Accidentally bought an Astrovan

[mr_elijah_gardner]

Today I was talking to a friend of a friend. He mentions that he has an old astrovan. He knows I buy and sell cars and asked if I'd be interested in it.

I go by and take a look. What I find is a really ugly 94 Astro Van. It has some issues like door handles not working. Exhaust is a little loud. Most plastic is dry and cracked. 235k on the odometer.

The good: 4.3 motor is strong. Recent diff oil change. Recent shade tree transmission replace with a turbo 350. Body is straight just bad paint and some rust starting where the paint is missing from hood and roof.  Tires less than a year old and in good shape. I didn't look at brakes but it stopped good.

I throw him such a low ball offer I expect him to say no but takes it. Now I have an astrovan. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. I might post it for sale after I check it out a little more. I might decide to do a second van project. I pretty confident it's sound but it might be something I take to the junkyard because I bought something with my big mouth.

 

[jonyjoe303]

Clean it up and someone will buy it, you get at least what you payed for it. Those are solid vans, mines a 1986 and it runs like a champ. Door handles not that hard to change, I changed the driver and passenger ones they cost like 12 dollars each. If anything happen to my astrovan, I would buy another one, it been very reliable for me.

 

[mr_elijah_gardner]

Astrovan found a new home. It ended up going to be a second vehicle for a young family. I gave $150 for it so that's what I let them have if for. I hope it serves them well. 

I've not spent to much time with astrovans. I can see why they are so popular for a smaller van build. Decent power and lots of room for a smaller van.

 

[user 37446]

Gads, $150...  I can only imagine how many potential vanners would have begged for that even at twice the price.  A TremClad roller/brush paint job (see YouTube) and gut out the interior...  Nice of you to help that family out, now can you 3D print a few dozen more of those deals?

 

[mr_elijah_gardner]

I come across running driving cars like that 5 or 6 times a year. I useally send them to people in need. This was the first van. I'll admit I wanted it to go to for van purposes. The family was in pretty desperate need so they could both work. I know they sold their TV's to pay for it. So unfortunately that's all I had available for them at the time. Still a good deed but still kinda sad.