7613 E. Ray Rd. Suite #114 Mesa, AZ 85212
Customers Douglas Green and Rayna Ferrin brought their 1997 Lexus LX450 to AZ Auto Aesthetics for full-body paint protection film. The truck had just come out of a multi-year restoration. Fresh two-tone OEM paint, custom fabrication throughout, real overland hardware, and a complete drivetrain refresh. Our job was straightforward: protect the work.
What follows is what we did and how we did it. The vehicle context matters because PPF on a custom restoration is a different job than PPF on a stock vehicle off the lot, and we want to be specific about why.
The Lexus LX450 is a luxury-trimmed version of the Toyota 80 Series Land Cruiser, also known as the FZJ80. It had a short production run, only 1996 and 1997 model years, which makes clean examples genuinely uncommon. By contrast, the Toyota-badged 80 Series ran from 1990 through 1997 and sold in large numbers worldwide.
In 2026, both the LX450 and its Toyota cousin remain favorites with off-road and overland builders. Reliable drivetrain, solid axles front and rear, parts availability that has held up almost three decades on, and proven capability under load. This particular truck had been built into something well beyond stock.
This LX450 is not stock in any meaningful sense of the word. Every major system has been replaced or upgraded. Here is what Douglas and Rayna built before it ever came through our doors.
The entire drivetrain was replaced with new OEM Lexus and Toyota components. Long block engine, head assembly, exhaust, transmission, transfer case, axle tubes, differentials, hubs, and brake assemblies. Parts were sourced through Earnhardt Lexus and Toyota in Phoenix and Mesa.
The factory roof, including the sunroof, was cut away and replaced with a custom aluminum and canvas pop-up tent manufactured and installed by Eric Lippincott at Campteq. Sound deadening was added throughout the interior. A custom slide-out kitchen was built into the rear: propane stove, small sink, water pumps, and a 40L National Luna refrigerator. The forward cab was re-carpeted with OEM Lexus carpet. A custom steel center console by Delta Vehicle Systems was added, and the seats were restored and re-upholstered in leather from L-Seats.
All four passenger doors, the hatch, and the tailgate were completely disassembled and rebuilt with new OEM Lexus regulators, motors, lock actuators, strikers, and seals. VB2 sound deadening vapor barriers were installed throughout. Door panels were replaced with semi-custom laser-cut aluminum panels fabricated by Orikawa in Flagstaff. Front doors received new OEM glass from Lexus.
A 220-watt solar panel on the pop-top tent roof feeds through a Red Arc Battery Management System into a 200Ah AGM battery bank, chargeable from solar, shore power, or the alternator. A 49-amp Xtreme Air compressor with a 1-gallon reserve tank is wired to a dedicated 50-amp breaker. High-output off-road lights and a Warn Winch are mounted to the front bumper. Dual Red Arc controllers in a custom overhead console manage everything from lighting to pumps.
A 24-gallon Long Range America reserve tank was installed beneath the body aft of the rear axle, bringing total fuel capacity to 45 gallons. Built for serious distance.
OEM Toyota and Lexus steering gear with a 105 sector shaft, King Shocks custom-valved remote reservoir adjustable shocks, Dobinsons springs, Delta Vehicle Systems castor-corrected radius arms, heavy-duty Dobinsons Panhard bars front and rear, a Slee Brand tie rod, and adjustable sway bar end links by LCP (Landcruiser Phil Products). This is not a lifted truck for show. It is dialed for actual off-road use under load.
This is where things get especially relevant to our work. The original cladding was removed, restored, and preserved. All exterior armor, rock sliders, and bumpers were stripped to bare metal, blasted, and repainted. The entire body was sanded to bare metal, prepped, primed, and shot in OEM two-tone Emerald Green using PPG Deltron Color, followed by two coats of clear, then wet sanded and polished to eliminate orange peel. Cladding, armor, sliders, and bumpers were painted in OEM Lexus Moonglow to match.
All door and window seals, gaskets, and hardware were replaced with new OEM Lexus and Toyota parts.
The paint was then allowed to cure for more than six months before the truck came to us for film. That is the right call. Fresh paint needs to fully off-gas before PPF goes down, and waiting six months is on the long side of recommended cure windows from every film manufacturer we work with. Douglas understood that and planned for it.
A custom grille was laser cut from mild steel, plated in black zinc, and painted in two-part satin. The Lexus emblem was custom laser cut and plated in 24K gold. Headlights sourced from Depot. Corner markers are original.
