dougie175

Nice list of previous motors. Look forward to your progress on this new one.

Thank You! You are welcome I love posting my vehicle progress online and really appreciate comments and feedback so thank you to all who are interested in the progress it is much appreciated! As for being jealous: Time - I really don't have the time I should be doing something else like working on the house or overtime at work really! Energy - I have no energy I just have a weird obsession with tinkering and cant help myself, I just cant leave my cars alone! Cash - lol your having a laugh I'm as skint as the rest just cant stop spending, but to be honest as I do all the work myself it works out reality affordable as I'm not paying any labour! Skills - Well I guess we are all good at something, just so happens I turned my work into my hobby

Just stuck some gaffer tape around the spoiler as the panel bond is now pretty much hard and dry to protect the bare metal from the elements until I get chance to sand and prep the rest of the tailgate. With the tape on it actually give you a much better idea of how it will look so thought I would take a couple more photos Even if no one else likes this move I'm really happy with it and cant wait to get it finished

The smooth spoiler work has really begun now! Spent about an hour on the spoiler last week and after 5 hours work today the spoiler shape was starting to look right and the thing has been bonded on and panel bonded around the edges. I would say I sanded, cut and manipulated the spoiler for around 4 hours in total before even looking and bonding it on, this was to reduce the bulk of the spoiler and allow it to be smoothed in from the original lines or the car, hard work and I could have quite easily just stuck it on, smoothed it in and painted it all within a day but I would never have been happy unless it fell away nicely to the tailgate edges which it will do once I am finished. The photo above shows the extra work I have done to the lower area of the spoiler to give me enough room to smooth it in to the lower tailgate without sticking out and looking bulky like it is sat on top of the tailgate Its difficult to show but from this angle you can see there isn't going to be too much fiberglass and filler required to smooth the spoiler in, seeing what some of the guys have done in the US their body shops have added ridiculous volumes of fiberglass to smooth the thick edge the spoiler would usually come with into the boot lid. You may also get an idea in this photo just how much the actual shape of the spoiler has been changed from what you receive in the box The car is now back home and I am about to go and make the area water tight to ensure no rust starts on the bare metal areas Next I need to sand the panel bond down, not much but just knock off the roughness and high spots., remove all the paint on the rest of the boot lid and begin fibre filling the spoiler into the boot lid. Once I am happy and the shape matches the car nicely I will fill over the fibreglass to give a smooth finish, and then I will probably spray fill the entire area also to loose any ripples and lines, then I will finally have something after lots and lots of sanding which will be ready for primer, another rub and paint! A another 20 hours or so of work and I should be done!

Blimey!

Looks much better, this is usually one of my first mods when I purchase a car but haven't even looked at it on my IS yet, that's another job to add to the list hehe!

I sent the panels to him in the post. He then charged me £110 to do the work and return them too me. Just bare in mind that the logos and such were produced separately that isn't something he can personally do, but he was happy to apply them and lacquer over them for me to make them sit under the top surface

A great guy called Richard did it for me his Facebook page is here https://m.facebook.com/ProdipHydrographics/

And yeah thanks for the comments chaps just to re-iterate this is not the final ride height its too low for me personally I agree with you both I like a more uniform gap around the arch, once the springs do their settling in thing over the next week or so I will work out the exact final heights

Bit more progress this evening, I managed to get the front coilovers in also, really impressed with the quality of the Meister R's they seem very good. What impresses me most about them though is that they are not bone shatteringly hard, which was something I was extremely keen to avoid on such a comfortable car as the IS250 Took a few pictures but please be aware this is not the final ride height (it will be somewhere around this after a bit of working out what looks best and avoiding any scraping), its basically as they came out the box with a bit of screwing up where required so they don't destroy my tyres. The final height will not be what a lot of people call "low" it will just be sporty with a nice shape around the wing to tyre, I think it looks silly once the wings start coming over the top of the tyres personally but its each to their own

Bit more progress made this week These arrived yesterday: So this evening I managed to get the rears on, this is far from the final height or where I will have the suspension set, I will work that out once I have the fronts on and I have given them a few miles to settle in and then work out exactly what height I want that looks right, but will give you an idea Random photo showing the arch gap, its pretty close but just seems to miss the quarter panel lip, which is nice saves me having to do any arch rolling and such which I wasn't looking forward too as I have never seen it done well enough without the need for filler and painting! Some of you may have noticed in the picture above the addition of a rear upper glass spoiler, I'm still not 100% on this but I am thinking it will be complimented by the new smoothed wald spoiler that I am currently on with achieving on the tailgate, you may noticed I have removed the f-sport spoiler. Basically once the new spoiler is smoothed in it will look like the images below, however this is a good 25-30 hour job to make a wald spoiler looks as nice as this as there is some serious work to stop it looking like it is just stuck ontop of the tailgate and make it look like it is 1 with the metal This is what I am looking to achieve over the next few weeks, but it is literally hours and hours of work and rubbing I think the upper spoiler will work perfectly with the smoothed wald spoiler! Fingers crossed I may get time tomorrow evening to get the front coilovers in!

Engine issue potentially, hat stops me is the fact that the engine still currently cant be mapped in this country (think US mappers are getting there though) so makes it very difficult to actually get the car running correctly with a supercharger. It would be lovely to have a good bit more power, especially coming from forced induction! But it will be a long way off if I do ever do go down the superchager route. If a UK mapper cracks the ECU I would probably go ahead and do it, but as things stand currently its not a wise move I don't feel

lol I would love to have a supercharger on the car, but the more I read about supercharging the 250 the more it deters me from doing it. Basically I have come to accept the fact the best thing to do with this engine is leave it alone. Will be concentrating of getting the interior and exterior exactly what I want before I even consider wasting a penny on the engine I think

hehe thank you but no sorry

Thank you! Yeah they have an image about them, I can see why on some models but the IS F sport doesn't feel "Granddad" to be anyway! The older you get the better choice you make so cant be a bad thing being a granddad car!

Thanks yeah that was the idea everything I do on the car is supposed to look like it was done by Lexus themselves! Next is: Mesiter R coilovers, small top spoiler and the big job is a smoothed Wald spoiler! Yeah don't want to go too over the top with anymore carbon fibre in the cabin to be honest, a black stereo surround would work nicely though!

The dash piece turned up today and they look amazing, over the moon with them. These are not great pictures as I have had very little time to fit them and the car is a right mess, but should give you an idea. Really happy with the finish. The logos look superb and the match to the genuine F-Sport gear knob is superb so all in all a great job. Looks so much better than the strange metallic blue that Lexus originally used on the car, no idea why as the blue didn't match with anywhere else on the car. Feels much sportier inside not, much less "Grandad"

Thanks yeah I am hoping the logo is what really separates it from looking like something that hasn't come from factory like this.

Thanks yeah cant wait to get them installed alongside the new knob think they should compliment each other well

Well I just received some photos from Richard @ Prodip Hydrographics of my dash panels so thought I would share them with you all. I cannot wait to get these fitted along with my new F-Sport gear knob which is currently going through customs!

Obviously couldn't confirm as I don't have a supercharger but from what I have read the people who have done it don't seem to suffer idling issues. Ideally I would love to have a play in a supercharged 250 and see first hand what can be achieved. My worry would be poor ticker over dangerous AFR and generally unrefined feeling, what some people are happy with to gain some power many be different to others, I would want the engine to still feel like it was produced by Lexus but with the added benefit of some extra grunt.

The maf will see the increased air flow however and adjust fuel accordingly within reason hence the increase in performance proven on several occasions

To be fair this ECU does do an incredible job of adjusting the AFR from what I have read. 50bhp seems to be the standard sort of power increase for a 7psi boost which is very impressive I feel. Complete ECU remapping has been achieved on the ISF ECU not just tweaking sensors so theres a good chance this ECU has either been cracked as well or is on the horizon soon, I imagine it will happen in the states first due to the amount of IS's out there compared to the UK It has been proven that the car can be reliably power increased with a supercharger, but it would be much nicer to back this up with a remap just really feel the benefits and ensure the ARF is bang on all the time

Yeah I will be lowering my ride but far from silly low, I've never liked the look of silly low cars

The time has come to lower my IS250 F-Sport I had put the car on 19's to have very little tyre for absorption so need to get my suspension choice right, currently on the stock suspension the car still feels fantastic so I don't really want to compromise that but achieve a lower setup. My options are: Eibach Prokit from the UK £230 lowers 30mm all round Eibach Prokit from the US £352 lowers 35mm front and 25mm rear BC Racing - £700 Seems very popular but is that because they are 1 of the only affordable options for some cars such as the IS250? Meister R ZetaCRD (Replaces the Europa) - £650 these seems to be the wise choice, I have heard mainly good things about Meisters over forums I have been part of. Has anyone got a set fitted to a Lexus and can give feedback on comfort? I have run Eibachs on my previous 3-4 cars as have always been pleased with the difference in comfort from stock as they always felt comparable, I'm just not sure the ride height would be quite low enough on the IS, I'm not looking for silly low as I want the car to be practical and useable, I also don't like the look when the arches come over the wheels, but the coilovers would give me endless options to get the ride height "just right" have a feeling I may regret the Eibachs Basically looking for any feedback someone can give me to get the car set nicely without loosing that beautiful ride comfort the Lexus has and what attracted me to it in the first place! Don't want to turn this into a bouncy crashy Civic them days are behind me for day to day use!