LX470 New owner, intro and build thread (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Joined
Feb 4, 2020
Threads
1
Messages
12
Location
NC
I've always loved the LX470, reliable, well built and I guess a little bit of nostalgia associated with it that lead me down the path to getting one. I came across a decent deal and going back and forth with the previous owner the major fault of the car was the paint.

Just wanted to share my LX470 journey with you guys as well.

This 2000 LX470 was family owned with extensive service history from Lexus, in fact the owner kept records, receipts etc of everything which was a folder full! The body and chassis was very clean and dent and rust free. Usually you can see the bolt heads have some oxidization and rust formation but there were none. Didn't see any major leaks and the service records showed new valve cover gaskets replaced in the past 20k miles, new alternator, radiator, timing belt etc were also done. It was also a family commuter between Oregon and Virginia so even though it had higher miles @ 260k I wasn't too concerned about the motor. The main issue as mentioned previously was the paint. The clear coat looked like it was delaminating. It was all original paint so the delamination was even all over. On doing a little bit of research this was a common issue with the color Smoky Topaz Micah on these cars. Weighing the pros and cons I opted to get it because clean bones, service history and price outweighed the failing clear coat issue.






 
Just out of curiosity I wanted to see if I could strip the delaminating clear coat off by pressure washing it. I used my electric pressure washer with a 15 degree tip and it was definitely taking the clear coat off.








My neighbor has a blasting business (dustless and water pressure washing) so he walked over and told me I'd be out here all day trying to pressure wash it off and subsequently offered to lend me hispressure washing rig which I happily obliged. His trailer has a 500 gallon tank setup with two 50hp industrial gas pressure washer setups. Lets just say that I didn't use a 15 degree tip because it can cut into plastic ask me how I found out, lol. This was stripping the clear coat off and in about 20 minutes or so I was done.
















Went ahead and used my pressure washer to clean off the underside and chassis as well.




















This is how she sits after the cleanup.



 














This is how she sits after the cleanup.



 
The interior was not bad either, it had the obvious seats that were worn in the right places and the stitching giving way on some of the seams but it was complete, not broken and nasty. Sure it was a little messy with some dog hair etc but all in all for a 20 year old car not bad at all.


























 
The engine bay was fairly clean too, there was no signs of them cleaning the engine bay for a sale which is what I prefer. This way I can kind tell where it is or was leaking etc. Could tell there was a valve cover leak, a shiny new alternator and newer not factory radiator.
















With everything noted, I went ahead and cleaned the engine bay.


















Good start so far.
 
While planning on my stereo system upgrade I wanted to use an ARC 10" sub that I love. I used it on my SC430 and liked it so much at the time that I bought another sub to use for my one of my other vehicles. I never got around to using it until now for the LX. I can't fit the sub in the factory location because the sub called for a sealed box of 0.75cuft box and the sub being 10" wouldn't have fit in the factory location anyway. Since I had to put a sub box anyway in the rear I figured I could incorporate it in with a drawer system so that way I would have storage, a raised bed of sorts so that with the seats folded down I'd have almost a 6ft bed of to put a full sized bed if I wanted to. The pull out drawers would also be more useful for storage etc.


So I haven't really done any cabinetry work, think the most I've done is make a sealed box out of MDF at some point.













So the basic drawer system is done and needed to make sure that it didn't move around and held down firmly and wont decapitate anyone's head off in any unforeseen circumstances.



Found some strap tie downs that was rated at 500lbs and in a khaki color that kinda keeps the color in the same family and wont look out of place I thought.





That worked great for holding the rear portion of the drawer system in place. For the front portion the strap tie down was a little awkward to handle with the angles that they were in.





The tie down straps were also 12ft long and really long for my application so I trimmed the excess and used the straps to adapt to a turn buckle to them.









Adapted the straps to the turnbuckles by stitching the ends. Did one end did a test fit and cut the straps to length and stitched the other end. The turn buckles are rated at 128lbs each so should be good for this application. In conjunction with the rear straps I don't foresee this going anywhere. But no real world testing so do this at your own risk.







With everything strapped down I moved on to work on the side flaps to complete the structure.






Used a tool called the perfect butt, don't google that at work. With some cardboard, tape, straight edge, pencil and the tool I was able to get the profile lines of the flaps and front drawer trim transferred to wood and got the handles shaped.

With all the structural stuff out of the way I moved on to carpeting the interior to give it a more OEM appearance. Ozite/SuperFlex carpet have excellent properties and makes it ideal for automotive use.
Some of the properties are:
- Non-woven fabric will not fray or unravel
- Excellent colorfastness and UV protection
- High heat resistance
- Exceptionally plush, uniform appearance
- Cuts easily into any shape
- Resists stains, mold and mildew
- High resistance to gas, oil and salt

So I ordered a couple of samples and picked a color that blends in but also one that would also hide some of the scuffs, dirt etc from daily use. Got the roll of carpet in and proceeded to wrap all the parts that needed it. I bought a cheap pain gun and shot DAP contact cement through it to adhere the carpet to the wood.









Carpeted and assembled.








The side flaps were still not attached to the boxes but was a snug fit so it stayed in place for pictures. I ordered a couple of hinges to see what would work and once I found one I liked and attached them.






Drawer system is complete for now. Pretty happy with how it turned out.
 
Nice. What your plans for the paint now that it's all exposed basecoat?
Thanks. Plan is to get it painted after doing a couple of maintenance items and mods.
 
beautiful work on the platform / drawer system. finished product looks damn near factory
Thank you. My first real wood working project so pretty happy hour it turned out, grabbed it took way longer than necessary.
 
That underside is clean for a VA car. Congrats!
Car was only in Virginia for a couple of months, original owner is from Utah and his son moved to Virginia. But based off the paint I was really surprised at how clean the underside was.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom