donbryce

I was thinking about this for a long time, and finally got around to doing this. Yeah, I know, lots of people hate this fake plastic wood stuff, but I felt the all-black dash on my '93 ES300 was, well, too black, and I always liked the faux factory trim on my '96 Camry. So, I bought this kit off EBay, had it delivered free to a drop ship place in Maine (over $50.00 to Canada!), and picked it up last week. I'm very happy with the end result.

I previously posted a how-to on my Sirius-in-the-ashtray project, but had to show it off again. The 4 pieces that came with the kit to go over the cupholder/ashtray didn't fit precisely enough for me, so I left them off. You can't really tell that these are factory, the match is that close to the kit pieces!

I had a problem with the mirror switchplate, and the glovebox. Apparantly, the Canadian version of the '93 ES300 had headlight washers, so the original plate in my car has mirror buttons, the washer button, and an on/off for the remote. The kit came with a sticky for mirror and remote buttons only. Luckily, I bought a US car mirror switch off EBay, didn't need it, so I hogged out the little remote 'volume' button to fit my washer switch. I turned the remote switch 'on' and stuck it behind in the dash cavity.

Finally, the glovebox piece in the kit was meant for a smaller glovebox door, which was I think for a US car with passenger airbag. No passenger airbag on my car. That didn't really bother me, as I wasn't planning on using this piece anyway - way too much faux wood, worse than too much black!

The kit I decided on came from this EBay seller http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/LEXUS...item2a10b7b192 I'm going to ask them for an additional adhesive activator, since I used up the 2 they sent with the kit, and wouldn't have had enough for the huge glovebox piece and the cupholder/ashtray pieces.

VanCityLS4

iTrader: (1)

Nice touch.

Megafast13

That actually looks good on that vehicle. Very nice.

GoodRevs

I am a huge fan of wood trim and I think that looks great. Good job

RXGS

iTrader: (2)

I like wood trim and since it is a black interior, it looks very good almost factory, makes it look more like the 00-01 interior

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

i normally despise the aftermarket kits like that, BUT, this one is good. The new kit actually matches the oem pieces quite well and looks, well, OEM

Lexmex

This looks very good.

The only thing I hope for your sake is that it lasts. The one I have in my RX300 was put in about 8 years ago, but has started to fade and lose its adhesion in certain locations, whereas other locations appear to have held their adhesion and color just fine. Seems to be related to how much sun hits those areas.

RXGS

iTrader: (2)

^ Exactly, expect the wood pieces around the vents to start to lose their color as well as the wood at the top of the climate control, it just happens due to exposure to sun

Lexmex

It won't happen for a long time though, but I think it also depends on the wood. I have known others with wood kits for over 10 years, and not an issue, but I think my kit just had shoddy wood. I never really had an issue until I got back from Mexico City 3 years ago and came back to South Florida.

sirjamesb

It looks pretty good. I think its better than all black. having too much of one color can look bad. Was it hard to install?

donbryce

I'm in the east in Canada, so sunshine is a scarce treat. We get about 30 days of that 80° - 90° Florida stuff a year here, so fading isn't a worry for me! For those who are concerned, what's a good adhesive for repairs? I've used Crazy Glue for most trim issues, but this kit has some 3M adhesive that is activated with a primer of some sort.

No, definately a 2 on the 1 - 10 scale of DIY difficulty. Like all kits though, expect some pieces to not fit quite right, depending on how fussy you are. I'm real picky, and the ashtray/cupholder pieces were off by quite a bit, so I left them off. Other pieces you need to compromise, like the armrests, where a perfect fit at the top meant mis-alignment at the hand-hold cutout. If you've used contact cement before, that's how these go on - peel off backing and one shot and it's STUCK. I put each one on gingerly, and could peel off a corner to adjust, but once 1/3 of the piece has been laid, that's it. Be in a patient frame of mind, no interruptions, and it's easy-peasy.

BTW, I asked for an extra adhesion promoter and they promptly sent one off the same day. First-class service IMO.

Lexmex

I actually bought more the 3M adhesive when it started to come lose. I was not tempted to use crazy glue, because I did not want a cleanup job later.