IS250 F-Sport Build Thread

[dougie175]

Managed to get the tyres fitted this evening and get the wheels on, these photos really don't do them justice as I was in a massive rush, the tyres are covered in goop and don't look nice, but should give you an idea of how they are going to look once the car is clean and the wheels have been prepped.

1 thing that has become very much present with the larger wheels is that I need to buy myself some Meister R's and lower it an inch or 2 further, being an F-Sport it is already an inch lower than standard but think it needs a touch more to look right.























Please do excuse the awful photos the light was getting a bit dark and I was walking whilst taking them so half of them are blurred but you get the idea.

Will get some proper photos soon, may not be for a couple of weeks though as any spare time now will be going on getting the diffuser sorted ready for primer and paint!

[ahmedali44]

They look pukka mate, alloys look very nice with colour.

[J Henderson]

Indeed, those look damn good and the fitment looks spot-on. Good job. 

I must admit when I seen the wheels earlier in the thread minus tyres and stuff I was a bit unsure about them as I thought they were all gonna be quite "flat"-looking, but now that they're on the car I can see that the rears are nice and concave. Excellent. 

What are the widths and offsets you have there? Would be good to know as I foresee a set of 19's in my own future, although probably not for a while...

[dougie175]

2 hours ago, Kodiak Sky said:

Indeed, those look damn good and the fitment looks spot-on. Good job. 

I must admit when I seen the wheels earlier in the thread minus tyres and stuff I was a bit unsure about them as I thought they were all gonna be quite "flat"-looking, but now that they're on the car I can see that the rears are nice and concave. Excellent. 

What are the widths and offsets you have there? Would be good to know as I foresee a set of 19's in my own future, although probably not for a while...

Thanks yeah fitment is spot on without any spacers which is always a bonus!

Yeah the front wheels are far less concave than the rear but that was the staggered look I was aiming for, the rears are even more concave than I was expecting so really happy with that.

The wheels are 8.5 x 19 front and 9.5 x 19 rear with an offset of 35 all round.

I am amazed just how comfortable the car still is on 19s was expecting quite a drop in comfort but honestly cant tell, no like some previous cars I have had where once you get about 17" or so comfort all goes completely out the window! Im guessing this can be put down to the nicely designed Lexus suspension

[dougie175]

Made some very good progress today.

7:30 start and just managed to get finished about 5:30 this evening, but the bulk of the work on the rear bumper is now complete. Just need to take it off again Monday evening and mark up the 3 lower sections to paint them matt black, then build up the bumper and install it again correct.

So after several hours and several layers of skin I finished rubbing the panel bond and had a nice shape, this stuff went in nice and smooth with no issues so only needed the tiniest amount of stopped right in the centre, I don't have a bumper full of filler, the panel bond makes the diffuser and the bumper 1 piece you could literally hand off the diffuser and it would not crack away from the bumper. There is not a better method I am aware of for this type of thing, theres nothing worse than someone smoothing something in and 6 months later it looks a dogs dinner as it has all cracked!





The bumper was the sprayed with adhesion promoter this helps the primer stick to the bare plastic



The bumper was then primed and rubbed down for another 3 hours to remove and tiny imperfections, there's a lot of detail and shapes to this diffuser so takes forever to rub the primer, its about this point when you ask yourself "Why didn't I just paint it and stick it on like everybody else!" This is the bumper once it was all rubbed down and it was taken outside to be washed to remove any dirt and grime so you get a nice clean paint job, nothing infuriates me more than seeing lads painting bumpers and the insides are full or dirt and mud and they wonder why the paint finish ends up requiring 3 hours of polishing to remove them!



So after a lot of cleaning basecoat applied ready for lacquer



Bumper back on the car, colour match looks spot on, I keep the primer low so I didn't really need to worry about the colour as I wasn't putting any colour up towards the quarters anyway



Back outside to check it all looks ok and show off my new wheels also!

























Few close ups of the work, worth it in the end I feel just pretty OEM now its smoothed in









For anyone wondering what I am talking about as far as doing the matt black on the 3 lower sections I found someone else who had done similar in the US this should give you a good idea of what I mean

[Bluesman]

I am not often a lover of body modifications as they can look very tacky but yours I like. It also looks better for being the same colour as the car. Nice one. Mike.

[dougie175]

2 minutes ago, Bluesman said:

I am not often a lover of body modifications as they can look very tacky but yours I like. It also looks better for being the same colour as the car. Nice one. Mike.

Thanks Mike, much appreciated

No I'm not always a fan either its very difficult to get body modifications right without looking tacky but hopefully I think this one has gone well.

[jackcramerr]

Nice work dough. Would never question your work but have a question...

So you didnt paint the full bumper? How did that blend in?

[dougie175]

11 hours ago, jackcramerr said:

Nice work dough. Would never question your work but have a question...

So you didnt paint the full bumper? How did that blend in?

Thanks

Yeah painted the complete bumper, you can see from the images above with the bumper in the booth in basecoat. I kept the primer tight so so didn't need to worry about the colour match to the rear quarters, but to be fair the Glasurit standard shade is a very good match to 8U1

Cheers 

[jimcufc]

Good job, looks amazing

[Wisty]

It looks like it was well worth the effort - I'd be hard pushed to not think that the car left the factory looking like that.

Top job.

[dougie175]

Thanks Wisty appreciate the comments

Tonight the bumper was finished, really happy with how its turned out. Think its made the rear end look a lot "sportier" and made the wheels look more suited also.

