wagonist

I've found a panel beater & an engineer to help me with this project. A$7k for cutting, welding, alignment & respray. Wrecks of local IS200 saloons go for around A$10k, & good IS300s still sell for A$30k. So if I get get the IS300 Sprotcross rear cut & running gear, I'm still ahead for a unique (for here) car.

or access to the Toyota EPC so I know where the cuts need to be made. :winky: Yes, it'll probably cost me around A$10k for the conversion, but I'll have the only one is Australia then.

If I wanted a Gita, I'd get one from New Zealand. Gita's are rare enough in Japan, and salvage yards don't work over there like ours. Cars simply get crushed & recycled. Plus the Gita isn't as well equipped as the Lexus versions. Usually no cruise control, no Satnav, a 180km/h speed limiter. Bascially the deal is that I am not allowed to import a complete one into Australia & use it for road use. To get one in, it needs to be cut up. So I want the rear end so I can weld it onto the front of a locally sold saloon. But in addition, I'd like all the bits out of the engine bay so I can fit it all in my "hybrid". I also want the wiring loom to be either removed from the front, or rolled up into the rear half so it is uncut. Make more sense?

I'm not sure how to go about this. I'm trying to locate a wreck of an IS300 Sportcross damaged in the front. This sounds like a weird request, but it seems that the only way I'm going to get an estate is to make my own by combining an estate rear cut & the front of a rear damaged local saloon. A big job, but possible with a job in the roof just behind the windscreen & rear floor in front of the rear seats, and certainly would end up with the most unique IS in my country. I would prefer to use a European version as I can use the complete wiring, etc to make sure it all runs properly, instead of trying to combine looms somehow. Firstly, I'd like to know how common wrecked ones are? Secondly, approx how much would one be? Thirdly, would someone be prepared to source one & then dismantle it (remove engine & gearbox, remove wiring from front section) & then cut it up (we're not allowed to import whole cars as wrecks into Australia to prevent re-birthing)? There would be payment involved for the time & effort. Thanks Steve

So you couldn't hook a circuit into the main driver's door control to wind up all the windows then? But I guess from what you're saying, if the ECU doesn't have power, then the windows stil wouldn't go up.

lol Fair call maybe a bit OTT

So you'd rather have you road fall apart completely & then bend a rim or 2 on potholes? And I wouldn't bother about the stealing thing. Most places I know of take photos now to prove that things like signs, etc were put in place. So all they have to do is prove that the signs were in place when they left the site & you'd still be screwed, no court would expect someone to be sitting there 24/7 to watch them. My suggestion, just slow down (its one week of inconvenience for 10 years of a better road), but I'd ring up & complain about the amount of loose stones. There is usually some left over, but if the site swept about a day later, that gets rid of 99% of them. And before you ask, yes, I am a council engineer that reseals roads. no, I can't offer you any more advice on it because I live 20 000km away

How big is that control box? Looks like you'd be able to sit it inside the driver's door, as that's where the main controls for the windows & door lock is situated. I'd be worried about hooking wires directly upto the window motor (unless that's the source of the 12V to bypass the switch) without having relays involved. Most window switches work on a principle of supplying 12V to one side of the switch & earth to the other to wind the window up, & then reversing the polarity to wind it down. I think the wires, when the switch isn't being used then are earthed (but I'd have to confirm this), so then it'd be a matter of finding the wire that needs 12V to wind the window up & hooking that to a timer. This then leaves the factory circuit breaker (which is what stops the window when it gets to its limits of travel) in place. If your battery is a bit dodgy, or the tracks in the windows are a bit dirty, this will slow the windows down & possibly stop them. Then the timer could not be on long enough to get all the windows up. I must admit I really like the idea of being able to hit one button & anything & everything that is open on the car closes automatically, & will be doing it to mine as well (though you'll be waiting a while until this happens)

I've just asked this same question. Seems to me people think its too hard as you've got to pull the dash and interior apart to get it all in. Though I'm sure with some time & patience it could be done if you have all the bits. (I'm a deft hand at dismantling stuff & rescrewing it back together) Do you happen to have a pic of what he's offering (& for how much)? I'm curious to see what is involved myself & whether the cost is worth it (I may also be able to point out some things as I have a Toyota EPC :winky: )

Taking bits out doesn't worry me too much. But any idea how much of the loom needs to be changed? The entire car, just the dash, ... I'm guessing the parts would be more than the £2000 price difference to buy one with it already, & then of course finding the parts

As the title says, I'm curious to find out if the factory SatNav system can be retrofitted into an IS200 or IS300 that didn't leave the dealer with it. Is it a plug in fit, or is that simply too difficult?

Actually, come to think of it, the JDM odometer could be used in conjunction with a km/h speedo from Europe. And there's quite a supply of these in New Zealand.

I thought that maybe there was something on the back, maybe like an extra resistor, or a change in resistance. I can understand the dual readings on the speedo, the rest of Europe is in km/h & it's only a ferry or train ride away. I know my friend's GT4 had something attached to the back of it's cluster when it was imported to the UK from Japan. He then removed it because he now lives in Spain & will be bringing the car back to Australia with him (talk about going the long way :winky: ) Maybe then would it be possible to find out whether the entire LHD cluster would fit into a RHD?

