Lexus LS430 Build Thread... Mark two...!!

[Haylands]

Following on from the demise of my old 430, another joins the fold... This is my third...

The first one was sold many moons ago, the second one had a slight mishap, well, alright, a **** for a driver.....ME...!!

See it's rise and fall here....

I couldn't find another Blue one with a grey interior but I did find a nice Smokey Granite Mica one with a grey interior, I do like the grey and I love the Granite colour, same as the old 460 I had, it's a 2005 so two years newer than the last one but has done the same 130,000, it has a very full and detailed Lexus history up to 100,000 with a new cam belt. If was then looked after by the previous owner who kept records of all it has had so it has been loved a bit...

I picked it up last night and drove it around 200 miles, it drives very nicely, slightly better than the old one but still not quite right... The engine is very quiet and really does purr well...

The plan was to make a great one out of the two so today I took them both to my mates garage and stole a couple of his lifts for a couple of hours...

Beauty and the beast 

And, yes, that is a tow bar on the new one, a Curt made one from America, these are about £350 to import with all the taxes and then there is the electrics as well, I was just about to buy one for the old 430 as I have a small trailer I use, as we are refurbishing a house.... It's not the prettiest of things but there again nor is the back of a 430.... I have made it look better (IMHO) by removing the LED light strips that were wired into the reversing lights but most of them had burn out...!!

So, get them on a lift and pose for more pics..!!

And just as I thought, the bottom front wishbone rear bushes had gone, this causes a terrible wheel wobble when braking from speeds above 60mph, it feels just like warped discs

 

Not to worry I had two new ones on the old car.... also swapped the front discs and pads as they were very new and swapped all four wheels and tyres for the set I had just had refurbished and fitted four new Dunlops.... I have bought the salvage of the old one from the Insurance company so I'm not stealing anything, I do want to keep it drivable though, and yes it is roadworthy as all the lights work and there are no sharp edges... Maybe not to good at night as the headlights have moved back, but it's handy to keep it mobile.

It took a while to fit 4 front bushes, 4 discs, 8 pads and 8 wheels...!!! 

That was about it for the mechanical swap overs, I took those LED lights off whilst it was airborne and had a good check of it underneath, noting it's two new rear suspension sensors which the previous owner had just done.

The inside is in nice clean undamaged condition apart from the driver's seat which has a hole and some other damage...

Not to worry I have a spare.....!!!   luckily it is the passenger seat that has damage on the old one so I was able to make a good set out of the two...

Whip the seat out (5x14mm bolts and three electrical plugs) and it wasn't too bad underneath for 13 years....

A quick hoover and it's ready for the new seat (If you do one, remove the door threshold, saves damage from the bottom of the seat..)

 

If anyone wonders what it looks like underneath their seat it's like this..... right side of the picture is the front...

Bottom center of the picture is an oblong hole, this is where the filters for the seat heater/cooler go, they do get full of fluff....

An airline blown from the back sorts them out....

The drive home was superb, the 430 felt like new and had got back it's "waftability" and Magic carpet ride....

A few more things to swap over and then it's bye bye to the old one....

The new one needs some bodywork, it has a scrape on the rear nearside arch and a few other little marks... I shall machine polish it and see what needs doing, there are also a few other things to do with it.....

May have to spend the weekend with the polish as my brother is coming to stay next week and will be in his absolutely mint SC430...

 

 

 

 

[graham8370]

As usual Peter, a great write up. I do enjoy reading your posts, keep it up.

 

Graham.

[Britprius]

Very interesting write up with much useful information. Something you may or may not know. The "Curt" tow bar is not legal to use in the UK/Europe as it has not been type tested. It can be used for bike carriers or cargo boxes, but cannot be used to pull a trailer no matter how small. What you use it for is totally up to you, but there are insurance implications as I found out the hard way.

All tow bars fitted now have to be type approved, and be marked with the appropriate numbers unless for some strange reason it is fitted to a commercial vehicle.

John. 

[Haylands]

Thank you Graham, John, yes I was aware, thanks for the heads up though, been that way since 1998... I only tow the trailer to the end of the drive...!!

[Cotswold Pete]

Crikey,  you do not hang about when it comes to getting cars sorted.

