As noted here a month ago, rather than watch the last of the paint peel off and the rusted hulk dissolve this winter, we put a pencil to the economics of doing a mild restoration on my wife's van. Situation was this. It's a beater, seeing only about 700 miles per year for the last five years. It's not worth a large investment, and considering the amount of use it gets, hardly worth replacing. It runs well, needs minor mechanical work, but looks terrible. So terrible in fact we don't even have "before" pix.

"Project Cheapskate" began as an investigation to see what could be done on a beater budget. Peeling paint and a lot of rust meant cutting the finish to bare metal, priming, and painting. Wheels were rusting and tires were filthy. All but one OEM wheel cover was AWOL. Black trim was chalky, and headlights an opaque yellow. Windshield and one side window were cracked/broken.

Interior was dirty - after 6 years service as a grocery getter and Home Depot hauler. It was loaded with dust and sawdust, and had seen nearly 98.000 miles in its 15 years.

The good news, drivetrain in good shape, no serious leaks, tires were relatively new, just cosmetically challenged. Brakes were good, but master cylinder needed replacing. A few years ago we replaced the headliner and in the process, bonded heavy insulation between it and the roof. The A/C produced arctic air, and we had the windows limo tinted. Replaced windshield and side window - tinted to match.

The project included shaving the "Plymouth" and "Grand Voyager" emblems off the liftgate, cutting off remaining paint and rust, priming and application of three coats of Earl Scheib's mid-range paint - no wheels or jambs. DIY'd the surface prep on the wheels, tire restoration, masked, primed and painted wheels and checked spare. Polished out all black trim on windows, hood, and grill with Mother's "Back to Black". Polished and rain-x'ed windows. Full interior detail.

Total cost:

1992 Plymouth Grand Voyager, 3.0 V-6 AM-FM, air, upsized wheels. Purchased 2001 - $500
Repair A/C $150
Headliner, insulation - $100
Replace master cylinder $210
Windshield, side glass replacement, tint - $350
Paint - Scheib - $580
Paint, sandpaper, polishing bonnet, products - $40
Replace muffler, tailpipe $128
Wheel covers (4) - $34 (selling 1 OEM on eBay)
Full interior detail, shampoo carpet seats, polish all trim and panels - $124

Total, phase one, ~$2,226 TOTAL cost of vehicle to date (plus fuel, tax, insurance for 6 years)

The result:





Remaining mechanical work will include tie rod ends and brake booster that are nearing the end of their lives, but not yet serious. This will be accomplished by Christmas. Interior work begins the first of the year, with GPS, backup camera, and radio/CD/MP3 player and speakers - all to be transferred to next car - if I can ever persuade her to give this one up - we've lavished so much attention on it in the last month.

The project has proven instructive - it is possible to rebuild a carefully selected bargain beater to something that is utilitarian and reliable in urban service - without being a total embarrassment to drive. We exceeded our self imposed target budget of $2K when the master cylinder blew last week, but otherwise were successful - and could have saved a bit, but other projects required our time and some details to be handled professionally that we had planned to DIY.

Anyone else doing a bargain restoration of their beater?

 

hey....




that actually looks rather nice...

 

yep, im workin on my DD camry

il post in a bit

 

May I make some additional suggestions sir

 

I really wanted to put some rims in the budget, but they were too much - also the required change of tires would kill the project. ("Cheapskate", remember?)

There may be an opportunity for something like this: Next fall we will make the decision to trade up about 12 years or so - there are a lot of '03-'04 Chrysler T&C vans on the market at about $6K that would give us not only a newer starting point, but a LOT of safety features that were not available in '92. Multiple airbags, anti-locks, 4-wheel discs, to name a few.

IF JK still loves the old warhorse and is unwilling to trade, and because the van will need tires by then (with only about 4K miles, but they'll be six years old, and in need of replacement for safety), then we might possibly do rims. Rather imagine the big brake kit is out though . . . .

Thanks for the PS on the door handles, too. We have to send it back over to the paint shop next week to have the rear bumper repainted - it seems the porter at the shop scraped the lower left quarter panel when he parked it, and they are going to repair it. Might have them paint those handles while it's there. Good idea!

Thanks man! One unintended consequence of this project - the "coyotes" have stopped coming by and wanting to buy the van. It seems the rust, peeling paint, and limo tint made ideal camouflage for running loads of illegals up from the border. Now it would look suspiciously like it was stolen from an elderly couple in Amarillo.

 

Did you use the left over paint on the house? I see a color trend.

That looks great! Nice restore!

 

Great job!! It only cost $500 when you originally bought it in '01?

