cduluk

sktn77a, The "bleaching" problem you're talking about is just due to UV and heat aging. Lexus uses a very mild stain to add color to the wood, and over time it just fades. You'd need to strip the clearcoat off of the veneer, and use some sort of dye to give color back to the wood.

Then depending on which dye you used, you could go straight to clear or add a layer of clear poly then clear, to keep the color in the wood.

Do you want to keep the stock color? Or do you want to go lighter? If you want to go darker, you don't even need to remove the present clearcoat. You could just use an alcohol dye over the clear, then re-clear.

Want me to refinish the pieces for you?

And as for as the seats, when i got them it was evident the previous owner didn't take good care of them They were faded, cracked and dirty. I cleaned them using leatherique, then had a professional leather guy come in and re-dye the seats. Now they're soft and clean like brand new (:

sktn77a

iTrader: (2)

Careful, I might just take you up on that!

I Leatherique the seats regularly but that hasn't helped the cracking or dye wearing off. Did he have to fill the cracks or prepare the leather in any way to take the dye (they have a polyurethane coat on which is impermiable to dye)? Also how much did he charge for this? My seats are looking pretty shabby so this might be the way to go.

lexus114

Hey,I asked him first!! "The Line starts here,it ends back their" (from a Christmas story)

Blu J

My Lexus is 2001 Luxury Edition, but it does not have wood on the steering wheel or shifter, so is my friend's car build in 2003. Maybe this was only available for US market.

bob2200

I don't recall the term "luxury edition". The wood on the steering wheel (and shifter too I think) were options in 2002 that were commonly ordered by most dealers. Ditto with roof racks and sunroofs (and leather seats for that matter). I ordered the leather seats on mine, but not the other stuff. I prefer the feel of the leather steering wheel.

cduluk

Blu J, is your Rx300 Front wheel drive vs All wheel drive?

It seems that things like the wood steering wheel & shift ****, heated seats and rear spoiler were more common on the AWD models vs the FWD models.

The AWD rx300's starting in Aug of 00 (as the first 01 models) began having the wood steering wheels and shift *****. It's very odd to find an 01-03 AWD without the wood...

RX300Taz

Very nice work! Looks as good as or better than original. Color is a very subjective subject, but I do like your choice.

habeeb89

iTrader: (3)

Wow, amazing work Those seats looked out of place until I read that you bought them seperately. Owning a Coach Edition, I noticed these small things.. lol

RX469

iTrader: (1)

That really looks great!

cduluk

thanks guys

yeahh, i love the darker red wood. The stock lighter stain just looks too plain to me, it had to be changed (:

And i LOVE the coach edition seats, they really complete the uniqueness. Never would believe how little i had to pay for them