99GXE10R

Hi Mate, yep still got the foglights, i'm a bit worried about selling it on the forum 'cause i'm not a gold member, and i don't wanna get a ban. anyway i'd be looking to make about AU$300 after shipping, if that sounds reasonable. as i said i'm a bit reluctant to get myself in trouble on the forum and get a ban so if someone can let me know the best course of action, that would be great! Cheers

Hey mate, cheers for the feedback. Yeah, i guess i could look at a 2JZ swap or something. i don't know if i really want ridiculous power or whether the bump from the supercharger will be enough... hard to tell. yeah mine is in desperate need of a polish!! i got the bumper direct from TTE, sent over from Germany. i wouldn't really reccommend it if you're having it shipped to Australia, unless you've got a few parts you want to order from them. Reason being the cost to ship the bumper is 400 euros on its own, putting aside the cost of the part itself, painting etc, and I also had to pay import duties on it all !! all up the TTE shipment of just 1 bumper and axle back exhaust cost me about $2200 Australian dollars, plus painting. if i'd have known about the import duties beforehand, i might not have even done it. on the plus side, they don't charge any extra shipping if you want to get extra parts like exhaust or suspension.. That said, i still don't think there is a single front bumper out there that looks as good as the TTE one so i guess its sorta worth it in the end.

I like both :S I was going to do the second one with mine, but over here there's a bit trend with Commodore owners (VXR "Bathurst" to any top gear viewers) of putting on biiiig silver or chrome rims with black inserts, which has sort of cheapened the look for me. I ended up going for the gunmetal on mine, it's hard to tell how they'd go on the red car in the flesh though

Hey Amz, welcome to the forum http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/ind...showtopic=63627 a bit down the page there you'll see the TTE front bar i've put on. this keeps a semi-factory look, but a bit more aggressive. also check out the TTE exhaust, you get the chrome tip, it sounds a teeny bit meatier than the OEM, and you don't lose MPG. i couldn't decide myself whether i should put on new rims or not, so in the mean time i had mine painted Gunmetal. against a dark IS these look amazing. what colour is yours? Cheers Leigh

So, being a new year, and months since my last post, i thought i should probably get back on here and let everyone know where we're at... First up, sorry for taking so damn long between updates! and now, just for something different, TTE front bumper! replacement bonnet and bumper all painted by a very capable friend in the industry. in the above photo i've still got the IS300 foglights in, which aren't connected. Curiously, i've noticed the clip to connect the wires is a different shape to the clip on the standard ones, even though both are genuine Toyota items. This means without knowing how to re-wire it myself, they're as good as useless! so if anybody wants a set of JDM yellow/black chrome foglights for their car, let me know before they make their way back to ebay. The reason i'm shifting them is because i got out the "nite shades" tail-light tint and went to work on the original "mirror chrome" foglights i have: Even with a pretty thick tint on them, they still shine nice and bright I've also painted the wheels Gunmetal, and matched the centrecaps. not the best job, but looks fantastic. When i got the TTE bumper i also put on the TTE exhaust (something that i've noticed not many people have around here) Well, i think that's just about it for now folks. another 6 months from now i'll be off my "P" plate restrictions and legally able to drive a supercharged car, which by my track record will also be right on schedule for my next post ;) Let me know what you all think of the recent changes :)

hey cheers mate :) yeah i've thought in the past when i look at photos it seems to be riding a bit high, but i think it's just the angle of the photos... a proper side angle doesn't look half as bad: Yeah - maybe just the angle - doesn't look so bad side on. All it needs now is a wash.. =P i'm on it!! got some meguiar's waterless wash, worked an absolute TREAT last time so now all i need is the time to do it!

hey cheers mate :) yeah i've thought in the past when i look at photos it seems to be riding a bit high, but i think it's just the angle of the photos... a proper side angle doesn't look half as bad:

Thanks mate. yeah the dark headlights look the goods. there's a DIY post about painting the headlights yourself, but the lenses on mine were clouded and knackered, i really couldn't be bothered to try and fix it all, so just bought new ones. the in car stuff actually turned out quite cheap in the end, the unit itself comes fully loaded (ipod cable, gps antenna, bluetooth module, microphone etc). some other brands charge extra for the add-ons you want. i paid AU$1500 for the unit, and AU$250 for fitment. this works out under 1000GBP all up. i'd put the little pound sign in but my keyboard doesn't have one :S so all in all it worked out pretty cheap, especially when you consider the features of the incar setup. Until i had this installed, i didn't realise these cars come with their own amp. with a decent head unit, you get a KILLER sound :)

Hey Keith, thanks for that :) i think it'll look even better when the TTE bumper goes on. I'm thinking of keeping a matte black badge on the grill for the TTE bumper too. I'd like to change the mesh on the TTE bumper to a thicker honeycomb style too, similar to what ormi has going on... too much to think about!! i guess we'll see.

