New Mods - Carbon Hydrodip interior, Blue Hybrid Start Button & LED Upgrade

[ahmed24]

Just thought i'd share some recent mods I did. I haven't had a chance to publish it on my blog yet but it's on my instagram.

The 4 main mods here are:

1. Hydrodip Interior Panels - I hydrodipped the centre console and steering wheel switchpad cover in black micro carbon weave pattern with a 2K clear coat on top to get a nice deep shine. I had recently wrapped the steering switchpad in gloss carbon fibre but wasn't too happy with the level of shine and depth of the pattern. So I hydrodipped it. I also took this oppertunity to finally change the outdated wooden centre console to the same design. Just have to do the window switches still.
2. LED Upgrade - I took the oppertunity to change the LED bulbs inside the switchpad to blue. LED's are very cheap. I bought a pack of 100 for a few pounds. Plan is to change all the green LED's out on the car at some point.
3. Aluminium Sports Pedals -  I've always been after some OEM aluminium sport pedals but don't like to spend too much, so managed to finally source the whole set from a breaker for £20. 
4. Hybrid Blue Start Button - I wanted to upgrade the standard start button to the blue hybrid one to match by blue interior and exterior theme. I first purchased a hybrid blue start button from an earlier hybrid lexus for £5 but wasn't happy with the tone of blue and the backlight was yellowish, so i gave up with that. Then I purchased one from a CT200h for £10 and the blue tone of that is perfect and is like a pearl blue and the backlight is white. So in the pics you will probably see both start buttons.

Some pics of all these mods below:

 

 

 

 

 

[Alfalfa]

Wery Nice. Are you doing this bay yourself?

[ahmed24]

4 minutes ago, Alfalfa said:

Wery Nice. Are you doing this bay yourself?

All DIY

[Bongo]

Nice, one of the first things I did to mine was get the red interior wood changed, mine is Lexus woodgrain, certainly brings the car up to date

 

[Farqui]

Looks great Ahmed and Paul, well done 

Changing those trims certainly makes a big improvement and I'm very tempted to get mine done.

On sunny days, when the sun is at the wrong angle....the chrome gear surround often dazzles the front occupants. So I'd  definitely like to dull that area down/out.

[ahmed24]

1 hour ago, Farqui said:

On sunny days, when the sun is at the wrong angle....the chrome gear surround often dazzles the front occupants. So I'd  definitely like to dull that area down/out.

Yeh it's very shiny. I'm thinking to possibly hydrodip mine but it's metal so will need some proper prep work.

[ahmed24]

I forgot to add that I also took the oppertunity to change the shift position bulb to a blue LED. But when changing that bulb you need to wrap or black out underneath the bulb so that you reduce the light from bleeding. I also polished that perspex shift position trim. It's plastic so scratches up very easily. Mine was in a nasty condition so a polish has made it like new again. A few pics of that below:

 

  

[J88TEO]

Lovely!!!

[Guest]

Very nice work and a great improvement.

[Alfalfa]

4 hours ago, ahmed24 said:

I forgot to add that I also took the oppertunity to change the shift position bulb to a blue LED. But when changing that bulb you need to wrap or black out underneath the bulb so that you reduce the light from bleeding. I also polished that perspex shift position trim. It's plastic so scratches up very easily. Mine was in a nasty condition so a polish has made it like new again. A few pics of that below:

 

  

Have you tried. Polish the multimedia screen? Have some marks where the fingers have touched many times, lower right corner is Worst.

[normski2]

Be very careful with ‘polishing’ the multimedia screen. Polishing is likely to spoil things I’m guessing. I’d be very wary of using anything abrasive.

I use a lens spray that was in the glovebox from previous owner. It was supplied by Lexus. It cleans and then dries to a Matt sheen. Glasses/spectacle cleaner solution may work just as well. That’s what I’ll try when my spray has finished.

[ahmed24]

27 minutes ago, Alfalfa said:

Have you tried. Polish the multimedia screen? Have some marks where the fingers have touched many times, lower right corner is Worst.

I wouldn't polish the multimedia screen at all. It's a digitizer. Some digitizers also have an anti-glare coating that would get ruined. Few years ago I changed my digitizer anyway as ribbon cable on the digitizers eventually develop fractures that causes the digitizer to fail and the touch response to stop working. I replaced my digitizer with a replacement from hong kong for very cheap and my screen condition is very good. No scratches on my screen: Pic of the digitzer i replaced below:

[Alfalfa]

2 hours ago, ahmed24 said:

I wouldn't polish the multimedia screen at all. It's a digitizer. Some digitizers also have an anti-glare coating that would get ruined. Few years ago I changed my digitizer anyway as ribbon cable on the digitizers eventually develop fractures that causes the digitizer to fail and the touch response to stop working. I replaced my digitizer with a replacement from hong kong for very cheap and my screen condition is very good. No scratches on my screen: Pic of the digitzer i replaced below:

I have a digitizer screen to replace vhen i ned it, but i vait until the original brake dovn. No problem to keep the scren as it is, only plenty of touching that have made some Spots litle ligter black , no scratch, only hoped for some smart solution.

[BillNick]

I recently had the CF hydrodip done in my SE-L too....completely transforms the cockpit, loving it!!

Will get some pics v soon....