A local shop quoted me about $3000 to paint it in that color. The color is a factory color....the Saturn SUV will be available in it when it's released this year. I'll be using "House of Kolors" paint....some of the best around, none of that cheapo stuff...

For 3k, they're going to pull off all rubber seals, paint the engine bay, trunk, doorsills, and as much of the underside as I want. I'm actually going to re-coat the underside in a new color of underbody coating. I'm trying to find a nice red. You won't be able to see it unless you're looking UNDER the car....but that's ok....I'll know it's there.

SR

 

Oh ya.....rear springs....here goes!

Open the trunk and remove the trunk liner that's closest to the back seat. Beside the gas tank on each side you'll see the strut pillars. Use a 10mm socket and pull off the three bolts from each. Then remove the meat cap to reveal 3 more bolts on each. Remove two from each one of them, and loosen the third one, but don't remove it. Also at this time use a 15mm socket and loosed the center bolt on the top of the strut, but DONT REMOVE IT!

Now jack up the car, and put a jackstand or something under it for better support. Remove the wheel. In this case, I'll assume you are doing the rear-driver side wheel, so when I say something to the right that's towards the rear of the car....to the left is towards the front of the car....understand? Ok.

On the right you'll see a bar that runs from the very bottom of the wheel hub up to a mounting point on the back of the car. It's the farthest back part of the suspension on the car. Use the factory Lexus jack and raise up the wheel hub some...this will remove pressure from that bar. Remove the nut from the bolt on the frame side of the car (15mm or 17mm socket...can't remember) and knock out the bolt. The bar should now freely swing down.

Also at this point, you should see where the sway bar comes from directly behind the wheel hub, and connects to the hub using this little 3" or 4" dogbone type thing. While the hub is still raised up with the lexus jack, remove the bolt where it connects to the actualy sway bar, and then swing the little dogbone down out of the way.

Now lower and remove the Lexus jack. Remove the nut (also 15mm or 17mm...all the large bolts under there are the same size) from the bolt that actually attaches the bottom of the rear strut/shock to the wheel hub. You can at this point use some spring compressors on the spring to lessen the load on the shock, but it's not required. Knock out the bolt that holds on the bottom of the strut, and the strut will slide down until it hits the hub (you'll see what I mean when you look at it.)

Now it's a 2 person job to make things MUCH easier. Remove that last bolt from the top of the atrut in thr trunk. Now have someone step on the wheel hub and press it down (with ALL their weight) and oh ya....MAKE sure the parking brake is on or their foot will just roll off. When they push down, you should be able to remove the strut from the wheelwell!

If any of this doesn't make sense, tell me and I'll try to explain it better.

SR

 

Wiz,

why werent you happy with the springs before you cut thhe fronts????

how did it look before cutting them????

 

Cmputerwiz,

I was talking about getting after market bars that are larger in diameter to replace original bars. Any brand, manufacturer who make them for sc400?

thx

 

Well if you look at my website ( http://www.LexusTuner.com ) and look at the pic on the opening page... See how the back looks lower than the front? Well that's how it looked even with the springs. Since it only took the front and back down the same amount, it would have kept the same stance as n the pic....with the front higher than the back.

I don't know of another company that makes the anti-sway bars. If you can read japanese I'm sure ou can find some tho!

SR

 

I like that color too. My SC400 is painted with Standox Exclusive line chamelon paint. Sometimes it will actually change that color on a bright day. You should expect to pay a lot for a good paint job. Mine ran me about $8000 . They took the entire car apart and there isn't a single paint edge or tape line. The worst part of the whole thing was waiting 2 months for it to be finished.

 

reLEX, you have pics of your lex you can send me?

If so, send 'em to steven@spectrasite.com

Thanks!
SR