Thanks for that, what a brilliant guide!! i think i might just try to do it myself, managed to find some dark ish ones on that lextasy website, but they're black-chrome and i can't decide if i wanna spend $400 US dollars on them!!

Hey guys, So it's been a while since i've posted, and i've just finished with a bunch of mods on the car, so i thought i'd put something together to show you all :) two things though; excuse the dirt, most of the work was done just after a dust-storm came through, and excuse the gaping hole above the driver side headlight (new bonnet is sitting in my lounge room at present, waiting for painting) First up, i've gone and bought myself a Pioneer AVIC-F900BT head unit. It incorporates reverse camera (installed into keyhole on bootlid), DVD/DIVX/CD etc, full ipod integration, GPS and a bluetooth connection to mobile phone. Most of this is pretty standard stuff, but i felt like having it installed would bring the car forward a few years. now to the headlights, i found a set of brand new genuine toyota black satin finish headlights ex japan, on ebay for around AU$600 (about 330 GBP) after receiving them, i've noted a couple of things. the reflectors have a blueish tint on them which has made the beam noticeably whiter, even when using the original globes. also, i think these lights may be from an early altezza or perhaps a base model, as they don't have the motors for angle adjustment. before: after: in this photo you'll also notice i've painted the grille matte black. figured "why not" since it'll be replaced when my TTE front bumper arrives. The hardest part of the job was getting into the bolts behind the far corners of the lights. According to the install manual the front bumper needed to be completely removed, and having not done this before i thought i'd RTFM and do what it says. Also fitted are some black chrome fog lights, with yellow globes (bit of a JDM look going on) I've also painted the wheel hubs satin black to cover up the rusty/grey standard look, and painted the calipers as well, with some high-temp spray picked up for AU$10 at autobarn. I went with a bonzey-gold sort of colour, i thought red would be a bit too loud for the look i'm going for with this car. i originally wanted that brembo bronze colour found standard on the nissan Z's and GTR's, but this colour seems to do the job. from this: to this: a couple more before & afters of the front end: i've also thrown on some smoked chrome side indicators, picked up on ebay for around $50. That's just about it for now, next on the list is painting the wheels a darker colour, i'm thinking the dark grey from the 18" rims that appeared on later models. I've also ordered a TTE front bumper and a stabilizer kit, just waiting on confirmation of the order from TTE. I would also like to get some black-housing tail lights for the car, but i've had a hard time finding what i want. the standard fit ones from the later models aren't dark enough.. i'm considering DIY.. is this an easy enough job to do with the tail lights? Cheers guys

yeah i realised that as soon as i posted here. suppose i should really read the forums before i post questions haha. no results from the australian forum, i think i'll probably just order my own bits for now. Managed to find a brand new bonnet for $275 unpainted, EXTREMELY happy with this.

I got these repeaters on ebay from New Zealand delivered to the UK within 14 days, check them out there look great fitted. http://cgi.ebay.com.au/CRYSTAL-SMOKED-SIDE...id=p3286.c0.m14 They come with orange bulbs but I put the chrome one which flash orange. :winky: I've bought these too, they look fantastic on the black is200. next on the list is the Toyota JDM black headlights ;)

will do, i'm not a member there yet so i'll have to register. where abouts are you based? i could easily add the rear spoiler to my order without any extra shipping costs. EDIT: i can't sign up ot the altezza forum, for some reason it's not letting me. i've tried using an alternative email to my Gmail one, but it hasn't accepted. any ideas?

