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Here are a few interior pictures. The local upholstery guy was able to match the materials. It cost me $150 total for all 3 panels. The flash did weird things to the colors. The recovered panels are very close, if not identical, in texture and color to the original panels.
Right upper B pillar panel.
Same Right upper B pillar panel. The rear facing edge was looking nasty.
Left and right lower B pillar panels. These were only slightly scuffed up. I went ahead and had them recovered.
To remove the upper b panel I unbolted the seat belt from the seat. Plus both front and rear plastic door trim floor panels get pulled up.
2 screws hold in the upper b pillar panel. The lower B panel must be pulled off to access these 2 screws. With the seat belt unbolted from the seat you feed the seat belt through the panel and it is free from the car.
Behind the upper b panel. I didn't realize we had seat belts that electrically went up and down 5 minutes later I found the button on the door. My seat belt is now more comfortable.
Who did you have do this? Do they take mail in parts?
They did a very good job, looks great!
Thank you.
Phoenix Finest Upholstery, owners name is Anthony. Unfortunately he doesn't do any projects by mail. He usually has a line of boats or cars outside his shop to completely gut and redo. I've been using him for 6 years or so. His craftsmanship is top notch. Other places around us charge 4x's as much.
I touched this spot up myself. Someday if I remove the seat back I'll pull the entire panel off for Anthony to recover. Once again the flash makes it not match. You can see the flash also lightened the seat belt. From what I understand this car has an Alcantara headliner. It seems to be much less durable than a standard headliner. The upper b panels and this rear panel are covered in the same Alcantara material.
I thought I'd bring you guys along on my adventure. Kinda long winded but here we go....
For the past month I've been searching for one that had a bad traction battery or similar expensive item to repair (planned on a prius cell swap or brake actuator change). The only search criteria I really had...
1. Buy the cheapest one I could find.
2. Currently running
3. Not black interior ( It has tan interior)
4. Under 200k miles
I wasn't opposed to a salvage title / wrecked vehicle but for ease of reselling a clean title was prefered. My preference is to troubleshoot / replace components rather than do body work. Another very relevant fact is I couldn't come up with a good line to tell the wife if a wrecker dropped off a mangled car in our driveway. Admittedly rebuilding a wrecked one sounded more fun. With that said I really didn't want to get that "look". Taking a chance on a car that at least looks ok has many advantages to some of us.
The purchase...
A few days ago I purchased a clean title, 2008 LS600hl, 190k miles. It was 700 miles away in another state.
. It was listed for $9700. On the drivers.lexus site I noticed in 2018 a lexus dealer diagnosed it with a failing traction battery. With that info I offered $7000. 3 weeks after I contacted them they got back to me and accepted my offer. I ended up paying $6500 plus $500 in tax. They never admitted the car had any issues. I expected so much...
(side story...) My buddy bought a gs450h a few months ago from a small dealer. I helped him check the car over. It was throwing 10 codes( I scanned it). The dealer said all the warning dash lights being on was normal. He also said all his cars had "those lights on", haha. A quick search on clublexus suggested the codes may be due to a dead 12v battery. We made an even lower offer, paid the man. Then drove the car home. ALL of the codes cleared once we replaced one of the two 12v batteries in the trunk. My buddy was happy with that deal. This site is really helpful which is one reason I try to post my .02 when I can. I appreciate you guys.
Back to my out of state LS600h
Luckily someone I knew lived nearby the car. She was able to test drive it and send a few pictures my way. Right off the bat It had a low tire light and a check brake message. She was able to pump the brake and hear the brake motor turn on. It only ran for a second before the system was charged. With any luck the actuator is good. If not I'm fairly proficient at replacing them. It'll be my 3rd. The hybrid battery had almost full bars. In park with a bunch of accessories on it didn't drop any bars (in park with ice off). During the test drive she did mention a slight clunk at times. I tend to think worst case scenario to start with... clunk=air strut(s). Otherwise the drive was uneventful. She was surprised by how much acceleration it had.
A few more random thoughts...
I really like the adjustable suspension I've had on my other vehicles. I'd like to keep the air suspension alive if the rest of the car isn't a basketcase. The car lived in vegas from 2008-2019. Hopefully one winter in salty roads won't cause too many rusted bolt headaches. As for the exterior color...In AZ all cars turn that ugly sand color without a bath. One of my current cars was tan / gold when I purchased it. I repainted it white. If I hold onto the 600h for a few years I will likely paint it white too.
I anticipate it being delivered next week. Until then my mind will be filled with wild emotional swings while I wonder how bad or good it will be. When it does finally show up there is a good possibility my wife might make me sleep in the garage for a few days. Hopefully the massage seats function!
Sounds like fun. The rear recliner seat should be comfy enough for a day or two.
It has been awhile since I ordered them. I'd guess $150. I contemplated not purchasing the upper portion of the center mount. I couldn't tell in the pictures if it was steel or included rubber. I remember it costing another $50 or so. Turns out it is a combination of steel and rubber. This was the only part that wasn't worn. The rubber was still in good shape.
I circled the one that can likely be reused.
