Best example of the SC 430

[Boomer54]

As I really like this car a lot (currently constructing a ramp so it can be parked bedside), I was interested to know who owns the best example of the SC 430 that you have seen? That is, regardless of pre facelift or later, and regardless of modification. Indeed, the latter might even be why you like it. So, not a poll or anything like that, just a this is the car you the liked the most and preferably accompanied by a listing (ish) of the things about it that made you like it. For example, pure factory originality, or the most creative modification, or just the meticulous condition.

If we have an owner who appears on the list can they post up some pics ,or link to some already posted. Indeed, could they describe what it is they do that keeps that car in that condition?

A kind of appreciation society exchange on the SC 430 by people who like it the most ,but perhaps mostly for the benefit of those of us who have not yet been fortunate enough to attend a meetup etc. Give us something to shoot for next time 😉

No right or wrong answers here. Just a pleasant exchange of views on a subject near and dear to our hearts.

[Glyn Jennings]

I was tentatively looking at buying an SC430 a couple of years ago and saw the car I now own and thought it was a good deal.  It was one lady owner from new and had only 7400 miles.  It had also just been in the main dealer to have the timing belt and other age related bits and pieces replaced. It therefore is in great condition but there is probably always one better. 
Even now it is still under 10,000 miles. Personally I wanted to update the car and make it my own so I have spent a lot of money on it as I intend to keep it long term but everything is easily returned to stock if I so wish. I did a build thread on this site so you can see pictures and a description of everything I have done there.

[Boomer54]

11 hours ago, Glyn Jennings said:

I was tentatively looking at buying an SC430 a couple of years ago and saw the car I now own and thought it was a good deal.  It was one lady owner from new and had only 7400 miles.  It had also just been in the main dealer to have the timing belt and other age related bits and pieces replaced. It therefore is in great condition but there is probably always one better. 
Even now it is still under 10,000 miles. Personally I wanted to update the car and make it my own so I have spent a lot of money on it as I intend to keep it long term but everything is easily returned to stock if I so wish. I did a build thread on this site so you can see pictures and a description of everything I have done there.

You clearly had a good base to work from. I have never heard of a mileage so low on a SC 430 lucky old you. Spent a little time looking at Japanese imports and there are some very low mileage examples there ,but still nothing of your ilk. I remember the shot of the undercarriage you posted and that was also clean as you might imagine given the miles travelled. You also laid down the process for restoring the seats which is what I would like to get on with next spring. Essentially I am just going to copy the process  you outlined.

Initially I was just going to get the chequebook out and hit everything I wanted to do, but I have rethought that. Now I think it would be more satisfying to take more time and try to do as much as I can myself.

Have you ever seen another SC 430 and thought that's so good I wish I had that rather than the one you have? I have not , but of course I have not seen any others that were not just in photos.

[Glyn Jennings]

35 minutes ago, Boomer54 said:

You clearly had a good base to work from. I have never heard of a mileage so low on a SC 430 lucky old you. Spent a little time looking at Japanese imports and there are some very low mileage examples there ,but still nothing of your ilk. I remember the shot of the undercarriage you posted and that was also clean as you might imagine given the miles travelled. You also laid down the process for restoring the seats which is what I would like to get on with next spring. Essentially I am just going to copy the process  you outlined.

Initially I was just going to get the chequebook out and hit everything I wanted to do, but I have rethought that. Now I think it would be more satisfying to take more time and try to do as much as I can myself.

Have you ever seen another SC 430 and thought that's so good I wish I had that rather than the one you have? I have not , but of course I have not seen any others that were not just in photos.

I never set out to buy a low mileage example and if it had been what some low mileage examples go for I wouldn't have considered it. I do know of another one the same colour combination as mine with similar mileage owned by a chap near Bristol. I also saw one go through Mathewson's Auction with similar mileage which from memory I think was silver.  So there are a few really low mileage ones around.  For me I love the car and I will make every effort to keep it in as nice a condition as I can but I am not interested it treating it like a show queen or displaying it to win awards.   

That must have been someone else who described restoring the seats as apart from treating mine using a Gtechniq product I have done nothing to mine. I probably spent the first year doing all the mods I wanted to do although nothing drastic and am now at the point where there is little I would like to change on the car.

[Boomer54]

19 minutes ago, Glyn Jennings said:

I never set out to buy a low mileage example and if it had been what some low mileage examples go for I wouldn't have considered it. I do know of another one the same colour combination as mine with similar mileage owned by a chap near Bristol. I also saw one go through Mathewson's Auction with similar mileage which from memory I think was silver.  So there are a few really low mileage ones around.  For me I love the car and I will make every effort to keep it in as nice a condition as I can but I am not interested it treating it like a show queen or displaying it to win awards.   

