jpourcy

Hi KF, It wont hurt to drive around with a sanded trunk as long as you did not break though to bare metal. If you did, prime the bare spots. And as Alan said, Bondo will stick to Bondo. (I haven't used Bondo brand in over 20 years) JP

Hi 1990LS400, You said, The main function of air bags is to get the driver and passengers through the first and usually most severe impact, and to allow the driver to be conscious enough to be able to control his car, if necessary, to avoid additional impacts. That's not going to happen. The air bags are designed to go off in a sudden stop impact and when they do go off, they go off with such a force you will not be holding on to the steering wheel nor will you be able to control your car. Have you ever tried to steer a car with a blown airbag? I have to do it all the time and I usually cut them out first. But you missed my point. If someone wants to drive a motorcycle without a helmet or drive in a car without airbags what is the difference? If they do not care about their safety why does it matter? It's like people that smoke, they do not care about their health but the government won't ban the sell of cigarettes. Why should the government force people to have air bags in their car? It doesn't make sense. Scenario: A man buys a new Mercedes with airbags everywhere in it and wears his seat belt all the time. When the weekend comes around he goes skydiving or mountain climbing or bungie jumping or cliff diving and then comes home and snorts cocaine and uses illegal drugs, smokes cigarettes and abuses alcohol. His car is safe but his lifestyle isn't. Why have a car with airbags if your lifestyle allows your life to be taken at any minute? Like I said, it doesn't make sense. Now if you are concerned about your life and staying alive as long as possible then airbags, seatbelts, proper diet, not using illegal drugs, not abusing alcohol, not having dangerous hobbies makes perfect sense. If the government was really concerned about saving lives on our highways then they would not allow motorcycles on the road. Even cars without airbags and seat belts are safer than motorcycles, but yet they allow motorcycles to be driven on public highways. Motorcycles are a death trap. Like I said, it doesn't make sense. I just wrecked my 1990 Toyota. It did not have air bags and I was perfectly comfortable with that. There are many older cars on the road now that do not have airbags and it is not illegal to drive them on the road. Like I said, it doesn't make sense. I got stopped one time by an officer and I got out of my 1977 Chevy van and I asked him what was the problem. He said I did not have my shoulder harness on and I told him it did not come with one. It wasn't illegal. Nor does my van have airbags. It is not illegal. If someone doesn't want airbags in their car that is their business not mine. Driving a car without an airbag is not a crime. Even so, if I had a car with airbags (which I do) personally I would not take them out. If someone wants to ride a motorcycle back and forth to work why should I care? If that same person wants to drive a car without airbags why should I care? If they want to go skydiving why should I care? I have two people that ride their motorcycles to church and they do not have airbags or seat belts. I do not think it is safe but I do not condemn them for doing so. Neither will I condemn someone that wants to drive around in a car without airbags nor will I recommend it either. It is strictly their business not mine. JP

Just adding a professional opinion. I have 33 years as a professional collision repair technician and I have seen more wrecks than all of you combined. Air bags can be good or bad but for the most part I believe they are a good safety device. I have personally worked on cars and truck hit so hard the frame looks like a pretzel and the air bags did not go off and I have seen the slightest hit and pop the bags. My son-in law left my house and hit a dog and his airbags went off in his Honda Accord. No damage to the car except slight front bumper cover damage. Most of the time they work as engineered but that is not always the case. One time an insurance appraiser was doing an estimate on a car that the air bags did not go off and he put his head through the drivers window and grabbed the steering wheel and the airbag went off and hurt him very badly. But all this is moot to me. They allow motorcycles on the road which are very dangerous and some of you complain about someone taking airbags out of their car? Doesn't make sense. The safety laws made by our government don't make sense. If you are in a car you have to wear a seatbelt or you can get a ticket but you can drive a motorcycle without a helmet and it's OK. Doesn't make a bit of sense. I say, to each his own. If you want to install a roll cage in your car and wear a helmet, fire suit and neck brace I say go for it. If you want to take the airbags out of your car, go for it. It's your car. If you want to ride a motorcycle without a helmet, go for it. It's your skull, you can do with it whatever you want. JP

