I want to save my 1994 Ram 250 Van. Does anyone know where I can buy frame sections?

 

Contact salvage yards in southwest they can cut out then ship you the section.

 

great idea, thanks. does anyone active on the forum live there, to recommend a salvage yard?

 

Ever since the Obama scrap for clunkers happened, it's a rare thing now to find Ram Vans in the salvage yards. I too even live down here having a hard time finding them.

Pull-A-Part has the best selection, but you would have to do the work yourself.

For the best option, find a Ram Van in the era of yours in the south, fly down and drive it home. Then swap all your good stuff over to it. That's may be my best hope. When we lived up in NYS, our van got the rust cancer bad. It's limped along in this salt-free roads now for 6 years. The rust is much slower, but gradually happens now.

 

Again the southwest is your best bet for corrosion free metal.

 

I started a thread over in the southwest region but haven't had any responses. My local auto body shop may help me do this job. I didn't check our local boneyards yet. I hope there is a locator system link up thing, maybe to the southwest.

 

car-part.com results:


Year
Part
ModelDescriptionPart
GradeStock#US
PriceDealer InfoDist
mile1994
Frame
Dodge 150 Van 050001$CallSpecialty Automotive USA-FL(St.-Augustine) E-mail 1-877-825-02571631994
Frame
Dodge 150 Van1500,3.9,ATOD,RWD,NO TILT 130326$CallFlamingo Auto USA-FL(Homestead) E-mail 305-245-61832191994
Frame
Dodge 250 Van E1240$CallPhoenix Automotive USA-VA(Culpeper) E-mail 540-825-2571 / 703-494-6969

 

I have two B3500's I used for work. Bought both from NYS at State auction a few years ago so I don't even have $4k into both combined. '01 has 89k '02 has 54k. The 02 is a high top wheelchair van w/lift, 01 is a panel van. Both run like a top. Neither showed any signs of steering gear rust (it rusts from inside the frame out) when I bought them. Within a year both sections damn near popped off the frame. I couldn't believe my eyes when I got underneath. The frames had rusted clear thru!

My understanding is, when Chrysler introduced the series III van they bumped out the nose and engine to provide a little more "meat" upfront for crash protection, good idea it seemed. This also gave some more room around the doghouse, easier to get between driver and passenger seats. However, in so doing, they created a void that encouraged an undercurrent of snow, slush and road salt to backwash up under the expanded nose section. Every time you drive this rig in the winter you are showering the front end with road salt.

This is a faulty design if ever there was one, and Chrysler has done nothing to address this with harsh climate customers. It's not the body rust that bugs me, or even the frame rust, it's the steering gear that can give way with little or no notice and cause complete lack of vehicle control AT SPEED! Something should be done about this!

Disgraceful!

 

Steve, Yes the frame of my van is so bad, I'm holding off on trying to repair it. Front and rear it is thoroughly rusted out. The steering box is indeed liable to rip right off while in use. We put it above my friends pit to inspect everything and the cost to fix this one just doesn't make any sense. I may part it out. It has many good parts, windows, etc.

 

You may may have a good plan there. Have you considered finding a southern van and use your current one as a donor? I also wanted to add that my LWB Chevy frame is solid NO rot or even surface rust, sad Dodge drop the ball and I am a MOPAR man. When it is time for my next B van and I will have another it will be a southern van preferably from the arid desert where there are no corrosion concerns.