Don't go Eastwood. stick to a welding name like Lincoln, Hobart, Miller, ESAB.
I've been all over this one, as i've been looking at this for myself too. Modern welders are small inverter units, and you'll want to start there, rather than a massive older unit. Limited to ARC welding only, one of those units will do.
The primary question is what kind of welding will you be doing? I assume you'll primarily be doing MIG welding on your Toyota bodywork. It would be nice to think you'll do TIG as well, but I assume you don't have the experience there, nor do I.
If your scope is limited to the sheetmetal bodywork only, then there are very many models of MIG welder that will do the job affordably. I assume you don't need an industrial mig welding machine, with its better duty cycles and higher pricetag.
I expect something like the Lincoln MIG Pak 180 would work well, there is a competitive Hobart welder that might be a better unit. Hobart is owned by Miller.
Its tempting to get a mega monster welder for your sheetmetal bodywork. It is likely unneeded.
They have a multiprocess welder at Harbour Freight, the Vulcan OmniPro 220. It can do stick, MIG, TIG. The unit, when it goes on sale with all coupons, isn't wildly less money than the comparable Lincoln Power MIG 210 Multiprocess, which the Vulcan is mostly a copy of. Not saving reasonable money there. Perhaps the cheaper Vulcan consumables might fit with the Lincoln unit for rough jobs, I don't know. The Lincoln was available at both Home Depot and NAPA, last I checked.
Then we get into serious units for serious welders. Miller's larger multiprocess units are likely better, they will cost you more. Miller XMT350 MPA will allow you to Weld 1 inch steel plate. I don't think you have any of that on an LC. Many of ESAB's multiprocess units will allow you to TIG weld aluminum. I don't think that's in your scope of work either.
My 2c.
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