Pics of my Luxury Toyota

Kill you? After I paid you to make TRD replica parts? I don't think so, that would make investment unwise.

There are cheap parts for the Lexus as well Press, I just don't like buying cheap stuff.

And the muffler, I got it used locally (so no shipping). It is usually over $500.

And that is by no means a complete list, it's just what I thought to mention quickly. Obviously there are cheaper things on my car, like........... um. well dang.
Added: Oct 14, 2012 5:02 AM
Ah, my high beam bulbs! They were only $70.

OH yeah I'm not saying you go cheap either.... but the BC coils is a good comparison, I forget, were yours $8-900? And yours came with endlinks (another $200 for me)? Interesting... essentially the same thing, right?

OK, so then mine at $1000 + $200 for the endlinks is exactly the same!

All that money and your car looks like that.

Yeah I've spent a bit more money on mods already than the car itself.... and a bunch of it was wasted of course (so it doesn't show) but oh well.

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 surprisingly 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

That is the plan actually.... I'm sick of not being as low -looking as I want, even though I am extremely low.

What do you mean? That sounds like the stupidest thing I could have done haha. I forged the plastics together by melting, mixing, hardening. Should be as strong as the original plastic, right? But it's not like they are under any stress. I will be fiberglassing over the backs to stiffen them up so they don't crack once installed.

Oh it's not stupid I'm sure, just I never would have thought about it, since I'm welding plastic to plastic, and the plastic is strong enough by itself and adding a mesh or anything would just get in the way of a good bond.

But I'm just using a soldering iron... I'm sure if I had a good plastic welder then I could do the mesh thing, but it was hard enough to get enough heat just to do what I did.

And that's why I didn't just do fiberglass like I originally intended. Though I will use the dremel to scratch and roughen the backside all up to give it something to grip to.
Added: Oct 15, 2012 4:58 AM
and I saw a video about repairing plastic with a heated staple tool, so that's like the mesh thing. That's what got me thinking about the method I used.

I see, yeah that's very cool. But my soldering iron isn't hot enough to melt the plastic like that, it can only to a dot at a time obviously, and only touching the plastic directly.

But I see how that is stronger, I didn't realize you mean push the metal down into the original plastic before adding more, I thought you just meant sandwich the mesh in there and then start melting.

I did the other side skirt today, and did it even better. Then I fiberglassed behind both.

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.

lol I did spray it off when I got home from work, after it rained. It seems to get a certain amount of dirty, then no more. But it is covered with sanded bondo dust. But I do have a car meet/show this weekend, a fill detail is in store before then (after finishing the skirts).

Two more pics. I figured everyone else takes gas station pics, so why not lol: