First Time DIYer
 

Hey there,

I have a 2001 camry le and I'm learning to wrench on it. I haven't done too much, changed out a bumper cover and side mirror, learned how to change the oil/filter, front rotors and pads and low beams.

I'm trying to do more, the previous owner didn't take care of it well and it has tons of salt corrosion, so all of the "easy" fixes require liquid wrench.

I buy a lot of parts through ebay, only had one problem where I made the mistake of picking the wrong size of wheel for brake rotors. I learned how to weld and would like to make some custom pieces, however my buddy doesn't have welding for aluminum.

I have a set of wrenches myself and I have a friend who's dad has a full garage of all sorts of tools. He doesn't have MIG welding or metal bending but most other things.

My next steps for "The Silver Bullet" would be:
1. Install battery on/off screw (wrong term) so I could work on the car without disconnecting both terminals, however I can't take the green terminal apart because of acid corrosion.

2. Install strut bar

3. Install cold air intake

4. Replace dome lights, license plate lights with blue less

5. Figure out some simpler engine mods, i.e. more aggressive cams, bigger fuel injectors, ect

6. Muffler

6. Wayyy in the future, turbo and ecu, convert rear brakes to disk and wheels

I look forward to learning a whole lot

I guess you are learning a lot and heading for more complicated things...
Good luck!!!

Great job.

Suggest doing the low cost items first, engine mods such as cams are not cheap. If a 4 cylinder the head is designed for emissions and economy not performance. An easier task is to remove the balance shafts on the 4 cylinder to gain a few HP.

The cold air intake may not gain any HP, might put that money into a more free flowing exhaust system.

Are the balance shafts located in with the camshafts? I can take a peek in the haynes manual, I've just never heard I'd balance shafts at all.

I loosened the nut on the green battery terminal, finally. There's a spray called free all, similar to liquid wrench from what I heard. Absolutely amazing, just took out all the corrosion like an assassin. Installing the battery cutoff knob at lunch today.

What would I be looking at price wise for a free flowing exhaust?

Installed battery cut off knob and vasolined up the terminals. With my budget I figure I'm either going to replace the dome light and the liscence plate lights or put in a strut bar this month. Pros to lights is they'll look cool when it's dark (duh) but cons are its not dark these days. Strut bar looks good but probably will have to deal with corroded bolts. What to do...