That must have been someone else who described restoring the seats as apart from treating mine using a Gtechniq product I have done nothing to mine. I probably spent the first year doing all the mods I wanted to do although nothing drastic and am now at the point where there is little I would like to change on the car.

Apologies on the mixup. It was Nigel who detailed his seat restoration and it really stuck with me. The what he had done if not the who done it. Par for the course these days, heck I turned up a week early for my bloodtests yesterday so it's just a question of time until I have to start wearing a collar with my name on it and a return to sender address !

Anyway, something good came out of it as I looked over the video of Nigels car and noticed he had a similar issue on his window trim peeling so may be I will find out what can be done about that.

[Localhero]

I would have thought  there are so many  stick on materials used for wrapping etc that stripping back the loose covering and replacing with something  suitable would not be a huge task, I know you can get faux carbon fibre tape (wrap) if that might be of interest🤔 Stew

[Neil E]

UK cars only - Nominees

Most Iconic

WIL 44 - tastefully enhanced and a UK pioneer for modifying the SC430.

 

Best original condition

LT09BXH            Winner           LW meet 2019        Judged by the MR2 owners club officials

M888VMG          Runner up     LW meet 2019         (runner up by the finest of margins)      

SC03HAN           Winner          SC430 Meet 2021   

 

All of these are or were, low or lowish mileage vehicles. All are blue. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Boomer54]

21 minutes ago, Neil E said:

UK cars only - Nominees

Most Iconic

WIL 44 - tastefully enhanced and a UK pioneer for modifying the SC430.

 

Best original condition

LT09BXH            Winner           LW meet 2019        Judged by the MR2 owners club officials

M888VMG          Runner up     LW meet 2019         (runner up by the finest of margins)      

SC03HAN           Winner          SC430 Meet 2021   

 

All of these are or were, low or lowish mileage vehicles. All are blue. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Neil. Are the owners ever on here?

Do we know what internal finish was paired with the blue?

[Neil E]

1 hour ago, Boomer54 said:

Thanks Neil. Are the owners ever on here?

Do we know what internal finish was paired with the blue?

LT09BXH            Later dark blue / black leather  

M888VMG         Blue/beige @unclebob 's second immaculate SC. 

SC03HAN           Blue / beige was CFs of Sleaford - not on here.

WIL 44                Blue/black    Steve's  Seen in a few threads on LOC and all over the internet for many years. 

They can be seen in the various good and not so good you-tube videos of past events at Coventry, Sleaford, Hatton Country World and even Bluewater.

[Neil E]

Glyn's car is another stunning low mileage example. Blue again. This is how to make it your own without going overboard. 

Some of these are so well kept with not so much as a bonnet stone-chip, I would be afraid to use them and that defeats the object of enjoying the car for what it is intended to do.

After owning two of the earlier Soarer models and moving on to other V8 Lexus saloons, the course of WIL 44 convinced me that with a little 'help' the SC430 could be more like the car I wanted so in the early days this was the car that I followed.

   

 

[Boomer54]

21 minutes ago, Neil E said:

Glyn's car is another stunning low mileage example. Blue again. This is how to make it your own without going overboard. 

Some of these are so well kept with not so much as a bonnet stone-chip, I would be afraid to use them and that defeats the object of enjoying the car for what it is intended to do.

After owning two of the earlier Soarer models and moving on to other V8 Lexus saloons, the course of WIL 44 convinced me that with a little 'help' the SC430 could be more like the car I wanted so in the early days this was the car that I followed.

   

 

I mean just look at that ! What a car ! Who would not want that ! Love to see the inside of that. Invite any time. Distance no problem.

What are those alloys?

[Neil E]

 

 

1 hour ago, Boomer54 said:

I mean just look at that ! What a car ! Who would not want that ! Love to see the inside of that. Invite any time. Distance no problem.

What are those alloys?

The UK resource was removed unfortunately but I've found an old link for you.

WIL 44

and a couple more.

Coventry Dr Will

HCW MR2 Meet

[Boomer54]

So far just got through the WIL 44 thread. Have to say that is a truly beautiful car. Lots of creativity gone into that. Colouring out lots of the bright work and corner lights etc works surprisingly well. Internal wrapping still not my thing albeit it definitely works for a more contemporary appearance . In my view that carbon fibre wrapping is better paired with the Ecru colour way. All subjective of course.

May be the thing that really took my interest was the idea of stripping the roof paint to a polished Aluminium finish rather than wrapping. On a blue car I think that might be something very special , but I would want to  consult a specialist first to get their view on how it might work for the longer term. Basically what it means structurally if anything and of course ongoing maintenance of a finish like that. Got to say I cannot get that idea out of my head. Made me think of what you could do with the most overlooked part of the car ..the rubber seals. Do they really have to look that boring ?

