A hearty hello to all you fellow 100 Series Enthusiasts! I recently bought my very own piece of machine art, an '03 LC with 207K miles. I have affectionately named her Elcee (clever girl
. This forum has already been indispensable in informing me just how deep this rabbit hole goes... Some questions I am still searching answers for, if anyone has insights its very much appreciated.
1. Elcee came with no master key, just valet. I have since ordered some aftermarkets from ebay (fingers crossed) and plan to just bite the bullet and take it to a dealership to have them reset it/program the fobs. $400 is a lot but after about 30 pages of the master key thread and the temperamental nature of techstream, vci cables and OS requirements, and possibility of locking myself out, I decided to let the experts do it. If anyone thinks this is crazy and I should try my hand at DYI, feel free to admonish.
2. Does anyone know what the VLT is on the '03 factory brown tint is for each window? They seem light in the fronts and darker in the back, and I want to up my sun protection a bit but not make them too dark (thinking around 35% all around?) but I know layering ceramic tints on different VLT can be tricky getting them to match. Also, if anyone is a tint wizard and knows the different brands, maybe you can help steer me. After a few quotes, I have landed on Geoshield Pro Nano ceramic. Others included Xpel XR Plus, but this was about $250 more. I have it scheduled for later this month so I need to figure out what % to get on each of the windows and sunroof.
3. Elcee is pretty clean for her mileage and was definitely garage kept, but she does have some frame rust that looks like it was overcoated at some point and the overcoat is now flaking off. I was thinking about putting it on a lift, taking a wire brush to it, and coating it with a lanolin like Fluid Film. Thoughts?
4. I have purchased a bunch of LED bulbs to replace to halogens. I splurged and got the new Morimoto 2Stroke 4.0s for the low beams and fog lights, and a mixture of Lasfit and Sealight for the interior and tail lights. I have never replaced my headlights with LEDs before, but from what Ive gathered its pretty plug and play. Any suggestions on how to avoid flicker?
5. Lastly, my goal is to take this on camping and "overlanding" trips. Maybe some light offroading. As you can see, I already added a Thule XXL carrier to the top. What other things should I look at to do overlanding confidently? Obviously I own some camping gear, but Im thinking more along the lines of replacing the suspension with Old Man Emu, add ARB bumpers, winches, etc... I want to keep Elcee as original as possible, but if you have a recommendation for this I am all ears.
Oh I almost forgot, I never got Elcee inspected, kinda jumped head-first, so I will be taking her for a post-purchase inspection with the Car Care Nut, Ahmed, at his garage in Homer Glen. I will be sure to respond to this with his findings.
Cheers to all of you!
-Tom
. This forum has already been indispensable in informing me just how deep this rabbit hole goes... Some questions I am still searching answers for, if anyone has insights its very much appreciated. 1. Elcee came with no master key, just valet. I have since ordered some aftermarkets from ebay (fingers crossed) and plan to just bite the bullet and take it to a dealership to have them reset it/program the fobs. $400 is a lot but after about 30 pages of the master key thread and the temperamental nature of techstream, vci cables and OS requirements, and possibility of locking myself out, I decided to let the experts do it. If anyone thinks this is crazy and I should try my hand at DYI, feel free to admonish.
2. Does anyone know what the VLT is on the '03 factory brown tint is for each window? They seem light in the fronts and darker in the back, and I want to up my sun protection a bit but not make them too dark (thinking around 35% all around?) but I know layering ceramic tints on different VLT can be tricky getting them to match. Also, if anyone is a tint wizard and knows the different brands, maybe you can help steer me. After a few quotes, I have landed on Geoshield Pro Nano ceramic. Others included Xpel XR Plus, but this was about $250 more. I have it scheduled for later this month so I need to figure out what % to get on each of the windows and sunroof.
3. Elcee is pretty clean for her mileage and was definitely garage kept, but she does have some frame rust that looks like it was overcoated at some point and the overcoat is now flaking off. I was thinking about putting it on a lift, taking a wire brush to it, and coating it with a lanolin like Fluid Film. Thoughts?
4. I have purchased a bunch of LED bulbs to replace to halogens. I splurged and got the new Morimoto 2Stroke 4.0s for the low beams and fog lights, and a mixture of Lasfit and Sealight for the interior and tail lights. I have never replaced my headlights with LEDs before, but from what Ive gathered its pretty plug and play. Any suggestions on how to avoid flicker?
5. Lastly, my goal is to take this on camping and "overlanding" trips. Maybe some light offroading. As you can see, I already added a Thule XXL carrier to the top. What other things should I look at to do overlanding confidently? Obviously I own some camping gear, but Im thinking more along the lines of replacing the suspension with Old Man Emu, add ARB bumpers, winches, etc... I want to keep Elcee as original as possible, but if you have a recommendation for this I am all ears.
Oh I almost forgot, I never got Elcee inspected, kinda jumped head-first, so I will be taking her for a post-purchase inspection with the Car Care Nut, Ahmed, at his garage in Homer Glen. I will be sure to respond to this with his findings.
Cheers to all of you!
-Tom
