Few Quick Pics Of The New Motor!

[BRUC3]

Your have to excuse the pics as they were taken on my phone. I really need to buy a digital camera!

All pretty standard stuff for the mo, with the exception on the cd player!

Im not overly sure how long the tints will last, although the previous owner said they were factory fitted? They look as if they have been machine cut, as the film fits the glass perfectly! SO if their not factory, someone done a bloody good job of fitting them!

Was pleasently suprised with the quality of the sound system, and amazed at the smoothness of the auto box!

I've been driving an 05 plate Mercedes CLK240 for the last couple of weeks, and have to say that the lexus box is smoother! Even with 100k on the clock and 5 years older!

There also seems to be a chrome tip on the exhaust, not sure if its standard or not but the other 2 I looked at didnt have this. Either way it looks pretty smart as its nothing to offensive so will be giving my end a good polish at the weekend no doubt! :shutit:

As for MPG, only managed to get about 30 miles in it last night and it doesnt seem to be any worse than my daily Transit van, and it definitly seems better than the Merc, so all in all not to bad. Nothing I wasnt expecting anyways! :)

Performance wise its pretty much as I expected. Coming from a Lotus ELise it was never going to feel fast, but I was pleasently suprised by the lack of body roll for such a big car. Drop down seems to have enough pace for overtaking, although I havent tried it in 'sports mode' yet whatever that does!

Next up on the shopping list is a plastic clip to hold the bonnet rod on the underside of the engine lid, maybe one of them hydraulic rods I've read about for the boot and hopefully a set of wheels. Not sure if I should stick with 17'', or go the whole hog and get 18's and a 40mm drop. I dont want the ride to be harsh what with a new born baby in the back as this was the idea of buying the Lexus! To be a family car!!!

Also planning on getting an iPod lead, and hopefully a remote control for the headunit if I can find one on the bay!

Bruce

[lex28]

looks good mate..

clips for the bonnet are pretty cheap from dealer

a few quick mods will transform it if thats the route your after..

upgrade headlight bulbs or HIDs, badgeless grill etc

how much did you pick it up for if i may ask?

[BRUC3]

Ive literalyl just ordered a genuine clip from eBay at £17 inc postage, so hopefully that will be fitted at the weekend!

I think I may do something with the grill as its a bit random being dark silver, so may try and get a black one if poss?

And I gave the fella £3400 for it. Its got full lexus history, and was owned by Lexus croyden up until they sold it to a trader, who then sold it to the previous owner. Cambelt was done at 85,000 miles along with waterpump and a major service :)

The previous owner had it serviced when he bought it back in november as he was planning on keeping it. He was only selling it as he lost his job earlier this year and needed something a bit cheaper to insure and run :(

One mans loss is another mans gain and all that though! :P lol

[BRUC3]

Just one more quick pic of the engine bay :)

Bruce

[kam05]

Nice- its got a lip spoiler as well.

[Parthiban]

Looks nice mate, as it's an SE the tints are not factory, but if it was done by Lexus they probably had it done by Pentagon or similar which is why it's a good job.

And yeah SEs didn't come with the exhaust trim or the rear spoiler so they've clearly been added by the previous owner - looks like you got yourself a well loved car!

[deckie77]

Looks the buisness bud, love the black when it's clean!!!

[Rory]

Grilles are always appearing on eBay, where yours has 4 bars there's a newer 3 bar one which is darker, and the black LE grille and the sport grille too, I have the standard 3 bar grille on mine but without the chrome edge, mines black round the edge, a nice subtle difference

[MorrIS200]

Nice car mate. ive got the same lip spoiler on my SE too. and the tints. should get the Sport grill from your dealr its £45 painted and is a great simple mod.

I also need the bonnet clip :(

[BRUC3]

ordered some wheels today :D

Went for 17's in the end and a similar wheel design to the standard alloys as I dont want to make the car look to 'modified' if you get what I mean!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...e=STRK:MEWAX:IT

I may drop the car 40mm sometime in the future, but the wheels will smarten the car up ten fold due to the originals being fooked!

Hopefully the wheels will be on saturday so I shall give her a good clean and hgopefully get some better pics at the weekend!

Next up is a grill!

