Hey, I would also love a little tutorial on how to buy a good car for cheap in Adelaide. THe cheapest I could find were at least 3000 and terrible condition.
Washing a car and changing the oil isn't "restoration". Stripping the body for paint and rebuilding the engine is restoration. Guy didn't even replace the blown shocks, which is a basic safety issue.
I've been a tech/PC nut my whole life, but I didn't get into cars (mostly this era of Toyota up to when they stopped making sports cars for a looong time) until two years ago. Been driving for two decade, but now this stuff just excites me. How you really get into is just to buy a mid-late 80's or 90's great condition car and start to do basic stuff yourself. It's very rewarding and you learn a lot. Just in a few years I went from having a 94' Camry to having a modded 88' Supra and 01' Celica GT-S. It's a wild ride man.
1990 Toyota Corolla lady here. Yup, we had rear defrost, cruise, power roof and power windows at the time (25th anniversary edition, yeah!). Thank you for honoring this car. It was a lovely bit of nostalgia for me!
The melted gauges thing is common across this generation, as are cab blower resister failures. I had an '87 of this, with a 3SGTE MR2 Turbo engine swap with an LSD box. Hilarious car, wouldn't corner or stop but pulled like a freight train
Good GOD I'm glad my 88' Supra didn't have this issue. It was a garage baby, maybe that's why. I spent the money to keep her in modern shape, and hell it still delivers 34 years later. Toyota just made astounding cars back then.
Depends on how much you drive and how mechanically inclined you are. I dailied a 97 jeep grand Cherokee up until a couple months back and never thought twice about it
I bought a 1999 Accord from my sister-in-law for $250 and drove it to 230,000 miles when I determined that it had a rear main seal leak on top of transmission issues. I love my Hondas, but the nearest dealership was hours away, and I periodically need some tiny part that is only available through Honda, so I bought a 2004 Camry, which three people hit with large vehicles in 8 months, and insurance bought me a 2005 Camry--twice over. My car was salvaged after the first accident, but I fixed it for $200 in parts, plus a winch and a tree. Oh boy, that tree seems dead now, trying to straighten out the radiator support could result in a dead tree falling on my car, myself, and the house! :D I didn't expect anything when another large vehicle hit the exact same spot, but the other guy's insurance actually paid me more than the first.
@@howardking8015 I bought a 97 accord as my first car back in 2018 and it's still my daily driver today. The Honda f-series engines in them are bulletproof. I've had no major issues since I've owned it, apart from the usual maintenance. A great car to learn how to work on too if you're into that. Try get one with the F22B1 VTEC engine and the 5 speed manual. Won't win any races but it's got more than enough power to make you smile on the back roads. If you can't tell - I love mine to bits.
I daily'd an 89 Geo Tracker for 2 years. I just bought a new (used) car, but I keep the Tracker as a toy and a backup. People are starting to wake up and realize that the cars aren't as good these days
The 87 Camry, very similar to this one, was my first car and survived many harsh winters. Seeing this era of the Camry again was awesome: it was a great car! Mine did have the auto/electric seat belts though which as you alluded to, were super annoying. I got pulled over in it once for "not wearing my seatbelt," but the police officer was mistaken. I showed the officer the autobelt and said "I wish" and he laughed and let me go.
These cars could tank through snow drifts better than my friends' trucks at the time. I used to joke that they were built out of cast iron because I felt invincible in my 1990 Corolla.
Love your story. Reminds me of my current 87 Camry I have. I’ve had it for 10yrs everything finally broke down on it after 338,000 miles. It was abused from the people I bought it from. I loved the car so much in its poor condition I decided to restore everything, I mean everything interior to engine bay! Everything new. I love old Camrys. Was also thinking about your seat belt. I never did like strapping the waste belt, for the most part everyone liked the electric seat belt, it is kinda annoying 😂😂😂
My mum had one of these. It was a FANTASTIC car - economical, light, easy motoring. This is a great daily, and its old so hopefully no one will want to break in or nick it.
You scored a beauty. We had a 91 model from new that ran until about 5 years ago- an old man ran into it and although not much damage, insurance wrote it off. Engine started first go every single time, no leaks or failures- the thing just ran and ran without complaints. Just over 200k. A Toyota salesman in 2010 told me Toyota regretted making these as seldomly did anything go wrong. Your model is the CS-X which was one below the top of the line. Yours has rear disc brakes, a much nicer looking steering wheel, power antenna, velour trim and a few other things like a split compartment center console if I remember correctly. A lot of mechanics said these can cover 500k. Yours is in top condition with 150k. Love your restoration work mate. I was tempted to get one myself and always liked the CS-X. Would like to see more!
I recently bought, about 2 months ago a Peugeot 306 sedan from 1999. The car has 221tkm but it runs still to this day flawlessly. The engine it self sounds like new, steering pump makes some noice while turning, but nothin alarming. It needs a oil change, but because it is at summer cottage, and it's my first car, It currently doesn't get any kilometers as I speak currently. The driver door sounded like bucket of bolts and nuts, I took the door panel off to found some original speaker hardwear, but because the newer ones didn't need them and I don't have any interest to make speaker system back to original. One's I removed the speaker hardwear, the door when was closed sounded good. Not like nuts and bolts. Other than that car doesn't have electric powered windows, what is just a big plus on a french car. Radio unit isn't original, some sort of Livia unit, but it has Bluetooth. I am considering buying&install new speaker system to the car, with a subwoofer into the trunk, not a big subwoofer. Just that there is one, but doesn't take all the space from the trunk. Other than that my Peugeot is pretty much safe and sound, it has Airbags, no flex. And it has a rust free body what is unheard of here at Finland with french cars. And I payed for it 130e. Probably the the whole speaker system will cost well over what I payed for the car, like 150e. Hehe.
I'm on my third Peugeot 306 2.0 XSi since 2005, although I recently stopped driving it in June due to something stopping the indicators, intermittent wipe function, electric mirrors from working. Probably just a bad connection but I do not know where to look yet. It all sprang back into life after a month but then all stopped again, so one thing is affecting all those issues. Anyway fantastic cars in so many ways, but as for French electrics.....
Nice restoration - to be honest, I really like these car restoration videos! I also like older cars more than newer ones as they are more serviceable than older cars. P.S. I would have probably replaced the needles on all of the dials, based on how they have bent - I also don't mind the more modern stereo system because older models with AM/FM only (and for a 90's car, possibly cassette) are not very useful any more. I understand that Australia is more reliant on FM and even AM!) however a lot of other countries, including the United Kingdom, are turning off AM transmitters in favor of FM and particularly DAB/Internet.
That was an amazing model. I saw many go 300 to 400,000 miles. The only problem was the auto transmission cases would wear and you had to source another trans rather than rebuild yours. I saw a wagon version of this 15 years ago in the same silver paint that had well over 400,000 miles. The bottom of the front fenders were so rotted away the fenders flapped in the wind like Dumbos ears. But it still ran perfect. Had a 5spd manual trans and the A/C still worked fine. Japan quality!
I love your content, it fits my interests at the perfect time. Like in 2019 I loved MacBook restoration and you did most of those in 2019, now you’re doing car restorations when in fact I’m starting to get into cars and modding them. I can’t wait to get my 2006 Subaru Impreza WRX STi and working on it (currently 15). Keep up the good worl
Great video! Honestly appreciated your commentary around 10:50, one of the only videographers that talks about the safety (or lack there of) of vintage cars.
Wonderful, congrats on the new ride and thanks for sharing. Your resto work on computers, and cars, is inspiring for those of us who fight planned obcelesence. Next time, don't forget the eucalyptus oil. Cheers!
I think this is a good level of restoration for a car like this! It keeps it on the road and it looks good enough. No need for a serious respray yet! Well done.
i drive a 95 camry daily and almost everything still works. it's all electric so the only two things that work sometimes is the rear defroster and the in dash digital clock. all the other stuff works great like power windows and mirrors,cruise control, wiper washer fluid,ect ect.
Your channel gives me quite a bit of inspiration… I’ve always loved old tech and cars and you’ve really managed to make it work with both styles of content, please keep doing what you’re doing!!
Those hubcaps came up really good, nice job. Odd to only have the left front wheel bearing done, usually you'd want to do both at the same time as they go in L/R pairs, might as well when it's up on the hoist / parts are ordered in.
Dude! Im in love with your content! From learning restoration of PC, Phone to all over my favorite subject Cars! I want to see more car and engine restoration in future inshallah 😍☺️
Gosh I wish you could detail the Camry I got from my father after he passed. He kept it in prime condition. It’s sitting in the garage. I’d like to keep it that way. Thanks for the advice.
I had a 1989 Camry, honestly one of the best cars I've had, great on fuel, very comfy and I had the same issue after degreasing the motor, ended up getting water in the distributor cap and got stuck on the side of the road 😅
I remember seeing these for the first time during highschool in '87. I thought the styling looked boxy and a bit old fashioned at the time, but I thing the design has aged well. Camrys have always been solid, good quality transportation. But these old ones probably not safe by modern standards.
FYI the Camry left the factory with soft family car suspension. You can get an upgrade at Pedders with lower sifter springs and the Pedders VRD variable shocks as a next step handling improvements. Also available is a thicker white line 18mm rear sway bar, I think it is branded as something else now if it is still available or K mac can do a 20mm. And I did manage to get a front strut brace from eBay many moons ago. Not sure if they would still be available. If you want to upgrade the brakes you can get Australian Celica ST185 Front Brakes. They are bigger and a straight bolt on swap but need at least 15inch rims to fit. And for wheels the 15” wheels from a 1999 Celica SX is a bolt on swap and made the car look so much better. Finally you can to a 4-2-1 header and 2inch mandrel bent exhaust. If you want it quite like I did you can fit 2 resonators with a large body straight through muffler.
Yeah the Suspension in my 94' Camry was HILARIOUSLY soft. Car was surprisingly quiet and modern, but man trying to corner hard in that thing felt like you were fighting against the car to do so. At this point I'm super used to coilovers in my Celica and Supra. I put that beefy Whiteline swaybar in my Supra and it along with the FA 500 coilovers completely eliminated the body roll, it's insane.
got rid of our 1995 camry at 300k miles... used regular oil changed every 12,000 miles or yearly... regular, not synthetic... reason for getting rid of? Original clutch gave up at 300k lol... we outgrew it... Toyota is always the answer ❤
This car is such a great find, and so rare especially with that low mileage, and most things working... like A/C, good powertrain,... It's definitely a keeper, and it will last another 30 years if it is taken care of, and maintenance is so cheap, too. I don't know how much you paid for it, but in USA, it will be pretty expensive considering the high demand for older toyota, which are reliable and cheap to maintain and lasts a long time.
My dad had an '89, fantastic little car. Comfy front seats even for a really tall driver (I'm 6'4"). Yours probably needs new shocks, which will fix most of the handling issues you mentioned.
At only 140,000 KMs it is still brand new. These can get 500,00KMs if looked after without issues. As others have mentioned, CV shafts, Blower resistors and the melting gauge cluster are normal.
