I bought this van sight-unseen, through pictures on the phone, and a fairly informative carfax. It was the only AWD within range (I was also shopping AMC Eagles) and still it required a 300 mi delivery. I paid more than the actual value to me, but the functional handicap conversion made it difficult to negotiate down. Anyhow, she's mine. And pretty doggone clean overall. It seems to have had an easy life, and my mechanic's gut tells me it HAS to have been garaged for a large portion of that. I haven't all the way been underneath yet, but what I can see looks to be in great mechanical shape. Therefore, I am confident that this will be more of a Preservation Project than a restoration.
Before it was even delivered, I'd seen a youtube about the disaster zone that can be caused by a rotten drip rail and old weatherstripping, and gobby attempts to fix it. The very first thing I did after parking in the driveway was pop the hatch. It was a hot mess, the whole area. Debris was blocking the roof gutter, and muddy drifts were running down everywhere, soaking the interior rear corners from roof to floor, and the carpet squished when you knelt on it. And, boy, the smell. I found 2 small dime size rot holes, hidden by cracking household caulking. Just god-awful, and I was a whole day cleaning before I could tell what was what.
After a lot of money and time, more than one would hope, I've torn down, cleaned, and reconstructed the entire dutch door seal setup. Some new parts, some original parts reused, a dab or two of liquid electrical tape, lots of adhesive. I gotta say, I think I did it, I'm no longer finding water where it shouldn't be. Here's a high-res shot of how good it's looking now. You can find my "consumer reports" on the new parts I used in the "Exterior" forum.
And onto the side slider, which I already knew was a problem as well. You could see daylight around the upper custom panel, and the headliner is rusty wet all the time. It's pretty easy to see why, more caulking.
Here's what's left of the custom upper track roller, the only thing holding the top of the door in was about an 1/8" overlap of that worn out pin. Lucky I like bicycles and have junk drawers, because a small bearing and some hardware let me fix this on the fly. Wow, just like that, the door opens and shuts smooth, and the inner seals are working. No more daylight or water from that area.
I still have to deal with those leaks in the upper "dormer," however, but I feel much better about things now than when she first arrived.
Before it was even delivered, I'd seen a youtube about the disaster zone that can be caused by a rotten drip rail and old weatherstripping, and gobby attempts to fix it. The very first thing I did after parking in the driveway was pop the hatch. It was a hot mess, the whole area. Debris was blocking the roof gutter, and muddy drifts were running down everywhere, soaking the interior rear corners from roof to floor, and the carpet squished when you knelt on it. And, boy, the smell. I found 2 small dime size rot holes, hidden by cracking household caulking. Just god-awful, and I was a whole day cleaning before I could tell what was what.
After a lot of money and time, more than one would hope, I've torn down, cleaned, and reconstructed the entire dutch door seal setup. Some new parts, some original parts reused, a dab or two of liquid electrical tape, lots of adhesive. I gotta say, I think I did it, I'm no longer finding water where it shouldn't be. Here's a high-res shot of how good it's looking now. You can find my "consumer reports" on the new parts I used in the "Exterior" forum.
And onto the side slider, which I already knew was a problem as well. You could see daylight around the upper custom panel, and the headliner is rusty wet all the time. It's pretty easy to see why, more caulking.
Here's what's left of the custom upper track roller, the only thing holding the top of the door in was about an 1/8" overlap of that worn out pin. Lucky I like bicycles and have junk drawers, because a small bearing and some hardware let me fix this on the fly. Wow, just like that, the door opens and shuts smooth, and the inner seals are working. No more daylight or water from that area.
I still have to deal with those leaks in the upper "dormer," however, but I feel much better about things now than when she first arrived.