Hello!

Looking at an out of state vehicle 105k miles strictly online and with limited experience with these vans can anyone else tell me if these pics would scare you away? As in too much rust? Rest of the vehicle looks fine.

thank you so much for your time and help!

 

Too much rust for me, unless your plan is to run the wheels off it in the next couple of years.

 

Once owned a body shop, now own one E250 from '03 that's rusting away even as I write this---it must have been a lemon year because this one has rust in places one rarely sees it forming. Anyway.........

This van looks to sit around far more than its driven---the mottled appearance underneath with radius arms, frame edges, exhaust system and steering shart show this quite clearly. The only real issues I'd address immediately are the door bottoms, wheel well and all along the pinch weld areas of the lower body. Except for the door bottoms the other areas mentioned are almost constantly bombarded with road debris which basically sandblasts the wheel well and lower body behind the wheels, both front and rear.

I'd use a wire wheel to remove any visible body rust then following directions use POR-15--that stuff is amazing. Once that's cured something like Dupli-Color could be used as a top coat to even out the appearance. Visiting a local body shop supply outfit where they can mix and package your exact color into a single use aerosol sprayer which tends to be a better match and better quality material too. Use it all following manufacturers instructions for the best results.

I'd suggest also using something like 3M's Paint Protection Film applied using a low temp heat gun to aid its adhesion to a clean and dry body.

The rust on the hinges isn't of any concern---that's more unsightly than anything serious. Same thing with your floor---just don't reuse the OEM mat with the carpet-like backing---those absorb humidity and lay against the metal floor causing rust over time. If you want to reuse that mat consider using the POR-15 on that surface too. BTW I strongly suggest the silver color of POR-15 as it has a very high solids content.

I also have an '05 E350 in that same color.

 

Wouldn't scare me, especially if it was a work van. JMO

 

It's a work van that's been in salt and not cleaned off regularly, the underside looks normal and the body panels look like surface rust. The first photo must be the drivers side, it's from pants leg always rubbing getting in and out of the van. The surface rust that's down to bare metal will be hard to stop but not impossible, it was caused by road rash from gravel roads. If you buy it and fix it spray lower areas with rock guard before painting it.

Denny

 

Wrong Thread