Totally agree, but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done. I wouldn't trust the suspension on a car that is thirty years old. It's 100% guarantee that the rubber bushings are all dry rotted. My 2011 Matrix with 118K had that problem. I recently had to change the control arms and links. Just the fact that the rubber bushings lasted more than ten years is impressive. I'm going to change all four strut assemblies as well. If the mileage doesn't kill a car, the age will. So it's a fine balance between the two. What's important is the engine and trans. Everything else can be replaced if it's worth the financial cost.
I just bought a white one with 140,000 miles for $700. Body is straight paint is great, interior looks new. AC blows cold. Runs like a top. I'm very, very happy with the purchase.
Not true about US, in the late 80s early 90s, manufacturers had a choice between automatic seat belts or drivers airbag, of course everybody hated the seat belts so that went away and drivers airbag pretty much became mandatory around 1992. Passenger airbags was around mid 90s
Edd from Modbury, had a couple of these, great cars, I suggest you change the trans axle fluid, an easy drain and fill till it overflows, Dexron 111. Would like to see some clips on Windows 10 vs 11 and your thoughts on both, I know you're great on Tech. Keep up the good work
I started watching this channel because of the Macs restoration, and now ma guy is also fixing cars? That is so nice to wtch. I love the vibe of these older cars 70's, 80's and 90's. Great content!
This channel is so underrated. It reminds me of the DIY Perks channel. Rare uploads but such high quality videos. Computer restorations, car restorations, they're both equally entertaining.
Honestly this is probably my most favorite generation of Camry. My dad got this as his second car and passed it onto me. Very nice looking car for being so old.
Love this generation Camry - I had one over 10 years ago for my first car, and I have another one today in similar condition as my daily A to B runner. I think it's a great balance of just enough creature comforts, simplicity, economical running costs and of course very reliable. The gauge cluster needles melting are a very common issue and only on ones built in Australia. You can replace the needles with ones off another similar year Toyota (Corolla, etc). Easy to find at U Pull It.
God I love this era of Corolla/Camry. Dead simple and extremely lightweight. You just cannot go wrong. No idea why people still don't buy these as regular cars as you get the best value around and IMO they still look amazing.
Mostly age and parts availability. With older cars, maintenance and repair is usually more difficult because parts are becoming increasingly difficult to find. Also, older cars are usually not as safe. Most of them don't even have airbags.
@@damilolaakanni It's a Camry. Every part of this thing is easily available and very cheap. Build quality and parts quality is likely to be better than anything you can buy today due to no corners being cut and the engineers being able to focus on the car itself rather than massive amounts of cost due to an over abundance of safety features, mandates, and computer/chip modules. They just don't make them (nor can they) like this anymore. Also steering wheels with no airbags look amazing.
holy crap! few cars exhudes so much PURE NOSTALGIA as this Camry. Good job on restoring the little nugget, and I hope it gets some many more kilometers of no-frills, practical happiness.
These things were notorious for soft suspension even when new. The needles on the dials that are bent or sometime don't work correctly, is very common with the SV21 series. The engine is reliable despite being a bit slow. If you change the oil, I would suggest putting on a new sump plug washer. Other than that, good video :)
Awesome video mate. I did the exact same "refresh" to a low K (~160,000) 1993 Mazda 323 Astina a couple of years ago and has been my daily driver ever since. Hasn't skipped a beat!
I love how u started this new hoppy of cars, my first car was a 1992 Toyota corolla with 170k miles one owner, still own it and drive it daily had it for over 3 years
Thanks for sharing this. I used to use a V6 one of these as my work car. It was about 20 years old at the time. It was fully loaded for it's time. 4x electric windows and the sunroof, a/c, cruise, headlamp washers, speed sensitive power steering. The cruise control was great fun, when you hit resume it would drop a couple of gears and utterly floor it back up to the speed you'd got set. I put 100k miles on that car in 3 years and apart from brakes, tyres and servicing, all I had to change was 2 CV joints and the rear drop links and remove an aftermarket immobiliser.
The cars are great little runabouts and cheap as to drive and repair. Parts are super cheap if you need to get some and if you are a bit handy you can do loads of repairs yourself. This was a fun video.
Owned a dark blue '88 model which had rust above the wheels. Fixed all of them with fiberglass and paint. This brought back those memories, thanks mate!
11:29 I don't know what your idea of "sipping fuel" is but cars with automatic transmission are pretty fuel inefficient. It is a fuel-guzzler. 11:59 Toyota knew how to build reliable electronics back then, so electric windows probably would still work today. 12:12 You could have sorted that out.
I had an 89 Camry with a 5 speed manual in high school back in the early 2000s. Its interesting the small differences between the US spec and the Aussie spec Camry. It was decent car, nothing really special but was comfortable though and got me from A to B most the time. I do remember having to replace just about every rubber hose on the car and the fact the 3SFE leaking oil from nearly every seal.
4:50 There is the reason the right brake light ground connection corroded: water ingress in the right rear light! Needs to be fixed or it will happen again.
I love this video. A man after my own heart as I had a similar project on my hands with a 1995 Toyota Camry, the generation that came after the one in this video. I found mine with very low mileage as well at seventy-three thousand Miles and plan on keeping this car forever. So easy to work on including changing bulbs. On today's cars you need to be a technician and have an entire set of tools to do the simplest repairs. Thanks again
I was 17 in 2007 and bought a 1988 Toyota Camary for 45 bucks (paid for the title switch to me) The back end had a crazy v shaped body damage from the previous owner hitting a pole I'm guessing really fast lol the brake master cylinder was broken and had to use emergency brake for like a month and the spare tire was floating in water in the trunk. Despite all the problems it ran great and made me a shit ton of memories I ended up destroying the Transmission by accidently knocking it into reverse
I've go my mom's 91. With the 2L and includes cruise control, electric windows. A great fishbowl type visibility with minimal A&C pillars The electric seatbelts are the best feature, an alternative future feature. The engine and auto trannie are solid , the remainder is slowly dissolving due to Chicago winters.
I bought a 1991 USDM SV21 a couple of years ago. Mine has the electric windows and cruise control you mentioned. Cruise control had been around for over 10 years by the time the second generation Camry came out; it works pretty well, though I had to replace a couple of components that failed randomly. The electric windows work, though the rear ones do not; I believe it is due to a broken wire in the driver door, as seems common from my research, I just have not investigated it. It also has an electric sunroof that works, but needs some TLC; as I understand it, the tracks may be bad. I have also noticed that the suspension is quite soft. I'm not sure if the shocks are just worn or not as despite its softness it doesn't handle like garbage when compared to my 95 Corolla which does have bad shocks. My car also has the electric seatbelts, which function perfectly fine; though I don't particularly want to find out how effective they are in a crash.... You mentioned the V6 engine option, which set a precedent that carries on into the current generation of the Camry; but there was also an all wheel drive system that could be optioned on the 4 cylinder models, at least in the US. Very neat. Old Toyotas are just good cars. My Camry has almost 300k US miles and still runs fantastic. All of my Toyotas run great despite their age, and for most of them miles as well. Can't beat it.
Electric/power windows were extremely rare on Camrys here in Australia. Only the top of the line "Ultima" and imported "V6" models came with them. These two models accounted for less than 10% of sales, meaning 90% or more had the wind-up windows.
super jealous of you finding this. we had a 92 camry growing up and i love that thing- really wish we hadn't sold it so it could have been passed down! it was awesome and ran like a champ
Still drive a U.S. spec ‘87 Camry with manual gearbox. Love this car so much. The interior glass gets greasy from the plastics off-gassing. It requires a lot more cleaning than a newer car. Absolutely critical to keep the air conditioning in working order because the cabin can get very hot in the summertime.
Nice work! I have an XV10 with 82,000KMs on it, which was my late grandfather’s. Plenty of sentimental memories and I drive it very sparingly. So glad to see you giving this SV21 plenty of love!
Truly professional content quality. Really hope you continue posting these vintage car restoration videos, as they are rather interesting. Would love to see a 90s rally legend (Subaru) in one of your videos. Cheers!
► Become a channel member today! bit.ly/PsivewriMembership
i want to but i have no money to become a member im only 14
I’ll think about it
why you wear watch on right wrist ?. My mom told men dont wear watches on right wrist
Hey, I would also love a little tutorial on how to buy a good car for cheap in Adelaide. THe cheapest I could find were at least 3000 and terrible condition.
Great video
It's so therapeutic to watch old cars being restored and given love.
Honestly man
Exactly man
Washing a car and changing the oil isn't "restoration". Stripping the body for paint and rebuilding the engine is restoration. Guy didn't even replace the blown shocks, which is a basic safety issue.
I'm way too clumsy to do it myself, but it's indeed sooo mindful to see others do it.
not really a resto more of a quick fix that might only last 6months to a year at best
9:17 switches to the stunt double to get that fast paced corner shot :)
hi bro love ur vids also.
I’m not gonna lie, From retro-tech to vintage cars, I’m starting to develop an interest in cars, thanks to this video!
Agreed!
lol
I've been a tech/PC nut my whole life, but I didn't get into cars (mostly this era of Toyota up to when they stopped making sports cars for a looong time) until two years ago. Been driving for two decade, but now this stuff just excites me. How you really get into is just to buy a mid-late 80's or 90's great condition car and start to do basic stuff yourself. It's very rewarding and you learn a lot. Just in a few years I went from having a 94' Camry to having a modded 88' Supra and 01' Celica GT-S. It's a wild ride man.
Check Out Dankpods and his car channel Garbage Time
I was always a computer guy, but i really started loving cars recently
1990 Toyota Corolla lady here. Yup, we had rear defrost, cruise, power roof and power windows at the time (25th anniversary edition, yeah!). Thank you for honoring this car. It was a lovely bit of nostalgia for me!
Excellent restore dude! You've definitely "got the touch". It's great that you can branch out into other arenas with your talent and passion.
Oh what a squealing.
midas touch
The melted gauges thing is common across this generation, as are cab blower resister failures. I had an '87 of this, with a 3SGTE MR2 Turbo engine swap with an LSD box. Hilarious car, wouldn't corner or stop but pulled like a freight train
Good GOD I'm glad my 88' Supra didn't have this issue. It was a garage baby, maybe that's why. I spent the money to keep her in modern shape, and hell it still delivers 34 years later. Toyota just made astounding cars back then.
Before you ever get going you need to make sure you can stop right😉
@@rushnerdWow you have an absolute beaut on your hands. Great to hear it's been taken care of so well.
Happened to mine as well. Blower would only run at full speed or nothing.
what's a cab blower?
As someone who dalies a '96 Accord with over 250k miles, I really appreciate the dedication to taking care of old cars and keeping them on the road.