Be back later to do the other links.

Thanks again for taking the time to unearth those links for me. it's appreciated.

 

[Glyn Jennings]

4 hours ago, Boomer54 said:

So far just got through the WIL 44 thread. Have to say that is a truly beautiful car. Lots of creativity gone into that. Colouring out lots of the bright work and corner lights etc works surprisingly well. Internal wrapping still not my thing albeit it definitely works for a more contemporary appearance . In my view that carbon fibre wrapping is better paired with the Ecru colour way. All subjective of course.

May be the thing that really took my interest was the idea of stripping the roof paint to a polished Aluminium finish rather than wrapping. On a blue car I think that might be something very special , but I would want to  consult a specialist first to get their view on how it might work for the longer term. Basically what it means structurally if anything and of course ongoing maintenance of a finish like that. Got to say I cannot get that idea out of my head. Made me think of what you could do with the most overlooked part of the car ..the rubber seals. Do they really have to look that boring ?

Be back later to do the other links.

Thanks again for taking the time to unearth those links for me. it's appreciated.

 

Perhaps you should have bought a Delorean 😂

[Boomer54]

8 minutes ago, Glyn Jennings said:

Perhaps you should have bought a Delorean 😂

If I'm doing back to the future I'll be texting from the 3 peaks tomorrow.😉

[Boomer54]

Phew. Think some people have spent a considerable amount of time and money on those cars. I may have to revise my timeline for Lexigirl to make a debut.

I would imagine the reg V8 LYX is a custom colour with wrapped roof and wing mirrors. Very very effective. Internally my favourite was the tan leatherwork. Did not know that was offered in the UK as I had not seen one before the links. Hard to believe the quality of the leatherwork on show given the age of these cars.

Reg Y121ALM under the bonnet is nothing short of incredible, I would be very confident it did not look that good the day it rolled off the factory line. He must have a tiny dwarf living under there polishing it as he drives. The photographer stated 'nice shine to the engine bay'. He was also on the Titanic when it hit an iceberg and was heard to say 'luncheon will be a little late today'.

Anybody under 4' 10" wanting a job PM your application.😉

Just an amazing standard overall , but the wife's not going to be happy giving up her cruises to fund my car obsession.

[Glyn Jennings]

1 hour ago, Boomer54 said:

Phew. Think some people have spent a considerable amount of time and money on those cars. I may have to revise my timeline for Lexigirl to make a debut.

I would imagine the reg V8 LYX is a custom colour with wrapped roof and wing mirrors. Very very effective. Internally my favourite was the tan leatherwork. Did not know that was offered in the UK as I had not seen one before the links. Hard to believe the quality of the leatherwork on show given the age of these cars.

Reg Y121ALM under the bonnet is nothing short of incredible, I would be very confident it did not look that good the day it rolled off the factory line. He must have a tiny dwarf living under there polishing it as he drives. The photographer stated 'nice shine to the engine bay'. He was also on the Titanic when it hit an iceberg and was heard to say 'luncheon will be a little late today'.

Anybody under 4' 10" wanting a job PM your application.😉

Just an amazing standard overall , but the wife's not going to be happy giving up her cruises to fund my car obsession.

Interestingly there was a Lexigirl on the old Lexusworld forum which to be honest was a great source of information which helped me enormously when I first bought my car and some of those members are on this forum as well still giving help like Neil.  I remember seeing her posts and she also spent a lot on her car i.e new wheels and a respray, brakes, suspension, etc.  Unfortunately she also fell foul of a person whose name I won't mention who carried out the work.

[Boomer54]

19 minutes ago, Glyn Jennings said:

Interestingly there was a Lexigirl on the old Lexusworld forum which to be honest was a great source of information which helped me enormously when I first bought my car and some of those members are on this forum as well still giving help like Neil.  I remember seeing her posts and she also spent a lot on her car i.e new wheels and a respray, brakes, suspension, etc.  Unfortunately she also fell foul of a person whose name I won't mention who carried out the work.

In truth it's a bit of a minefield out there. I guess all we can do is approach expenditure with a questioning mind asking for evidence of work done where possible, and indeed looking at the work done for others again if possible. Using each other within that context for further proof of credibility. Never going to totally negate risk of course, but we owe it to ourselves to try and reduce it.

No idea why I decided to call my car Lexigirl. It isn't as though I have an habit of naming inanimate objects. I may just be getting sentimental in my young age.

[Neil E]

On 10/22/2023 at 2:27 PM, Boomer54 said:

Phew. Think some people have spent a considerable amount of time and money on those cars. I may have to revise my timeline for Lexigirl to make a debut.

