[btwilson86]

So basically, ochowdero, make sure that the car you have is a solid platform before going for more power. Grandavi has some very good points in his post here about issues some owners of twenty-something year old cars have had, but as batmmannn has pointed out these are still Toyota's, and Toyota cars are overall solid, reliable vehicles. There's good engineering behind them.

So MY advice would be to take a good, in depth look at your car. Find out what you like and don't like about it. See what is in need of replacing, get prices for parts that you will likely need now or down the road. Give yourself a good idea of what you're working with, and build your plan off of that. You may find that your car is in great shape overall, or that you may want to keep it as is, enjoy it for what it is, and find another one for your project build.