LS430 simplification build

[Logic]

Originally Posted by Macskyver

I think I know exactly what you are talking about. Are you referring to the rigid foam board that's about 0.5 - 0.75 inches thick? That might actually work nicely between the headliner and roof. And it would insulate.

No; I'm talking about flexible, light (big bubbles) closed cell foam insulation, with adhesive on one side and a reflective (aluminum foil?) layer on the other.
ie: Something LIGHT!!! that you can stick to the roof liner, with a reflective surface reflecting any IR radiative heat back at the inner steel surface of rthe roof.

This kinda stuff.

Originally Posted by Macskyver

I'm not sure how I feel about making the roof white with the rest of the car black.. It would probably make people think it's a cop car.. I don't want to add any stress to the world if I can help it..

LOL!
Well that's all up to you
But it's just the top surface, so not too much like your police cars.

A couple of people here have done white roofs and reported positively.
Not on black cars though!? IIRC

[Macskyver]

I made a little progress tearing down the LS430 today. Here it is before:





Here it is after:





The more I tear into it, the more I'm excited to convert things to manual operation. The grimy power steering system was especially making me feel this way.

The transmission has also arrived. I'm really excited about getting that installed.

[freebeard]

duckduckgo.com/?q=IR+reflective+vinyl+wrap

Don't black-and-whites usually have the doors painted? Leave the doortops and do a panel the width of the windshield. It doesn't even have to be white.

That all comes much later, obviously.

[Macskyver]

Originally Posted by freebeard

duckduckgo.com/?q=IR+reflective+vinyl+wrap

Don't black-and-whites usually have the doors painted? Leave the doortops and do a panel the width of the windshield. It doesn't even have to be white.

That all comes much later, obviously.

Agreed! I have a lot to worry about before contemplating antireflective paint/vinyl wrap... I need to make this thing run first.. It will be getting undefined MPG and have zero value sitting in the garage doing nothing.

[Macskyver]

Some more parts have arrived. I got the bellhousing, which is a standard unit for a T56 to Chevy LS engine. I also got a T56 adapter kit from Dieselpumpuk, which is designed to work with the LS bellhousing and connect it to the Mercedes OM60x series of engines. The kit also came with a heavy duty clutch, hardware and clutch slave cylinder spacers.





Right now I'm trying to figure out what I am going to do for the clutch pedal. I'm leaning toward an aftermarket Wilwood option. There's also the Wilwood pedal assemblies that have the brake and clutch pedals/master cylinders. That might be an interesting option. That scenario would have me going full mechanical on the brakes with no booster. The wise choice would probably be to just stick with the factory brakes and find a standalone clutch pedal assembly that fits and clears the factory brake booster.

[Piotrsko]

Don't know the specifics of your vehicle, but when I did this swap on my vehicles, it was possible to get the pedal and shaft assembly as a separate unit. The brake and clutch pedal assembliy was hung on a bracket attached to the steering wheel and the furthest left pedal had a pivot shaft as part of the assembly. The next right pedal (brake) Had a pivot bushing that accepted the clutch pedal shaft and fit brake pedal bearings in the mounting bracket on the steering wheel. The slush box install had a spacer shaft dummy you could replace. Junk yard parts, easey peasey back 10 years ago haven't done this swap since then.

[Macskyver]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

Don't know the specifics of your vehicle, but when I did this swap on my vehicles, it was possible to get the pedal and shaft assembly as a separate unit. The brake and clutch pedal assembliy was hung on a bracket attached to the steering wheel and the furthest left pedal had a pivot shaft as part of the assembly. The next right pedal (brake) Had a pivot bushing that accepted the clutch pedal shaft and fit brake pedal bearings in the mounting bracket on the steering wheel. The slush box install had a spacer shaft dummy you could replace. Junk yard parts, easey peasey back 10 years ago haven't done this swap since then.

Unfortunately, the LS430 never had a manual transmission variant, so there's no provisions for the extra pedal like you would see in other cars as you are describing. I've seen some mention on forums saying pedals from an SC300 might be close, but I didn't find any confirmation on that.

[Macskyver]

I've been getting to work gutting the interior of the LS430. Initially, I was on the fence between keeping things mostly stock interior-wise and going all in. I am glad I decided on going all in. There are just so many plastic pieces and lots of them are incredibly brittle. They crumble to pieces if you look at them wrong. The interior also looked pretty good from far, but it was definitely far from good.

Here is the dash getting removed. You can see how it has the common issue with these vehicles where the dash bubbles.


After dash and seat removal and some cleanup:


Here's the back after removing the seat and carpet:


I also got the headliner and sunroof mechanism removed:


The sunroof is quite heavy. I think deleting it is the right choice. I'll be making a cedar strip panel to fill the hole. It will be similar to an aeroshell I made for my Tundra a while back (build thread for that is here on Ecomodder). It will be super lightweight and should look good.

[freebeard]

Cedar strip dashboard?

[Macskyver]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Cedar strip dashboard?

I think so. My plan is to build all the trim and accent pieces with cedar with the clear fiberglass covering. There will also be aluminum and leather involved. A lot of that stuff is kinda down the road though. The sunroof panel will have to happen soon to seal the cabin. The dash will also need to happen pretty soon. I'll probably just get the car drivable and then slowly build out the interior at my leisure.