Bumper rubbed down ready to allow the paint to stick

All masked up ready

You will notice the fine blue masking tape this is fine line tape it gives a very nice crisp line, masking tape is ok but leave the edge fuzzy and doesn't look very OEM, this stuff leave the edge perfect, is also bends very nicely so you can work with it well to make shapes

Lower bumper all painted

Bumper built up and fitted

Back outside ready to go, cars filthy but think you should get the idea of how it looks now

[Wisty]

You and I have very different definitions of the word 'filthy' 

[dougie175]

Just a quick couple of pics of mine and my mate Petes cars ready for Japfest. Looking forward to it, never been before!

[MattFazza]

Some great work! I was not a fan of the 250's to start with but damn, you have a real peach there! Did you get any good snaps from hapfest of your car? 

[dougie175]

5 hours ago, MattFazza said:

Some great work! I was not a fan of the 250's to start with but damn, you have a real peach there! Did you get any good snaps from hapfest of your car? 

Thanks, Nah my car was just in the car park, not a member of any Lexus forums that went to Japfest so just went as a normal punter.

[dougie175]

Got me a bit of a plan involving Prodip carbon fibre interior!

I like the f-sport gear knob however it doesn't match the rest of the interior at all.

I am looking to take my gear surround, and 2 window switch surrounds shown below

 

 

 

Have them dipped in carbon fibre to match the knob, I will then get an old friend to re-create the logo below in the same colour as the logo on top of the gear knob

The idea would be to have the guys dip the interior plastics with carbon fibre, then before they are lacquered or whatever they do. Then apply the vinyl and lacquer over it to replicate the same style as the gear knob, that way the logo will be under the vinyl, wont get marked and will look completely OEM

 

 

[rayaans]

Wow the car has come a long way! 

It looks perfect, I like the wheels and think the fitment is perfect. I think a 10mm drop would looks the dogs danglies

I was slightly worried about the diffuser at first as it looks too blue but the black has sorted that out

The idea regarding the interior bits seems a very good one and im sure it will look great with white logos on black carbon fibre. 

The only thing I have spotted is the badge at the rear. I'm not sure I like how the F Sport badge is just sitting above the IS250 badge and its distracting from the fantastic job on the rest of the car. Perhaps it might be cleaner to remove the "Lexus" badge on the left side and replace with the F Sport badge as below:

Or it might be a good idea to replace the Lexus badge with the IS250 badge and then lower the F Sport badge accordingly.

Next step? Something like this:

Btw I found the people who made the badge you were looking for. Might be worth giving them a call if you still need them

http://www.fxuk.net/image-gallery-more.aspx?gid=6056&url=vehicle-badging&nscid=589

 

[dougie175]

8 hours ago, rayaans said:

Wow the car has come a long way! 

It looks perfect, I like the wheels and think the fitment is perfect. I think a 10mm drop would looks the dogs danglies

I was slightly worried about the diffuser at first as it looks too blue but the black has sorted that out

The idea regarding the interior bits seems a very good one and im sure it will look great with white logos on black carbon fibre. 

The only thing I have spotted is the badge at the rear. I'm not sure I like how the F Sport badge is just sitting above the IS250 badge and its distracting from the fantastic job on the rest of the car. Perhaps it might be cleaner to remove the "Lexus" badge on the left side and replace with the F Sport badge as below:

Or it might be a good idea to replace the Lexus badge with the IS250 badge and then lower the F Sport badge accordingly.

Next step? Something like this:

Btw I found the people who made the badge you were looking for. Might be worth giving them a call if you still need them

http://www.fxuk.net/image-gallery-more.aspx?gid=6056&url=vehicle-badging&nscid=589

 

Thanks very much, yeah lowering is the next step just not sure which route to go down, eibachs, eibachs from the US with their slight more drop of the front or Meister R's with unlimited options but more cost and worry they may ruin the ride, but everyone seems to rave about them.

I've kind of grown fond of the F-Sport badge location to be honest, think it looks nice, a few pages pack I did try it in a few different positions but went with what I felt looked best

The top seat headrest with the F-Sport badge embossed into the seat is very swish wonder how they have done that! That would looks very nice on my seats hehe! They have obviously used 1 of the wing badges just cant understand how but it looks awesome.

Cheers for the heads up on those other badges much appreciated

[rayaans]

Top one is  from the LS F-Sport whereas the bottom one has been done by someone on ClubLexus

Top one has just been stamped in from behind I think. Id assume the leather was clamped down with the badge and held for 2 hours or so. And then it was wrapped around the headrest

[dougie175]

Top 1 looks superb but sounds extremely expensive to replicate

Bottom 1 is also OK, but seeing the first 1 If I was to tinker with the head rests it would have to be done in the embossed style. I'm guessing some re-trimmer could take an F-Sport wing badge and press the leather into it then re-cover the head rests as an option.

[rayaans]

15 minutes ago, dougie175 said:

Top 1 looks superb but sounds extremely expensive to replicate

Bottom 1 is also OK, but seeing the first 1 If I was to tinker with the head rests it would have to be done in the embossed style. I'm guessing some re-trimmer could take an F-Sport wing badge and press the leather into it then re-cover the head rests as an option.

Hmm if you can get hold off some LS F-Sport ones, I bet they slide right into the IS seats in all honesty!

Im sure some leather guy will know how to get it on for you

[dougie175]

49 minutes ago, rayaans said:

Hmm if you can get hold off some LS F-Sport ones, I bet they slide right into the IS seats in all honesty!

Im sure some leather guy will know how to get it on for you

Yeah I had thought this as head rests tend to be a pretty universal fitment. The hard part is actually finding some!

I'll keep a look out on eBay but don't hold much hope

[dougie175]

Well I just received some photos from Richard @ Prodip Hydrographics of my dash panels so thought I would share them with you all.

I cannot wait to get these fitted along with my new F-Sport gear knob which is currently going through customs!

[rayaans]

That looks factory fresh! Bet it'll look superb once its in and that logo looks great too.