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Starting out the car sat there not even starting. I had to replace the starter where she sat while looking out for a tow truck because the police marked it to be towed if no one moved it. I bought it for $600 and got to work. Once I replaced the starter and the battery I was able to move her. However the front right bearing and almost all of the suspension was shot. So I did what anyone would do. I put it on coil-overs and fixed the bearing. I'll add pictures once I get home of before and after. Next I plan on more suspension work and going to the junkyard and pulling doors, trunk, hood, and fender to make it look better haha.
So I went to the junkyard today and pulled 3 doors off of a 2003 GS430. I will need to swap all of the guts of the door and the mirrors but as a bonus they're the same color as my car. Although I'll be painting it in the future it'll be nice to have for now. Luckily the 3 doors that I did need (the front driver and passenger and rear passenger) were all in really good condition. I even snagged a spoiler, although I'll need the bracket for it because on the 430 it's riveted to the trunk instead of bolted and I didn't have a drill bit to punch out the rivets. I would have gotten pictures to update today however it got dark and my phone was dead. I'll update tomorrow with some pictures of what I got.
Nice work. I get joy from picking up beaters for under a grand and making them dependable runners. I paid $900 for mine running and with a straight body/interior. Same with my little 97 200sx fuel sipper. A little elbow grease and their back in action. The GS300 has became a major turbo project and the 200sx has become one of the most simple and dependable cars I've owned. The others get flipped. Just be careful that you don't end paying for so much in parts/repairs that you could have just bought a straight body runner for the same price!
Nice work. I get joy from picking up beaters for under a grand and making them dependable runners. I paid $900 for mine running and with a straight body/interior. Same with my little 97 200sx fuel sipper. A little elbow grease and their back in action. The GS300 has became a major turbo project and the 200sx has become one of the most simple and dependable cars I've owned. The others get flipped. Just be careful that you don't end paying for so much in parts/repairs that you could have just bought a straight body runner for the same price!
Oh, absolutely. For the price I paid and the amount I've put into it so far I'm still well under what I would have paid. The interior for this car is near mint. I need to do some more work on the underside of the car i.e Rear Upper control arms, front control arms, and toe stuff. Basically going to get it to the point for a normal alignment with nothing crazy. Then I'll work on upgrading the brakes, then the engine. I want to swap the intake manifold with one from a 06 Tundra and then add a turbo, but I'll probably need an upgraded fuel pump as well.
Pictures of the 3 doors and the spoiler I got from the junkyard. I need to source some brackets for the spoiler because like I said they were riveted on the GS430. I already have swapped the front passenger door just not the guts yet. The door I took has the Levinson speakers but the amp and radio were gone from the junkyard car so I'll have to swap the originals from my car in. I also will need to get the rear driver door window (the only one that I'm not swapping) tinted because as you can see in the front passenger door the tint is much darker. Didn't get to work on it today sadly because it was too cold and I'm feeling a bit under the weather as it is and I didn't want to push it. No point in getting 4 hours of work done then being sick and missing days of working on it.
I also added a picture of the bare metal after ripping the front fender off, unfortunately someone at the junkyard destroyed the fender I needed when they took the wheels (looked like they got irritated and just hit it with the iron) but I'm going to keep an eye on the junkyards website and see if one pops up. I also might order a replacement online for both sides that are made of a lighter plastic or something. Gonna try to drop some weight off of the car as well. Old door guts New door with much darker tint Had to remove the old fender. Spoiler I picked up
Update from last night.
I had to swap the door back and just swap the lower cover piece on the door because I wasn't able to remove the harness from the door without damaging it from my original door. The harnesses don't match up to the door panel on the inside so it wasn't a straight easy fit. I'm going to see what I can do and test out getting the harness off of junkyard door and see if I can do it without damaging it. If I can do that I'll put the junkyard door back on. If not I don't have a choice and have to rock it as is. It'll be a little ugly until I pull a small dent out and sand it down. Body work can be a headache haha.
Another update, I was able to figure out all the harness issues, it took a lot of feeling around with my hands and no vision because of the placement. But I was able to get the front passenger and rear passenger situated last night. That just leaves the driver door and the doors section is done. Then I should be picking up a newish front fender next week as well as the lower fender. Then I'll have to get bumpers and trim at some point. But then I can get back to suspension work.
So I went to the junkyard today and pulled 3 doors off of a 2003 GS430. I will need to swap all of the guts of the door and the mirrors but as a bonus they're the same color as my car. Although I'll be painting it in the future it'll be nice to have for now. Luckily the 3 doors that I did need (the front driver and passenger and rear passenger) were all in really good condition. I even snagged a spoiler, although I'll need the bracket for it because on the 430 it's riveted to the trunk instead of bolted and I didn't have a drill bit to punch out the rivets. I would have gotten pictures to update today however it got dark and my phone was dead. I'll update tomorrow with some pictures of what I got.
I just got this beautiful lady yesterday for 2.5k with under 187k mileage on her
So I finished the final door today and went ahead and removed the rear bumper since that was trash and got the tires off so I can clean them soon. The car is on huge jack stands so I have plenty of space and no worries about getting under there. I'll need to take some suspension off and make some adjustments. I'll also need to find someone to do an alignment once all my aftermarket parts are on. But for now I can at least get underneath and fix my exhaust leak haha.
I'm going to work on getting the engine bay cleaned after the wheels and suspension are done because I don't want to make a mess in the garage haha.
03-30-22, 08:07 AM
My 99 GS400 Build