I really like the Smokey Granite, a bit more understated than the Blue.

Best of luck with this one.

[Haylands]

Thanks Pete, just been checking and in fact it's not Smokey granite mica, it's Flint Mica, they only did smokey granite on the 460... looks pretty darn close match to me, maybe they just changed the name...!!!

[RgrWynne]

Amazing thread, thank you for that. One question, how do you access the seat filters, which incidentally I have been quoted £70 to replace at Chester Lexus in the past. 

[Haylands]

On 5/25/2018 at 9:54 PM, RgrWynne said:

Amazing thread, thank you for that. One question, how do you access the seat filters, which incidentally I have been quoted £70 to replace at Chester Lexus in the past. 

As you can see from the picture they are at the front of the seat underneath, raise the seat as high as it will go, kneel on the floor outside the car, get your head under the seat and you should see it, there are two fixings, one on each short side, it is a plastic over center type clip so you have to get your fingernail and unclip it... They put a self adhesive felt edge on the holder and this can ooze glue and stick the filter in place so you may have to give it a tug, it's pretty good plastic so doesn't tend to shatter if you bend it... then just blow it through from the rear to clear it out, or just bang it on something and brush it out...

[Haylands]

Have you ever sat there in traffic and looked at the steering wheel and thought.... "why did they make it gloss leather when the rest is matt"

Well actually it isn't gloss... it's the proverbial polished turd...!! Get yourself a mild leather cleaner and get to work on it, only takes a few minutes but look at the state of the cloth you use, you won't believe how much dirt is on there.....

Now sit back and look at your new wheel...!!!

 

It really does make a massive difference, treat it with some leather food and wait for it to dry or you will get fingerprints on it...

It now matches the airbag...!!

 

 

[royoftherovers]

4 hours ago, Haylands said:

Have you ever sat there in traffic and looked at the steering wheel and thought.... "why did they make it gloss leather when the rest is matt"

Well actually it isn't gloss... it's the proverbial polished turd...!! Get yourself a mild leather cleaner and get to work on it, only takes a few minutes but look at the state of the cloth you use, you won't believe how much dirt is on there.....

Now sit back and look at your new wheel...!!!

 

It really does make a massive difference, treat it with some leather food and wait for it to dry or you will get fingerprints on it...

It now matches the airbag...!!

 

 

Yes, I did the same on my 15 year old Merc and it worked a real treat.

[RgrWynne]

On 5/27/2018 at 1:33 PM, Haylands said:

As you can see from the picture they are at the front of the seat underneath, raise the seat as high as it will go, kneel on the floor outside the car, get your head under the seat and you should see it, there are two fixings, one on each short side, it is a plastic over center type clip so you have to get your fingernail and unclip it... They put a self adhesive felt edge on the holder and this can ooze glue and stick the filter in place so you may have to give it a tug, it's pretty good plastic so doesn't tend to shatter if you bend it... then just blow it through from the rear to clear it out, or just bang it on something and brush it out...

Peter,  thank  you for that, all done and cleaned out filters. Much appreciated

[mrdoofa]

Great tip about cleaning the steering wheel, I always thought that once they’d gone shiny from hands “polishing” it you couldn’t do anything about it. Can you recommend a leather cleaner to do the job?

[royoftherovers]

2 hours ago, mrdoofa said:

Great tip about cleaning the steering wheel, I always thought that once they’d gone shiny from hands “polishing” it you couldn’t do anything about it. Can you recommend a leather cleaner to do the job?

This is what I used on the Merc.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Abbey-Magic-Eraser-Sponges-Chemcials/dp/B003QITQC6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1527579022&sr=8-2&keywords=magic+sponge

[sorcerer]

2 hours ago, mrdoofa said:

Great tip about cleaning the steering wheel, I always thought that once they’d gone shiny from hands “polishing” it you couldn’t do anything about it. Can you recommend a leather cleaner to do the job?

Dodo Juice Supernatural Leather Cleaner and Supernatural Leather Sealant is what I use on my seats, so I'm sure it'll also do a superb job on the steering wheel too.

