I have gotten a lot done on the LC so far. First was refurbishing the original fuse box. I found that the fuse holder contacts for the EFI power circuit was overheated and not making contact, so I swapped them with the terminals from some unused circuits and cleaned and tightened everything up. Works great now. New exhaust manifolds are in and it is super quiet now. Nice! The right side took all of maybe 45 minutes to R&R and I think was original. Once the nuts were loosened, they came off with my fingers. Coming from WI originally, working on CO vehicles is a treat! The left took four hours with the steering shaft, harnesses, etc. and looked like it had been done before. I am not used to working on Toyotas, but had a LOT of experience with German cars. Toyotas are SOOO much easier to work on.
Next I moved on to the interior, which had 25 years of wear, but cleaned up well. I pulled out everything but the headliner, which I may do now that I found the roof bows are rattling and need to be re-glued to the roof (thinking windshield urethane may be best?). I shampooed and powerwashed the carpet, cleaned the side panels cleaned all behind the panels. I also took out all the seat belts and thoroughly cleaned them. The water came out like coffee... Now they look great again.
The front seats were badly worn, with some big stick on patches that look awful, so I got the set of cheap replacement seat upholstery that are sold on
eBay. I thought they must be a scam for $90 shipped for back and bottom covers and armrests. Of course they are not "top grain leather" as advertised, but I didn't expect them to be either, although it would have been an amazing surprise. Actually, they aren't bad, but will take some work as they are not quite right. An upholsterer friend looked at them and said he couldn't get the material for $90, let alone sew them. I would have been very upset if I paid a lot for them, especially if I had to get an upholsterer to fix them, but even with need some rework to fit it works for me. To make right, they will need some sewing, which would not be something an average person buying them would be to do, so I would NOT recommend them, but once done, they will look great. I am guessing they are soo cheap because they know they aren't right and are trying to get rid of them.
I also took out the full center console, cleaned out the petrified spilled coffee w/ creamer on the floor pan, put new bulbs in all the switches and shifter, and got a replacement shifter surround with cup holders off of
ebay. The original cup holder was all broken up.
Last week I also took a trip to a local "pull and pay" salvage yard. I got a set of Mark Levinson speakers from a Lexus LS430, horns from the same car, a leather wrapped steering wheel and cover with airbag, from a Highland, but not the "explody bits" (they charge A LOT if you buy a complete airbag and make you sign waivers - so I just unbolted that and left in the car). Of course and I also found LOTS of misc. clips and fasteners, those silly tube trim fasteners in the door panels, etc., etc. All in all it was dirt cheap.
My last big effort before I start driving it will be replacing the headlights, foglights and grill. The headlights that came on the LC are one piece aftermarket that are all UV damaged and broke up, and the grill is in poor shape. I also need to replace the aftermarket Sony head unit that constantly resets. I did rewire the aftermarket amplifier and twin voice coil subwoofer that someone installed poorly in the past, which made the left rear interior panel not fit. That is all corrected now. While the interior was apart, I did put in and rewire the backup camera someone had shoddily installed in the lower tailgate and mounted with the license plate. I got the "correct" one that replaces one of the license plate lights.
The sunroof was also not working and had been RTV'd in place at some point. I found that the motor was not installed, but rather just hanging there. Once the RTV was removed, the motor properly indexed and all the tracks and cables cleaned and lubed, it works great. I took the opportunity to clean the drains while I was there, but I don't think they were fully clogged. This thing was obviously worked on by someone who had no idea what the F they were doing and it seems like most of the time I have spent un-F'ing everything someone else had done in the past. Lots of work, but not a lot in terms of parts, for the most part.
