New Guy with a 1976 Dodge B200 Shorty - August 16th 2017 8:22 pm
I've been looking almost everyday for a old panel van for 5 years now. Found this one an hour from my house. The seller was funny and knew nothing about repairing vehicles. By the time I got to his house he had pulled the craigslist ad and decided not to sell it. He went ahead and decided to show me the van since I showed up. He was asking $1600.
The previous owner goes around pointing out all the things wrong with it. Under the van was multiple huge puddles of power steering fluid. He said he fixed the power steering problem by adding a quart of new fluid every week. The battery doesn't have a hold down strap so he just wedged a empty water bottle against it and the firewall so it wouldn't rock in the tray. The engine bay was a nightmare or random wires with only half of them attached to things.
My biggest concern was some rust in the typical locations but I knew they made patch panels for those locations. After he gets done showing me the van he surprised me by saying "Ok, Ill take $1000 for it." I paid the man as fast as I could without drawing suspicion, collected the keys and title and came out the next day with a buddy to drive it home.
The van made it 10 miles in the pouring rain without working windshield wipers before additional electrical problems killed it on the side of the road 40 miles from home. Spent some time trying to fix it but in the end I had to call a tow truck. The next day I fixed all the electrical problems. I am so excited and can't wait to fix more problem
The previous owner goes around pointing out all the things wrong with it. Under the van was multiple huge puddles of power steering fluid. He said he fixed the power steering problem by adding a quart of new fluid every week. The battery doesn't have a hold down strap so he just wedged a empty water bottle against it and the firewall so it wouldn't rock in the tray. The engine bay was a nightmare or random wires with only half of them attached to things.
My biggest concern was some rust in the typical locations but I knew they made patch panels for those locations. After he gets done showing me the van he surprised me by saying "Ok, Ill take $1000 for it." I paid the man as fast as I could without drawing suspicion, collected the keys and title and came out the next day with a buddy to drive it home.
The van made it 10 miles in the pouring rain without working windshield wipers before additional electrical problems killed it on the side of the road 40 miles from home. Spent some time trying to fix it but in the end I had to call a tow truck. The next day I fixed all the electrical problems. I am so excited and can't wait to fix more problem