Another SC restoration. Making that 17 year old car look like new!
05-22-15, 10:18 AM
#276
5 Year Update
Well, I've now owned the car for over 5 years now and it's now 22 years old so I thought I'd give an update. The restoration is more or less done, did a few more maintenance and cosmetic items to it this spring as I get it ready for this summer and hopefully many summers to come. Thanks to everyone for all the support and encouragement throughout the process, couldn't have done it without CL and the incredible wealth of information it offers.
Sent off the instrument cluster to Lextech last year, took around 3 months and the results were pretty bad, wasn't happy with the quality of the new needles, or LED backlighting. Took the cluster apart and noticed the backlight upgrade was just a loosely attached strip of LEDs that with a couple wires cold soldered to the strip. I ended up pulling the whole thing back apart soldering on new wires to the LED strip and using some epoxy to ensure it would never move. The Lextech waterfall needles were very dim in the day light, I replaced them with some pristine red needles I had pulled from a damaged 96' SC400 cluster a while ago. Had to do some minor modification to the cluster to get the '96 needles to work, but it turned out nicely. Was hard to get a good shot of it.
I also found that I had a bad damper in the HVAC unit causing heating to intermittently work depending on which direction I turned. After checking the heater core and control valve I realized one of the actuators on the HVAC unit was bad and had snapped the shaft connected to one of the dampers, so I ended up having to pull the entire dash and wiring out to get to the airbox, so never wanting to go through that misery again I bought an HVAC unit from a newer SC, dismantled it and cleaned it up, replaced all the foam on the dampers, and lubricated all the moving parts to ensure it would not happen again. Also ended up replacing the A/C expansion valve and receiver/dryer and replaced all the A/C O rings to keep things working for years to come. The whole process took almost 20 hours, but all is working excellently again.
While I had the dash out I sent out the steering wheel to have the leather replaced. I ended up using Craft Customs in Texas to do the job, it cost $275 and was well worth it, they did a great job. The quality/color match was excellent and the stitching matched the factory wheel perfectly.
Here's a few more pics after I got the SC back together, cleaned up and ready for the spring.
Sent off the instrument cluster to Lextech last year, took around 3 months and the results were pretty bad, wasn't happy with the quality of the new needles, or LED backlighting. Took the cluster apart and noticed the backlight upgrade was just a loosely attached strip of LEDs that with a couple wires cold soldered to the strip. I ended up pulling the whole thing back apart soldering on new wires to the LED strip and using some epoxy to ensure it would never move. The Lextech waterfall needles were very dim in the day light, I replaced them with some pristine red needles I had pulled from a damaged 96' SC400 cluster a while ago. Had to do some minor modification to the cluster to get the '96 needles to work, but it turned out nicely. Was hard to get a good shot of it.
I also found that I had a bad damper in the HVAC unit causing heating to intermittently work depending on which direction I turned. After checking the heater core and control valve I realized one of the actuators on the HVAC unit was bad and had snapped the shaft connected to one of the dampers, so I ended up having to pull the entire dash and wiring out to get to the airbox, so never wanting to go through that misery again I bought an HVAC unit from a newer SC, dismantled it and cleaned it up, replaced all the foam on the dampers, and lubricated all the moving parts to ensure it would not happen again. Also ended up replacing the A/C expansion valve and receiver/dryer and replaced all the A/C O rings to keep things working for years to come. The whole process took almost 20 hours, but all is working excellently again.
While I had the dash out I sent out the steering wheel to have the leather replaced. I ended up using Craft Customs in Texas to do the job, it cost $275 and was well worth it, they did a great job. The quality/color match was excellent and the stitching matched the factory wheel perfectly.
Here's a few more pics after I got the SC back together, cleaned up and ready for the spring.
09-24-15, 02:30 PM
#280
Driver School Candidate
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: CA
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I have '95 Lexus SC400 (Royal Jade Pearl paint color) with tan interior. My left upper window door trim panel has a cut right in the middle and is growing. Am looking for another. Would anyone know of an available one?
09-25-15, 12:03 PM
#281
If you are in NorCal, there is a person in Santa Clara that specializes in repairing/restoring our door and window panels. He repaired and re-enforced both of mine and while expensive the results were stellar.
Here is a "before" and "after".....
09-25-15, 02:03 PM
#282
Driver School Candidate
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: CA
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May be impossible to find another one in decent shape and for a price that may not be worth it.....
If you are in NorCal, there is a person in Santa Clara that specializes in repairing/restoring our door and window panels. He repaired and re-enforced both of mine and while expensive the results were stellar.
Here is a "before" and "after".....
If you are in NorCal, there is a person in Santa Clara that specializes in repairing/restoring our door and window panels. He repaired and re-enforced both of mine and while expensive the results were stellar.
Here is a "before" and "after".....
09-25-15, 05:04 PM
#283
PM sent......
