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This picture tells the story of an idiot previous owner who wired a plug backwards.
Pins 1 and 3 on Plug G2 were switched! I’ve not reworded the plug yet to test for sure, but yeah very expensive free fix. (Battery, alternator, 10 hours of trouble shooting).
I did get the coilovers finished and the refinished wheels mounted while I was suffering for some else’s mistake.
Excellent work! Shame on whoever butchered that poor car. I just bought a GS430 with similar mileage out of state and plan on doing the same type of "soft" restoration. I love these cars and it's a shame looking at the ones for sale all over the country by owners who slammed them on wheels while neglecting everything else.
So I felt like the car was set (more on feelings later) and decided to tackle the last really annoying cosmetic issue with the car.
Someone used a dirty rotary buffer to apply wax or something and the car was covered with dense swirl marks in a buffer type pattern. I never took any intentional pics of all the holograms, but I’ve never seen anything near this bad.
So I clayed, two passes of M105, one pass of M205 and Griots wax of some sort I went from
This:
to this:
Which doesn’t show the M205 or wax just two passes of M105.
This:
to this:
The before doesn’t really show how faded it is.
Not sure how long before the faded look comes back.
I felt giddy about how good it was turning out and took photos all day the first day.
Even sitting by the window during lunch just to watch it.(creep)
So I test the car out on its maiden voyage of its main mission as a family town car.
On the way I hear a noise just after the highway we carry on to dinner. On the return trip on the highway there is a noticeable rumble from the front particularly above 60 mph. (Edit: loose lug nuts )
it just need the car reset by touching the positive and negative terminals. This is slightly trickier because I have a 1 fared cap in the stereo… so I have to be sure that doesn’t discharge.
The whole time I’ve owned the car, I looked away from the transmission and focused on other things.
I decided I smelled ATF burning often enough I should check the level. I did. And it was didn’t show on the dipstick.
So I added 2/3 of a quart and still nothing on the dipstick…. So I got to really examining the dipstick and decided it was the wrong one for the car. I confirmed that through eBay pictures.
Sode note, the dipstick tube is loose, not attached to the block so I have to hold it in place to use the dipstick.. smh.
So I call the dealership… out of stock for the 430 I think you can still get the 300 stick.
I searched eBay, I called Lexus yards all over the country. Everyone with the stick had a transmission that needed it….
Luckily a kind soul on Facebook pulled one from a yard and sent it to me.
The maroon handle is correct. I didn’t get a great photo of the correct stick, but I think. Someone could at least see the marks enough to make a new stick if they needed to.
So the transmission was 4” too full!!! Luckily I didn’t drive on it like that.
I used my vacume pump to pull the extra fluid out of the dipstick tube.
I’ve been getting some miles in and making a list of to do items.
Drivers door needed the door bumper near the latch and the trim piece behind the door handle.
The cover for the shift lock override was missing and the glove box had a rubber bumper missing.
The passenger heater blend servo needed replaced.
Along the way several interior bulbs were out.
Its getting there.
I still need to finish the trunk part of the stereo install, and decide if I really want to make the steering wheel controls work. but after that I’m out of things on the list.
10-01-23, 05:53 AM
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