92 Camry Upgrade Help!

[chuloloco]

I have a 92 Deluxe (DE OR DX) Camry. I have $1,800 to fix this baby up. I want to make it look clean, no bodykits or anything too "tunery". Ideally I would like to make this a luxury Cam, at least on the outside. Mabye add some chrome vinyle to outside trim pieces and pillars. I've done a good bit of searching, but there's not much out there to really fix Gen3 Cam's unless you get custom work done. I already have a sound system that just needs to be hooked up. I'll list some of the ideas (the first 3 are mandatory) I've had and you can give your opinion on them or give me new ideas I haven't thought of. I know its a lot of reading but your opinions matter! Ok here goes:

1) Repair damage from deer incident- I've gotten 5 estimates and Maaco seems the cheapest route to go (with body work & paint combined). With repairs and paint it roughly comes to $1,500 (this also includes painting the trunk like this guy's Cam http://www.cardomain.com/ride/369039, scroll 1/2 way down page). I was thinking of buying a used door skin and hood (how much do door skins/hoods of ANY make and model usually run?) and putting them on with my friend's help reducing the cost to about $1,300 or less.

2) Full body paint- I have a taupe (a greyish, purplish color) and dark purple interior. So I'm thinking of a dark (maybe almost black) purple or black paint with purple flakes. Here's pretty much what I want to do to my car, but paint the trunk back up light area like a previously stated (http://www.cardomain.com/ride/369039) Also, maybe a purplish blue...does this exist??? lol

3) Headlights- Chrome Housing Headlights- eBay $160 Are there any other types of headlights like projectors or angel eyes for Gen3 Cams? (I have roughly $132 remaining)

4) HID Lights- I was originally thinking 12000k or 14000k to match my purple car, but apparently they are illegal and I would probably only get away with 8000k. Also, will having HID's but not having projector headlights cause glare for on coming drivers? Anybody have more info on legality?

5) Rims- pretty much anything I can get. Chrome would be optimal but alloy would be sweet. Do you guys think black w/chrome lip would look good on a purple Cam?

6) Professional Tint Job- I'm thinking about 20%, but maybe 15%.

7) Performance Upgrades- Intake by Weapon R (eBay $190), throttle body bypass kit (does this work, also on eBay), muffler maybe in the future. I'm thinking about a dual tip that gives a nice, deep, low sound not so much like Mustangs but like V6 or V8 BMW's or Mercedes that give you that deep little purr sound.

Those are the ideas I've come up with so far and I know its alot of reading, but any ideas/opinions would really help me out! Thanks.

[SmartedPanda]

3) Look around online, there are some do it youself guides to make some Angel eyes, that are relatively cheap, and don't look half bad.
4) Make sure you can retrofit it.
5) I'm no stylist on cars, but I do know one thing, depending on paint job, most chromes look like shit on 3gen camry.
6) Personal pref actually, 20% seems nice usually.

Good luck, that's all I know personally, not professionally.

[Stillrunning]

Personally, on a 92 with who knows how many miles, I would buy an $1800 CD (certificate of deposit) and drive the Camry into the ground.

[eddie926]

You have $1800 to fix your car up, and it's going to cost $1500 to get your deer strike damage repaired?

That leaves $300 for everything else on your list. $300 isn't going to get you very far. If you really want to accomplish the rest of your list, you're going to need to spend a lot more than that.

[bigbird]

1. ONLY go to macco if u repair the body work and prime and sand teh car YOUR SELF. macco is notorious for botching body and paint work and many people have been VERY dissapointed with thier work.

2. painting the whole car will cost more then 1800 for a good paintjob. just have them fix trouble spots and be happy with that.

3. there are only the clear depot headlights for the gen3 camry. ull have to do a custom job to put in projectors and halos.

4. you can get HIDs for the headlights but with the clear headlights have a terrible spread and ull be blinding people up and down and likely getting pulled over for it. if u really want HIDs id strongly suggest putting projectors in the clear headlights.(keep an eye on the forsale section they go up for sale everynow and then).

5. i would get what ever u want for your ur car, i personally dont think black and chrome would lookk good with purple, but thats me.

6. whatever tint u want mang

7. intake and muffler wont add any poewr per say, but it can change the sound. IMO, get a quiet(flowmaster is actually pretty quiet) muffler or none at all. definatly get an intake, it sounds AMAZING on the 4cyl.

flowmaster and intake
http://youtube.com/watch?v=MILZvfWHhAc
http://youtube.com/watch?v=XL3OSJDyTjA

intake
http://videos.streetfire.net/video/9...42198916b4.htm

u will not be able to do all this right with 1800 bucks. the paint and rims is whats gonna kill ya.

welcome to tn man, i see ur in MD, here we are having a meet in Rockville on teh 17th, and ur welcome to attend.
little pre winter meet
post up ther if ya wanna come. i sent u a PM with info on a place i go to who does a pretty good job with paint and bopdy work and are not expensive.

[Blackhawk3D]

Just say NO to Macco!