last edited by imdking; 09-14-17 at 03:55 PM.
Reason: Include the quote
They both turned out perfect until I decided to do a second coat on one of the lenses. I read on the UV protectant can you should do it within 30 mins so I did it after 15 mins.. however, you should only do one good coat and possibly a second within 1 minute, otherwise you get complete orange peel..
So 1 good coat! and it will look like the second picture.
before.. obviously After. Make sure if you use a second coat to do it very soon after the first.. prob. 1 min. However I'm sure clear coat you choose might be different. RustO gloss clear with UV is what I used.
They both turned out perfect until I decided to do a second coat on one of the lenses. I read on the UV protectant can you should do it within 30 mins so I did it after 15 mins.. however, you should only do one good coat and possibly a second within 1 minute, otherwise you get complete orange peel..
So 1 good coat! and it will look like the second picture.
before.. obviously After. Make sure if you use a second coat to do it very soon after the first.. prob. 1 min. However I'm sure clear coat you choose might be different. RustO gloss clear with UV is what I used.
The orange peel probably came from how thick you laid down the clear. I used RustO UV clear as well. On mine, the first coat didn't look all that good. I waited the suggested 15 min between coats. Second coat looked perfect and that's all I should have done but the DIY I followed suggested three coats. Again, after waiting my 15 min, I did a third coat and got a little orange peel in the top corner of one of my headlights. I'm the only one that notices it.
I did my son's GS headlights when I got them and did two coats with the 15 min in between. They came out just fine with no orange peel.
You can always sand them down again and give it another try if the orange peel is too much for your liking.
I've done a number of things over the last month in my quest to bring up the car to near new condition. My overall goal is to have everything functional as designed and I want the car looking and running great. With that in mind here are some of the things that I've done: (FYI, I have a 2004 LS)
Flushed the transmission with 12 quarts of Toyota WS fluid. I still need to report on my method and experience doing this.
Replaced the LCA bushings. Well, one of them for now. Waiting for a new housing to arrive so I can replace the second one.
Replaced the telescopic motor on the steering column.
Replaced the hood struts.
Repaired one broken lug stud on my passenger rear wheel. Discovered that the rear brake rotors are looking a little old and crusty.
Replaced all of the missing and incorrect plastic fasteners for the engine covers.
Replaced the screw grommets holding the plastic shroud underneath the car that were stripped out.
Left to do:
Remove top windshield trim piece and see if I can reduce some of the wind noise that I hear coming from the front of the car.
Buff out the fine surface scratches and spider webbing in my paint.
Mount a new set of tires. Probably wait till spring on this one.
Possibly look into doing a complete brake job. Will evaluate this after I get the second LCA bushing replaced.
Since I do all of my own work the only expense for me is the cost of parts and my time but since I treat this as a hobby I don't mind spending the time...
I've done a number of things over the last month in my quest to bring up the car to near new condition. My overall goal is to have everything functional as designed and I want the car looking and running great. With that in mind here are some of the things that I've done: (FYI, I have a 2004 LS)
Flushed the transmission with 12 quarts of Toyota WS fluid. I still need to report on my method and experience doing this.
Replaced the LCA bushings. Well, one of them for now. Waiting for a new housing to arrive so I can replace the second one.
Replaced the telescopic motor on the steering column.
Replaced the hood struts.
Repaired one broken lug stud on my passenger rear wheel. Discovered that the rear brake rotors are looking a little old and crusty.
Replaced all of the missing and incorrect plastic fasteners for the engine covers.
Replaced the screw grommets holding the plastic shroud underneath the car that were stripped out.
Left to do:
Remove top windshield trim piece and see if I can reduce some of the wind noise that I hear coming from the front of the car.
Buff out the fine surface scratches and spider webbing in my paint.
Mount a new set of tires. Probably wait till spring on this one.
Possibly look into doing a complete brake job. Will evaluate this after I get the second LCA bushing replaced.