Hi KF, There is some type of chemical I have seen that turns rust into some type of black primer looking stuff, but I would not recommend it for cars. I do not even know what it is called or where it can be purchased, I just saw one of my fellow employees use it on some big piece of metal. Do not sand the deck lid down to bare metal. That is not necessary and you do not want to remove the factory primer unless you have to. Simply wet sand the deck lid with 400 grit and apply base coat on top. If it has any chips be sure to sand those out and prime and sand smooth before you basecoat. If you wish, you can prime the whole deck lid and sand it before you paint it since your car color is a lighter color than your used deck lid. Do not put plastic filler (bondo) on top of paint. It will not stick very well. Grind the paint off to bare metal with a 24 grit or 36 grit abrasive. This will rough up the metal enough for the filler to stick. Polyester putty can go on top of paint and they will stick, but be sure to rough up the paint with 80 grit or 180 grit first. The polyester putty is used to blend the filler into the paint and fill in any pinholes you might have in the filler. I use Evercoat Metal Glaze for my finishing putty. It spreads real smooth and fills in any pinholes very nicely. After you apply the filler, sand with 36 grit or 40 grit to shape the filler then finish it out with 80 grit. After you get the filler smooth then featheredge the paint edge with 80 or 180 and apply the finishing putty. Sand the finishing putty with 80 grit and finish with 180. You can prime it like this or use 240 grit first then prime. Just scuff up the bumper with 400 grit and it should be good to go unless it has paint chips and cracks then you need to sand it first then prime and re-sand before you apply paint. If I were you, just do the body work and let a professional painter do the paintwork. Paint materials are very expensive and if you mess up you will have to do it over again and it will cost you twice as much. There are many painters that do work on the side. Just go down to you local auto paint supply store and tell them you are looking for a painter that does work on the side and they will fix you up. A professional painter will paint it in a paint booth and you will get a minimal amount of trash in the paint which can be easily buffed out. JP

Hi KF, Yep, I knew the floor and rail was crunched. But considering all things, your man did a decent job of getting the cosmetic stuff on the car pretty straight. The body lines look pretty decent and the 1/4 is definitely repairable now. If all you have in the repair is $1300.00, you doing pretty good so far. I noticed the used deck lid emblems had the gold trim package. My 91 has it also but you don't see it that often. tip: Where the car was clamped on the pinch welds under the rocker panel, be sure to spray a little undercoating on it to keep it from rusting. Sometimes when you clamp a car down it breaks the paint off the pinch welds. JP

If you are getting vibration along with the engine noise, check the transmission mount. If it is worn flat and the metal on the mount is hitting the crossmember, the engine noise will be amplified through the cabin. Just get under the car and lift up the transmission right where the driveshaft goes into it. If it goes up and down and makes a thump like metal on metal then the mount is worn. If not, then it is something else. Jerry

Try this: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...showtopic=42998 It sounds like the same problem that was on some 95-96 models. Off Throttle Shock. When you changed your ECU was it brand new or used or rebuilt? Jerry

