Early 2014 to current with my chassis, modifications, wrecks , learning as i go & driving.Big inspiration to some of the locals i met in 2012/2013 that played a huge part in my styling, function and how it got me hooked.
I had zero idea of where this car would car would take me, people I've met, road trips taken, being on the side of the road laughing fixing the car with friends at 2am.
Purchased late 14'-15' and immediately became a daily driver.
Here's a spec list of the car current day December 2023
2004 Lexus IS300 (factory manual)
Engine
1JZGTE vvti - fresh timing and seals during swap
Emu black full standalone by Ecu Masters
Tweaked custom harness engine harness
Audi R8 coils
2JGTE water pump w/ polished pulley
Serial9 solid mounts
UpFab top mount turbo manifold
Borg s257sxe .82 turbocharger t51r mod
Turbo smart hypergate 45mm external waste gate
FunkMotorsports Blanket
Mac valve boost solenoid
Radium valve cover fittings 10an
1UP custom IS vented catch can w/ drain
-10an coolant return from cylinder head
-4an turbo feed & 10an drain
Driftmotion intake thermal gaskets
ChaseBays Power steering Reservoir kit
6an 10 row p/s cooler
Tons of heat sleeve/protection all Raceflux brand
Whp Oil pressure, fuel pressure and IAT GM sensor
Koyo Radiator triple pass with koyo high psi cap
Custom shroud with dual 3200 CFM race fans wired on standalone thermostatic harness with relay box
BTI can gauge with electronic boost control & boost knob for tunes/boost levels.
Tuned by Sound Performance Bensenville IL
Fuel System-
-6an feed and return- all raceflux fittings & vibrant line (e85 rated line)
Aeromotive FPR w/radium mechanical gauge on fpr
Injector Dynamics 1050x injectors
Aristo hanger w/ Aeromotive 340LPH pump
Gm flex fuel sensor
Drivetrain-
Jzx110 verossa r154 (low mileage) shifts beautifully
Verossa shifter housing
Cubespeed billet aluminum shifter
-3an SS clutch line
Vertex shift knob
OS giken 559D twin disc clutch
Aisin slave and new inspection plates
4” aluminum 1pc driveshaft with 3150 joints
3.9 welded
Exhaust-
3” down pipe/3” piping
New rubber hangers, all v bands.
Vibrant bellows (flex)
Vibrant Ultra Quiet & Vibrant bottle resonator
4” SS blast pipes
Suspension-
Dmax jzx100 adjustable caster arms
New FLCA LH+RH
Stance xr1 22k/18k swifts
Jzx100 front uppers
Serial9 ak49 knuckles
Shortened spindles 35mm
Gs300 outter tie rods
Kfd rear arm set (LCA,toe,trac)
Figs solid rack bushings
Figs subframe poly insert subframe bushings
Powered by max solid diff bushings
Hotckis front/rear sway bars
Exterior-
BN sports kit
Don musk overfenders (front+rear)
Sxe10 Ganador mirrors with blue tint glass
OE stock hood
Altezza gita grill
Altezza tail lamp covers
Black housing headlights with LED low beams
Wheels-
17/18 vskf
17x9.5 et25 +30mm spacer
18x11 +10
— 18x10.5 +12 cr lie spares (4)
215/45/17 falken rtk steers
235/40 kenda kr20a
Interior-
Buddy club p1 seat
Sparco passenger seat
01 dash/console swap (non sticky)
Chasebays hydro with serial9 wilwood dual caliper
Double din. Upgraded basic speakers.
Steering hub with vilante leather wheel 350mm
25% tints all around
5% rear windshield
Battery relocated to trunk with waterproof breaker. 1/0 battery wire with fuel pump relay mounted on battery box. Billet aluminum tie down and bracket
10g fuel pump wiring from battery to fuel hanger Power and ground controlled for pump via standalone.
2004 factory 5 speed, 236K stock GE. Became the best daily and winter fun car with a set of blizzaks. Only modification when purchased used was a set of CX racing coilovers.
no real hiccups rest of 2022 except lack of tires.I did have a event where I entirely broke both oem engine mounts, upgraded to Serial Nine solids. Thanks Josh Buado for the help on the lift at the shop getting those in.
Relipped the rears pre-spring.
18x11+10
No spacer needed & fits -0.5 camber with musk overfenders in rear.
Tire size still wanted low height, went with 235/40 KR20 200TW
Engine management went with EMU black by ecumasters and a custom harness from Cam Rhinard owner at Tweakd Performance.
Sound Performance did the tuning, stayed on pump gas 93 with a drop in pump on stock Aristo Hanger.
Response was spot on, full boost low rpm range 3300-3500 iirc, safe tune and car felt awesome.
Upgrades as follow during the winter.
Couldn’t bite the bullet on a Garrett turbo, saw so many mixed posts online and didn’t have too many friends to bounce ideas off of. Wanted something easy to service and just worked properly. Didn’t need anything fancy, just a solid robust 400whp with great response.
