My initial inspiration was the picture above. Mind you, I haven't looked at this interior for a good year now. I had to find it again for this article. And it hit me. A lot of the things in that interior are actually things I came up with myself. Let's see the resemblance...
You know my dash and center armrest covers are recent. Well, I knew that specific VIP car had a dashboard cover but not a center armrest cover. It kind of blew my mind that someone had the same idea before and pulled it off very well.
My VIP curtains are in the mail. They have been for over a month... Coming from China. Anyway, I had just posted a picture I took of a sketch I did of something I want to do to my car. That was on my Instagram yesterday. I was saying that I am getting ready to reupholster the seats. Boom - check that off.
Actually, that car in the picture above that I am comparing this to just has very nice quality stock seats. Since mine are ripped up and I'm using a cover, I can mess around with it all I want in the sense that if I mess up... Oh well! But I am definitely doing it. I'm not dead set on what I'm going to do but I am seriously thinking of using a durable cloth. Why? Leather seats get very cold in the winter and very hot in the summer. That's also unique. And honestly, I actually like cloth. It's soft and just a preference I've had for a long time.
I want to keep a lot of the original parts of the seats. I'm going to be doing the fronts and bottoms because those are the bad parts. For your hating pleasure, here is my idea of a cloth plus leather combo.
Here, the darker parts would be the red leather while the lighter part in the middle bottom is cloth and the armrest left original. That will have a matching cover too. Foam will be added for extra comfort.
I probably will not use the leather for stated reasons but I can't help but think it would look awesome. The idea was to use the red leather but I don't think that's going to happen. Like I said before, balance is key. I have just the right amount of red leather in the form of covers. Any more and it wouldn't fit in.
I'm turning into an interior designer... Sheesh.
The amount of ideas that have gone through my head for the back is insane. I even thought about turning the back seat into an 'L' shape like a living room set. However, blocking one door isn't a good idea. And it's a little much.
The dream is to turn the LS400 into a wagon and I'm not kidding at all. But don't expect it for years. As a wagon, I think it would have enough space to literally have two back seats facing each other.
For the front, it's important that everything is ergonomic for the driver and that every little detail is addressed (that part goes for everything). As for the back, because this was originally a car people were chauffered in, I want it to be a place where - if you wanted - you could have complete privacy, even from the driver with a curtain separating the front and back. If you're riding in the back, you also have a place to charge your phone as well as the remote control to change the LED lighting. That's in right now. Same thing with the music - you can put your playlist on.
Up to the LEDs, this was sounding like a VIP build still, right? My other issue with VIP cars is functionality. I don't want to get stuck at a speedbump that's too tall. I don't want to scrape all day long. The car performs great already so I feel like dropping it a couple inches in the front will be about it. Strangely, it's dropped a little bit in the back. That's how I got it.
The idea is to be able to go off road if the situation really requires it. Also, the idea is to have the car looking nice outside but be completely crazy inside. This way, there's a 'wow' factor that I've talked about before.
And the other thing is money. There's a reason well built VIP LS400s sell for $10,000 or more as opposed to $1,000. People put a whole lot of money into making them. You know the theme of this website so you could probably guess the idea behind this new style I accidentally created.
I've never seen a similar LS400 that wasn't VIP. I put very little money into it but by being smart and doing 90% of the work myself, it's working. The car is getting better, not worse. And right now I'm going through a really harsh financial situation yet I am able to continue working on Lexi2 because a lot of stuff is actually free.
I've written an article about this. Where do I get my leather and upholstery grade fabric? From sofas people throw out! If it's a big set, you can get enough leather to reupholster your seats completely from one junked living room set. Just clean it really well to make sure mold doesn't get a foothold (I have NEVER had a problem, even with leather that originally had mold on it - I simply used alcohol wipes to clean and kill it after letting it dry completely).
Vinyl adhesive costs mere dollars as well as various other paints. For stitching, you can bend a normal needle to get a curved one. This whole style is about innovation. Finding a way to produce a quality product from scratch actually makes you so much more aware of what you can really do with your hands and essentially garbage.
I've found turn signals and headlights before. Want custom headlights? With cheap tools, you can modify a completely different headlight assembly to replace the stock one and make it look professional.
You just can not allow yourself to do something that you KNOW is TOO cheap. TOO low quality. Don't lie to yourself. Same thing with picking fabrics and stuff. Wait to get one you really want instead of using what you have because it's there. Ultimately, you're not gonna like the finished product because it's not what you wanted in the first place.
This style of building a car involves a lot of learning. Ofcourse, many people have more than the necessary skills to do all of this immediately but I think if you're going down this route, you're probably passionate about cars and relatively poor. Let's just be honest. And if you're poor, you're probably young and haven't gotten a trade yet. I learned how to work on cars mainly from the two LS400s I've owned. And not only fixing mechanical issues but I am starting to learn simple upholstery which can only go on to grow. The dream is to have a shop one day but the road is paved with a lot of learning and practice. You will grow as your car grows.