Would you reccomend a 96 accord for a daily driver in 2023 for a 22 year old? Looking to buy cash to avoid financing if I can
Depends on how much you drive and how mechanically inclined you are. I dailied a 97 jeep grand Cherokee up until a couple months back and never thought twice about it
I bought a 1999 Accord from my sister-in-law for $250 and drove it to 230,000 miles when I determined that it had a rear main seal leak on top of transmission issues.
I love my Hondas, but the nearest dealership was hours away, and I periodically need some tiny part that is only available through Honda, so I bought a 2004 Camry, which three people hit with large vehicles in 8 months, and insurance bought me a 2005 Camry--twice over.
My car was salvaged after the first accident, but I fixed it for $200 in parts, plus a winch and a tree.
Oh boy, that tree seems dead now, trying to straighten out the radiator support could result in a dead tree falling on my car, myself, and the house! :D
I didn't expect anything when another large vehicle hit the exact same spot, but the other guy's insurance actually paid me more than the first.
@@howardking8015 I bought a 97 accord as my first car back in 2018 and it's still my daily driver today. The Honda f-series engines in them are bulletproof. I've had no major issues since I've owned it, apart from the usual maintenance. A great car to learn how to work on too if you're into that. Try get one with the F22B1 VTEC engine and the 5 speed manual. Won't win any races but it's got more than enough power to make you smile on the back roads. If you can't tell - I love mine to bits.
I daily'd an 89 Geo Tracker for 2 years. I just bought a new (used) car, but I keep the Tracker as a toy and a backup. People are starting to wake up and realize that the cars aren't as good these days
Happy to have the opportunity of passing this on to you, hope she treats you well mate :)
The 87 Camry, very similar to this one, was my first car and survived many harsh winters. Seeing this era of the Camry again was awesome: it was a great car! Mine did have the auto/electric seat belts though which as you alluded to, were super annoying. I got pulled over in it once for "not wearing my seatbelt," but the police officer was mistaken. I showed the officer the autobelt and said "I wish" and he laughed and let me go.
These cars could tank through snow drifts better than my friends' trucks at the time. I used to joke that they were built out of cast iron because I felt invincible in my 1990 Corolla.
Love your story. Reminds me of my current 87 Camry I have. I’ve had it for 10yrs everything finally broke down on it after 338,000 miles. It was abused from the people I bought it from. I loved the car so much in its poor condition I decided to restore everything, I mean everything interior to engine bay! Everything new. I love old Camrys.
Was also thinking about your seat belt. I never did like strapping the waste belt, for the most part everyone liked the electric seat belt, it is kinda annoying 😂😂😂
@@mlinecomposites1 the waist or lap belt is the more important one in case the car door opens during an roll-over accident
My mum had one of these. It was a FANTASTIC car - economical, light, easy motoring. This is a great daily, and its old so hopefully no one will want to break in or nick it.
same here
You scored a beauty. We had a 91 model from new that ran until about 5 years ago- an old man ran into it and although not much damage, insurance wrote it off. Engine started first go every single time, no leaks or failures- the thing just ran and ran without complaints. Just over 200k. A Toyota salesman in 2010 told me Toyota regretted making these as seldomly did anything go wrong. Your model is the CS-X which was one below the top of the line. Yours has rear disc brakes, a much nicer looking steering wheel, power antenna, velour trim and a few other things like a split compartment center console if I remember correctly. A lot of mechanics said these can cover 500k. Yours is in top condition with 150k. Love your restoration work mate. I was tempted to get one myself and always liked the CS-X. Would like to see more!
I recently bought, about 2 months ago a Peugeot 306 sedan from 1999. The car has 221tkm but it runs still to this day flawlessly. The engine it self sounds like new, steering pump makes some noice while turning, but nothin alarming. It needs a oil change, but because it is at summer cottage, and it's my first car, It currently doesn't get any kilometers as I speak currently. The driver door sounded like bucket of bolts and nuts, I took the door panel off to found some original speaker hardwear, but because the newer ones didn't need them and I don't have any interest to make speaker system back to original. One's I removed the speaker hardwear, the door when was closed sounded good. Not like nuts and bolts. Other than that car doesn't have electric powered windows, what is just a big plus on a french car. Radio unit isn't original, some sort of Livia unit, but it has Bluetooth. I am considering buying&install new speaker system to the car, with a subwoofer into the trunk, not a big subwoofer. Just that there is one, but doesn't take all the space from the trunk. Other than that my Peugeot is pretty much safe and sound, it has Airbags, no flex. And it has a rust free body what is unheard of here at Finland with french cars. And I payed for it 130e. Probably the the whole speaker system will cost well over what I payed for the car, like 150e. Hehe.
I'm on my third Peugeot 306 2.0 XSi since 2005, although I recently stopped driving it in June due to something stopping the indicators, intermittent wipe function, electric mirrors from working. Probably just a bad connection but I do not know where to look yet. It all sprang back into life after a month but then all stopped again, so one thing is affecting all those issues. Anyway fantastic cars in so many ways, but as for French electrics.....
This video makes my day and its so fun to see you working on cars
Your passion to restore the car made my day! Love your videos working with cars.
You didn't buy a car, you bought a piece of the 90's
I drove my Dads ‘88 hand me down as a young man. I loved it. I still love the body style and the super reliable engine
Nice restoration - to be honest, I really like these car restoration videos! I also like older cars more than newer ones as they are more serviceable than older cars.
P.S. I would have probably replaced the needles on all of the dials, based on how they have bent - I also don't mind the more modern stereo system because older models with AM/FM only (and for a 90's car, possibly cassette) are not very useful any more. I understand that Australia is more reliant on FM and even AM!) however a lot of other countries, including the United Kingdom, are turning off AM transmitters in favor of FM and particularly DAB/Internet.