Went with a Borg Warner s257sxe .82 AR out of many options of brand/size. Figuring if it felt lazy, could always bump down to a .62 AR as well.
Easy to service side, went with a UpFab up pipe adapter to stock cast manifold. Makes the 1J manifold into a top mount, no silly drain lines to worry about heat or rubbing a runner. It works, simple and effective. I guess down the road it would limit power, but for my current use, it works flawlessly.
While engine was out, engine bay got prepped and painted Gloss black. Easy to touch up and simple clean look. Didn’t want to get crazy with the engine bay as my main focus was reliability and easy to service.
Winter of 2021-March 2022
Engine was pulled to clean up wiring, remove the stock ct15 turbo (surprised the wheel never left the chat) at 18psi being ceramic. W55 was removed and sold as a 5 speed sway for is300 chassis for auto cars.
R154 Verossa 110 retainer cube speed shifter
orc 559d twin disc
R8 ignition coils
Simplified wiring and brackets/hardware on engine.
Now was the smart time to remove and tap NPT for the cylinder head water return on the back of the cylinder head.
Photo dump of the rest of 2021
Rest of 2021 and beginning of 2022. The car remained the same. At this point it always worked. The w55 still was solid, wasn’t running very gripped up setup.
225/40 rear with a spacer for the overfenders.
Random DDay event (during summer of 21')
Bodywork & respray complete.
Don Musk overfender fit perfect zero complaints.
Black gold Pearl - Urekem Brand with EuroClear
Had a local collision shop work there magic on their frame machine. The manager of the shop has a good relationship with the repair shop I work for in town. $700 was a hell of a deal, pulled all the damage. Got everything in rear aligned perfect. No body work from them with the repair.
Waited few months for DonMusk overfenders from Poland & BN type II kit. Decided to respray the entire car after repairs
March-May 2021
USair towards the end of the day, didn't have much tire left & ran a really shallow line on the wall of advance. Ended up making contact with right rear and right front of car.
rear quarter moved, trunk wouldn't align. Left rear door wouldn't even open. Right front arms all bent, front bash bar saved the rail/core support.
17x9 et25
18x9.5 et25
Kept driving and gathering parts for trans swap
Febuary 2021
Started gathering parts for a R154 and random upgrade bits. Ordered a set of 17/18 vskf from Phil at VR.
Louis at Acme Turbo out of AZ is the goat for oem Toyota bits. Specializing in R series inventory
September of 2020
Ended up putting a 3" exhaust back on the car from the future fab downpipe
Drove another event with new power plant. Even stock power with ceramic ct15 turbo. The originally w55 was on borrowed time.
Elixir aero with jdm rear
17" crkai
stock 1J power plant
May 2020
car moved on its own power with 1J swap
Future fab downpipe
eBay intercooler kit
eBay 6 puck w55 clutch kit
Used factory 1J harness & non immobilized ecu. Was even able to keep AC with a few wiring tweaks
Entering 2020 into the new year, there was a lot of unknowns with Covid etc.
Was working on the car, changed the oil and had a TON of bearing material. No knock though. Decided it was time.
Bought a 1JZ VVTI from a local importer. Got to inspect it and do my own compression check. Loaded it in my 4runner and dropped it off at work on engine stand to refresh.
At this time, entire long block with harness/ecu and auto trans was $900.
with current prices, glad i did it then.
random photos I came across from same time period.
Hanging out & helping staff on Advance course at USair Motorsports
October 2019
At this point, the car was just always driven when I had the chance. Finally purchased another car so the is300 was not on daily duty as much.
ordered a vented kfd hood from Russia. Didn't last long, as it fit poorly.
Got some more practice painting.
instead of painting in a dirty dark garage. My high school friend matt let me use his paint both from his cabinet company he works for.
Vertex kit was sold off and car got Elixir kit from ekb. Fitment was 9.5/10 very pleased.
September of 2019. Brothers GS and my IS. We painted both cars same color
Back at usair once again
June to August 2019
Decided on a whim, with zero painting experience, to prep and paint the car. My brother had a 1999 GS300 he started drifting as well. GS was stock 2JGE as well, basic suspension upgrades and chrome 3pc wheels.
Black gold Pearl 2 stage paint.
Painted with a Amazon gun and very small Compressor. As "rushed" as it was, prep was mostly just sanding as body didn't have to many dents. Obviously first time painting was full commitment to a entire car. Turned out very good.
Wet sanded the entire car & buffed. Turned out awesome and was very happy with color change and no more mixed silver fade of panels :)
stance xr1 22k/18k coilovers
w55 transmission stock exedy clutch replacement
Kfd rear arm kit
Welded diff
EZ knuckle steering
Vibrant muffler.
This point was roughly late 2018-early 2019. Car was well sorted, had a bunch of miles driven. Felt really sorted & confident in the platform/car.
RIOBASH October 2018