Jeremy-KY

Over the past few months I've been talking to Slooooooow and Kphu on upgrading and breathing new life into my suspension, and after waiting a few weeks for parts to arrive.

I've begun to get things rolling, and I have arranged with my local shop, Automotive Art to do the suspension installation for me, I have scheduled the installation to this comming monday afternoon.

For now, here's the parts that I have obtained.
So far I have already installed my strut tower-bar since it's pretty much the only thing I can install myself onto my car. For now anyways

Pictures will soon follow after I get my car back from Automotive Art on Tuesday afternoon.

J.

Jeremy-KY

well I got my car back and it looks great, the suspension feels just as smooth as my original suspension, and it's not too low to scrape on speed bumps thankfully.

Time for the Pictures!!!

Before:



After:



Special thanks goes out to Kphu and Slooooooow, who put up with the countless answering of questions that I bombarded them with.

no all I need now is a wheel alignment, and wait for the springs to settle in, and i'm all set xD

Slooooooow

iTrader: (1)

Beautiful...gorgeous. Well done!
Just wait 'til she settles even more...it's the gift that keeps on giving.

Now get out and hit some twisty backroads and some sweepers. The ES CAN be a FUN car to drive...now you know the secret!

Jeremy-KY

yeah, I definatly need to find some twisty back roads here on a flat island, that isnt populated with people jogging on it. xD, but hopefully once Breakers Speedway is finished built, im sure it will get some light track time for good fun, whenever it is completed.... could be next year for all i know, currently it's just used for 1/4 mile drag... only time will tell =)

eyezack87

iTrader: (4)

Damn, that looks great!

GREED777

nice work

kphu

iTrader: (8)

sweet!!! she's hoottt! before - you can fit a bunkbed in there...now your sleeping underneath it!

It hasn't fully settled yet so it'll actually go about 1/2 inch lower then what your seeing now.

Let me know if you hear any noises as I occassionally get some on mine.

Jeremy-KY

I wonder how long will it take for the springs to settle in, im thinking on getting the wheel alignment done once the springs have settled in. but right now, I need to recover some funds so alignment will have to wait for now.

When I drove it this morning to work, the feel is a little rougher on a bumpy road, but that should be normal, on the highway, it's silly smooth, the suspension noise that I was hearing any time I went over a bump comming from the rear left, has dissappeared totally, so that was a great relief.

I havent done any brisk driving yet since i'm waiting on the springs to settle and a wheel alignment, (also partly due because gas is $$$ these days) but I can definatly tell that it corners flatter on the roundabout's and it grips tremendously. Definatly has a wonderfull sporty feel to it now.

Speedbumps here (believe me they are massive) are not a problem thankfully, the car clears them with ease.

i'll give you guys a proper shakedown on the car once i finish up what's left to do which is listed here:

Things left to complete

1. 4 Wheel Alignment:
Currently getting quotes, hopefully i can get it cheaper than $90.

2. Finding a twisty enough road on a near flat island. for those of you who are familiar with google earth, just search for Grand Cayman, try to find a twisty road their xD.

only time will tell =) but for now time to have fun!

J.

kphu

iTrader: (8)

you should get the alignment done sooner then later. Mine was pulling to the left pretty bad before it was done and the right side was making alot of noises when I turned.

llcoolpass

for about 100 miles, drive the hell out of it [dont take it easy - that's the worst thing]
this will set the suspension up [mounts and bushings etc]
then have it aligned - but keep in mind the changes affect what you would want the toe/camber/caster set to


about the bumpiness on ride quality --> your tires and wheels are not factory too so that's a factor too


looks cool

I will be doing this to mine, before the end of the summer, i hope


oh my god! is that a power antenna on the LEFT side front bumper ?
that and the toyota mark have me laughing hysterically.

i mean, some lexus from canada have headlight washers, i know, but first I've seen an antenna there

ahahahaha

and you have a big side marker that's way too big and too orange lol

Jeremy-KY

kphu -alignment will come once i find someone that can do it below $100. or close to that.

so far i found that;
Arch Automotive wants $125 for a 4 wheel alignment,
Vampt Moters wants $180 for the wheel alignment,

right now im still checking around at the moment. Theirs still a few places left to check.

llcoolpass - yeah I already started pushing the car this afternoon, turn in feels great and theirs very little understeer surprisingly. it's also very responsive too.

oh and that used to be an antenna, I yanked it out because it never did work and it got annoying to look at after 3 years, as for the toyota emblem, it is a windom afterall, direct from japan, lets just call it a poor man's lexus ES for now hahaha.

I saw a Black 2001 Windom on Tuesday, and it was fully loaded, 100% identical to the Lexus ES330, its a shame i didnt have my digital camera with me. I would have taken pictures for ya to see the toyota emblems xD

here we have a ton of Toyota's here where I live that are really lexus's in disguise.

here are a few of them.
Toyota Celcior (Lexus LS), Toyota Aristo (Lexus GS), Toyota Soarer (Lexus SC), Toyota Harrier (Lexus RX), Toyota Altezza (Lexus IS), etc.

so if you come to my country you'd be amazed on what you would find

As for the bumpy ride on rough road, I did say "that should be normal"

Jeremy-KY

Well comming home from my cousin's home I ran into one of my neighbours just out for a late night ride on his bike, so pushed the car tonight and played keep up with him LOL (untill he decided to just dissappear from my sights, obviously my car will never be as quick as a bike duh LOL, good fun though) I got up to about 100 mph and the feel of the car is amazing, the car no longer has that floaty and bouncy feeling at speed, it's just flat, tight and majorly connected to the road, the cornering grip and stability are insane!! I never expected it to be so connected to the road at those speeds it made me go faster around a few twisties and roundabouts!!! Tonight is also the first time I went past 60 mph on a roundabout!!!! xD i'll make sure not to do that again hahahaha. dont want to get any more speedin tickets XD one is enough hahaha

The car seriously has a higher limit than the stock suspension which I believe is pretty obvious with the car now having a lower CoG. I think those limits are higher than my own, because I know for myself that I pushed my own limits tonight because it got my heart racing with a big grin on my face in the process, and I dont have a proper area here to explore the real limits so, i'm not gonna try to find the car's limits out. Dont want to risk damaging my ride if you know what I mean.

unless of course, their is some kind ES300 owner here at CL with lowered suspension or coilovers on here that would do some lightweight track time to see what the limits are with just lowering done alone xD.

Anyways guys, obviously please stay safe, drive safe, and have fun (in a safe way of course)

J.

"Lexappeal

Looks great man, I am about to do the same setup on my 94 ES....let you know how it turns out.

Jeremy-KY

Going to start a new project soon with my 2001 Windom keep a look out for it in the forum soon.

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

SWEET! gonna look out for that one.

Going with coilovers? Springs generally don't work too well on these from what i've read on here.