Evening! I've been visiting the forum for a couple of weeks now, gathering a lot of good information from lots of decent people. I'm a retired mechanic, specialized in custom and standard suspension/front end/alignment. Also certified in other areas. Now, I'm mostly the house keeper with a lust for nice cars.
The 96 ES300 came into the family last December, then about two weeks ago, I was going to trade my car in towards a truck and my son mentioned that he was interested in letting his Lexus go. I traded my 97 Ford and some bucks for the ES. I still feel like I snaked him. LOL! But he's happy.
I'm not interested in "modding" or making radical changes in my car but am interested in making it as nice as possible, and making changes that make it "mine". Love the detailed looks a lot of members here have with their cars and the little modifications that make them personal.
When my son first looked at the car, it had sort of blue-ish doors on the driver's side, along with the same blue-ish color on the passenger side mirror, and both door handles. The dealer said it was scheduled for paint so we waited until it came back. The doors were painted but the mirror and door handles weren't. Go figure. My son bought the car anyway. Yesterday, I removed the mirror and door handles and repainted them the correct color. That was the biggest job, other things I've done were clean, clean, clean and clean some more, plus removed terrible window tinting and straightened the bent/crushed exhaust tips. Cosmetically, I'm almost finished. Mechanically, I need to replace the front exhaust; from the manifold to after the cat. Both flex are leaking a little and I thought it might be the best way to go. Tires are Bridgestone with about 1/3 tread left on front, less on rear. thinking Micheline, mainly because I like them plus there's a near brand new one in the boot. :>)
Here are a few pictures, the first being what I started with and the rest are results of the past couple of weeks and it's still a "work in progress."
Thanks for all the good help so far and all that.

 

Looks really good. Polish those headlights and it will look new!

 

Thanks! Lots of sweat and all. Not really, I enjoy it. The first picture the lights looked pretty fogged up, the other pictures of since I've been cleaning, the lights are a lot clearer but the lens seem to be crystallized. No, I've not used a drill motor or buffer just worked out by hand power. Used a kit that had several different grades of sanding pads and then sealant and all that. Looks like crystallized and a couple of stains. Don't even want to buy new ones at the prices I've seen! :>(

 

Hey Dmight what did you do to the grille? I my ES is the same color and wanted to the same thing to it

 

I'm still not sure I like the look or not, was sort of looking for the next generation look.
I painted the grill the correct color for the car, then taped the outside edges off at the little groove all round the grill. Then prepped and painted the rest of the grill with semi-gloss black. Then clear coated the whole thing. Used Dupli-Color paint from Advance Auto for the whole project. One 8oz can of color, one 8oz can of black, and one 8oz can of clear and I painted two passengers side door handles, the passengers side mirror, and the grill. I think I spent about $25 for everything

 

wow the paint finish looks like showroom car..

 

Thanks because i have to replace mine and imma just make it black because instead of going through the trouble of getting it painted

 

X2, the car look's amazing!!

 

U should put on some rims from a newer lexus. I put some 06 gs wheels on my 97 es and it makes the car look much more fresh and upscale but at the same time lookin oem.

 

I've thought about it a few times, but for the most part, I like to keep things simple. Plus, I just don't like spending money. LOL! The look that I like is clean and neat without drawing any more attention than that. I would like for the tires to fill the wells a bit more though. Maybe just go up one size on the tires? I did see another ES300 on this site that had wheels like mine except they were chromed. I'm not much on chrome wheels but those did look sharp. I'll probably just keep the stock wheels though. I'm also well know to sell or trade my vehicles on a whim and known for not keeping them long, so that's another reason to "keep it simple". Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

I got mine for 140 from a local seller. They wer pretty much new. I just didnt like my stock rims. I also bought some chrome 02 es300 rims to use as my winter set for 100.

 

Dog! This small burg I live in doesn't have much around for Lexus, anything like wheels would be thru a tire shop or drive about 50 miles away and look around. Next would be something I'd find on-line. Those were some good deals on the wheels!
I'm planning to do the timing belt for sure, and possibly the front exhaut pipe this coming weekend, so won't be time or bucks for looking for wheels. Winter is just around the corner here, so there's no hurry for them, if I do find something I just can't live without.
Being almost 60 years old, I find I can live without a lot of things I couldn't when I was 20-30 or even 40! LOL! After market wheels are one of those things.

 

Well, After a couple of weeks, I just didn't like the way the grill looked so I removed it, prepped and repainted it back to stock. I still need to mask it off and paint the inserts and all black, but letting the first paint set up for a while.

Sometime soon I want to figure out how to straighten that crooked cowing in front without having to replace all that down there.

 

Those emblems are certainly a nice touch, although the emblems on your wheels are still gold! Any plans to paint those too?

 

Good Eye! I noticed that along the way then it went out of my mind and I never gave them another thought, guess we just found another project. :>) Just have to figure an easy way to do them.