That's a Wrap!

Well, I can't exactly remember how long it's been since I've been able to say that a project has been, "finished."  Then again, is a project ever really finished?  Surely there are things one can change for the next season, or areas that can be improved on from before after looking at the "finished" piece, but I think I can say that my 2000 Lexus LS400 is finally done.  I say that mainly because I don't know how much longer I will have it, and also because any changes that I had planned for 2011 have been cancelled due to other projects and other changes in life.  Still, the short, but sweet journey with the LS has been a fun one, and I think I did a good job with it in the short time I had in building it.  I think it came down to minimum effort, maximum results.

I picked the car up in early July after selling my 2003 Ford F250 diesel since I wasn't towing around my cars anymore, plus I was looking at getting another car and getting a big, luxury sedan.  Thanks to my friends on the west coast, and sites like Stance Nation, Stanceworks, and Hellaflush, I was exposed to the VIP scene and liked what I was seeing, which lead me to looking for a big, Japanese, luxo-cruiser.  I had always like the Lexus LS400 and LS430, and found this nice example in Chicago, IL.  It was a platinum edition with 78k original miles.  I picked it up for a good price and almost immediately I was on the phone with Guillermo over at GPR Auto ordering the necessary parts to get the car sitting right.

The nice thing about having a few cars is that you generally have some parts laying around that can be used on new projects.  In my case, I had a set of 19" multi-piece Enkei Phalenx wheels from on of my other cars.  They measure in at 19x8.5 +35 front, and 19x10 +40 rear, so while not too terribly aggressive, they still sat well on the LS and filled up the wheel wells nicely.  To get the car sitting nicely over the 19s, GPR Auto sent me over a Tanabe suspension.  After installing it, the car didn't sit as low as I wanted, so off they came, and me and a friend did a little modification to the springs to get them to sit the car a little lower.  Hey, sometimes a little ingenuity comes in handy.

With the rolling stock taken care of and the suspension dialed in, it was time to focus in on some other areas of the car, which in reality, nothing else really needed attention.  Apart from an exterior detail, and the addition of some accessories, it remains stock.  The factory audio system got a slight upgrade in the form of a JL Audio amp and single, 8" JL Audio sub where the factory sub once resided.  The factory, plush leather interior didn't need much sprucing up, the factory wood-grain adding that perfect touch of class.

The car's big debut was at the September Cars & Cafe event here in Minneapolis where the cars simple appearance and low-down stance turned more than a few heads in an event filled with exotics.  Not too many people up this way are familiar with the stance movement so the car got looks for it's wide wheels with stretched tires on a big, luxury sedan.  I hit up as many meets and local get-togethers as I could and the car had an overwhelmingly positive response.  Overall, I'm very happy with the response and the impact the car created with how little I put into it, and the short time that I had the car out.  Right now, the car is sitting dumped on the stock 16s wrapped in winter tires as I wait to decide what to do with the car.  It's a great car and is still in very nice condition, but this was one of those projects destined to be short lived.  My tastes and interests change and I'm courting a few new possibilities for the LS's replacement.  Only time will tell, but for now, that's a wrap.

I would like to say thanks to all my friends who helped in this build, Guillermo over at GPR Auto for the parts, all the guys on the Low N' Slow crew, and the i'mSTANCED crew.