That was an amazing model. I saw many go 300 to 400,000 miles. The only problem was the auto transmission cases would wear and you had to source another trans rather than rebuild yours. I saw a wagon version of this 15 years ago in the same silver paint that had well over 400,000 miles. The bottom of the front fenders were so rotted away the fenders flapped in the wind like Dumbos ears. But it still ran perfect. Had a 5spd manual trans and the A/C still worked fine. Japan quality!
I love your content, it fits my interests at the perfect time. Like in 2019 I loved MacBook restoration and you did most of those in 2019, now you’re doing car restorations when in fact I’m starting to get into cars and modding them. I can’t wait to get my 2006 Subaru Impreza WRX STi and working on it (currently 15). Keep up the good worl
Great video! Honestly appreciated your commentary around 10:50, one of the only videographers that talks about the safety (or lack there of) of vintage cars.
Love these restoration videos!
It'd be cool to see some more in-depth mechanical work like replacing shock absorbers, suspension mounts, bushings etc.
Wonderful, congrats on the new ride and thanks for sharing. Your resto work on computers, and cars, is inspiring for those of us who fight planned obcelesence. Next time, don't forget the eucalyptus oil. Cheers!
I think this is a good level of restoration for a car like this! It keeps it on the road and it looks good enough. No need for a serious respray yet! Well done.
i drive a 95 camry daily and almost everything still works. it's all electric so the only two things that work sometimes is the rear defroster and the in dash digital clock. all the other stuff works great like power windows and mirrors,cruise control, wiper washer fluid,ect ect.
Your channel gives me quite a bit of inspiration… I’ve always loved old tech and cars and you’ve really managed to make it work with both styles of content, please keep doing what you’re doing!!
Hi, the right rear blinker (indicator) light appears to have some water bubbles in it as I noticed. 04:50
Those hubcaps came up really good, nice job.
Odd to only have the left front wheel bearing done, usually you'd want to do both at the same time as they go in L/R pairs, might as well when it's up on the hoist / parts are ordered in.
Really? You do wheel bearings in pairs like shock absorbers?
149,000? almost time to top up the wiper fluid (seriously my 2009 ranger has done like 273,000ks and its still on original motor, clutch, etc.)
Absolutely love this series! Keep making these videos along with all the tech stuffs man.
Definitely one of the cleanest Camry's on the SA roads, I love the restoration segments of your videos, big fan of both this and the AU video :)
Dude! Im in love with your content! From learning restoration of PC, Phone to all over my favorite subject Cars! I want to see more car and engine restoration in future inshallah 😍☺️
Salamun alaikum ❤
Gosh I wish you could detail the Camry I got from my father after he passed.
He kept it in prime condition. It’s sitting in the garage.
I’d like to keep it that way.
Thanks for the advice.
I had a 1989 Camry, honestly one of the best cars I've had, great on fuel, very comfy and I had the same issue after degreasing the motor, ended up getting water in the distributor cap and got stuck on the side of the road 😅
I remember seeing these for the first time during highschool in '87. I thought the styling looked boxy and a bit old fashioned at the time, but I thing the design has aged well. Camrys have always been solid, good quality transportation. But these old ones probably not safe by modern standards.
FYI the Camry left the factory with soft family car suspension. You can get an upgrade at Pedders with lower sifter springs and the Pedders VRD variable shocks as a next step handling improvements. Also available is a thicker white line 18mm rear sway bar, I think it is branded as something else now if it is still available or K mac can do a 20mm. And I did manage to get a front strut brace from eBay many moons ago. Not sure if they would still be available. If you want to upgrade the brakes you can get Australian Celica ST185 Front Brakes. They are bigger and a straight bolt on swap but need at least 15inch rims to fit. And for wheels the 15” wheels from a 1999 Celica SX is a bolt on swap and made the car look so much better. Finally you can to a 4-2-1 header and 2inch mandrel bent exhaust. If you want it quite like I did you can fit 2 resonators with a large body straight through muffler.
Yeah the Suspension in my 94' Camry was HILARIOUSLY soft. Car was surprisingly quiet and modern, but man trying to corner hard in that thing felt like you were fighting against the car to do so. At this point I'm super used to coilovers in my Celica and Supra. I put that beefy Whiteline swaybar in my Supra and it along with the FA 500 coilovers completely eliminated the body roll, it's insane.
got rid of our 1995 camry at 300k miles... used regular oil changed every 12,000 miles or yearly... regular, not synthetic... reason for getting rid of? Original clutch gave up at 300k lol... we outgrew it... Toyota is always the answer ❤
That's a great # of miles for such an old car. :) My Ram 1500 has 13k on it, and it's a 2014. Not gonna lie... gas prices are hurting. :P
Then come to Germany hahahahahha you almost cant afford Gasoline about 1,80-2€ equal Dollar $ per 1 Liter.
She’s a beauty. More character than anything from the last 15 years.
Great old car Nathan. Well done. Wish I could find one like that here in Canada.
love the car such a nice vehicle to keep on the roads these days! makes me want to pick one up for myself
This car is such a great find, and so rare especially with that low mileage, and most things working... like A/C, good powertrain,... It's definitely a keeper, and it will last another 30 years if it is taken care of, and maintenance is so cheap, too. I don't know how much you paid for it, but in USA, it will be pretty expensive considering the high demand for older toyota, which are reliable and cheap to maintain and lasts a long time.
My dad had an '89, fantastic little car. Comfy front seats even for a really tall driver (I'm 6'4"). Yours probably needs new shocks, which will fix most of the handling issues you mentioned.