On a stock vehicle, PPF installation runs off pre-cut patterns. The panels are factory-spec, the geometry is documented in XPEL’s D.A.P. software, and we can pull templates for almost any current-year make and model in a few minutes.
On a 1997 LX450 with custom cladding, aftermarket rock sliders, a tubular front crash bar, and a body that had been stripped to bare metal and refinished, none of that applies. This was a bulk install. Every panel measured by hand, every cut shaped to the panel in front of us, every edge wrapped by feel. There are no pre-cut templates for an FZJ80 with custom bodywork.
The standard does not change. Film should sit flat, wrap cleanly into edges, show no lifting or visible seams under normal viewing distance. Hitting that on a flat hood is one thing. Hitting it on a curved fender that transitions into refinished cladding at a custom body line is another. Every cut has to be planned. Every wrap has to hold tension cleanly into the edge so it does not back out a year later.
Longevity is the second consideration that shapes every cut. Edges, corners, and compound curves are where film fails first. Get the tension right and a 10mil install holds for years. Get it wrong and you start seeing lift after the first hot summer. In Mesa that means full sun on a parking lot in July with surface temps over 160F. Heat cycles find every weak point. We cut and wrapped this truck assuming it would see exactly that, plus trail use.
Full-body XPEL 10mil paint protection film went across the entire vehicle. Every painted body panel, no exceptions. Hood, fenders, all four doors, rear quarters, tailgate, hatch, and all bumper surfaces. The two-tone painted cladding and rocker panels received full coverage. The front and rear glass were also filmed, which adds rock-chip protection at both ends. That matters on a truck that splits time between freeway runs to a trailhead and dirt under load.
Past the painted surfaces, we wrapped the tubular rock sliders and the front crash bar. These are raw steel pieces, powder coated and painted, but they sit in the line of fire on an overland build. The sliders take direct contact with terrain. The crash bar is the first thing that meets debris at highway speed. Film on round-profile tubing takes its own technique. You manage tension differently than you would on a flat panel, and edge placement has to be deliberate or the film backs out.
The custom Emerald Green and Moonglow finish on this truck cannot be reordered. There is no color-match service that gets you back to that exact pairing on a 30-year-old vehicle, and any chip that breaks the clear is custom refinish work. XPEL 10mil self-heals minor surface scratches with heat (in Mesa that just means leaving the truck in the sun for an hour). It absorbs rock impact. UV inhibitors in the top coat protect the paint underneath from the sun load that does most of the damage to unprotected finishes here.
The custom 24K gold-plated Lexus emblem got its own dedicated PPF treatment. One-of-a-kind piece. Same care as the rest of the build.
Before any film goes down, the truck has to be clean to spec. We did a full undercarriage clean, engine bay clean, and interior detail as part of the package. On a vehicle that has been used and modified extensively, that prep matters for the install itself and for documenting the build’s condition at the point of protection.
The question comes up. Isn’t PPF a luxury-car thing? Sometimes. On a build like this, no.
When a vehicle has been restored to a known standard with documented paint codes, professional bodywork, and custom fabrication, every chip is a problem that cannot be touched up at a body shop. The paint on this LX450 was laid down in a controlled environment with full prep, premium materials, and a six-month cure. Replacing a section of it means matching a custom two-tone on a vehicle that has not been built in almost three decades. Full-body PPF locks the work in. The film sits clear, preserves the paint underneath, and absorbs the hits that would otherwise become refinish projects.
Arizona conditions add weight to that math. UV here is relentless year-round, not just in summer. The same sun that sells our winters degrades unprotected paint, cladding, and trim faster than most climates in the country. Quality PPF with UV inhibitors in the top coat extends paint life substantially, and on a restoration that took years to complete, that is the difference between protecting an investment and watching it fade.
The LX450 went home filmed end to end. Glass, painted panels, cladding, rock sliders, front crash bar, gold emblem. Years of restoration work behind a layer of protection that is invisible at normal viewing distance and built to handle freeway dust, trail rock, and Mesa sun for the long haul.
Thanks to Douglas and Rayna for the trust on this one. Send pictures from the trail.
If you have a restoration, a custom paint job, or a vehicle you want to keep looking right for years, get in touch. We will walk through the protection options that make sense for the vehicle and the way you actually use it, no upsell on coverage you do not need.
Quote requests at wedetailaz.com/contact. Phone (480) 241-9324. We serve Mesa, Gilbert, Chandler, Scottsdale, Tempe, and the greater Phoenix area.