JonGS3

After my GS300 was rear-ended and totaled at the beginning of summer, I went on the hunt for a replacement. My search criteria were a 430 with the OEM spoiler, 17" 5 spokes, black interior, and an exterior color I could live with all for under $5k. I found this one for sale in Tampa. It didn't have a black interior but the exterior is dark blue (my favorite color) which I know is pretty rare for our cars so I jumped on it. I had a mobile mechanic give it a once over and test drive it then had a friend in the area handle the purchase for me (I live in NC). Final price was $4k and it has about 215k miles on it. It sat there for a couple weeks until my parents could drive up and bring it back to their place in south Florida. I flew down last weekend to get some work done on it before driving it back home.

I'm not really doing a build per se so much as I want to just do a soft restoration, clean it up, get it riding and driving nice, and document my maintenance for whenever I may inevitability sell it. Longer term goals are to do a black interior swap as well as accumulate some of the rarer interior items like the saddle leather seats and blackwood trim. I'd like to dig up some discontinued TRD/L-Tuned parts if I can find any but that will come down the road.

It was originally sold in NC right around the area I currently live, ironically. The first owner had it as a fleet lease car where it had scheduled maintenance at Lexus until about 50k miles. The 2nd owner had a few oil changes at a Sears Auto Center. The 3rd owner did some regular maintenance at Pep Boys including the radiator and A/C compressor. The lack of a solid maintenance history was definitely a bit of a red flag and part of the reason why I dedicated a week down here to get anything done for the drive back.

As it stands now, almost looking black because it so badly needs some paint correction:

JonGS3

Maintenance time: I knew the T-belt was due. A sticker indicated it was done about 11 years and 110k miles ago so I didn't want to drive back to NC on it. Of course the belt still looked perfect when I pulled it off so I'm sure it would have made the drive just fine. Nonetheless, it was nice to get some wrenching time in with my dad.

At this age and mileage, if I'm working in an area then I'm replacing as much as I can even if something isn't "bad", just so I don't have to deal with it down the line. Do it once and do it right! In this case, that meant replacing the timing belt, tensioner, crank pulley seal, water pump, t-stat, timing idler pulleys, accessory belt and its idlers and tensioner, crank sensor, cam sensor as well as it's connector, both VVTi solenoids along with their connectors since both were broken and zip tied in place, and of course a total coolant flush. The radiator and hoses were done at 185k miles so I didn't replace them and was thrilled to see that they used a Denso radiator.

Over the hump and ready to reassemble:




Back together and started on the first try. It's always nice when things go right the first time.

JonGS3

Those with a good eye may notice the fuel line used to connect the left bank PCV to the throttle body as well as to patch the connection for the vacuum line at the top of the manifold. Pretty much every single vacuum line is hard as a rock and many have started cracking. Of course they were taped up or poorly patched with various random lines. I'll be replacing as many as soon as I can find the patience to pour over Lexus's god awful vacuum line parts diagrams.

There's also a power steering leak although I'm not sure where it's coming from but everything from the PS pump to the bottom of the reservoir are caked in crud and ****. PS fluid had managed to make its way into the protective hose covering the positive cable for the alternator. When I pulled it out to do the belt, a bunch of fluid starting draining out from the cable. The alt looks like a newer Denso unit so I certainly don't want it going bad. Once I'm back in NC I'll replace the PS pump, reservoir, and various lines.

JonGS3

My dad called me one day after picking up the car and driving it around wanting to know why the dash was beeping and showed me two little red lights installed in the cluster surround. Yep, another old Lexus with a K40 radar detector installed. Shame on whoever did it too because they used wood screws to install the front detector to the bumper. Fortunately, they didn't screw up the wiring behind the kick panel too bad. Only two wires had taps connected to them. Then I found another prior owner hardwired a bluetooth FM transmitter into the cigarette lighter and installed it under the center console. Someone else at some point seems to have removed the factory phone but then installed a speaker on top of the steering column. Naturally, all of that **** got ripped out:

JonGS3

Headlight polishing. They weren't too bad to start with but cleaned up quite nicely.