At only 140,000 KMs it is still brand new. These can get 500,00KMs if looked after without issues. As others have mentioned, CV shafts, Blower resistors and the melting gauge cluster are normal.
Totally agree, but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done. I wouldn't trust the suspension on a car that is thirty years old. It's 100% guarantee that the rubber bushings are all dry rotted. My 2011 Matrix with 118K had that problem. I recently had to change the control arms and links. Just the fact that the rubber bushings lasted more than ten years is impressive. I'm going to change all four strut assemblies as well. If the mileage doesn't kill a car, the age will. So it's a fine balance between the two. What's important is the engine and trans. Everything else can be replaced if it's worth the financial cost.
I just bought a white one with 140,000 miles for $700. Body is straight paint is great, interior looks new. AC blows cold. Runs like a top. I'm very, very happy with the purchase.
Its crazy to realize that airbags werent mandatory in Australia until 2010 and the US 1998
Not true about US, in the late 80s early 90s, manufacturers had a choice between automatic seat belts or drivers airbag, of course everybody hated the seat belts so that went away and drivers airbag pretty much became mandatory around 1992. Passenger airbags was around mid 90s
Edd from Modbury, had a couple of these, great cars, I suggest you change the trans axle fluid, an easy drain and fill till it overflows, Dexron 111. Would like to see some clips on Windows 10 vs 11 and your thoughts on both, I know you're great on Tech. Keep up the good work
As a millenial, I cant believe the cars that I grew up with are now considered vintage.
I started watching this channel because of the Macs restoration, and now ma guy is also fixing cars? That is so nice to wtch. I love the vibe of these older cars 70's, 80's and 90's. Great content!
Another Top Quality Video! Psivewri is the TH-camr That never disappoints
This channel is so underrated. It reminds me of the DIY Perks channel. Rare uploads but such high quality videos. Computer restorations, car restorations, they're both equally entertaining.
My dad has an '04 Corolla and it only has 66K miles, still going strong too! 💪💪
Honestly this is probably my most favorite generation of Camry. My dad got this as his second car and passed it onto me. Very nice looking car for being so old.
Love this generation Camry - I had one over 10 years ago for my first car, and I have another one today in similar condition as my daily A to B runner. I think it's a great balance of just enough creature comforts, simplicity, economical running costs and of course very reliable.
The gauge cluster needles melting are a very common issue and only on ones built in Australia. You can replace the needles with ones off another similar year Toyota (Corolla, etc). Easy to find at U Pull It.
Something about that backseat takes me right back to the 90s and makes me wish I could go back there
God I love this era of Corolla/Camry. Dead simple and extremely lightweight. You just cannot go wrong. No idea why people still don't buy these as regular cars as you get the best value around and IMO they still look amazing.
Yeah its a perfect car for around town.
Mostly age and parts availability. With older cars, maintenance and repair is usually more difficult because parts are becoming increasingly difficult to find. Also, older cars are usually not as safe. Most of them don't even have airbags.
@@damilolaakanniToyota should make these again. Same type of parts, same style, just as simple. Everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, would want the,.
@@damilolaakanni It's a Camry. Every part of this thing is easily available and very cheap. Build quality and parts quality is likely to be better than anything you can buy today due to no corners being cut and the engineers being able to focus on the car itself rather than massive amounts of cost due to an over abundance of safety features, mandates, and computer/chip modules. They just don't make them (nor can they) like this anymore. Also steering wheels with no airbags look amazing.
holy crap! few cars exhudes so much PURE NOSTALGIA as this Camry. Good job on restoring the little nugget, and I hope it gets some many more kilometers of no-frills, practical happiness.
11:23 wait… which Australian am I watching again???
certified car moment
What a lovely example! So happy to see you restore it exactly as it should be. This is giving me lots of inspiration for my 1987 Corolla Saloon!
These things were notorious for soft suspension even when new. The needles on the dials that are bent or sometime don't work correctly, is very common with the SV21 series. The engine is reliable despite being a bit slow. If you change the oil, I would suggest putting on a new sump plug washer. Other than that, good video :)
I had such a car, it was from 1989 and I bought it in the early 2000s. It was an awesome reliable car. Enjoy!
4:55 the accent was so funny
Awesome video mate. I did the exact same "refresh" to a low K (~160,000) 1993 Mazda 323 Astina a couple of years ago and has been my daily driver ever since. Hasn't skipped a beat!
I have wanted one of these for so long they are just to expensive where I live. Was cool to see one get some love and care.
I love how u started this new hoppy of cars, my first car was a 1992
Toyota corolla with 170k miles one owner, still own it and drive it daily had it for over 3 years
Thanks for sharing this. I used to use a V6 one of these as my work car. It was about 20 years old at the time. It was fully loaded for it's time. 4x electric windows and the sunroof, a/c, cruise, headlamp washers, speed sensitive power steering. The cruise control was great fun, when you hit resume it would drop a couple of gears and utterly floor it back up to the speed you'd got set. I put 100k miles on that car in 3 years and apart from brakes, tyres and servicing, all I had to change was 2 CV joints and the rear drop links and remove an aftermarket immobiliser.
Man I love these Camry, 89 to 91
The cars are great little runabouts and cheap as to drive and repair. Parts are super cheap if you need to get some and if you are a bit handy you can do loads of repairs yourself. This was a fun video.
absolute gem
Thanks!
Owned a dark blue '88 model which had rust above the wheels. Fixed all of them with fiberglass and paint. This brought back those memories, thanks mate!
