I own a 95 B2500 with the 5.2 liter, it has 130k miles on it. I bought this van from a neighbor a week ago and only put 44 miles on it. I was backing up and turned the wheel and heard a loud popping noise and lost ability to steer the driver side wheel. Idk what to do but I want to keep this van seeing I only payed 700 for it. My question is, should I have it fixed and if done right would it be safe? Any (educated) suggestions are greatly appreciated.


Edit:The idler arm mount is what pulled off the frame.

 

HI

I think you will get 7 different answers from 7 different people for your question.

Reallistically, I am not there and cannot see the other side, but if the other side is as bad, I probably would keep your van as a part vehicle and get another van. I see them here in Florida for less than 3k with no rust.

I will probably cost you anywhere from 1500 to 3000 to fix. Like I said there will be a bunch of different ways of doing it. The right way, IIRC, is do get whole lower chassis from a junkyard and weld that in...but then you are back in the situation, is it better just to go to Florida and get one without any rust?

Tough call...someone else certainly has some more input

BTW here are some examples of what is around my town --(real quickly)
http://tampa.craigslist.org/pnl/ctd/3320525823.html

http://tampa.craigslist.org/pnl/cto/3357336305.html

http://tampa.craigslist.org/hil/ctd/3318705106.html

 

I am of the opinion that anything mechanical can be more easily fixed than body damage or rust, especially to the structural components and/or chassis.

Whenever I look for a vehicle I always find a rust-free example and then take a look at what needs fixed mechanically (if anything) and then decide whether or not to make the purchase based on the price.

IMHO this one is a waste of your time and probably money also.

Five more opinions to go.....

 

I'm originally from St. Pete and moved to Ohio 2 years ago. I've never seen cars get rust like they do up here. This is the only vehicle I have and I've sunk all my money into it. I'm having a collision repair shop look at it to see if they could possible weld in a section of frame from another van and then somehow brace it. I just need to get past this winter, I don't really want to be walking 2 miles to work in the snow again this year.

 

It was a terrible decision because I did get underneath and was worried about that specific section. The driver side was the only part that looked troubling. I didn't say anything because it just looked like surface rust that could be ground down and coated.

 

Find out how much you can get for scrap on that thing, and get another cheap vehicle. If you can afford to pay for repairs on that thing, you can afford another vehicle. The thing that makes those repairs so expensive is the welding. It isn't cheap.

Friend of mine had a part of his roof get sunk in from overloading something heavy on it. That part of the roof rusted out. When we found oput how much it would cost to get that part of the roof replaced (around $650), he just cut that part, and most of the rest of the roof out, and installed a fiberglass top. He figured if he had to throw big money at fixing the problem, he might as well get an upgrade at the same time.

 

Thanks guys for the insight, it looks like I'm gonna scrap it for $400, with the sensors and tune up I did to it I'm almost $100 in the hole. Would have been easier to just light $700 on fire. Anyway I appreciate it.

 

Sorry. That's a mistake you probably won't make again. People think I'm nuts when I get down on the ground to look underneath a vehicle -- but when buying an older vehicle,
it's a necessary effort to check for excessive rust and things that leak. At least you weren't zooming down the hiway.