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I've always knew about the ls400's well but for some reason slept on the ls430, but after seeing a ton of these on the road in the UAE on my two week vacation I dug deeper and found out this is the used car that I'm after. Reliable, luxurious and not too overly expensive.
So I had to get one.
Well first thing I should do is introduce myself.
I love big 4 door RWD boats, and I love OEM + builds.
This is my 1994 Impala SS that I swapped to a stick shift and did a bunch of other mods to.
The car however isn't the quiet floaty boat that it used to be so this is where the ls430 fills that void.
I don't have any plans to do any OEM+ modifications to the car, just want it back to stock like how it came off the show room floor.
So what I picked up was a 2005 CL in flint mica with black interior. 99,000 miles on the odometer for around 7000 USD. Single owner but it is an ontario car so we'll see how it plays out..
The current plans are:
New rotors and pads:
Ordered up the POWER STOP KOE4462 kit which is just a stock replacement for all 4 corners.
New shocks:
I've been told KYB is as close to OEM as possible, by the time I get real OEM shocks and what not shipped it'll double the cost so not sure if I want to go down that route.
Lower control arms:
Mevotech lowers from rockauto
Timing belt:
Aisin TKT-021
Trunk and hood struts
Then alignment, fluid flushes and for the most part I think that should get the car back to a solid state mechanically.
In terms of exterior:
This is where the car gets rough, the old guy did not take care of it at all. Cracked rear tail light, one of the inner trunk LED is not working. And the rear bumper paint is cracked so getting those patched up and replaced will add some cost to it.
The worst of it all is the one or two rust chips on each panel, would be in such a good position if he paint penned them right away... I'm not a body guy so this is where it gets challenging, but I'm sure ill figure it out
Interior wise, actually fairly good, just a few spots need addressing, the only thing not working is the rear vanity mirrors so just need to use the credit card trick for that.
To start off with is polishing the car to remove the oxidation. Just hit the fender yesterday and it cleaned up fairly well. Need to do the other areas which I will post soon.
This old man just blotched paint pen all over the car, better than rusted out chips I guess. Once I polish the rest of the car I'll go back and clean up the paint pen spots. Haven't actually done any of this before so it's a learn as you go process.
Before:
This old man just blotched paint pen all over the car, better than rusted out chips I guess. Once I polish the rest of the car I'll go back and clean up the paint pen spots. Haven't actually done any of this before so it's a learn as you go process.
Looking good! I have several chips on mine that were poorly repaired with a paint pen I need to fix in addition to needing to do a full paint correction on the car. Overall very pleased with how well the paint on mine has held up for being an 18 yr old car though!
Replaced the rear rotors + pads, tomorrow will do the fronts. The rear rotors and pads were so worn down the amount of brake shudder I was getting was unsafe. Ontario rust 😪, will do the struts and control arms soon. Tons to do but doing it piece by piece
Front rotors done, all the brake shudder is gone from the car. Changed out the fog lights to LEDs, will do the DRLs next. Then mirrors, door handles etc.
Going to just do the rear struts since it's sagging at the back, if the ride is still clunking a bit then I'll do the fronts. Checking the wheel play there doesn't seem to be any so I'm not sure if the balljoints are bad, it looks like the guy just had the front serviced and the back went to crap.
Beautiful - just picked up a 2004 UL in Flint Mica and the color keeps growing on me. Need to bring back some of the rock chips that have rusted, Chicago loves its salt as well.
08-16-22, 04:11 AM
Restoring it back to it's former glory!