Although we try to save money, we never buy cheap parts. If something breaks, you need to get a proper replacement part. Don't ghetto-rig things and maintain the car. Being reliable saves you money in the long run because a car like the LS400 or something like a Volvo 850R or Saab 900 Turbo will reach 500,000 miles if you take care of it properly. Cars like these were built to last. (Especially the LS400 *cough*.)
This $460 Cardone A-1 Mass Airflow Sensor was found at a junkyard for $25. Sadly, it's for 1990-95 and mine is a 1996. And yes, the MAF sensors are different from year 1994 to 1995 but this still works for both.
Really, pay attention to the fluids you put in it and everything. The car will reward you.
Anyway, I want to talk about the plans I have for stage 1. I have this build set up in stages that I can chip away at. Like the paint that's chipping. Stage 0 - and I mentioned this in previous articles - was getting the car in reliable driving condition which it is. Thank God; I really lucked out with this one. There was a chance the car had a lot more problems which doesn't seem to be the case.
Fig 1.
So here are the major things I want to do at this point. What stage 2 brings will be based on what I actually end up deciding to do in this one. I will likely be at this point for a long time. The list is long and includes;
1. Finishing the interior. In figure 1 you can see I'm experimenting with the rear seat. This seat cover is the best I've had but it's not perfect. I will be reupholstering all of the seats. That will be a style all in itself or maybe I should say that that process will truly embody the spirit of this new budget style.
The upholstery has to look professional. Everything does. But I'm going off the beaten path and I will be playing with different techniques to achieve the same end result that are actually cheaper and much easier. Look for that in the future.
2. There is an oil leak so somewhere along the line, I think I may have to change out the cam and crankshaft gaskets. The car is reliable but it does like to spill its oil... Not good.
3. The exterior will be painted by me. Again - in an older article I posted pictures of what I was able to achieve with some very basic materials. I will be repainting the entire car. It will be completely gloss white. I have to sand it down. I'm using literally cans of spray paint but it's not any spray paint. Duplicolor 2x Primer and Paint is an extremely durable and thick coating spray paint that comes in cans with which you can achieve very good results. Duplicolor Clearcoat will finish the job. Here is that picture again.
Here, I only painted that one white part of the bumper. Although it's nighttime, you can tell the paint is very smooth and has a nice gloss. It has been a few months and it's going strong. There's a few bumps in the middle somewhere but the bumper was damaged in that area and with the sun going down, I sanded it quickly to have it good enough and actually you probably can't spot it.
4. Exhaust. Ever since I had the first one, I've needed a louder exhaust system. Fortunately and unfortunately, I want a quality one with a tune after so it doesn't run like s$&# and so it sounds good. This depends on how well I do financially in the coming year. However as I type that... A year... It will happen.
5. There's very tiny details I want to fix. I want to properly run the fog light wires. I will clean the engine bay as well as paint the cover gloss white. That should stay clean...
There's many small things like I said. Maybe there's a tiny rip forming on part of the light cloth by the doors or one trim piece is loose. Those are the things I'm gonna go through. Which leads me to...
6. Cleaning the car. If you go back and look at the picture of the seat cover, the carpet is stained badly. It's embarrassing. Instead of hiding it, though, I'm showing the whole world so I have to fix it.
The thing is, I want to do a full detail. As with everything, I will be doing this myself and learning by myself. There's going to be a lot of build articles starting in 2019. But when I say clean, I mean I'm getting rid of the little bit of rust everywhere, fixing the rims, all of that stuff. Poco a poco - it means "little by little" in Peruvian, I believe. That's how they say you should drink their psychedelic Ayahuasca (that I don't condone!) to trip your nuts off.
It's kinda metaphorical if you think about it. You're drinking this potion little by little and suddenly you're blasted into this hyperdimensional space and overwhelmed but filled with ideas. I heard that's how it works anyway... In this case, I started small and I promise my readers - this car will explode. To be totally honest - this may end up being a special type of show car.
7. Upgrading it technologically. LED headlights. New center console. Auxiliary cord to plug into your phone for music. Navigation system. Honestly, anything that is worthwhile that I can do to make the car functional on a budget - meaning it's worth what I'm paying - I will do. And guys, I have innovative ideas for 90s luxury vehicles, truly. Instead of replacing your console, you can modify it to accept an auxiliary cord like I mentioned earlier and you can have a stand for your tablet that connects right to the system.
There's an idea I've been playing with that I will show soon. I want to modify a different headlight to fit the Lexus. It amazes me how some people will do a full front swap and things like this. I want my car unique. Stay tuned.
- Rokas Kirvelis
No comments:
Post a Comment