 

Yes a 50+ page build thread and north of £21k on additions and modifications so far. 🤣

I do think a build thread backs up a good service history. A prospective buyer looking at Glyn's thread would, I'm sure, be assured that it has been well cared for  😇 and the next owner of mine has comprehensive evidence that it has been thoroughly tested and abused.🙃

 

Returning to the theme of the thread, I recall LOC Europe/Germany had a nostalgia thread where contributors put forward notable SC430 from around the world. So looking further afield, a few more candidates in the customised category. Some of these have obsessive owners. 

Purple Lexon and this is SC Obsessive

The General

OTT Audio

 

 

 

 

[Boomer54]

OTT Audio. Even if you do not even particularly like the SC 430 you should look a what the owner did with that car. Very creative and that's just the leatherwork. Would drive me bonkers driving with that all around me, but fantastic just to stand back and scrutinise what's been done. Just a semi sacrilege moment when you see the row of soft drink cans on the console next to that gorgeous leather.

[Boomer54]

The General is a bit of a downer. If you ever thought you were going to have the best leatherwork. Forget it ,it's been done ! I lie, I have one version that might just scrape by, but trouble is it wouldn't fit the colour way of my SC 430.

I think what looking at these examples of the SC 430 brings home is if you want to do something special with yours then the fundamentals of the car need to be right for you to build on. Otherwise what's the point.

[Boomer54]

Purple guy is driven in more than one sense of the word. Separating personal preferences from appreciating creativity all I will say is if you prefer the Tate to the National Art Gallery then this is probably for you.

[Boomer54]

Thinking through the financial aspects is interesting. Clearly major mod work is a cost mineshaft. You won't know where the bottom is until you hit it. Or may be you prefer 'how longs a piece of string'. The operative word is 'long' isn't going to be cheap.

So, how long are you in it for might be a question worthy of consideration. 10 grand over 5 yrs equals 2k pa for the enjoyment of participating assuming no capital return and excluding the effect of inflation on the purchasing power of your hobby. Not even the cost of a cruise. Double it and ....so  forth and how far are you willing to go should clarify itself.

The other question is future resale. This is a problem I suspect. You cannot really sell to someone of like mind, because you have already done what they might have wanted to do to a large extent. Hence , they have pride of ownership ,but without the crucial satisfaction of creation.

Selling to someone not of like mind doesn't look happiness either , because at the end of the day you are selling them something that is 'old' by car standards and they probably want it priced like that which really means your investment is much reduced even if you can strip it out and just sell as a stock car. However, in that I could see at least some way of reducing the overall cost of participation.

I imagine the only real winning way out is if you can sell it to  someone who is a collector of the 'different' , but there are not likely to be too many of those about. This of course is where 'rarity' (classic x age x etc) comes into it. May be the fabled reliability is a liability in this case, because rarity is achieved faster if they are scrapped with some frequency.

I am sure there  are other questions ,but these are decent one's to start with if you are considering taking the plunge.

[Malc1]

............. into the realms of Classic Car collecting when an owner gets to this level of being obsessive ..........  and there aren't many classic car collectors that are out there actually making any money if they treat it as any sort of business, nor indeed any store of future realisable £££££ value !

Classic Car collectors are often very wealthy and don't care a hoot about the £££££

Other Classic Car collectors dream about being wealthy often whilst ploughing shed loads £££££ into their cherished loved ones  ......  often money they can ill afford

Then there's the nutters like me, with my 1932 Triumph Southern Cross Sports Tourer, that just loves the car being used at every possible opportunity ......  by my custodian, my nephew and his young family ......... out to both Waitrose AND Aldi shopping, and also of course various shows maybe up to about 50 miles from car-base in Newmarket

.......  with his delightful gun-dogs slobbering all over the upholstery too .  of course 😉

I might become an erstwhile collector of Ls400s eh !🤣

Malc

[Boomer54]

18 minutes ago, Malc1 said:

............. into the realms of Classic Car collecting when an owner gets to this level of being obsessive ..........  and there aren't many classic car collectors that are out there actually making any money if they treat it as any sort of business, nor indeed any store of future realisable £££££ value !

Classic Car collectors are often very wealthy and don't care a hoot about the £££££

Other Classic Car collectors dream about being wealthy often whilst ploughing shed loads £££££ into their cherished loved ones  ......  often money they can ill afford

Then there's the nutters like me, with my 1932 Triumph Southern Cross Sports Tourer, that just loves the car being used at every possible opportunity ......  by my custodian, my nephew and his young family ......... out to both Waitrose AND Aldi shopping, and also of course various shows maybe up to about 50 miles from car-base in Newmarket

.......  with his delightful gun-dogs slobbering all over the upholstery too .  of course 😉

I might become an erstwhile collector of Ls400s eh !🤣

Malc

 "I might become an erstwhile collector of Ls400s eh !🤣"

I thought they were called scrapyards ! 😉