Help With Choosing First Modification

[e164]

Hi i am a new member to the forum but attended the Midlands meet last weekend. Was a really great meet and got to put some faces to profiles and got some great ideas for my completely standard IS200 sport.

So far my only mod is debadging and a k&n air filter. I opted for this over the prolex induction kit as i may upgrade to this later.

Money is however obviously the main option and so id really like peoples opinion on what they think i should get done first. I am quite happy with the interior and sterio at the moment so am mainly looking for exterior and performance gains. Any advice would be appreciated:

Performance

Exhaust: The blueflame was reccommended strongly at the meet and looking at around £265

ARBS: CUSCO from ebay: £300. C-ONE from prolex-uk: £400. Is it worth the extra £100 for the extra brushes?

In a seperate forum people reccommended arbs over exhaust and i use country roads often so am interested in how much difference there would be between CUSCO and C-ONE

Exterior

Lights: Looking for some eyebrows but just the straight ones and i have struggled to find any - most of the ones have two dips in them

Front indicators: clear ones looked really good at the meets but struggling to find any. Does the entire front light need replacing?

Rear lights: Smoked lights looked really good aswell but there are many different ones on eBay. Many people at the meet appeared to have standard ones but smoked.

This is what i have been considering so far and if anyone has any suggestions on other mods and particularly suggestions on any suppliers i may be able to use it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[aido]

Hiya fella, good to meet you at the weekend, I was bladdered not far into that, too long off the beer and it hit me hard

If you're doing the country roads mate the ARBs are the way forward for sure, how old is your car?

Just thinking you may as well get the one with the bushes and then you've saved a job that may need doing down the road anyway :)

If you're after a decent garage I'm up your sort of way and I always use Charlesworth Motors, they're a sound bunch :)

As for the front indicators, that's a custom job where they pop the lights in the oven for a few mins to soften the glue and then separate the units, then you can get rid of the orange bit, change the colour, whatever you fancy really :)

There are a few different types available from the dealer, the standard chrome, the black chrome which are just darker chrome and then the satin ones which aren't shiny.

All the other ones you see on eBay are aftermarket ones. Genuine ones were about 60quid a side I think?

[e164]

Hi thanks for the quick reply. I have a 1999 model.

I am after a satnav upgrade as plan to travel to Europe in the summer but not sure i can handle the job of the complete replacement which involves cutting the frame and inserting a sony one and am also not sure about upgrading the current one as stated in other forums the 1999 only had cd not dvd changer and im not sure about the possibilities of a swap out.

One thing i forgot to mention i will be doing soon is a trip to WIM. If getting arbs done is it advised to get new springs? I would like my car lower but i think without coilovers which are abit out of my budget as i have the sports suspension already spring will not make a massive difference?

If doing these suspension mods should i wait to go to WIM until everything is done or if i go before then make the changes will i need to go again?

Regarding the front lights will the orange bits just pull out or will they need replacing?

Think i should ring the dealer about parts but dont wanna get too ripped off.

Thanks

[aido]

I think the orange bits just pull out when the lights are apart but not sure mate as I've not done it, quite a few on here have done it so they'll be along to confirm that for you :)

As for WIM, definitely wait until after you've had the kit put on, if you're on a 99 car then you'd probably see maybe a drop of 2-3cm all around, not a massive drop with something like the Eibachs but still a bit over the standard Sport suspension.

You don't have to get the springs with the ARBs but I'd probably recommend it as otherwise you're going to need a geometry doing again if you do change the springs in the future so it saves you some cash mate.

I'm hoping to pop down in the next few weeks as well, just waiting for the weather to clean up so I can get my car back as it's too lethal out there for my liking at the moment!

If you speak to Russell at Lexus Sheffield he's sound, it's probably only the rear lights he'd be able to get? Not sure if someone said recently that TDi in London had a set of TTE rollbars left for about 300 quid?

[aido]

This gives you an idea of what you need to do to take the lights apart mate:

http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/knowledge...p;id=33&c=5

[Mr Mole]

I would suggest getting a set of HID lights, one of the best mods you can do for the money.

This will help for the country roads at night

[Ian M]

It's got to be the armrest!

(Sorry, coulnd't resist that - good to meet you on Sunday, you've abviously got the bug.)

[e164]

haha no a rear windscreen wiper would be better than an arm rest!

Anyway more realistically...

Thanks for posting that guide for the lights i may order both HID lights and some coloured bulbs and attempt to do the lights this weekend. Tempted by angel eyes though.

For coloured bulbs will these show up orange if i remove the orange part of the headlight even if they are not on? Peoples lights at the meet appeared completely clear when off which looked great.

[Ian M]

haha no a rear windscreen wiper would be better than an arm rest!

You've got to be a SportCross owner to get that!

[Steviewevie]

HIDs are a great mod, easy to fit, don't cost a lot, and make a *big* difference.

As for the ARBs, I've got the C-Ones and they're awesome. They come with bushes, whereas the Cuscos don't, so you might want to factor in the price of new bushes (in order to get the most from the new ARBs). The C-Ones also come with *much* stronger mounting brackets for the ARBs compared to OEM, again this should help you get the most out of them (with the Cuscos you'll be using the OEM brackets).

Something else on the ARBs, the drop links are notoriously hard to remove due to the way they're designed, and may actually need cutting off, which would mean you need new drop links (this is the same no matter which ARBs you're choosing). Something else to bear in mind as well.

A geo setup at WIM will be very worthwhile. Won't make any difference if you have this done before or after upgrading your ARBs, but as Aido said it will need doing again if you then lower the car.

[Steviewevie]

For coloured bulbs will these show up orange if i remove the orange part of the headlight even if they are not on? Peoples lights at the meet appeared completely clear when off which looked great.

You can get bulbs with a silver coating, but which flash orange, you may want to check out some of those on eBay.

[sorted vti]

i think the first mod everyone does is the sport grill isnt it? £35 from lexus.

also with regards to the lights. ive coloured the insides of my front (fronts have been replaced with hid angel eye headlights now) and rear lights. the fronts you have to put in an oven and the rears you have to cut apart with a dremel. definitely worth the time doing that mod to the lights.

also another little modification i done was to have the numberplate recess on the front bumper plastic welded and filled. it really smoothes the front end i think. it cost me about £40 in total. i had the plastic welding done and got the front bumper sprayed at work.

[aido]

That front end does look loads better with the holes filled in, I drove round with the holes for a bit before I got them filled in and it looks loads better afterwards :)

Car looks good mate, was looking at some Ultralite alloys earlier and they had the same red ring around them like you've got there!

Nice to see something different at the back too!

Where did you get the black chrome Lexus emblem from or did you spray that?

[sorted vti]

yeah i wasnt sure at first, wether it was worth the agro. but defintely worth it once its done.

yeah i wasnt sure about the red rim line so i vinyled it on first. now ive masked and sprayed it on. ive been thinking about have a colour change with the wheels. i was thinking something lairy like orange or lime green with matching vinyls over the car.

the badge is just sprayed gloss black. i must admit im not really a lover of chrome on the outside of the car. thats why i have blacked out the lights.

just not really sure what to do to it next?