Lexus IS300

That was smart using the Subie paint then Lexus paint, looks like it should, I noticed your bumpers were darker than the rest of your car before. Should look good now

And great work on the quarter panels, it's really hard to be perfect with body filler unless it's your job, but it looks great from the pictures!

Also, 11 months for custom projectors? They better be crazy awesome haha. I can't wait for pics with everything done!

MirrorEyes wrote:

That was smart using the Subie paint then Lexus paint, looks like it should, I noticed your bumpers were darker than the rest of your car before. Should look good now

You see, I had $60 of old Corolla paint sitting around doing nothing lol, so I figured I could use that as a base so that I wouldn't need as much IS300 paint to go from blue to a little darker

MirrorEyes wrote:

And great work on the quarter panels, it's really hard to be perfect with body filler unless it's your job, but it looks great from the pictures!

Yeah the pictures show it from the best angle as possible, otherwise it's pretty noticeable. But there's a little section of metal still humped up on the one side, and I can't do anything about that unless I hammer some more (destroying everything lol) or grinding it down, which I really don't have the tool for. But the gap between the filler and tail light is perfect, and that was more important to me. Maybe it will look better after I buff it

MirrorEyes wrote:

Also, 11 months for custom projectors? They better be crazy awesome haha. I can't wait for pics with everything done!

Yeah they are crazy awesome... I got a great deal as well Essentially, these are the widest projectors in the world (see the extra reflector thing underneath the circle lens? That puts light out the side). But they come as low-beam only, so I had the guy install a solenoid and custom everything to make it a bixenon, so that it would also have a high beam. Best of everything! And he made the lens itself clear for a sharp, colorful cutoff. And he fabricated the mounting plates so I can just swap the reflector and projector in 5 minutes lol.

gold94corolla wrote:

MirrorEyes wrote:

That was smart using the Subie paint then Lexus paint, looks like it should, I noticed your bumpers were darker than the rest of your car before. Should look good now

You see, I had $60 of old Corolla paint sitting around doing nothing lol, so I figured I could use that as a base so that I wouldn't need as much IS300 paint to go from blue to a little darker

MirrorEyes wrote:

And great work on the quarter panels, it's really hard to be perfect with body filler unless it's your job, but it looks great from the pictures!

Yeah the pictures show it from the best angle as possible, otherwise it's pretty noticeable. But there's a little section of metal still humped up on the one side, and I can't do anything about that unless I hammer some more (destroying everything lol) or grinding it down, which I really don't have the tool for. But the gap between the filler and tail light is perfect, and that was more important to me. Maybe it will look better after I buff it

MirrorEyes wrote:

Also, 11 months for custom projectors? They better be crazy awesome haha. I can't wait for pics with everything done!

Yeah they are crazy awesome... I got a great deal as well Essentially, these are the widest projectors in the world (see the extra reflector thing underneath the circle lens? That puts light out the side). But they come as low-beam only, so I had the guy install a solenoid and custom everything to make it a bixenon, so that it would also have a high beam. Best of everything! And he made the lens itself clear for a sharp, colorful cutoff. And he fabricated the mounting plates so I can just swap the reflector and projector in 5 minutes lol.

Hard to fix things like that when you don't really have the tools for it haha, but yeah same with some of the body work I did on my car, my friends couldn't really tell unless they were standing right beside it looking at it, and most guys couldn't tell from pics, you're the one who did the work so it's obvious to you. I'm sure it doesn't look bad, though noticeable, maybe. It will probably look tonnes better after a nice buffing.

And o.O that's sounding sweet haha. They definitely look really good in the pics, seeing them on the car is gonna be awesome!

Yeah I'm the only one who will notice, and if anyone else doesn't it's because we'll be standing looking at the car together, and it will be a story to tell

nice job chris bro

car is coming along nicely.....

i hope mine turns out all shiny new too

SO EPICCC!!! I really wish I lived close to you so you can teach me all your tricks in person.

very nice job chirs.

Thanks guys, but there are no tricks and it doesn't look THAT great lol.

Side skirts cut!! The parts marked in green are the keepers, the rest went in the trash lol.

what in the trash

/intrigued haha.

The other 2/3s of the side skirts went in the trash!

damn those skirts look nice u threw them away should have ebayed them

lol, they are in 4 pieces each, and they have ugly scoops on both ends! Not worth my time to fix and sell them

I got a lot of work today, spent all day on the car (I did other things yesterday).

