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I'd still like to paint it white some day. Until then I thought I'd touch up the buck shot / rock chips
I bought a lexus touch up paint pen and a $19 aftermarket kit on ebay. The lexus pen had the base paint premixed with the clear. The ebay kit came with a base coat and separate clear coat. Both seemed to be a perfect match. With the lexus paint pen the clear kept separating when applied. I couldn't get consistent results with the paint in the pen. I ended up using the aftermarket base paint to fill in all the chips. I have not put on the clear coat yet. I wonder if I don't add the clear coat if the chips will change color over time? I'm happy with how it turned out and less embarrassed to drive it around. Wifey said it looks 100 percent better.
Looks great from afar. Do you have any close up pictures showing your touch up work? Were you able to get the recesses filled flush or are they still slightly lower than the OG paint?
Looks OK, that's really about the best you can do for touch up. Between my cars and my wife's cars I've tried all kinds of applicators, including toothpicks, which are good for tiny chips, and you can always spot them when close up.
Thanks guys. My other cars I've had with over 200k miles didn't have any of these large type of chips. I imagine your right sdls, probably tailgated a gravel truck. The front bumper is peppered with smaller chips. With the temps in the 90's I'm loosing the desire to work on it. The only 2 things I really want to replace before summer fully hits is the tranny filter and right valve cover gasket with hp fuel pump seal.
The big $$ question lol. I haven't been keeping a runny talley. There are a number of items I've ordered and set aside for another day. The most expensive that comes to mind are the rear air struts. I'll include all the stuff in this list with a description if I haven't used them. This entire thread should be pointed to for newcomers wanting to purchase an older high mileage 460/600. Our 460 with 170k when purchased was in much better shape. Yet within a year I replaced almost the same amount of parts as this 600.
I'm still working on this list. I'll update it as I find time.
$7000 Car after tax
$300 shipping (got $200 refunded for minor damage)
$2350 4 new oem air struts ( didn't replace rears yet)
$70 used strut damper solenoids 2
$395 new Pirelli P zero nero tires 2
$70 oem stabilizer bar bushings ( not installed yet)
$56 moog stabilizer bar end links (not installed yet)
$18 window seal grease shin etsu silicone
$195 valve cover gaskets plus fuel pump reseal kits ( not installed yet)
$204 front and rear brake discs with pads. ( rears not installed yet)
$139 curt hitch
$39 hitch mounts with *****
$15 hitch hardware
$36 touch up paint
$26 Beck Arnley trans filter kit (not used yet)
$13 amazon pin extractor kit (not used)
$25 hood struts
$40 engine air filters
$39 tpms sensor
$75 ? spare tire
$25 ? paid shop to install tpms in spare
$450 oem lower fwd control arms... aftermarket were out of stock
$34 china junk sway bar links (still installed)
$112 front lower ball joints
$32 feebest tensioner pulley ( removed, it wobbled a little by hand)
$7 SKF bearing for oem tensioner pulley I pressed it in. Original pulley with new skf bearing is installed now.
$0 left ebay mirror was refunded
$64 left mirror drive mechanism (paid for faster shipping)
$81 front wheel bearings
$162 oem water pump ( not installed, I may keep it as a spare)
$92 spare key fob
$183 parking brake ecu
$46 suspension control ecu ( not used, kept as spare)
$29 front seat air filter ( not installed, no easy access setup is different than a 460)
$11 Diff plug gasket set of 10
$50 diff fluid
$100 tranny fluid ( not used yet)
$120 tranny mounts ( not installed yet)
$250 engine mounts
$30 exhaust heat shield ( not used )
$20 oil filter and oil
$75 drivers window seal ( on order)
Last edited by miket000; Apr 21, 2021 at 11:13 AM.
My math says that adds up to $11,810. Of course many of the items above (tires, air filters, etc.) are routine maintenance items. You likely could have paid $11,810 or more for the car purchase originally and then still have to complete many of the same items on your list on top of that
When I replaced them on my 460 I used aftermarket parts. The aftermarket spark plug tube's leaked and I had to redo them with oem tube seals. I didn't want to do a repeat again.