JonGS3

Back from raiding the local junkyard. I got lucky and they just got an 01+ in with a black interior. The car wasn't wrecked so I'm guessing engine or trans failure on it. Nonetheless, I pulled as much as I could fit in the wife's Highlander which was pretty much every black piece but the dash. I picked up black carpets and a set of door panels in Florida before driving home so now I have a 2nd set to mix and match the best pieces. I'll probably go back in a couple weeks to try pulling the dash if it's still there.

I'm still debating about whether or not I should pull the grey headliner and trim pieces too or just leave my tan "ceiling" in. I guess I'll see how it looks once most of the black is in



Fresh stock of cleaning supplies because these parts are filthy and I want to do a pretty deep clean of everything



Suspension patiently waiting its turn with Vogtland springs en route

JonGS3

Got the rear done tonight. I've never been big on detailing so this is a first for me to go so deep. Griot's interior cleaner was used on everything with microfiber towels and/or applicator pads to scrub everything. I used tiny little swabs to get into the nooks and crannies of the seats as well as the door panels and switches.Then I hit the leather with conditioner. I went a bit heavy with it so I'll need to give them another rub down tomorrow after they sit tonight. The "wood" trim was polished with PlastX and a finishing buffer pad with a drill.

First door panel cleaned up very well. I forgot to take a before pic and this one was the worst with more of that white **** splattered on it.



Before/after pics of the rest

DriftChris

Looks like its going to be clean! I always wanted a GS4. Ive only ever had 300s. I cant wait to see it done. So you're really trying to keep it really close to stock? I never really ever thought to use Shock and Spring Upgrades. This will definitely be a unique restomod!

JonGS3

Thanks yeah, keeping it stock more or less. I'd like to add swaybars down the line and maybe a modest exhaust to get a little more sound out of it. I really like these cars for what they are. I spent several months watching the used market for them nationwide and it's sad to see so many in such disrepair that I wanted to find one worth putting some elbow grease into and preserving. Besides, I have my motorcycle for going fast and hooning around

JonGS3

I put about 8 hours in today and got almost everything I picked up swapped in. I was running out of daylight by the time it came to doing the front doors and seats so I couldn't be quite as thorough with cleaning them as I wanted to. I'll recover the front eventually so they're fine as is for now.. I'm definitely kicking myself for forgetting to grab the rear seat belts so I'll go back for them soon. A good condition black armrest is on order from ebay and now I'm on the hunt for black wood console trim.

This was the water after cleaning the carpets. I don't know why my phone focused on the edge of the container but you get the point

noahjk123

I swapped to the black interior on my GS and decided not to do the headliner or the upper trim on the A, B, and C pillars. The way the interior trim is laid out actually provides a natural looking split between the top on the interior and the bottom. Basically I’m saying that it actually looks really good with the tan headliner imo. Also I didn’t think there was enough of a difference between the light gray and the tan to justify pulling my pristine existing one.


Can’t really see the headliner but this is all I could find in my camera roll

DriftChris

These cars really do look timeless with Black Interiors. You need my shift ****? I just removed mine.

dwoods801

Make sure to send the ecu out for a service and a new tune, I really like the pops and bangs option they can install now. The other project I ended up taking on that, I hadn’t seen coming, was rebuilding my biodegradable wiring harness. All the plugs were disintegrating and it was just getting rather crunchy. I tried just replacing the plugs one at a time, but finally but the billet and removed it from the car so I could remove all the corrugated covers so i could clean up the wires and inspect everything for problems and address all the issues. I recovered everything with PET harness covers. So it should protect the wires from heat and chemicals and last a lot Lon than the original plastic crap.
I like seeing good cars go to someone who appreciates them

JonGS3

Hell yeah! How much do you want for it?

JonGS3

I didn't realize ECU tuning is an option. I may look into that down the line. I'd love to replace the whole harness too but that's quite a bit more than I'd like to take on now.