Since I do all of my own work the only expense for me is the cost of parts and my time but since I treat this as a hobby I don't mind spending the time...
This is an extensive and impressive list Gronemus. Very impressive and I commend your quest to bring all the functions of this exquisite car back to where it was when new. I will be tackling the tilt motor myself within another couple weeks. Any suggestions where to get that motor? I only found it on www.parts.com so far for $310. Everything on this car I will, like you, be doing myself. I just got mine and have a 3 month/3k warranty and had the dealer replace a couple parts.
Being able to do your own work is key. I have receipts from the previous owner that are pretty big for simple things. Probably why they sold it. I replaced my caster bushings today, new hood struts, cleaned up under the hood and snugged up the bolts on the passenger side valve cover since it's leaking in a couple spots. I guess that will be the next project. Valve cover gaskets, spark plugs (it has some platinum NGKs in it right now), plug tube seals and replace a couple of cracked vacuum hoses.
here's some pics of today's wrenching
I keep the interior of my car very clean. It has a light interior so it shows the dirt. This afternoon I went at the all the interior plastic parts with 4 Mr. Clean magic erasers. For a car that I thought was clean a lot of dirt came out. The thing looks new again. Awesome !
Being able to do your own work is key. I have receipts from the previous owner that are pretty big for simple things. Probably why they sold it. I replaced my caster bushings today, new hood struts, cleaned up under the hood and snugged up the bolts on the passenger side valve cover since it's leaking in a couple spots. I guess that will be the next project. Valve cover gaskets, spark plugs (it has some platinum NGKs in it right now), plug tube seals and replace a couple of cracked vacuum hoses.
here's some pics of today's wrenching
@mykvr6 are those LS 430 caster(LCA bushings)bushings? Part number looks different from what I have seen.
@mykvr6 are those LS 430 caster(LCA bushings)bushings? Part number looks different from what I have seen.
They are 2IS bushings, though I just found the part number for the RC bushings which are also cheap but supposedly a stiffer rubber. Come with brackets installed so no pressing required. And they were like 110 for the pair, Lexus oem.
They are 2IS bushings, though I just found the part number for the RC bushings which are also cheap but supposedly a stiffer rubber. Come with brackets installed so no pressing required. And they were like 110 for the pair, Lexus oem.
They are 2IS bushings, though I just found the part number for the RC bushings which are also cheap but supposedly a stiffer rubber. Come with brackets installed so no pressing required. And they were like 110 for the pair, Lexus oem.
Looks like excellent solution considering the ridiculous cost of doing LS OEM. An difference in the ride quality? I've got the Sport version. A stiffer rubber sounds like a good fit.
I changed my bushings because my drivers side one was bad. Real bad, it clunked and the wheel wobbled all over the place. I may try the RC bushings just to compare for experimentation sake.
Looks like excellent solution considering the ridiculous cost of doing LS OEM. An difference in the ride quality? I've got the Sport version. A stiffer rubber sounds like a good fit.
Yeah. Honeslty I'm not sure why the LS430 bushings cost so much. As far as ride, my car rides better because my drivers side wheel isnt trying to do it's own thing. Most of my highway shimmy and vibration is gone too with the new bushings. I really need to pull one off again and try to compare it to the stock LS bushings. Supposedly the stock LS bushings are fluid filled. Not sure if the IS bushings are similar or just rubber. The EC bushings are supposed to be the same size but stiffer rubber. I might try a set just to see, to experiment and get some info for guys who still need to do this job. I could always unload one set of bushings to recoup some of my money since they wont have many miles on them. The RC bushings are almost the same price as the regular IS ones. Unfortunately my car still bump steers pretty bad and still feels pretty "loose" in the front end. So maybe the alignment needs to be checked and the drivers side front tire is wore pretty bad on the inside edge so maybe that adds to the loose feel. The new bushings definitely helped but I still got a ways to go. This car will probably end up with sport suspension shocks and some tanabe if I dont get stupid and just coilovers on it.
09-15-17, 12:07 PM