Hey Guys, I've been in touch with a rep at TTE, and am going to purchase some parts for IS200/IS300/Sportcross to have shipped into melbourne. There will be a more detailed post in the LOC australia forum, but just thought i'd put one up here in case anyone else in australia spots it here. The more parts we buy the more value we get from the shipping, for example to purchase the TTE front bumper alone will cost the same in shipping as when you purchase the front bumper, rear skirt, sill plates and suspension kit all together. i'm considering looking into a large purchase if anyone else is interested. so, would anybody else be interested in picking up some TTE parts in australia?

nah sorry mate i meant the bumper itself, my bad.

Mat, I assume that's in GBP for the parts, any idea what the freight cost to australia straight out of Germany would be? I know it might become a bit of a pain for me posting all these questions on the UK forum, but the aussie one doesn't have an awful lot of activity on it... Thanks anyway mate

Hey guys. I'm looking for a TTE front bar for my IS200, i'm still waiting to hear back from TTE themselves in regard to a price/shipping costs. I've also looked at a used one on ebay, located in the UK. the price itself was OK, around 90 pounds at the time, but the cost to ship to australia was quoted to be around 450 pounds. does anyone know of someone who can ship to AU cheaper than this, or, are any of you guys selling one? Thanks for your help guys PS. bonnet damage wasn't so bad after all, looks like it can be beaten out and repainted without too much hassle =)

Yeah very true, yet somehow insurance premiums are still ridiculous for under 25 males here anyway. Yeah i've heard all the horror stories about boy racers being bought m3's from their parents and rolling them etc.. unfortunately no powerful car restrictions could stop the taxi driver reversing into me tonight.

Hey thanks for your help mate.. i've heard before that if you don't do it properly the first hint of rain they'll mist up? is it difficult to do it properly? i've been quoted about $600 AU (320 GBP) for a pair of genuine toyota black lights. Yeah i can't wait to do a charger kit, but because of these green P's i've gotta wait a fair while PS. just got reversed into by a taxi and now i'm up for a new bonnet... guess the mods are gonna take a back seat for a couple of weeks.

Yep, spot on. basically to show that we're new drivers and have certain restrictions on what/how we can drive.

Hi Bazza P plate is to designate that i'm a "probationary driver" - meaning i'm still in my first 3 years of driving. we've got L plates we have to display when we have a learner's permit, and when we pass our driving test at age 18, we're given these P plates to show. for the first year there are a whole host of restrictions including the number of passengers you can carry, etc, but those get lifted in the second year. there are however power restrictions all the way through your "P's" meaning that i am not allowed to drive anything with: Performance enhancing modifications more than 125kw/tonne a turbo or supercharger, unless it is a diesel or if the engine CC's are less than 1 litre. Or in otherwords, anything that's fun. It's fairly easy to get away with things like a supercharger kit as long as you don't drive around like a tool drawing attention to yourself, but you don't want to run the risk of the police pulling you over and making you an appointment with a mandatory Dyno test. this happens once in a blue moon, but i've had a friend see his Holden confiscated this way before.

Cheers mate First up i'm planning to just neaten up the look a bit, get a proper detail done on it, a dark tint on the windows, and i want to replace all the lights with the JDM style black housing ones. I'm also going to do something with the stock rims rather than replacing with aftermarket for now, i'm thinking either repainting them in a graphite sort of colour, or painting the centre of the rims a black colour ( i saw this on the lextasy site, they had it advertised as a decal you could buy but i figured painting would be just as easy ) Can't really decide which i'd rather do, any suggestions? In the long run i'd like to do some sort of supercharger conversion, but right now i'm on my P plates so i'll have to wait another year to do that, and i've also learnt the TTE compressor kit's been discontinued. Somebody's suggested an Eaton TVS to me, but i guess i'll look into that in greater detail when i come closer to being able to charge it. Unfortunately with the P plates, they by law have to be a certain size, and they say you're supposed to display them in the top right of the front and back windscreen, however you can get away with having them anywhere on the front or back. it'll matter less when i've got my dark tint done this week =)

Hey Guys I'm leigh from melbourne AU, i've recently bought a black IS200 sport luxury 6sp manual in black, about a month ago. It's taken me a while to sign up but i've been lurking the forums for awhile now. Just thought i'd drop by and introduce myself, i've got a lot of plans for my new lex which i'll no doubt need your help with in the near future. in the mean time, enjoy the pics of my new ride =) Cheers guys