Trying to ignore the negative words...

[96ToyoCam164K]

As you may all know...my car's exterior is crap! Dented roof, smashed back door/fender, fading paint. My friends see my car and they just rip on it.

It upsets me because I take care of my car very well. I wash it weekly, and keep up on maintenance. What happened to it is not my fault except the dents on the roof LOL. However, all people see is whats on the outside. I had to have a talk with my friend the other day because he seen my car 2 years ago when it was in mint condition, and he sees it now in its current state.

So he seems adamant about getting me a new car, which is fine...but when I told him I'd just bought new tires/struts, he says, "you know what you need to do, just put it over there in the ditch. People are going to look at your car and know what kind of person is driving it"

I corrected him and told him that I could care less what people think about what Im driving and it shouldn't be any of their concern. But now, I have been feeling embarrassed for the past few days about driving in it, and for many months after the accident I got over it and continued doing road trips and not caring what people think.

My thing is this, the car is reliable (crisscrossed over half of the U.S. about 3-4 times in the past year)...there's only so much I can do at this moment in time anyway so its pointless for people to make comments about it. If I'm comfortable with it, why are they so uncomfortable with it? It feel GREAT to know my car so well that I can jack it up and climb underneath on a whim, and that so many things have been repaired. I can care less that no one can enter from the passenger side because at one point all people would do is use me for my car...and trash it.

Regardless, I am going to have to either have this all patched up or replaced within the next couple months or so. But I'm already at 209,000 miles, would it even be worth looking into repairing the $2,500 in body work? What do you think about all of this?

[Mister_Perkins]

dude , screw your friends and keep on running the camry. Dents are no big deal at all

I wouldn't get rid of your camry just because your friends tell you to though!

Print off a picture of my 93 5-speed body and show them

you can say, "At least its not like this one"

That will shut em' up

[96ToyoCam164K]

Originally Posted by Mister_Perkins

dude , screw your friends and keep on running the camry. Dents are no big deal at all

My only issue with it is the fact that the passenger side seems permanently sealed. But I was thinking today of maybe forcing the door open by kicking it...Im just not sure if a hinge is bent and don't want to end up with no door at all! Most of the damage is along the rear door and if I could just get it to budge, I could replace it and simply have someone pull or replace the fender. I can't see how thats $2,000 worth of work, maybe Im being ripped?

The only way I'd give it up is if the odometer stopped working like it did in my '87 Buick (I know I shouldn't compare American to Japanese LOL)

[Mister_Perkins]

how wont your door open?

Did i miss a thread you posted ? hehe

[pmesfun]

Originally Posted by 96ToyoCam164K

like it did in my '87 Buick

Grand National or Regal?

[curry.style]

It's prolly $2000 because there is painting involved. Painting a car us not cheap. If you keep the car well maintained it should easily go another 100k miles. Screw what people say, I'd rock it till the wheels fell off, bolt up another set, and ride it off into the sunset again. I just bought my wagon back from the guy I sold it to after he did something I told him not to and killed Tue transmission in it. So what am I doing? Swapping in a 5-speed. He destroyed one of my rear doors and dented that whole side of the car by dragging it down a pole, so I'm gonna find a new door and take the opportunity to have it the car painted.
It's your car, do what you want. But I for one would not let anyone talk me into getting rid of either of my Camrys. And BTW the wife's just turned 323000 miles the other day!

[uibalnme]

Originally Posted by Mister_Perkins

how wont your door open?

Did i miss a thread you posted ? hehe

How bad is a side collision Part 2: Photos

[96ToyoCam164K]

Originally Posted by Mister_Perkins

how wont your door open?

Did i miss a thread you posted ? hehe

By miamidevue at 2010-02-03

I tried and tried to push it open but it wont even budge. And by the backdoor being wedged slightly forward, it prevents the frontdoor from being able to open

[Mister_Perkins]

dang , yup i missed that thread.

As far as the door, if its not opening inside or outside I would suggest tearing the door panel out of the inside. Removing all of the screws you can and kind of tearing it out of there to get to the inside of the door. From there you can drill through the lock and get the door open and then just repair it

EDIT:

May be more of an issue for the back door rather than the front. Maybe look into trying to get the back door open first

[2wickedtoyz]

you got PM

that is minor damage. it's mostly the door. you need another and you need to remove the interior door panel from the rear.
if yu can get the front door open the rear will open also...with some steady force.

[4Cyl'erThriller]

^+1 Thats about what I would suggust. Once the back door gets open everything should probably free up a bit. But since you are replacing the rear door anyhow. Just cut it up or what ever you have to do to get it open.

[dorifuto.boi]

don't worry about what people say about your car.

im gonna assume u want a clean old car.

is the frame damaged ? if it is u might wanna just buy another gen3. if not, then do you like to work on ur car urself ? if you do, then you should fix the damage yourself and drive it till you have money for a pro paint job. if not, then go get it fixed/painted.

so should you fix it/have some one fix it or should you just buy another gen3 ? well it all depends on what shape ur car is in and what shape the other gen3 is in and how much the other gen3 is lol.

so let me try to explain. if you buy a new gen3, you have to sell your car. i bet your car isn't worth much being all dented. so you have 2500usd + however much you sell your car for to buy another gen3. will a gen3 bought with that amount of money be in better condition/same condition/ or worse condition than your car (if you fixed your car) ? if better (the struts have also been replaced, mechanically things are good and not leaking and engine seems to be in really good condition, low miledge), then buy another gen3. if the same, then buy the other gen3 if its never been in a major accident. if worse, then just fix your car case at least you know your struts won't blow out on you.

its hard to explain but i tried my best lol

[04yfz]

Find another clean Gen 3 and swap the recently replaced parts over, for $2500 you'd spend in body work you can get a new car. Hell I bought my Gen 4 for much less than that and all it needed was a water pump when I got it.

[Chris Crash]

Haters. That's all they do man. Don't worry about them. Don't ever let someone talk shit about your car, even if it looks gross. I don't let people badmouth my j-vin and have you seen that thing?

[uuuuu]

Take the car to a body shop and see if they can put it on a frame puller. They might be able to pull out the wheel well damage and get the door(s) to open. I had similar damage to my car and they charged me $50.