I hear you John. My daughter had an '09 Malibu. Dealercwanted $250 to change a headlight bulb. Checked youtube, turns out you have to drop the whole front bumper cover to replace the bulb! She drove it up to visitbus one weekend from St. Louis, i changed them both, but without the video I never would have found a couple of sneaky hidden bolts. Like you, alot of us learned about cars building models. You'll do fine on that modified!
Tom