Soon to be 4th gen owner

[Judd sandage]

I will be getting a '99 Camry in grey (I think '99 its got the '97-'99 tails) and its a little beat up, the front bumper and the hood as well as both front fenders and the front and rear passenger door need to be replaced and I had a few questions to you guys.

1) for the 4th gen Camry is there any differences between the years in the body panels that need replacing? ie 2000+ besides the front bumper and hood which I know is different.

2) I noticed the trunk at least on the drivers side right behind the wheel well is about 2 inches deep in water from recent rains, is there supposed to be a drain or something there?

3) I want to get some kind of remote/key-less entry for it and I want to know how I can tell if there is a factory unit already built in. there are 3 keys for the car but no fob.

4) and finally, its got gold badgeing on the rear deck lid, I would like silver or the black chrome if at all possible. when I go to pick-a-part next week I will see if I can find them, but I would like to know are they screwed in place or just glued?

[abew330]

Originally Posted by Judd sandage

1) for the 4th gen Camry is there any differences between the years in the body panels that need replacing? ie 2000+ besides the front bumper and hood which I know is different.

the front and rear i think are different between gen4 yrs..

Originally Posted by Judd sandage

2) I noticed the trunk at least on the drivers side right behind the wheel well is about 2 inches deep in water from recent rains, is there supposed to be a drain or something there?

i have the same problem in my gen3... i think theres a drain hose but to lazy to check/fix

Originally Posted by Judd sandage

3) I want to get some kind of remote/key-less entry for it and I want to know how I can tell if there is a factory unit already built in. there are 3 keys for the car but no fob.

have you noticed any security lights near the steering?

Originally Posted by Judd sandage

4) and finally, its got gold badgeing on the rear deck lid, I would like silver or the black chrome if at all possible. when I go to pick-a-part next week I will see if I can find them, but I would like to know are they screwed in place or just glued?

i think it uses double sided tape. if you cant find any why not just paint it?

[Chris Crash]

Originally Posted by Judd sandage

I will be getting a '99 Camry in grey (I think '99 its got the '97-'99 tails) and its a little beat up, the front bumper and the hood as well as both front fenders and the front and rear passenger door need to be replaced and I had a few questions to you guys.

1) for the 4th gen Camry is there any differences between the years in the body panels that need replacing? ie 2000+ besides the front bumper and hood which I know is different.

The hood, front bumper, corners, head lights and rear end are different.

2) I noticed the trunk at least on the drivers side right behind the wheel well is about 2 inches deep in water from recent rains, is there supposed to be a drain or something there?

That always happened to me. Try cleaning the trunk gasket and getting all the crap out of there before you go assuming there is a leak. There isn't really a drain, but at the very front of the well, there is a screw. Just unscrew it, let it drain and put it back. I think that screw holds on the mudflap maybe?

3) I want to get some kind of remote/key-less entry for it and I want to know how I can tell if there is a factory unit already built in. there are 3 keys for the car but no fob.

The only factory remote entry is tied to the factory alarm. So, if you have the alarm you have remote entry. If you don't have the alarm, you don't have remote entry. Is there a little red LED next to the steering wheel? Or maybe a little key light on the radio? If so, then you have an alarm and just need the key fob.

4) and finally, its got gold badgeing on the rear deck lid, I would like silver or the black chrome if at all possible. when I go to pick-a-part next week I will see if I can find them, but I would like to know are they screwed in place or just glued?

The toyota sombrero in the middle has three prongs that are also adhered in. You'll have to push them out from the inside of the trunk. The rest of the badges are just glued on. Fishing line will work well to pull them off. If that doesn't work, try an old credit card or something.
To re-attach them, just get some emblem adhesive from walmart or something.

[Chris Crash]

By the way, I'm parting out a '97 so if you need any parts, let me know!

[Judd sandage]

well I thank you for the offer chris crash, I will see what I can get at pick-a-part on the 1st... half off of everything, and supposedly there are 2 gen4 cams and both are grey so I will see what is there.

I don't yet have the car at home, its still at my dads work. I have a 95 Pontiac Bonneville and its trans died with 170,000 miles on it and my father has deemed it to expensive to fix, one little bearing is gone but it requires to remove the engine and then remove the trans to get to it, So now I need a replacement car and it turns out that the car repair shop he works at is this Camry that just needs to be fixed, getting it for $400 with 180k on the odo and it needs a steam cleaning BAD on the inside and save for the aforementioned body dings (supposedly the original owner was an accident magnet) otherwise its a good car. I got crappy cell phone pics and will post soon

I was inside it the other day and it does have what looks like a hole where there was an LED next to the steering wheel.

[Chris Crash]

That's weird about the LED hole....sounds like it did have an alarm but was removed?

Maybe someone else sold it.

S'what I would have done, haha.

[Judd sandage]

yeah might have, I donno, hey since your parting out whats your interior color? I might want front passenger seat or even both fronts as this one is only manual.

[Judd sandage]

well here are the pic's I will add more later for the insides.






heh as I said, Accident Magnet

[ricamryman]

Yikes! More trouble than it's worth!!!

[islandboy57]

That Camry is in rough shape but for $400, and if your dad can fix it up - might not be such a bad deal if you can wait for it to be fixed. How's the motor though? If the car looks like that, I'm curious if they even bothered to change their oil or do any maintenance.

Isn't it amazing how much damage a person can do to a (originally) $20K car? There's an '02 Camry V6 I pass by kinda often and both bumpers front and back are dented in, mirrors are scraped, sides are scraped, rims are curbed, missing fog light cover..

[Judd sandage]

yeah the engine is very strong, no issues with it, they were good about maintenance on it but just an accident magnet.

[Chris Crash]

Originally Posted by Judd sandage

yeah might have, I donno, hey since your parting out whats your interior color? I might want front passenger seat or even both fronts as this one is only manual.

The interior is gray. Seats are probably the only good parts with cloth on them, hahaha.

Those pictures don't look that bad, really! Just as long as there's no frame damage, because then you'll never get new parts to line up right.

Looks mostly like you just need a front end and a passenger door! That's the first gen 4 camry I've seen that doesn't have a fucked up rear bumper. Maybe it's a north carolina/redneck thing....but every gen 4 I have seen since I've lived here has had the same damage in the same spot on the rear bumper. It's always either a dent in the drivers corner or there's just a whole new bumper and the paint never matches. It seems like on the pewter colored camry's they put the sage pearl colored bumper on and vice versa! hahaha

But yeah, for that price, it's a great deal as long as it's running well! Fix up the body, get some tint and that will be a nice looking camry.

[Judd sandage]

I just hope the passenger side hinges are fine fro the door. and yes the frame in the front is still fine. so what kind of seating do you have? well I will wait till I go to pick-a-part to see what I can get there.

[Chris Crash]

The hinges can be removed from the frame so when you buy a new door make sure you get the new hinges too, because I'm willing to bet they're a little fucked...
That's good the frame is still good though. New parts will bolt right up!
The seats are the cloth ones. Wish I had the leather!
But no rips, tears or burns. No stains. Typical wear though. But you don't look at them and think wow those seats are in crappy condition.

[Judd sandage]

yeah the ones in mine currently are rather crappy, they got a lot of stains... and I dont think I want to know where they came from.