I think it is fair to point out I may have made a mistake when installing them. I don't think the original tube seals installed in the car before I purchased it had the ring compressed into the outer seal (they were easy to remove). I installed the aftermarket ones the same way. I only knew they were leaking before and after I replaced them because of a burnt oil smell in our garage after driving. I installed the new oem tube seals the same way yet the burning smell went away. Each time I removed the tube seals I cleaned all the oil out. It was a pia. The burnt oil smell definitely went away with the new oem seals. I have read on cl other people have had the aftermarket tube seals leak too.
On the 600h when I pulled the tube seals the plastic ring was jammed all the way inside the outer tube. I'm assuming this is the correct way they are supposed to be installed. All of the 600h plugs were dry.
I grouped both of these together in the $195 https://www.ebay.com/itm/LEXUS-OEM-F...0/333575188733
I probably have another 1k in parts to add onto the list.
My only regret is not getting one in a color I like. Buying one for 10K-12k with less miles would have been possible. I likely would have replaced the same high dollar parts within the first few years. For me the ride improvement with brand new parts is very noticeable. Is a used strut with 125k miles on it better then a 190k mile strut? Probably... I'd still rather have a new one. I buy a lot of used vehicles, mostly watercraft. There is almost always a reason people sell there used items. I'm actually surprised this car doesn't have any issues with the drivetrain, not yet anyway....
Out of curiosity, I did a few searches to see what inventory is / was available for the total I spent so far. I do think there is a price point where I could have purchased something in better shape. For $15k there are definitely more to choose from. I found some nice looking ones. Then I started day dreaming about swapping all the parts I just installed into another car.
After a few minutes of searching ( more like an hour wasted) I came across this 1 year old ad which is the car I purchased. I don't know what they sold it for the first time. Seeing the ad still made me feel warm and fuzzy it is listed for so much more than I paid.
To my surprise all of the rivets on the top structure had pulled out. There is a tsb or something similar for wind noise which I believe incorporates doing this rivet replacement. The tsb has a large parts list $$$ (looks like every seal, screw, and rivet within the door) I believe the tsb also calls for removing the window glass. The original rivets are all too short.
It turns out the rivets can be replaced without completely removing the door seal. If you pull out the door seal on the upper frame of the door all the rivets can be accessed. The interior door panel doesn't even need to be removed.
My seal was damaged so I replaced my door seal along with all the rivets.
1. Lower window plus remove interior door panel.
2. Pull out window seal (it is that easy)
3. Feed new seal down into front window channel
4. Feed new seal down into rear window channel. To aid in lowering the window seal I hooked my door panel and window controls back up. If you have a helper raise the window up a few inches then lower the window while pushing the seal down it will follow the window down. I gave my wife specific instructions to push down on the window control switch to lower the window. She pulled up and the window pinched my fingers. So beware who you ask for help lol.
5. Getting the new seal into the upper frame of the door is the most time consuming part of the replacement. It probably took me 45 minutes to get it in. The seals have a lot of folds. Each has to be inserted into the right spot or the seal doesn't attach. I found it frustrating.
Rivet repair...
I believe I used the 1/8" x 3/8" rivets. The 5/8" were a touch too long.
A. Drill out rivets. This is easy if they have all pulled out of the channel like in my case.
B.. Insert all 5 or so rivets before squeezing them.
C Use the rivet gun to push them all the way in to their holes, takes some force.
D. Once they are all pushed in then start to pop each rivet. I used a harbor freight pop rivet tool / gun.
The drill eraser removed the sticky mess behind the plastic triangle wind deflector.
New window seal
All cleaned up.
Feed the seal into the front of the door first.
This is my real wind noise issue. There is not supposed to be a gap here.
You can see all the rivets are still in place. However they have all pulled out of the main door frame.
The rivet holes have a plastic liner. Try not to damage these.
I used a metal washer in a few places where the plastic liners were missing.
Added more goop in the door to reduce rattle.
Last edited by miket000; Apr 25, 2021 at 05:04 PM.
