Hi, everyone! Today I did something I should've done a year ago, & that is changing the hood struts on my SC300...

I actually bought it in May of last year; here's a photo of it back then:

May 4th, 2023

When I bought it, I made sure to check the timing belt, check the oil, listen to how it runs, & really get to the bottom of why they were selling this car...

After a year of owning it I can definitely see why someone would sell this car! The thing that bothers me the most about it is the transmission -- it grinds pretty nasty in first gear & just needs to be replaced or rebuilt at this point so that is on my list of things to do. But the car also had an issue with the throttle intermittently dying & this January I took it to a shop here in town & had the harness repaired as well as having a new ECU programmed to it!

So far I've:
- Replaced the battery
- Replaced the driveshaft support bearing
- Replaced the steering rack, high pressure power steering line, as well as the low pressure line (somehow it's still leaking though)
- Replaced the front bumper
And today I replaced the hood struts!!

Here's a photo from a few days ago:

May 6th, 2024

So here's a few things that are still wrong with it:
- The power steering still leaks I've tried putting thicker "stop leak" stuff in it & it just... does not work so it's getting to be time for me to take it to a shop that specializes in power steering so I can get this figured out.
- The transmission feels pretty bad to drive :/ In first gear I can just imagine the car is saying "OH MY GOD STOP PLEASE HOLY HELL PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP!!!" lol
- The oil pan is cross-threaded & I cannot change my oil :/// It is quite high time for me to get an oil change & this is at the top of my priorities, but I still owe $2000 for the replacement of the ECU & I don't think I can afford to pay $700 towards having a shop replace my oil pan professionally, but I have the new oil pan I ordered it from a seller on Ebay in Japan
- There is no music :/ The rear passenger side strut is also blown & makes a clunky noise while I drive around, so it's about time for me to get that taken care of as well, but the previous owner spliced up the harness to install a really cheap, & terrible head unit; I took that head unit out & bought a Nakamichi head unit, but I still need to either buy a new dash harness & replace it myself, or take it to the same shop & they said they'll do both the amplifier & dash harness repair for $700
- My tires are starting to get old & it's getting to be time for me to have them replaced I want to put nice tires on my car & I can get a good set for probably $800
- Lastly, as you can see the paint is still very rough, & I have a few ideas as to how I can get this taken care of, but paint is really for when I get everything else out of the way. I love this car a lot & want to keep it so paint is eventually on my list of things to do. I'll probably end up doing it myself? It won't be as good as a factory or professional paint job, but if I take my time & maybe even practice before-hand, then it'll definitely look much better than it does now!