Yesterday, while mowing the grass, I came up with an idea of plastic welding for the side skirts. I got a piece of the side skirts out of the trash and cut some rectangles out so that I could use them as backing to hold the halves together. I used my soldering iron to melt the seams together really well (both front and back). The result is suprisingly strong, these aren't breaking!



Then the real work began. I set out to really dig into the car. I had to fix the front sway bar bushing mount (extract broken bolt, insert new bolt), lower all the coilovers, and install the front lip and rear bumper&lip.

I started with the front.... I removed the sway bar. Luckily, the sway bar mounting bracket unbolts from the car, and there was enough bolt sticking out the other end that I could easily grind a slit and unscrew the stud. Then the new bolt went in perfectly!



I also put on the front lip... fit like a glove and bolted on nicely.

When I had first put in the fog HIDs, I didn't bother with the dust covers on the back because the HID wires were in the way. But when I swapped the fog bezels recently, I found plenty of dirt inside. So, I reused the caps by drilling a hole in the center for the wires, and the weatherproof seal on the wires is wedged between the projector and dust cap, sealing it up very nicely:



With the front all finished and back together, I took the rear apart and installed the new OEM bumper & lip.

When I was using the Vizage rear lip before, I had a problem with the exhaust not lining up properly, causing touch and melt the lip. Since I was using that lip again, I wanted to fix it properly this time. I unbolted the hanger so that it came down low enough for me to drill new holes and connect the new and old, giving me a wide hole to adjust the position of the exhaust as needed. I can't believe I did do this sooner lol (btw, the exhaust ended up all the way in the new holes):



Sorry, it was too dark to take pics (tomorrow ) but I got everything done I ended up lowering the front 3/8" more and lowering the rear 1/8" more. Yeah it rubs and bangs more, but it looks cooler haha. I'll probably raise it up after the shows.

I just need to finish the side skirts, then it is done and ready for a full detail!

Oh, and I fired up my new projectors for the first time tonight....mmm nice

Get lowwwwwww. haha, I've been addicted to stancenation.com and the like lately, so seeing your car even lower will be nice

The plastic welding thing to hold the skirts together looks really neat actually, looks like it'd be fairly strong, was a smart idea!

Only the skirts left eh? Didn't take you too long to do all the work then I'm really looking forward to the after pics.

Yeah, I have been working nearly all my free time on it in a methodical, efficient manor. I've got a goal (drop-dead date) and a good plan to get there.

The car is indeed lower, I am surprised at how much difference it makes! I'm afraid though, the ride quality it probably gonna suck because I was already knocking the upper control arms against the strut towers, and rubbing the front tires on sharp turns, now it will be worse. But I lowered it more because I'm shortening the body kit, so more ground clearance! I gave it more of a "nosedive" by lower the front slightly more than the back. Before I lowered it, I measured the ground-to-fender clearance in my level garage and found they were all different. Now, the fronts are both just under 24" and the rears are just over 24".

chris that is gunna look awesome I so cant wait to see the pics

Holy crap! Nice! Can't wait to see the pics either...

PICSSSSSS!!!


And I was able to snap some quick pics at work before it started raining.

The front lip is on and the rear bumper and lip is on.
The car is slammed even more, an extra 3/8" lower in the front and 1/8" lower in the back (and the front dampening is set to full stiff). I finally like how it sits, maybe I'll keep these rims after all lol
The new fogs are in, the head lights are buffed, and of course the window visors are still on.

Obviously the side skirts are not on, so you can see the minute difference the custom lip kit makes! Very clean and OEM-like

I'm actually really happy with how this is turning out.

loving the way its looks now chris

Yeah I like it even without side skirts haha (don't worry, they are going on ASAP).

I think all of that work was well worth it. Your car looks perfect (even without side skirts). Looks so nice I would be scared to stand around your car in fear of accidentally scratching your paint lol Great work. Looking forward to seeing it with side skirts

Thanks David At least this time, I am trying to build my car correctly, so that it is good to stand near without breaking it lol.

I am really happy with how this is turning out... I've been unhappy with it for a long time now. Lowering the coilovers just so made a HUGE difference. And the photochops I did of the custom lips really helped.

It looks build correctly. I like the look of it from every angle now. its just amazing!!

OH yea, I forgot you had visors on too, they blend in so well. Just perfect for the car.