Subtle Improvement For Under £10 - F Sport Wheel Center Caps

[Gtownsman]

Hi All

I've decided to post another Mod for under £10. After getting my alloys back from being refinished in Shadow Chrome the silver Wheel caps didn't quite look right on the car. I have seen that the IS-F has back centers with the graphite wheels which I think looks pretty good, So I started to look around the internet to buy some of these and the only place I could get them was from the USA for £100 for a set!

So here's the cheap fix!

You will need:

Can of Gloss Black spray paint

Drill and 6mm Drill bit

Scotch-bright pad

cleaning spirit

news paper or painting paper

Super glue

1. Removing the silver Lexus badge.

place the badge upside down on a covered surface to avoid any damage to the badge.

carefully drill out the tabs holding the badge in place, don't drill too far the plastic is quite thin, just remove the heads.

Once the heads have been drilled off you should be able to push the silver badge out of the center cap.

2. Prep for paint.

Using the Scotch pad key up the surface and edges of the center caps until you can see that there are tiny scratches across the entire surface.

In a clean area put paper and mark out you painting area, If you are working in a dusty environment use a hoover or air compressor to clean the area before hand to avoid getting any dirt in your paint.

With cleaning spirit and a cloth or tissue wipe the surfaces of the center caps clean and place them in the painting area.

3. Painting.

Ensure you shake your can of paint well before use, to ensure a even and good coverage dust the paint over the center caps gradually.

If you hit the caps too heavy with the paint you will end up with paint running and an uneven paint job.

Once you are done painting leave the paint to dry.

4. Reassembly.

once the paint has totally dried flip the center caps and apply a small dab of glue into the back of the holes where the silver logo studs sit.

Place the logos back into the caps and allow the glue to dry.

Once everything has dried add the center caps back to your car :)

Thanks for reading, I hope you found this useful.

Let me know what you think.

If you would like to see what else i'm doing with my car please follow me on Instagram @gtownsman.

[steve2006]

Another brilliant write up George,you should open a shop called "Lexus parts all under a tenner" :)

I must admit I love reverse engineering.

[stevet]

Looks great. The GS has a shadow chrome finish as standard. I'll have a look in the morning what centres it uses.

[jackcramerr]

How does one remove these wheel caps off in the first place ? thanks.

[BillNick]

Brilliant.....I had the ISF centre caps on my 11 spoke IS200 wheels - they set me back £60 posted from Japan

Great cheap mod will do this if I come to refurb my wheels

[ColinBarber]

How does one remove these wheel caps off in the first place ? thanks.

They just push out from the back