I'm new here (first post) but I've been looking around the internet for information on these questions and I am having trouble.

I have a '94 Camry and I absolutely LOVE it. (not my only Camry purchase either) It's got about 280K on it and going strong but it is not going to last forever. There are some cosmetic issues (rear quarter was smashed up a couple of years ago) and it's not good enough to put that kind of money into fixing up 100%

My Questions are these:

I want a diesel -Toyota gods offered the diesel in the 80's but the jerks in California made it too hard for Toyota to keep offereing it because of CARB. I've driven the older Camry's and they are nice cars but just not as NICE as my '94. Would it be an impossible/too expensive task to swap out a diesel motor from, say, an '85 into a '94 or '95 Camry? Would new motor mounts be possible? Would the old CV axles work? or the new ones? How different are the front ends? Might be impossible...

So, I have a full set of extra wheels for snow tires for my '94 and have new tires on all 8 rims. Do the '80's diesel Camry wheels bolt onto the newer cars or visa-versa? If I bought an older Camry I'm sure it will be just as dog-gone brick reliable as my '94 has been for nearly 300K but they do rust a LOT I see. Are there any tricks to avoiding the rust? My dad does this thing where he paints the whole bottom 8 or 10" of his trucks with thick bed-liner paint and that makes them NOT rust. A two-toned Camry wouldn't look so bad. Any older 80's camry owners like to chime in with advice or just tell me why the '80s camry was the greatest car in the world? I'd buy another 94 or 95 in an instant but I really want to have a diesel.

Might go with a Toyo truck in diesel if I can't find much for Camry's but I'd much rather have a sedan. The trucks seemed to rust out just as bad. The 90's-on Toyotas seemed to have the rust issue kicked (my '94 has non except for where the rear-end got smooshed)

Am I crazy?

Jim