[Haylands]

1 hour ago, royoftherovers said:

This is what I used on the Merc.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Abbey-Magic-Eraser-Sponges-Chemcials/dp/B003QITQC6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1527579022&sr=8-2&keywords=magic+sponge

No no no...!!! don't use a magic eraser on painted leather (which the steering wheel is) yes it will clean it well but it is an abrasive, try one on a polished or painted surface and see what it does, you need a proper cleaner, wipe it on thick and let it soak in then gently rub it off. Magic eraser is good for hard grained plastics and other synthetic material but not leather.... 

[Haylands]

3 hours ago, mrdoofa said:

Can you recommend a leather cleaner to do the job?

I have used several over the years, they all seem to be similar, anyone will do, just make sure to feed the leather afterwards, the cleaner will open the pores and if you don't fill them with feed you will fill them with grease from your hands and although that is a pretty good food it will have dirt in it as well.

[royoftherovers]

1 hour ago, Haylands said:

No no no...!!! don't use a magic eraser on painted leather (which the steering wheel is) yes it will clean it well but it is an abrasive, try one on a polished or painted surface and see what it does, you need a proper cleaner, wipe it on thick and let it soak in then gently rub it off. Magic eraser is good for hard grained plastics and other synthetic material but not leather.... 

Many thanks Peter for your concerns. I used it 2 years ago and it has been fine.

[Haylands]

John, it will be fine it's just not a good idea to use an abrasive on painted leather, it will not take too much to remove the surface of the leather, a stubborn spot of dirt and a good rub with the magic eraser and you can do permanent damage. I love the magic erasers, they are brilliant but not for repeated use on anything delicate... 

[Haylands]

Finished off swapping stuff over today, one rear door card had a mark on the speaker panel so I swapped it, the wood doesn't quite match so I swapped the wood which involves loads of screws to take apart the door trim... swapped a door window trim as one was dented on the new one, small and not very noticable but why not seeing as I had a good one... It is fortunate that the small cosmetic damage on both cars were all on different parts, the new car now has a near totally immaculate interior and with a small amount of paintwork will be near mint outside. it now drives just as it should so it's getting close to where I want it...

Couldn't resist a bit of bling for the expanse of wood on the center console, my brother bought some of these a while ago, they are lazer cut stainless, incredible quality and look near original...

Before...

After....

Not very photogenic it certainly looks better in the flesh, I like it as it breaks up the large blank panel..

Next job is a full deep clean inside and out...

[Odysseus]

I love everything you’re doing to your new car and it’s a credit to you. Congratulations on such a fantastic vehicle and your talents of restoration.

I’d lose the cheesy dash trim sticker though. [emoji846]


Sent from my Iphone using Tapatalk

[Haylands]

2 hours ago, Odysseus said:

I’d lose the cheesy dash trim sticker though.

Each to their own, boring if we all liked the same thing...!! lol

Lexus did it themselves on the SC430.........

[Haylands]

I have now completed swapping everything over from the old one to the new one and given the interior a good clean and fed the leather, the inside is now looking near new, just a few small marks on the leather to repair, I have sent a piece of leather to Furniture Clinic https://www.furnitureclinic.co.uk/Leather_Colourant and ordered 250ml colour matched to the grey. 

Any marks or dark areas are just shading, it doesn't photograph that well, all the leather has cleaned up well and the rather grubby carpets have cleaned well to... the drivers footwell was rather dirty all around the edge of the floor mat... now looking good....

I ended up with a set of black and a set of grey genuine floor mats, I jet washed both sets today and got a lot of muck out and did fancy having the grey but alas they didn't clean up as well as I'd like so I've gone with the black, at least they will stay looking clean longer...

Some areas where the grey has gone sort of beige... (If anyone wants a set of 4 niceish grey mats, let me know, going cheap...)

The edge binding of the mats gets worn and frayed over time, the black set wasn't bad, just a bit of hairy edge...

A quick run round the edge with a hot air gun and they look a lot better....

If anyone wonders what it looks like under the rear seat it's pretty packed with goodies...!!!

And one of the last things to swap over was the filler cap for the screen wash

That is rodent teeth marks!!!! the little blighters love chewing a bit of hard plastic...

So the list of swapped bits reads like this

4 wheels and tyres

2 Front discs and pads 

2 Lower wishbone rear bushes

Front seat

Rear seat swab

Center console

Sat Nav surround

Rear door card

Boot floor

Outer chrome door trim

Screen wash cap

Next job on it will be to book it in for some paintwork soon....

 

Next job for me is to find my good lady an Is250, found one 3 hours away with the spec we want SE-L with nav so a trip south is in order....

 

 

[Haylands]

Booked in on June 25th for respray of

Both front wings, bonnet and front bumper

Both rear wings, N/S rear door, boot and rear bumper

The roof and other three doors are fine... I am being a bit fussy, one rear wing only has a small mark and a few chips on it's edge but it is right where you see it, the rear door is getting painted to blend in the rear arch repair where it has been scratched and the front isn't too bad until you open the bonnet and look around the grille, someone has been doing some tailgating and it shows... 

I'll do some before and after photos when it gets done...

I've also dropped off the spare wheel to get refurbished as it's doing my OCD in...!!!!

Sad and expensive but I do like a car to be the best I can get it..........

[rich1068]

Great thread.

[Haylands]

Had a little play this morning... fitted the separate gearbox oil cooler to eliminate the chance of the dreaded cooler failure wrecking the gearbox, as I've said elsewhere this is the preventative measure I am happy with, there are several ways to preempt this problem and deal with it, whichever way you chose is the best way for you...

It's a simple process... remove this panel, there are about 6,534 10mm fixings....

You can then see this at the bottom of the rad the two pipes coming out are from the internal cooler

They go into two metal pipes and are held on with those constant torque clips, remove the pipes from the metal pipes, cut them short, shove a bolt in the shortened pipe and secure with a jubilee clip, this ensures that should the rad fail internally then you won't lose coolant through the oil cooler...

I forgot to take pictures of the next bit so adapted this one, I drilled four holes in the panel below the aluminium crash bar, two for the pipes (Red)and two outside ones (Yellow) for the purpose of fixing the rad. The pipe holes line up directly with the strengthening ribs...

Then dressed up the rad with the hose tails, went under the bonnet, plenty of room to get the rad in position, I used a piece of wood to wedge it in position then used these self drilling and tapping screws, they are designed for roofing sheets but are handy for loads of things...

Fixed the cooler in place with four of them using a 10mm socket on a 1/4 drive extension bar in a cordless drill... Cooler now fitted very solid and in good airflow under the front number plate..

Then just a case of cutting the pipes to length and fixing them on, then replacing the undertray. The old cooler only had about a quarter of a cupful of oil in it and as I plan to change the gearbox fluid soon I didn't bother topping it up...

Job done...

I then sorted out the electrical socket for the tow bar, the old one was hanging below the bar and got broken when I reversed out of our drive and up the neighbour opposites drive, there was a van in the way to stop me turning up the road as I usually do, this meant the front was going uphill as the rear was going down hill.. a nasty scrape and the socket was toast... it looked awful anyway.. Here it is before showing the extra reversing LED's I removed earlier...

I bought a black one and a stainless steel plate to secure it, the type that sits behind a normal tow hook, as mine is a removable one I cut down and bent the bracket to fit the socket flush with the bottom of the tow bar, i had to remove a semicircle of the bumper edge to get it in, I have mounted it sideways as this meant I didn't have to remove any more bumper as it would start to show...

That looks better if I do say so myself..!! I'll probably paint the stainless bracket but I didn't take any paint to the garage....

It's getting closer to where I want it......

 

Went to visit the IS250 we have just bought for my good lady. It is in the paintshop, ready for primer, it's having a full front end repaint and the rear bumper, it will then be mint body wise... The bonnet looked like it had been cleaned with a brillo pad and acid, the bumper and front wings had a few stone chips and the rear bumper had a scuff on one corner and a ding in the middle.... (Don't people use the PDC...!!)

It's difficult to photograph but it looks awful in the flesh ( We got a lot of money off because of this )

You can see it's a different colour, the headlights are very faded as well, I polished them before it went in, came up like new....

It has to look worse before it gets better....

The back half of the front wings will be flatted with very fine grade paper and the area will be used to blend the new colour into the original, this should make the repaint virtually imperceptible... 

The bumper had a lot of stone chips.... Old wheely bin makes a great bumper stand...!!!

Should be finished Wednesday....