IS250 - New beginning (bit of an ongoing "project")

[Mr Vlad]

Yeah probably Sam. But I see your 2 silencers are connected dead straight to each others whilst Lucas's car silencers are connected way towards the front of the car. Makes me wonder if that's beneficial or detrimental to gas flow how yours are.

[samplify]

To be honest, i think it would be negligible if there were any difference. The main thing for me is that I wanted something similar to the HKS system, but didn't want to pay the 800 + shipping + import and I wanted a slightly downsized tip. It sounds good (the main thing was I wanted to reduce the amount of drone as much as possible, I think that is why they designed the system like this) and imo looks nice, especially when you can see the craftsmanship that went into making it. I like me some welds.

[H3XME]

5 minutes ago, samplify said:

To be honest, i think it would be negligible if there were any difference. The main thing for me is that I wanted something similar to the HKS system, but didn't want to pay the 800 + shipping + import and I wanted a slightly downsized tip. It sounds good (the main thing was I wanted to reduce the amount of drone as much as possible, I think that is why they designed the system like this) and imo looks nice, especially when you can see the craftsmanship that went into making it. I like me some welds.

Got a sound clip by any chance? I'm curious to see how much difference £400 makes.. In regards to sound at least. (HKS system is ~£840 in the UK. Free shipping and no taxes as it's not imported by yourself) 

[samplify]

I do. I was not aware that there are companies that would import the exhaust on my behalf when I looked tbh. Regardless, the 4 inch tip is not for me, does make yours look super mean though.

Just to mention, this clip was recorded pretty late in the evening and I did not want to ***** off the neighbours. Once the exhaust has worn in a bit, I will get some proper exterior sounds!

[H3XME]

1 minute ago, samplify said:

I do. I was not aware that there are companies that would import the exhaust on my behalf when I looked tbh. Regardless, the 4 inch tip is not for me, does make yours look super mean though.

That's fair enough. I'm happy that I'm the only person with this exhaust in the country (AFAIK) so it's all good😅

[Mr Vlad]

That's a niiiiice sounding zorst Sam. Me thinks you should post a few pics of your car whilst on the ground. 

[H3XME]

It does sound nice! I like it

[samplify]

@Mr Vlad I will once I've fitted my 18 inch sport alloys and new bilstein shocks, rn it looks a bit executive spec haha!

[H3XME]

Finally managed to get the front lip I wanted for so long. None of the US sellers ship to the UK nowadays. This lip was on my mate's facelift, so was a bit hesitant about fitment as the facelift bumper is slightly different when looking at it and A LOT different when it came to fitting this lip.. I had to do a lot of filing and sanding but managed to get it all sorted in the end. Cutting, filing, sanding and painting all in one afternoon. Came out quite good, given it's not meant for this bumper.. Better than nothing though! I'm happy with it for now.

[Mr Vlad]

Yeah there seems to be a helluva lot of items now not being shipped to the UK from America. Oh that lip looks really good, well done on fitting it 👏 👍 

[dephrank]

12 hours ago, H3XME said:

Finally managed to get the front lip I wanted for so long. None of the US sellers ship to the UK nowadays. This lip was on my mate's facelift, so was a bit hesitant about fitment as the facelift bumper is slightly different when looking at it and A LOT different when it came to fitting this lip.. I had to do a lot of filing and sanding but managed to get it all sorted in the end. Cutting, filing, sanding and painting all in one afternoon. Came out quite good, given it's not meant for this bumper.. Better than nothing though! I'm happy with it for now.

Looks nice and thick but you know how this goes. Raise the car or crack the lip in 3, 2, 1…alright I’ll show myself out. Would love to have one of these as mine is the facelift version. 

[H3XME]

1 minute ago, dephrank said:

Looks nice and thick but you know how this goes. Raise the car or crack the lip in 3, 2, 1…alright I’ll show myself out. Would love to have one of these as mine is the facelift version. 

It managed smaller speed bumps with some manoeuvres. So far it's not causing any issues when doing my daily miles but it did make me drive slower on roads I don't know😂

The real test is on Wednesday when I need to drive to Caffeine & Machine in Stratford for Daikoku meet..

[dephrank]

Lowered car, undulating landscape and a front lip. That mini heart attack when you hear the scrape and you don’t know if it’s the mud guard or the front lip 😩

[H3XME]

13 minutes ago, dephrank said:

Lowered car, undulating landscape and a front lip. That mini heart attack when you hear the scrape and you don’t know if it’s the mud guard or the front lip 😩

I scrape regularly on the chassis rails. It'll be alright 😅 steep incline is worse than speed bumps. I don't think I'll manage multi story car parks now BUT on the plus side it's a poly lip so very flexible. 