11:29 I don't know what your idea of "sipping fuel" is but cars with automatic transmission are pretty fuel inefficient. It is a fuel-guzzler.
11:59 Toyota knew how to build reliable electronics back then, so electric windows probably would still work today.
12:12 You could have sorted that out.
I like to think you're more of a cleaning and restoring channel. No matter what you're restoring you just nail the format.
Love the car vids too btw!
I had an 89 Camry with a 5 speed manual in high school back in the early 2000s. Its interesting the small differences between the US spec and the Aussie spec Camry. It was decent car, nothing really special but was comfortable though and got me from A to B most the time. I do remember having to replace just about every rubber hose on the car and the fact the 3SFE leaking oil from nearly every seal.
I really enjoyed watching this video! I was having a bad day until I came across this channel
old yet gold. thank for this satisfying and nostalgic blast from the past.
Love these types of videos, nothing beats late 80s and 90s Toyota's, Nissans, Hondas, etc.
In 1991 my friend had this V6 Camry with a 5 speed manual. It was great fun to drive.
they also came in the very special anti theft edition with a 5 speed manual in v6. great car. remember test driving one when they were new.
Brake dust buildup isn't really gonna do much when being attacked by a degreaser. An iron remover however, works wonders, and also abrasive textures.
I'm really enjoying the car content, so glad TH-cam recommended your channel to me when you were starting out!
4:50 There is the reason the right brake light ground connection corroded: water ingress in the right rear light!
Needs to be fixed or it will happen again.
I love this video. A man after my own heart as I had a similar project on my hands with a 1995 Toyota Camry, the generation that came after the one in this video. I found mine with very low mileage as well at seventy-three thousand Miles and plan on keeping this car forever. So easy to work on including changing bulbs. On today's cars you need to be a technician and have an entire set of tools to do the simplest repairs. Thanks again
Love the car great review love you're work true legendary man never forgotten 💖
I was 17 in 2007 and bought a 1988 Toyota Camary for 45 bucks (paid for the title switch to me) The back end had a crazy v shaped body damage from the previous owner hitting a pole I'm guessing really fast lol the brake master cylinder was broken and had to use emergency brake for like a month and the spare tire was floating in water in the trunk. Despite all the problems it ran great and made me a shit ton of memories I ended up destroying the Transmission by accidently knocking it into reverse
I owned a 5 SPD manual one of these, LOVED it ! 👍😆
Mine has the "soft suspension" problem too. The front shocks are expensive to replace 😕
I've go my mom's 91. With the 2L and includes cruise control, electric windows. A great fishbowl type visibility with minimal A&C pillars The electric seatbelts are the best feature, an alternative future feature. The engine and auto trannie are solid , the remainder is slowly dissolving due to Chicago winters.
My mum had one of these in the 90s. Never skipped a beat. I miss it.
I love the boxy look of this car it's full of character
10:22 Gotta love that grab for the stick looking for first gear, Happens everytime you start driving a auto after driving a manual for a while XD
I bought a 1991 USDM SV21 a couple of years ago.
Mine has the electric windows and cruise control you mentioned. Cruise control had been around for over 10 years by the time the second generation Camry came out; it works pretty well, though I had to replace a couple of components that failed randomly. The electric windows work, though the rear ones do not; I believe it is due to a broken wire in the driver door, as seems common from my research, I just have not investigated it. It also has an electric sunroof that works, but needs some TLC; as I understand it, the tracks may be bad.
I have also noticed that the suspension is quite soft. I'm not sure if the shocks are just worn or not as despite its softness it doesn't handle like garbage when compared to my 95 Corolla which does have bad shocks. My car also has the electric seatbelts, which function perfectly fine; though I don't particularly want to find out how effective they are in a crash....
You mentioned the V6 engine option, which set a precedent that carries on into the current generation of the Camry; but there was also an all wheel drive system that could be optioned on the 4 cylinder models, at least in the US. Very neat.
Old Toyotas are just good cars. My Camry has almost 300k US miles and still runs fantastic. All of my Toyotas run great despite their age, and for most of them miles as well. Can't beat it.
Electric/power windows were extremely rare on Camrys here in Australia. Only the top of the line "Ultima" and imported "V6" models came with them. These two models accounted for less than 10% of sales, meaning 90% or more had the wind-up windows.
I had an 88 in college. Had cruise control on it too. Loved that car!
super jealous of you finding this. we had a 92 camry growing up and i love that thing- really wish we hadn't sold it so it could have been passed down! it was awesome and ran like a champ
I would enjoy to watch a video from you again sometime regarding the Camry. Enjoy your ride and drive safe out there my brother.
Still drive a U.S. spec ‘87 Camry with manual gearbox. Love this car so much. The interior glass gets greasy from the plastics off-gassing. It requires a lot more cleaning than a newer car. Absolutely critical to keep the air conditioning in working order because the cabin can get very hot in the summertime.
Absolutely love the car videos Psivewri! Keep it up!! I find them educational and knowledgeable.
Nice work! I have an XV10 with 82,000KMs on it, which was my late grandfather’s. Plenty of sentimental memories and I drive it very sparingly. So glad to see you giving this SV21 plenty of love!
The XV10s are quite different. Alot more Lexus like. Significantly upscaled, quieter and smoother
Truly professional content quality. Really hope you continue posting these vintage car restoration videos, as they are rather interesting. Would love to see a 90s rally legend (Subaru) in one of your videos. Cheers!
As someone who dailys a Toyota MR2 1999 it's nice to see people keeping these old cars and giving them some love
This is one of the best videos I've seen in a while...it was just therapeutic, with everything done right.