I would like to add to what Bill said about OEM parts. We purchase OEM parts on a regular basis and most parts are made by different suppliers and not the car manufacturer. You would think that GM cars sold in America use American made parts. Think again. We get OEM parts in that were made all over the world, Canada, Mexico, China, you name it. They are OEM parts but GM did not make them. The factories where cars are made are just assembly plants. They just assemble the parts together here and paint them. Most of the parts are shipped in from suppliers. The same goes with almost every car manufacturer. I was working on a Nissan Altima yesterday and on the engine it was stamped, "Made In Mexico". There is no telling where the car manufacturers get their parts from. It's not like it used to be. I used to be a GM person. Loved Chevrolet. Wanted to support American people by buying American products. Well, that's out the window. Now I just go for reliability regardless of where the car is made or where the parts come from. Japanese, German and American cars are made in the United States with parts coming in from all over the world. When it comes to cars, it is very difficult to try to support American people by buying American products. Regardless of what brand of vehicle you buy, the parts are being made all across the globe. If you can find the supplier that supplies the manufacturer, then I don't see any problem buying that part regardless of what the label says. I purchased aftermarket motor mounts and a transmission mount several weeks ago and they had the OEM part number stamped into them which tells me that this company supplies the manufacturer with the OEM part. Lexus did not make the motor mounts. They paid a supplier to make the motor mounts for them to their specifications. This same supplier sells to aftermarket companies. Same product, different label. The same goes for many appliance manufacturers. Even though many brands of manufacturers sell a standalone ice maker, only Whirlpool actually builds them. When I built my house I bought a Kitchen Aid ice maker, but it was built by Whirlpool just like all the rest of them. So who makes the best ice maker? They are all the same, made by Whirlpool, just different labels. So buying OEM/aftermarket parts can be an iffy proposition. You can actually by OEM parts under a different label but made by the same manufacturer that supplied the car manufacturer. BUT by buying the parts from the dealer, you can be absolutely sure that the part was made to OEM specs. You might pay more, but this way you can be absolutely sure without the guesswork. Jerry

I wouldn't worry about getting on people's nerves. As in any forum, they should just ignore people that get under their skin. That's what I do. JP

Here is something I had to do. After I changed my motor mounts for some reason the shift lever was really tough to go into park. Put you car in park, climb under the car and loosen the bolt that adjusts the linkage. I believe it was 12mm. My linkage was in a slight bind and after I loosened the bolt it went back into it's eased position then I tightened it back up. This fixed my binding shift linkage. This might help you and on the other hand it might not. Does your shifter feel like it is in a bind when you throw it in park? JP

Here's a start: http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/engine/timingbelt.html In order to change the crank seal you have to take off the timing belt so this tutorial will get you almost there. Jerry

You are wasting your time and money filing a lawsuit with this guy. You did not buy it from a dealer and it did not come with a warranty. If it even makes it to court, the judge will slam his hammer down and say, "Buyer Beware", and he will throw it out of court. You have a good car and instead of paying $4100.00 for it you paid $4800.00 for it and you said yourself it was worth $5500.00 or so. Save your attorney fees. Chill out. Don't worry, be happy. :D JP

Hi Robert, I'm not sure about a 93, but a 91 has it on the passenger side right behind the rear of the front wheel. Just look from behind the wheel and look past the right frame rail. That open hose hanging down is it. Yours might be the same. JP

Hi KF, Don't forget to take pictures before he pulls on it. JP

Talking about bad cars I will give you a bad one. My mom bought a brand new 1992 Ford Explorer. After about 8-10 months she started having problems with the transmission. Warranty took care of it the first time and maybe the second. She had to replace the transmission at her own cost at least once maybe twice. My brother ended up with the vehicle and I do not know if he had to do transmission work on it. After him, my son ended up with it. He put 2 or 3 transmissions in it. After the last time he gave up on it. I had lent my son some money and I told him to just give me the vehicle and I would cancel his debt. He was more than happy to do so. So I ended up with the vehicle and I sent it straight to the transmission shop. We had the transmission repaired and about two days later it would not go into reverse. Back to the shop. Got it back and about a week later it went out again. The transmission shop fought with that thing for about a month. It was a good shop, I had used them before on my Toyota Corolla, no problems. I finally got it back. I think they ended up changing the whole transmission housing. Then the steering gearbox started leaking and the A/C hose busted. I called it quits and took a loss and sold it. Now that was a POS. The first Generation LS might have power steering problems after 100,000 miles or so but there are many vehicles that have problems from the very beginning such as a 1992 Ford Explorer. The transmission was not heavy duty enough for the vehicle. I'll take the PS problems on an LS over transmission problems on a Ford Explorer any day. Jerry