[Steve ( West Mids )]

Looks good, worth the wait.

Will you have to buy new tyres for those wheels?

[BRUC3]

Luckily for me the old man owns a tyre garage, so I get tyres for free! :P

But will be putting my Bridgestones on from the original wheels for the time being :)

[Parthiban]

Those wheels look great - personally if you could get the standard alloys in 18 or 19" that's exactly what I'd have as it's a great design.

Look forward to the pics with them on :winky:

[lex28]

nice alloys..but i just think you may look back and wished you got 18's at least to fill the arches

look forward to pics tho mate

[lexynik]

Those wheels look great - personally if you could get the standard alloys in 18 or 19" that's exactly what I'd have as it's a great design.

Look forward to the pics with them on :winky:

i second parthibians thoughts on the standard wheels if you could get them in 18s - car looks really nice bruce and i have a feeling it will only get better - welcome to the club

[BRUC3]

Cheers for the kind words :)

I thought about 18's, but decided against it due to the baby being in the back!

I may lower the car 40mm at some point though :)

Bruce

[lexuslloyd]

Glad you found a decent one bruce :D looks very tidy

[BRUC3]

Fittedn the new wheels earlier, and also the bonnet clip so will post a pic a but later on :)

Bruce

[BRUC3]

18's would of been nice, but im thinking they would of been to harsh!

The car looks higher for some strange reason despite being exactly the same size tyres! I had to put a new pair on the front due to one of the Pirelli's being ran flat at some point so the casing was fooked.

Their a bit blingey but no doubt the misses will soon kerb em and scuff em up a bit! :P lol

Next up will definitly be lowering springs!

I also fitted the bonnet clip so thats the prob sat in place nicely :)

Bruce

[BRUC3]

Today I clay bared the front of the car (as in to lazy to do the rest! :P), gave the car a speed detail and touched up a few of the stone chips/marks!

Just a few pics! :)

Next month should be lowering springs, and I may even have a go at taking the fog lights apart and spraying them. Maybe black, but dont want too much black!!! lol

Also touched up the key mark on the rear door, and some of the hundreds of stone chips on the front bumper!!!

Bruce

[LAA69]

Looks very nice fella, you will be glad you got 17s instead of 18s when you lower it, i run 18s on my Rolla which is lowered 30mm on Eibachs, it can be harsh on these bad roads, love it when going through smooth twisty stuff though.

One reason im looking at something a bit more comfy, i could just put the OEM springs back on but then the car just looks all wrong ......

[BRUC3]

Today I decided to remove my head unit and see why my radio wasnt working.

After taking the head unit out, it was a simple case of the aerial just wasnt plugged in!

After plugging it back in, I went to put the cd player back in the hole, and the whole fascia surround started messing about! The pocket part fell out, and after about 10 attempts at trying to put it all back together I gave up and got serious on its arse!

Ended up super glueing the pocket to the actual fascia and finally managed to get it all back together! And the radio works to! :D

I also fitted a 'bee sting' ariel I bought from eBay, but it gave a crap reception on the radio so removed it straight away. it looked pretty cool but I cant be doing without a radio!

Anyways, just a small boring update but thought I would update the post so I can keep it up to date :)

Bruce

[lexynik]

well done bruce-perseverence pays off- i thought you,d been quiet lately i mistakenly thought you must be busy fitting coilovers or similar

[ormi]

looks good but i would have got 18's at least......not harsh on the bigger wheels just feels the same as the 17's i bought 18's and now wish i had got 19's....dropping it 40mm wont close the gap up as much as you want on 17's either i'm not happy about the arch gap on the rear of my car so i'm getting coilovers for it next month.......

[BRUC3]

Still havent bought springs yet Nick! Wanted to make sure my mortgage was paid first this month, but should hopefully order some next week :)

Probably going to go for a 50mm drop on springs.

It wont be as low as I want Ormi, but I dont want to make the ride to harsh due to baby! Someone said they lowered theirs 40mm on 18's and it was pretty harsh, so going to see how it is with the 17's first!

Going to finish the touch up job on the door tomorrow if the weathers nice. I touched it up along with hundreds of stone chips last weekend!

Hopefully I can get the finish pretty smooth with a bit of sanding! :)

Bruce