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Started October last year! Finally ready to go on the car tomorrow! Life, kids and weather got in the way, slowing priming, painting and lacquering to a crawl.... From this: To this: To these beauts (ok they aren't perfect but a hell of a lot better!): My alloys were so corroded on the rim bead that the tyre fitters wouldn't put new rubber on them. Soooo, tomorrow I'll have another two bare rims to refurb. One of the rims in the pic was the spare, the other was one I got on eBay for £35 delivered...! My words to the wise, don't even bother doing this at home if you don't have free time! But if you have somewhere sheltered to spray, the cost to do 5 wheels at home is the same to have one done professionally. 1 spray can of UPOL etch primer will do 2 wheels (without tyres on) 1 can of silver base coat per wheel (the Lidl Baufix rim paint went on great and was £3 a can, and the colour is great) 1 can of Tetrosyl 1k lacquer per wheel, found after much trial and error with inferior products which meant much stripping and recoating- avoid Halfords and Hycote lacquer like the plague. This stuff needs only 3 mins between coats and touch dry in less than 20mins, fully dried in 24hrs, ready for polish and wax! Once all the wheels are done (and thanks to Goose's recent plasti-dip post) I might have a play with different coats, knowing you can peel it off every year or so, and may act as a skin to keep the corrosion at bay! If any one wants more info on what worked and didn't, let me know! Chris

So my 4 yr 40k service is due. I've booked it in for the 1st of June at Lexus Bradford. So the to do list: - full service - MOT (half price due to service plan) - Full valet (1 per annum on service plan) - courtesy car (whatever is available for 2 days but a car is guaranteed) Now on top of that I needed a 3 year service plan (50, 60 and 70k) for the RX and 3 services for the IS (3, 4 and 5 year). I got a generic £935 quote for the IS and £1295 quote for the RX. This was a standard computer generated quote so I'm going to give them a ring and haggle (I always do and it certainly works) and I expect a heavy discount as ive been a customer for 11 years now I'll let you know how it goes.

Sad world we all live in unfortunately, typical police response of here's a crime number,contact your insurer.

Erm second best colour after black Not that I'm biased...

They are just scumbags, who probably think it an achievement. The only positive is that you might find it can be repaired for less than you think. Pay up , get it repaired, and move on or it it will nag at you and affect you. Don't let it !!

The coils have all been checked and are OK. See above for how the cats were tested. I called it misfire because to me that's what it sounded and felt like but its more rough running caused by the naff Oxygen Sensor. "Has he told you that he actually removed the Cats to get the Car to run properly?" Yes. If he told me the engine needed replacing I would believe him, the garage it is with now has serviced the families cars for the last 30 years and in all that time he has never ever been wrong and I have never ever had to take his work back because the work hadn't been done properly. The cats are on order and as soon as he has time to fit them we will see if he is correct. Mike.

Thanks for the info guys that clears that question up............. On another note, I am now the proud owner of a 08 Cadoxton Slate Gray :) can wait to pick it up

So both seats are now in the car. It's only temporary though. Turns out I need the IS250/350 manual bracket to solve the one out of alignment leg drama! It's bolted down tight with three out of four bolts though, so should be fine till the new bracket arrives. Excuse the poor quality photo. Was after midnight when I finished, and car was in the garage which doesn't have great lighting! Will do some better photos soon though.

Nice job - done mine a few years back and came out really well. Very satisfying seeing what they started off like to what they looked like when finished. I didn't take the rubber off tho.

Very nice, had mine for 4 years, and, even after that length of time I was still finding excuses to drive it. Enjoy

Typically Red coolant has been available in a concentrate or ready to use (some countries also seem to prefer one over the other). Instructions are on the bottles, it will state if water needs to be added. If you purchase a concentrate then you should dilute with distilled water, not tap water. I think Pink has only ever been available in ready to use form. As has been previously stated, pink isn't just diluted red coolant, it is a different long life product. You can mix pink and red however you reduce the life to be just that of red and therefore should be changed every 2 years. From Lexus workshop manual for a 2013 IS - it is clear the term pre-mixed (in Toyota's mind) means water is already added: SLLC is pre-mixed (50% coolant and 50% deionized water), and therefore does not need to be diluted. If LLC (red-colored) is mixed with SLLC (pink-colored), the interval for LLC (every 40000 km (24000 miles) or 24 months whichever comes first) should be used.

Cool build thread Peter! Looked your seats up, v nice. Love the carbon backs, will go lovey with the new carbon trim in the car. Looking forward to seeing the results with the H&S cross pipe. I've got used to the H&S on the new blue car, but still quite embarrassing in certain situations. Also don't feel the car just quite as keen at the top end unlike my white car with the Borla system, which did run a cross pipe. Keep up the good work :) stevie