I'm about to inherit another turd (2009 camry), one that's newer and slightly faster than my current turd (2001 camry). It's my dad's old old car and is currently insured for $10k. Only problem with this car is it's had a hard life with my sister learning to drive in it, as well as random encounters with scumbags in hospital carparks (dad leaves it parked in hospital carparks for long periods of time, dunno why but people seemed to love scraping it or running into it when it had its old numberplates on - it hasn't had anyone run into it with new plates on it though).
I consider myself quite handy and have fixed up other things in the past, just not automotive paints. The interior plastic is kind of ugly, so I intend to wrap it in vinyl wrap when I replace the speakers and OEM head unit as well. The rims are all like the pic, all of them have varying amounts of gutter rash. I will be installing the speakers and head unit myself, as well as replacing the reverse camera to make it work with the head unit.
How much would it cost to get the exterior fixed, and is it something I can do myself? How hard would installing new speakers and head unit be in a newer car? My old turd car dismantled and reassembled quite easily. I intend to do this in the mid-semester break.
Images of turd 2.0: http://imgur.com/a/x0ykt
Fixing the tail light issue should be cheap enough - 4 or 5 screws and the whole assy should pop out
wreckers are your best bet or ebay for second hand parts - 20-30 minute job depending on how hard it is to access but certainly easy to fix if its just a leaky tail-light
I personally think vinyl wrap it tacky and a waste of time, your choice, your car, be aware of the legalities and use of it though
can be defectable depening on whats done with it
Head unit to be changed, simple enough, if you're smart enough with electronics and understand wiring colour codes you can either remap the cabling yourself or get yourself an ISO DIN changeover cable to convert the OEM plug into whatever brand you choose to use, the best part of that is the OEM factory volume controls will work for you :), secondly most stereos can be changed with DIN / Double DIN conversion kits which just fit perfectly giving you a factory look
As for speakers, pretty easy, work out the size and swap accordingly, change speaker cable if you wish
If you go down the road for a sub, run power up the right hand side and audio cabling down the left, stops any issues with interference, ground loop issues and usually the firewall plugs are on the right hand side of most cars (but some can be on the left depending on your car etc, easy enough to work out, use the correct gauge power cable for the AMP you choose as well and ensure its FUSED AT THE BATTERY ( + POSITIVE TERMINAL I can't stress this enough), also ensure you GROUND your amp properly to metal
Cars aren't too hard to dismantle, take your time and make sure you lay parts out in the order you want to put them back in (work from reverse to refit and reassemble)
Head unit should not be too hard but ensure you either solder your wiring / use proper convertor kit, do not twist tie and ensure you know what each wire does as you work before you go connecting them up to the new unit
If in doubt look for a service manual or ask someone with audio knowledge