For those that have dismantled the instrument cluster: Do the speedometer & odometer come out? I'm asking because when I export mine form the UK back to Australia, the reading will be wrong as we have km/h, so I'd like to be able to change over the speedo. Also, is there a toggle somewhere to change the odometer from MPH to km/h? I could get a JDM cluster, but these only read to 180km/h & wrecks of the IS are still rare here as our cars don't depreciate as quickly as yours. Would a LHD km/h speedo bolt into a RHD cluster?

Possibly. Like I said though, no rush. I've got to buy one first & then I'll check whether there's any differences to the saloon (though I can't think what) Out of curiousity, how did you do up your design? On a CAD program?

I haven't seen any that are different to the saloon. I like this one personally. Think you could fit the "Sport" between the Lexus & security & then the "Cross" underneath the security? Either that or "Sport" then "Cross" at about a 30 degree angle under security?

Any plans on doing a "Sport Cross" version? Though I'll wait til I get one first ;)

I found this info on the Oz IS200: 1st: 3.874 2nd: 2.175 3rd: 1.484 4th: 1.223 5th: 1.000 6th: 0.869 rev: 3.672 diff/final drive: 3.909 Anyone got anything different to that standard?

I'm curious to find out whether the Euro spec IS200/IS300 have different transmission and diff ratios to other places like Australia/Japan. If you know what they are & what kind of revs matches the speed, could you please post them. Because you guys have higher speed limits, I know a lot of other cars have taller gears so you're not revving the guts out.

Actually looking to get away from the Ozzies. There's another 20 million or so of them here. I was in Cambridge all of last year & was hoping to meet some Brits. Mostly found Americans, Indians, etc because they were also studying or doing research. My user name kind of gives it away why I want a SportCross. I've owned 7 cars. 2 sedans (saloons), 1 hatch (in UK), & the rest wagons (estates). Kind of looking at the cheaper end of the market. Don't forgot that if you add £1000, it adds about A$2300. For that price difference, I can buy the special JZ series oil sump (so I can fit a different engine), & a larger diff & driveshafts from the IS300 (stronger to handle a turbo or 2). There's a few things I'm still going to need to or want to change when it comes back here. ie the engine will be changed at some point, if an auto then a manual gearbox, the speedo will need to be changed to km/h and the indicator/wiper stalks swapped for "proper" right hand drive versions :P How do dealers go with travelling to meet a prospective buyer? Is it just a case of tough luck, you have to go all the way to them yourself? It seems the cheaper versions are out of London aways.

Sorry, but Japan has their cars restricted to 180km/h, but they're fastest speed limit is only 100km/h. At least most of Europe has more realistic speed limits around the 120-130km/h mark. Try driving at 100 or 110km/h for 10hours to travel between capital cities (Sydney home to Brisbane), damn boring! Also, I know I have had to at least once in my life exceed 160km/h (100MPH) to get myself out of a dangerous situation. Imagine you're stuck behind a slow Semi truck (can't remember if that's what you call them over there) on a single lane road (ie not dual carriageway). You pull out to overtake. When you get level with the front of the trailer, you discover that it's sitting behind another semi that's holding him up, but driving half on the shoulder so the following semi can see around. Meanwhile, there's now another semi coming the other way. You need to make a split second decision. Either brake hard & try to slip back into the line of traffic, or accelerate past the both of them... This situation might be a bit more difficult to come across over there as you have a lot more dual carriageways & shorter trucks (ours sometimes have 2 or 3 trailers), but sometimes, things can happen & you need to get yourself out of trouble. I'd also like to know what they'd do about the older cars. I had a £35 Vauxhall Cavalier last year that did 132MPH & had 134k mile on the clock. I think I'd be a bit annoyed if tonking down an Autobarn at 100MPH, only be passed by a beaten, rusty shed.

It is mainly for convenience as Hammersmith is within a "close-ish" proximity of work which will have really irregular hours. Budget isn't really an issue. Out of curiousity, is it possible to rent storage garage space in lieu of trying to find street parking?

Thanks. At least I picked the right time to start my stay (Summer). Got a local hotel room booked for the first couple of weeks so I can find something, but I need to find a car pretty quickly. With the way the Aus import rules are written, I need to own & use the car for 12 months before I can take it back. It doesn't leave much slack unfortunately.

Hello all. I'm going to be moving to the UK shortly for about 15 months or so. I've never lived in London before so if you can help out with any advice, please refer to this thread: Living in Hammersmith I'm also looking at buying an IS Sportcross to bring back to Australia with me & therefore have the only one in the country (Lexus Oz didn't think we had a big enough market to bring them in ). What are the kind of places where to find one (ie websites, Autotrader, etc)

I'm about to move to the Hammersmith Area of London & I'm trying to find out info. I've never lived in London before (yeah I'm an Aussie that's been posted there for a year or so) so I'm trying to find out what the pro and con's are, maybe how difficult it is to find a rental property & how much parking is available. Any help would appreciated.