First Car.. Becoming a buildup thread!

[Whip Cracker]

The rear centrepiece garnish looks hideous on the 94 4 bangers... the black with the white writing?

Will (94Camry at Auscam) ended up shaving off the CAMRY logo and spray painting the whole garnish white. Looks awesome, especially with the red/clear tail lights. He did that all by himself too.

[RoM2nV]

The rear centrepiece garnish looks hideous on the 94 4 bangers... the black with the white writing?

Will (94Camry at Auscam) ended up shaving off the CAMRY logo and spray painting the whole garnish white. Looks awesome, especially with the red/clear tail lights. He did that all by himself too.

Honestly now i'm looking at the cheapest mods to do to my car, and instead of messing around with paint, new tail lights etc, I reckon its best if I just tint the tail lights to match the centre garnish.

In other news, I've been a bit busy enrolling into uni (Law/Commerce double degree at Murdoch :/ ), and looking for another part time job (I've worked at maccas flipping burgers for about 2.5 years, and its time to find a cleaner, higher paying job :D )

Also I have a 'toyotaways' sticker stuck on the bottom of my rear window (I think its been stuck since about 1994, looks pretty old), I've tried to get it off with my fingernails, but its tough stuff. Any ideas?

Edit: Another thing that i've noticed but never really asked anyone about is if the model camry that I have, have some kind of a tough power steering mechanism, cause compared to my parents 2000 CSX camry, mine is very hard to steer, I had a look at the power steering fluid and the dip-stick thing is alright. I'm not even sure if the power steering is all normal or if theres some kind of a problem with it..

Edited January 20, 2009 by RoM2nV

[KevO]

saw a 95 model csi with an exhaust kit, sounded phat as...

sounds similar to a magna with an exhaust kit

[eastcoastdrifter]

I dont think you should mod it at all if you are so worried about money.

remember the saying "you get what you paid for" that is especially important when it comes to modifying a car.

If I was you I would bring everyone up to scratch first like freshening up the suspension. the brake pads then I would give the engine a proper tune up then I would buy some good rubber then I would take it to wakefield lol ( hahaha )

Edited January 20, 2009 by eastcoastdrifter

[RoM2nV]

saw a 95 model csi with an exhaust kit, sounded phat as...

sounds similar to a magna with an exhaust kit

fart cannons are fail on an econobox

I dont think you should mod it at all if you are so worried about money.

remember the saying "you get what you paid for" that is especially important when it comes to modifying a car.

If I was you I would bring everyone up to scratch first like freshening up the suspension. the brake pads then I would give the engine a proper tune up then I would buy some good rubber then I would take it to wakefield lol ( hahaha )

fair enough but i want to at least gain some knowledge and test out my diy skills on this car before I end up getting a good car (so I don't cause any damage on that etc)

yes I am worried about money, but there are quite a few mods that I can do on the cheap that help make the car more presentable outside, and allow for a better driving expiriece within.

if its do-able, then why not (on the basis that it doesnt end up looking like a riced up pos like those vt commodores with altezza's )

[eviltwin]

buying expensive oil for the car is stupid , castrol GTX is fine for what you want just change the oil and filter every 5k and you will not have to many dramas.

perhaps for a car pre '90 or '95 expensive oil might be stupid, but i would beg to differ if you drove something up to date.

guess i didnt take in2 consideration when his camry was made.

you must have alot of experience with engines and in general a great understanding of oils because that would have to be one of the most inaccurate comments ive seen for a long time.

My bigport 4AGE in my AE82 Twincam was ground up rebuilt with new everything and i ran penrite oil through it all of the time i had it until i sold it off when i bought my GZE and it was bullet proof , 30 bucks for 5 litres have a little left over so the third oil change cost me nothing , perfect for the car and i changed it every 3k with a filter because of the way i drove the car , i usually had it out in the twisties above 5k so working hard meant placing good oil in her - the same applies for my SX , not a new engine but when i bought it she was running thin as hell oil so i changed to penrite HPR-30 and that improved the cars general running ten fold.

i have owned a handfull of cars i just drove a - b, 5k service intervals and castrol GTX and never ever had an issue.

If the camry was driven off it's nuts everywhere you would in turn make a decision on what you ran in it but as a daily commuter lowered with some wheels all it needs is some basic 20 dollar oil.

do you service your car and run a certain brand of oil in it? if you just send it to the dealership i hate to tell you but the oil your car would be running is not expensive what so ever, as for cars age thats a load of garbage - id love to see you approach the owner of a 1973 Porsche 911 Carerra and tell him his cars to old to run Mobil Gold and that he should buy his oil from safeway - i laugh in your general direction.

sorry to hijack your thread mate PM me if anyone has an issue

[Whip Cracker]

I'm moreso wondering that I'm providing advice on cheap mods and apparently that's like, bad?

Hell, if you think playing around with paint is in the too hard basket, don't bother modding the car because everything will be too hard. Tail lights are the easiest mod in the book, you just need to jumper the 3rd tail light (as per my red/clear/reds).

