Waking up the beast!!! 1997 LX-450 Dark Green

[Daryoush]

Hello Ih8mud members,

I need some suggestions of what to do with my newly purchased LX-450. Long story short this Lexus lived its whole life in Nantucket, only used in summers to go to the beach and back. it has 55000 miles and it has been well taken care of. It has been in a garage for past 5 years. ( Starts and Drives Great)
Needs work on: Side steps are rusted ( Already Removed them ), Exhaust needs to be replaced ( Section before the catalytic converter), this is what I need help with: When looking under the car it has a layer of orange all over the suspension and steering components and the chassis. It is nothing flakey and rotted. Would you change all components and undercoat or would you keep the original, clean up and undercoat the car?
My goal is to get it up and going, enjoy it for few month and get the experience of owning LX450 then let it go. Since I have 1990 Diesel Lj73 that needs care also.

Appreciate any suggestions, I will update some pictures soon.

Thank you

 

[Cass007]

Did you say 55k on the odometer?

 

[Daryoush]

Yes, that is correct, been looking for one of these. the interior is brand new, the exterior has minimal wear and tear.

 

[inkpot]

Why not just drive it for a while then re-sell it?

 

[scottryana]

If it is just surface rust, I would wire wheel it and coat it with a rust encapsulator, but if you are only keeping it for a few months why bother?

 

[cme4lyt]

Damn, and I thought I had the lowest mileage 80 here in North America !

Oh well, better start wheeling it then, no medal for me...

 

[Rifleman]

Daryoush, Since you said it was driven to the beach, there's a good chance it was driven on the beach too in salt water, and that "orange" that you can see is just one problem. Operating around salt water can do bad things, So another problem that you may not see, is the rust that's inside the body panels. You'll know it's there once it starts bubbling through the paint. Sad part is, once you start to see it, it's kind of like an iceberg, only 10% of the rust is visible, the other 90% is hidden inside the body panels, eating itself from the inside out. I hope that's not the case, but i looked at a few cruisers that were for sale when i bought mine that were used around the beach. Everyone of them had rust problems inside the body panels and the undercarriage due to exposure to a salt water environment.

 

[Daryoush]

Thank you, everyone, for comments, we have had extremely cold weather here in Vermont. I am going to my garage to take some pictures. Rifleman, I was worried about deeper rust myself but thankfully it's just surface rust that needs to get cleaned out. Will update with pictures later on today.
Cheers

 

[Lumpskie]

Hello Ih8mud members,

I need some suggestions of what to do with my newly purchased LX-450. Long story short this Lexus lived its whole life in Nantucket, only used in summers to go to the beach and back. it has 55000 miles and it has been well taken care of. It has been in a garage for past 5 years. ( Starts and Drives Great)
Needs work on: Side steps are rusted ( Already Removed them ), Exhaust needs to be replaced ( Section before the catalytic converter), this is what I need help with: When looking under the car it has a layer of orange all over the suspension and steering components and the chassis. It is nothing flakey and rotted. Would you change all components and undercoat or would you keep the original, clean up and undercoat the car?
My goal is to get it up and going, enjoy it for few month and get the experience of owning LX450 then let it go. Since I have 1990 Diesel Lj73 that needs care also.

Appreciate any suggestions, I will update some pictures soon.

Thank you

View attachment 1606225

If you are in Vermont, I would recommend going to The Rust Stop in Concord NH. Get the Rustoration treatment done. They wire wheel flaky rust, apply an acid coat to take care of surface rust and NH oil coat. Lifetime warranty as long as you coat every year. With such a clean rig, it would he worth the effort!

 

[Daryoush]

Thank you, I made all the appointments to wake this beast up.

If it is just surface rust, I would wire wheel it and coat it with a rust encapsulator, but if you are only keeping it for a few months why bother?

I thought to give it some love, since its been sitting in the garage for years.

 

[ThomasMore66]

There better be some more pictures. At 55k, that engine should be spotless. Seats should be amazing. Still conflicted about whether or not I'm a believer...call me Thomas...some of you will get that...

 

[Daryoush]

Hello Ih8mud members,
Here are some photos, I am a much more talented photographer than this. I will post more when is cleaned out and its outside.

Thanks

 

[ThomasMore66]

Looks pretty clean...

 

[FJP971]

Damn that interior is in great shape! But does the D light work?

 

[Cass007]

Broken antenna of course. Man that window trim looks faded. My green LX isn't that bad and its got 262k on the odo. Interior is very nice though.

 

[Rifleman]

Daryoush, you never did say how much you paid for this low mileage gem, so how much was it?

 

[luke 8603]

Holy unicorn there’s a non torn driver seat

55k is actually a lot considering it was living on Nantucket as a beach rig, I’ve seen wagoneers from Nantucket and the vineyard with 30-40k on them usually rotted to hell but low miles.

There are some cool older cruisers there, we got picked up in a lifted 45 with 36 or 37inch iroks around 03-04 the rest of our team got the signature soccer mom rig to go the 3 homes that were hosting us for a baseball tournament