[H3XME]

Went to the monthly Daikoku meet at Caffeine and Machine down in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

Took a few pics.

 

[H3XME]

It's that time of the year.. I had an itch for doing something to my car and an idea.. 

The idea was "hmm, wonder if I can fit IS300h seats into my 2IS.." and the answer is YES

I was lucky enough to find a breaker near me, who sold me half-leather front seats from IS300h SE for £60 each.

I already have a "bucket" seat on the driver's side, and I don't miss the heated or air conditioned seats, so for me these will work just fine.

I really don't like the look or the feel of the stock leather seats, so the 3IS seats will be a nice upgrade. And I'm glad I could find these, as they are VERY rare.. 95% cars have leather seats, so to find these "peasant" spec half leathers, was just perfect. 😂 

I'm going to be fitting them on Wednesday. They bolt right in, but two plugs are different. These aren't power seats anyway, so no hassle there. 

I'll report with pics in on Wednesday

[H3XME]

Okay so.. picked up the seats this morning. Took the passenger seat out last night so i can test fit the 2014 IS300h seats and they fit! Over the moon. 
i’ll do the other this weekend. They bolt right in, just need to transfer the belt buckle as it doesnt fit. 
its a bit dirty, but other than that its in a good condition. 

[H3XME]

Well they’re both in now. Facelift - completed it mate. 😂

 

[Linas.P]

I definitely prefer leather over whatever this is made of, but I must say they almost look like they meant to be in the car. However, I would most definitely miss memory, heating and cooling.

[H3XME]

10 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

I definitely prefer leather over whatever this is made of, but I must say they almost look like they meant to be in the car. However, I would most definitely miss memory, heating and cooling.

There's a lot of full leather ones around as 99% 300h's had them. These Base model seats are hard to find, but I like it. I think it's better especially now I lost heating & cooling. Although I was driving without it for a year anyway when I had the "bucket" seat in. I don't really miss it personally so not really a loss to me. My car doesn't have memory, so can't lose what I never had!😂 but yeah I agree, they do look like they're meant to be in it. They also feel very nice. Definitely changes the overall driving feel. Crazy how much of a difference a seat makes. The seating position is lower than in the factory seats. So that's a big bonus for tall people. I'm 6'2. 

[Linas.P]

Yes, manual seats have benefit of going lower than eclectic and in IS250 I found driving position to be a bit higher than I like, I would always sit down and try to adjust the seat down thinking it was not fully down. mk3 actually had very few real leather options, most of them were some sort of leather imitation.

[H3XME]

28 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

mk3 actually had very few real leather options, most of them were some sort of leather imitation.

Well yeah, it's not real leather. It's leather-like.. Synthetic leather maybe? I don't know what they use. Either way, it's nice to have a car seat and not an old arm chair😂

[H3XME]

I haven't posted on this thread in a while. I've not really done anything to do the car other than swapping out my Mark & Levinson Amplifier and Subwoofer as it died on me yet again. This system sounds great, but it really doesn't like high volume and a lot of bass for longer periods of time. Something I need to stay mindful of otherwise I'll be going through subwoofers every 6 months forever. My amplifier broke because it just overheated - I'd advise people to check the air vent pockets in the boot, behind the bumper when you want to kill an hour of your time. It might save you an amp if it's blocked with dirt.

I sold my WORK Seeker LX splits to my mate (white facelift) and they quite suit the white pearl car.

Anyway, here are some shots from when I was bored. Getting compliments on the car from random people passing by never gets boring. 

[H3XME]

Since the weather was so nice I decided to have a go at dying the headliner black. It wasn't too bad of a job itself, but the heat made it awful sitting in the car... I wasn't gonna take the headliner out of the car, so I needed a hot day to do it on so it can dry inside, and it did, quickly. I will have to take all the plastic out and spray paint matte black (maybe), I'm not sure yet, but I can't leave it cream.. it sticks out like a sore thumb! 

It proven to be difficult to take a photo of the headliner as the outside light and the lack of it inside was messing with the camera so apologies for poor photography.

[Mr Vlad]

Yeah the sooner the better blacking outvthe cream bits. It does look rather weird as it is but the headliner looks standard.