There's no such thing as "cheap" mods. Where you don't spend money, you'd need to spend time and effort. I've done a lot of cosmetic mods on my car... most you can't see, and the amount of time and effort gone into it would be more than you think.

I believe the amount of money I've spent on parts for modding would be around the 1.5k mark, not including the sound system.

[Lawz]

RoM2nV: mate D.I.Y. is the cheapest form alrighty. And you asked for opinions and ideas in your first post... so why are you so... agro for?

Cheapest mod in my opinion from watching my mates on auscam.org etc doing up their camrys from ground up... would be colour coding the rear garnish. it makes a huge difference to the look and all he would have spent all up would have been about $20... so if that ain't cheap enough for you then I don't know mate... Majority of that spent would have been to purchase the paint from Autobarn or the likes.

I'll show you pics and you decide on your own. If you want to modify your car then you need to spend the money... nothing comes free in this world man.

Check it out... notice the difference in colour from garnish to body?

Oh another cheap D.I.Y. mod... eyelids... black paint for the backing and 2 coats colour on front... Same paint bottle he used for the rear garnish...

Edited January 21, 2009 by 11TWO

[RoM2nV]

RoM2nV: mate D.I.Y. is the cheapest form alrighty. And you asked for opinions and ideas in your first post... so why are you so... agro for?

Hmm painting the garnish does actually sound like a good idea, just dunno how I will get rid of the 'camry' badging or whatever it is thats on the centre of it.

Also sorry guys if I did sound aggro in my last few posts, I appreciate all of you for putting your time and effort into helping me brainstorm ideas for modifications. I hope you guys don't see me as a ******* etc, just a few of the suggestions I have taken as too ricey for my style.

Edited January 21, 2009 by RoM2nV

[Whip Cracker]

It's a Jap car. If it were a Holden then you'd have problems on Rice. When someone labels the car as "Rice", that's an opinion.

The car I was mentioning is that very car that 11TWO placed up, we're all good mates in S/E Qld, we regularly meet up, do cruises, have BBQs etc etc.

I've helped Will (the white Cam in the pic) with a few things, polishing the engine top, helping with colour coding the rear mirrors etc.

You're best off asking Will or 11TWO (aka Cheungah or Lawz) in what he did to shave the CAMRY sign off.

[RoM2nV]

Updates:

Fitted white lights to my tacho/speedo dials etc

Just a quick question, is it even remotely possible to change the lamps in the air-conditioner control unit? One or a few of the bulbs in there have burnt and I can't change them to white bulbs :( seems so hard to take the bloody thing off and I'm afraid that I will snap/break something. :/

Something will be done soon regarding the back end of the car, still deciding whether I should tint the tail-lights, or instead just shave off the 'CAMRY' badge and paint the garnish white.

[Whip Cracker]

Yes, you can change the lights for the A/C etc etc... another lad on AC did that too - Trepidation aka Trep or Erin.

I believe it's easy once you know how, but I'm yet to do this on my own. I'm going to do mine blue to match the HUD that I have, and it'll also match my Head Unit too.

[RoM2nV]

Updates:

- Got some central locking/alarm issues sorted, so the car is now perfectly reliable :)

- Got a servicing manual, learning and fun here i come :D

I also decided that I am going to paint the rear garnish, should look better off than tinting the tail lights and shoud not have any attention (ie defect me). Less attention is better as I am sure my car has illegal tint (it is fkn dark as :D). Also looking at painting the front grille thing (where the toyota badge is), the door handles, and the black line that runs along both sides of the cars.

My camry is white, just not sure what kind of paint i will need. Is a spray can fine for doing all this, any preperation work involved or will it look fine if I just give everything a good clean and then paint it? Also is there a specific white colour I should be looking for?

EDIT: also remembered I might paint my steelies white :P

Edited February 4, 2009 by RoM2nV

[RoM2nV]

Sup TOCAU,

just need a little help here on your behalf. Trying to find out which wires for the tail lights are positive/negative/earth.

Did a bit of a search on the net and checked my servicing manual and it yielded no results. Is anyone here able to shed some light on this? Thanks.

[Whip Cracker]

What colours do you have?

I ain't got any time to pull mine off :(

[RoM2nV]

Well after the short time I've had my camry its time to say goodbye, my parents have upgraded their car, and I have seized the opportunity to upgrade my camry to a 2000 CSX (auto :( ). A big thank you to everyone who chipped in with advice, the car has recieved a LOT more care than the previous owner. Managed to get it detailed and it looks pure sex, should bump up the resale value a bit haha! I plan to keep my new car relatively stock and in great condition, as I will begin saving up to purchase a nice sports car or luxury sedan in the next few years.

I will be selling the '94 sometime next week.

I hope people other than just me can learn from this thread about their camry :), once, thanks again guys for your input :D

Mods please close thread.