Yes, do the rust first to preserve the irreplaceable wonderful vanagon..

The running gear, that's repairable forever.

And you might pull off an inexpensive Subaru rebuild if you do everything
yourself, including buying the donor car inexpensively, pulling all the
stuff etc.

87 is an excellent year vanagon, just keep it and love it.

Scott

www.turbovans.com <http://www.turbovans.com/>

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Richards, Andrew
Sent: Monday, March 10, 2008 2:15 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: body work vs. mechanical work

My vanagon is nearing a crossroads in its life.  With 160K on the

original engine and transmission, I'm starting to think hard about its

future.  Its body is pretty darn straight, but seam rust is creeping

along and a body shop just quoted me $1500 to fix all the rust

(windshield too) and parking lot dents.

What should come first?  Body or mechanical issues?  I've always

understood it's best to attack rust ASAP because it'll only get more

expensive to fix.  On the other hand, dropping a large chunk of $$$ into

body work on a van who's guts are getting on in years may be futile for

a guy who's pockets aren't that deep.  What would you do?  I'm also

considering a do-it-yourself Subaru conversion, which could save me 1-2K

compared to a pro WBX rebuild.

Thanks,

Andrew

'87 GL

Portland, OR

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