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Hello everyone. Been debating on even starting a thread since the forms seems to be dead. Here I will be showcasing my progress with my build since not too many people seem to mod these cars. I have my lovely 2014 IS-350C F-Sport with about 70K miles on the clock when I first purchased the car about almost a year ago. I do almost all of my progress and photos of my car on my Instagram @ _ droptopis _ , (follow me and let me know you came from CL) and will post there first before I get bored and start posting here again. For now, I have some catching up to do. I like doing everything DIY even though a typical one-hour job will take me 6 hours and **** me off. I hope to gain more mechanical knowledge and creativity from this build with the help of you guys and most importantly, make some new friends.
Great thread. Car looks menacing in black. I don't like black cars due to how hard it is to keep clean (even though I have some). Keep up the good work. Following.
Let’s start small. Got some lighting and accessories to add on. F-Sport Shift ****, feels great Diode Dynamics 8K HID Bulbs paired with 8K FOG lights Before After, “F” door puddle light
I have changed almost all the interior lighting to 8K LED lights by Precision LED and man they are bright as hell.
Great thread. Car looks menacing in black. I don't like black cars due to how hard it is to keep clean (even though I have some). Keep up the good work. Following.
Same here, if I had to choose the color I would have went with either Ultrasonic Blue Mica or Matador Red. The Paint was awful and needs to be corrected. Havnt got to it yet too lazy haha
F Sport Air Filter Lower Intake Box Before After Installed and ready for hooning.
Havn’t figured out how to upload videos yet but you can hear the “growl” after 4K RMP. It’s even more apparent when the pedal is to the floor with full throttle.
I opted out from the F-Sport Intake Pipe for the RR Racing Carbon Intake Pipe for mainly the aesthetics of it.
Really like the black color on these cars! I don't think this forum is dead so keep posting your upgrades!
Let me know when you tackle the sound system. Stock is very bland at best, even the ML.
I see your interior already came with the silver console. Most have the wood grain which was one of the first things I changed. Did it with vinyl.
Where did you purchase the F-sport air box? Does your have the F-sport exhaust?
Thanks!, I think all F-Sports came with the grey trim. I plan on replacing it with carbon fiber trim in the future.
The sound system was one of the first things I noticed that was kind trash. I was researching on what speakers and amps to get and I havn't decided on what set up I want since I am not familiar with that field. I just want to replace all stock speakers and AMPs to something clearer and louder. I was thinking with Alpine.
I got my F-Sport Lower Intake, along with any OEM parts, from Lexus of Wesly Chapel since they have the lowest prices and free shipping. I had to manually find the part number; it is PTR0353081.
For the exhaust, I went with a custom catback exhaust setup. Paying $1200-1700 for an axleback exhaust is absurd to me. I ended up paying only $700 for parts and labor for my exhaust setup. I will be posting it soon but if you go to my Instagram, you will already see clips of it.
I really like the blue lights on your dash and shift. I want to do the same but seems kind of hard for me ahaha. Maybe one day.
I don't have Instagram but I'll figure out how to check out the link. The exhaust on these ISCs seem to be really limited to finding the now non-existent F-Sport stainless steel factory option or a custom after-market set up. Definitely interested to see what you did there. The $700 was for parts and labor? That's pretty good!
There is a provision for an 8" sub behind the rear seats on the ISC. If you have the ML system the sub is there. otherwise it is covered with a plate. I tried a free air sub there but it rattled way too much. ended up with two of these powered subs- These cars have a single amplifier in the trunk on the right side so I easily tapped into two speaker wires for a signal to remotely turn them on when the radio is on. This way I didn't have to butcher any wiring. You don't see them in the trunk and they do not interfere with the top.
I don't have Instagram but I'll figure out how to check out the link. The exhaust on these ISCs seem to be really limited to finding the now non-existent F-Sport stainless steel factory option or a custom after-market set up. Definitely interested to see what you did there. The $700 was for parts and labor? That's pretty good!
There is a provision for an 8" sub behind the rear seats on the ISC. If you have the ML system the sub is there. otherwise it is covered with a plate. I tried a free air sub there but it rattled way too much. ended up with two of these powered subs- These cars have a single amplifier in the trunk on the right side so I easily tapped into two speaker wires for a signal to remotely turn them on when the radio is on. This way I didn't have to butcher any wiring. You don't see them in the trunk and they do not interfere with the top.
I take a look to see if I can afford any room in the trunk. I do want to maybe add some sort of speaker in between the rear seats but my main focus will be all the OEM speaker locations before I decide on doing some custom installs. Will definitely PM you when it's time to upgrade my speakers.
For the exhaust, will post shortly but only options I have seen are the crazy expensive titanium exhaust from Japan which do not sound all that great in my opinion. I think AIMGAIN were the only exhaust I seen and some other Japanese brand but was the same double loop exhaust with Y pipe.
Magnaflow Tru X-Pipe, 2 Vibrant Bottle Resonators, 4.5 inch tips, summit racing sticker. Piping was 2.5 inch all across. What came off, heave as hell too As you can see we placed the resonator where the muffler was due to the lack of space underneath with the IS-C Now that’s better That’s baby roars I will tell you that.
I will be posting clips of it soon, stay tuned.
Got my exhaust done at a local shop and it cost me about $700 total with parts and labor. I ordered the x pipe and resonators my self and got the tips at the shop and man they are nice. Even makes some nice pops when stopping.
More to follow on the exhaust work….
Since the IS-350C has a lot less space to work with than it’s sedan counterpart. Installing the set up was tricky. Where the OEM resonator sits, it was difficult to even fit the X pipe so we had to take off the heat shield so it can fit perfectly. Ideally, I would have wanted both resonators to be there but lack of room ment we had to improvise.
We end up placing the resonators right where the muffler used to be and welded on the tips to the resonators. So even tho we had a “muffler delete” it was replaced with the resonator. I thought they were going to put it a little further back after the x pipe right where the pipes split off but this got the job done too. The down side is the drone. The done that comes from the setup is like having no resonator at all and for obvious reason. The resonator is placed all the way in the back of the car instead underneath the cabin.
All good, I can live with it for now.
In all honesty, if I removed the secondary cats and start my set up from there, it would have made this setup a lot easier and the done would be cut down by a-lot. At least the bodies in the truck can enjoy a nice exhaust drone free instead of me.
Custom route is the way to go and sounds hell of a lot better than the midpipes or axle backs from tuner companies and cheaper.
I would warn you tho, this set up is pretty loud in person so I recommend starting off with a muffler delete like everyone should but I knew from the jump what I wanted.
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Update on the drone: I think I was overthinking the amount of drone that car had. I was too focus on the drone for a week or two straight but I realized it wasn't even that loud or annoying, the drone of course. I drive with the top off every chance I get so complaining about the drone didn't make sense when its being cut out by all the wind noise. It was one of those things were if your mind is already at a negative, then you are going to keep thinking about that negative even its barely noticeable.
TLDR: Done ent even that bad.
Last edited by tanweerr12; 01-06-23 at 02:36 PM.
Reason: Edit on the drone issue.
01-06-23, 10:10 AM
*** Tan's IS-350C Build Thread **
