Gerxiong89 Ultrasonic Blue Mica

The Color is the Thing

Knowing what you want in a vehicle is arguably the key factor in achieving automotive happiness. Money helps but no amount of money is enough if you are chasing an invisible goal. Armed with certainty over color, Club Lexus forum member Gerxiong89 began his search for his next ride. "August of 2016, I was looking for a new car, I looked into the Mercedes C300, BMW 335i, IS 200t/350 and Infiniti Q50. They were all good cars but I choose the IS 350 for its reliability," he told Club Lexus. He almost settled for an Ultrasnic Blue IS 200t that had every option on his list—red interior, Mark Levinson system, cooled and heated seats, heated steering wheel, and illuminated door sills—but then he took a spin in an IS 350. “Once I got into the IS 350, it changed my mind about the 200t. The engine roar and v6 was just so much better than the 200t.” Armed with even more resolve than before, he found the blue 350 he was searching for with the help of Desmond Thompson at Lexus of Cerritos.

Time for a New Thing

Our story would end happily ever after right here, but the IS wouldn’t look like it does now if there weren’t more to it that that. “The original idea was to leave it stock and just daily the car, but that didn't last long. I've always envisioned owning a luxury sports sedan that looks mean and aggressive,” he tells us. From here he ventured out into new territory. “I really didn't have an idea of what it was going to look like but I did know that I wanted to be a little different.”

First Steps

First up was getting the Lexus down, as Gerxiong installed RS-R Down springs, a lip he found on Craigslist, and ijdm fog lights. He also tried axle-back Magnaflow mufflers, then went full straight pipe—which he said looked better—before going back to mufflers to cut down the unbearable noise level. Spotting a good deal on Facebook, he nabbed an air bag kit from a guy who was going back to stock. The seller, now a friend of Gerxiong’s, sold him the Airforce struts and bags, along with AccuAir E-level and I-level controllers, all of which Gerxiong installed himself.

Wheels and Pull

Next up were wheels. Gerxiong had a set of white Works VSXX wheels (19x9 +9 and 19x10 +25) with polished lips, built by Devilswerks in El Monte, CA. To get the Works to fit he had to run -2.5 degrees camber front and -5 rear, using a Megan camber kit, but the front needed fender work for the tires to tuck. Gerxiong rolled and pulled his front fenders and rear quarter panels himself, shaved off his bumper tabs, set the rear camber to -2.5 degrees and used the factory front arms for factory camber, and took the IS to his buddy’s shop to perfect the fenders from the pull. Down the line he would experiment with other wheel options, selling the Works for red-with-polished-lips RSV RS8-D alloys, then trading those for SSR CVO4s, before again changing those out for bronze Volks TE37 Sagas (18x9.5 +22 and 18x10.5 +24).

>>Join the conversation about the Gerxiong89's Ultrasonic Blue Mica right here in Club Lexus.

Body and Fender Bender

The rolls and the aforementioned lip weren’t the only changes made to the body though. Gerxiong sourced a Bella fiberglass trunk from Successful Automotive in Downey, then added a Seibon carbon lip and side skirts. Sponsorship from Orange Virus Tuning resulted in an ECU tune which raised the rev limit to 7400 rpm and which he credits for improving the engine’s responsiveness. A slight setback came when the Lexus got reversed into at a drive-thu, damaging his front bumper and cracking the Seibon lip. Rather than buying new parts, Gerxiong had the bumper and lip fixed and painted body color—more Ultrasonic Blue!

>>Join the conversation about the Gerxiong89's Ultrasonic Blue Mica right here in Club Lexus.

Bodywork and Exhaust

More changes were in store for the following months. To mention just a few of them: Gerxiong sold the Seibon skirts to get a full Aimgain kit, then sold part of that kit and went with an APR racing front carbon fiber splitter under his painted Seibon lip. He also added a Tommy Kaira axle-back muffler from a Lexus take-off at Apexi, before getting rid of that and changing over to an RC 350 Invidia exhaust with a modified Tom's diffuser.

>>Join the conversation about the Gerxiong89's Ultrasonic Blue Mica right here in Club Lexus.

Go into the Lights

Gerxiong’s lighting style went through a few evolutions as well. He opened and blacked out his headlights, adding demon eyes and removing the amber reflector. He also modified his daytime running lamps, installing Starry Night Halos chasing LED tubes and blacking out the chrome trim. Next he “decided that the front lights weren't enough and found a guy in Thailand who does some sick custom chasing tail lights, shipped my tail lights to Thailand and got them custom,” again showing what can be done when you know what you want.

>>Join the conversation about the Gerxiong89's Ultrasonic Blue Mica right here in Club Lexus.

Word! to the Sponsors

With Gerxiong’s resourcefulness, and his build getting hot, more sponsorship came, this time from Function and Forms for their air struts and bags, so he sold the Airforce kit and in went the new gear. Next, new lighting sponsorship meant the IJDM fogs were out and Concept 3 units were in.

In the meantime, he also picked up some 6- and 4-pot Rotora BBK brakes, installed a Megan front strut bar from a 2 IS he adapted to fit his 3 IS, added a cold air intake, and had his engine bay hydro-dipped in blue with gold marbles with gold carbon for a portion of the engine cover. Last but not least, he had StudioRSR in Anaheim build a custom roll cage—blue of course—for the car, by his figuring one of the first, if not the first, cages built for a 3 IS.

>>Join the conversation about the Gerxiong89's Ultrasonic Blue Mica right here in Club Lexus.

Tally

All told, Gerxiong—who credits his team Lexus Elites for never-ending inspiration—accomplished this entire metamorphosis in a blistering 12 months. No less impressive is the net cost of all the upgrades, which he puts at “Roughly 11k only because I did all my work myself and found some stupid cheap deals.”

>>Join the conversation about the Gerxiong89's Ultrasonic Blue Mica right here in Club Lexus.

Going Forward

Now that the Utrasnic Blue has been to a few shows—including Stance Nation, Tuner Evolution, Tune in Tokyo, Spec D, XS Carnight Long Beach, Racewars, and Autocon—we asked Gerxiong89 what his future plans might involve. “I plan on getting the RR racing supercharger once they are able to get 500 whp out of it. I also plan going custom widebody or getting a different front and rear bumper made,” he came back. We’ll keep our eyes peeled for those changes, but for now you can read a full blow-by-blow, including the timeline and plenty of helpful questions and answers (in true Club Lexus style) here.

Our last question to the man behind the build was: How different is the finished product from how you first imagined it? His answer? “It’s beyond my expectations.”

>>Join the conversation about the Gerxiong89's Ultrasonic Blue Mica right here in Club Lexus.

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