 

My wife's sister was offered $3500 on a trade for a new Dodge Caravan back in '01 - then the AC quit and she was told by her dealer that it would take $3000 to replace the compressor and the evap. That would leave $500 for her trade. Sis smelled a rat, but about to leave on a long-planned vacation up to visit her husband's parents in Michigan, she said fine, rather than give it away to the dealership, she'd sell it to her sister for the $500.

We didn't really need it at the time, and JK wasn't too interested in a minivan - but after a drive, it proved to be in good shape, had all service records, and although the AC was out and the factory-defective paint was peeling pretty badly, we bought it, fixed the AC for $!50 and drove it.

It may have had only one wheel cover, but it was everything JK wanted - cold, dark, and able to move under its own power. It was the ugly duckling we kept hidden behind the house, but JK always saw the potential in it. It was at her urging that we began the project.

Blue? yes, that's our compromise color for the house - she'd rather have purple - everything. The homeowners association would have shown up with pitchforks and torches, but thankfully, JK found a Ralph Lauren blue she liked - and we had it matched with GOOD paint for a good bit less per 5 gal. bucket. There is an upside to this, I can probably get away with using the paint we used on the trim on the house to touch up the parking lot dings the van will inevitably get.

 

Wow ! I'd love to do this to my RAV4!

-It has two tiny rust spots (One on the edge of the tailgate, the other on the trim pieces between the grill & bumper.).

-A mysterious dent on the hood nearby the driver's side headlight.

-Scratches on the rear windscreen (Was my fault wasn't as I careful enough with the knife while trying to remove the fading dealer sticker.).

-Scratches on the polycarbonate headlight lenses. I don't have the necessary tools and also too scared to do it myself.

-Scratches on the left + right front fender & a long (And probably deep.) scratch on the right rear passenger's frame (Not sure what it's called. It's where the sheet metal & the door meets.).

Unfortunately, I don't have the money to do a full overhaul or even the DIY skills to do a proper touch up! (A small can of primer & clear coat will probably cost too much down under here.).

 

Came out fantastic Lil!!!!!!!

 

JK just did a brake job on the van that cost nothing. Maybe other owners of old disc-drum brake systems will find it instructive.

After the new master cylinder and extensive brake flush and bleed, the pedal was solid, but awfully close to the floor. Obviously the brakes needed adjustment. Back in the day when drum brakes were common on two or four wheels, a revolution in the mid sixties ushered in "self-adjusting" brakes. This feature revolved around a ratchet mechanism that would advance the star wheel on the shoe adjustment when the brakes were applied with some force while backing up. Of course the levers and pawl that performed this function froze after a couple of years and rendered the adjustment useless.

Looking over the van's service records I could find no evidence of the rear brakes being serviced - ever. The shop that replaced the master cylinder pulled the rear drums and inspected the brakes - reporting about 30% wear both front and rear. It looked like the rears had never been serviced. This was important because the FIRST thing a good brake shop would do was remove all of the self-adjusting hardware - in favor of a good old-fashioned manual adjustment. Usually this was a good idea - eliminating those flimsy levers often saved a lot of frustration trying to manually adjust the shoes.

Well as usual, my dear wife proved me right and wrong at the same time. She was headed out shopping with our daughter and asked if she should take the car by the shop and have the brake adjustment checked. Sure, I said, but first I suggested she drive to a nearby new office park with plenty of broad, deserted streets and try the self-adjusters. I knew that after nearly sixteen years they were probably frozen, but what the heck, give it a try. I explained the drill: get up a little speed in reverse and slam on the brakes. Do it three or four times, and see what happens.

A couple of hours later the girls reappear - number 1 daughter's eyes were still pretty big. "Do you know what Mom did?" Uh-oh - this sounds expensive . . .

My lovely wife may be auditioning soon for "Joie Chitwood's Helldrivers". She took me literally, and when the first reverse-stop from a fast-walking pace didn't produce the desired result, she raised the stakes. Flying backward down a broad, deserted four-lane, she slammed on the brakes - a loud "BANG" was heard from the rear. A quick inspection revealed no puddles, no random parts in the street, so she tried it again, this time achieving lockup and a lurid slide that with a flick of the wheel on entry would have produced a marvelous "bootleg turn" worthy of Chitwood himself.

The pedal came up an inch. If a little's good, more is better. Again, another attempt to flat-spot the tires gained another half-inch or so. Pleased with her performance, as with women everywhere, she celebrated by going shopping.

The van now has excellent brakes, good solid pedal feel, and a driver who has discovered the joys of 10/10ths performance driving. I fully expect reports of her tray sliding by next week. If I do, she's grounded for a month.