Unfortunately, when you drive any 20 year old vehicle, you have to put some money into it. When you do something on the front end, do EVERYTHING on the front end. Or you can pay 200 dollars labor 6 times to replace 1 20 dollar part at a time. You can't think of it as repair anymore, you have to think of "mechanical restoration". If you do, in a year or two and not a whole lot of money you will have a wonderful, great driving, reliable van. If not, in 5 years, you will have spent 10-15k, mostly in labor, to replace a small percentage of your vans' parts. Trying to keep a WBXer alive is a great example. Everything on it is 15- 20 years old. Replacing one part at a time, plus the labor, is painfully expensive. Buying a rebuild, and putting 15-20 year old sensors, wiring , cooing, exhaust back on is horrifically expensive long term. Want a WBXer bargain? We currently have a 91 Syncro Westy engine with 23K original miles. Southwest van, zero rust. The engine looks like new. Every fastener, cooling line, etc. It belongs in a museum. We are putting a Subie in the van (9k miles, also like new). The engine, not a longblock but a complete engine, bellhousing to tailpipe, is for sale. All accessories, sensors etc. The exhaust looks like it has 1K miles on it. We won't install it, but we will palletize and ship it. 2900 or highest bidder by the end of the week. John Vanaru.com |
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