I replaced my mounts today. It took me around 2 hours and I did not have to remove the exhaust. However, I had to bend the exhaust shield a little bit. My mounts looked almost new but are shorter than new ones. I will see if it made any difference when I take the car tomorrow on a highway.
Sounds like fun. The rear recliner seat should be comfy enough for a day or two.
It was fun the first few months. I'm tired of working on it now. The little nick-nack stuff is wearing on me.
When my friend inspected the car her description made me think it had the rear massage seat. For a while I thought it was simply missing the remote. It does have power rear seats, just not the massage function. Thankfully I was never banished to the garage.
It was fun the first few months. I'm tired of working on it now. The little nick-nack stuff is wearing on me.
When my friend inspected the car her description made me think it had the rear massage seat. For a while I thought it was simply missing the remote. It does have power rear seats, just not the massage function. Thankfully I was never banished to the garage.
Working on a car or a bicycle can get to be a little old. What helps me is I take breaks for awhile and get back into it. The pandemic kept me away from repairing my bicycles for months but it is my hobby.
I had a chance to drive my vehicle on a highway to see if there is any difference with new transmission mounts. I can confirm that surging when accelerating and slowing down, shuttering while coasting went away. The old mounts had visually nothing wrong with them except a small difference in high for the side mounts. I paid around $130 at the local dealership with a discount courtesy of the part sales manager.
there is light at the end of the tunnel. what I do is take breaks and do other projects re other areas and then get back to the car stuff.
you've done an insane job thus far.
ps. that gs450h side story had me LOL
Originally Posted by miket000
It was fun the first few months. I'm tired of working on it now. The little nick-nack stuff is wearing on me.
When my friend inspected the car her description made me think it had the rear massage seat. For a while I thought it was simply missing the remote. It does have power rear seats, just not the massage function. Thankfully I was never banished to the garage.
It was fun the first few months. I'm tired of working on it now. The little nick-nack stuff is wearing on me.
When my friend inspected the car her description made me think it had the rear massage seat. For a while I thought it was simply missing the remote. It does have power rear seats, just not the massage function. Thankfully I was never banished to the garage.
I know the feeling. I had to put my original project aside for a while since it just got to a point it was too much. I'll get back to it in a year or so but don't eat too discouraged in your case man, you are almost there
I had a chance to drive my vehicle on a highway to see if there is any difference with new transmission mounts. I can confirm that surging when accelerating and slowing down, shuttering while coasting went away. The old mounts had visually nothing wrong with them except a small difference in high for the side mounts. I paid around $130 at the local dealership with a discount courtesy of the part sales manager.
The weight of our cars sure is hard on all the rubber mounts. Glad to hear it's riding smoother.
Yesterday my sister had a dead battery in her rx330. Her bf with the GS450h also had his other 12 volt battery go bad. I ended up changing both of their batteries yesterday. Last week I replaced my wife's 12v battery in her GS450h. An hour later her navigation screen stopped working. So much for taking a break lol.
Today I managed to push out the bushings in the trq arms. The trq arms feel quite a bit lighter than oem arms. Or maybe I'm just getting weaker lol.
I managed to bugger up one of the arms while pressing a bushing out. It slid off one edge of my block. My press has seen better days
I'm guessing this alloy is a bit softer than oem. I've done 10 oem upper arms without something like this happening. It's still usable just a bit ugly.
Otherwise all of the bushings pushed in without issue. They are greased up and ready to be installed now.
They are super pro bushings. Time will tell how super they are. Out of curiosity I weighed one of my old arms vs the trq arms. The trq arms are about 4 oz heavier.
I managed to swap all my upper arms out this morning. It took me about 3 hours.
The upper rear arms were pretty straight forward. I removed all the bolts except for the top bracket bolt. The top bolt I only loosened enough to pivot the bracket to remove the arm bushing bolt.
The forward arms have less access. There is not enough room to remove the top bracket bolt. It can only be loosened. I tried to back the pivot bolt all the way out but it contacts the strut before it is free. Even with the bracket bolts undone there was not enough play to remove the bolt that goes through the bushing. I used a dremel tool to grind away about 3/16" of material near the bushing bolt in order to slide it out.
My most used tool is the hammer
The 3 yellow areas which I removed material. The top 2 are the bottom threads of 2 bolts from the engine bay. The bracket pivots on the top bolt. By shaving down the 2 top bolts the bracket can pivot further. This allows less material to be removed from the lower yellow arrow while removing the bushing bolt.
I took a quick look to see how hard the 2 bolts were to remove. It took me 10 seconds to decide to shave the threads down from inside the wheel well. I only shaved the threads not the nut plates.
Close up of the lower arrow. Once 3/16 or so was removed the bolt was able to slide out.
You can kind of see the angle of the bolt and why the sheet metal is in the way.
The front left forward arm was the same except up top there was only 1 bolt to shave threads down. I didn't bother to look under the hood to remove the bolt. My dremel scratched the bracket a bit while removing the 3/16" of material.
10-28-21, 10:58 AM
5 minutes later I found the button on the door. My seat belt is now more comfortable.
