Buying a van from Florida?

[njtacoma]

I live in Colorado, which uses mag chloride on our roads. This is much better then salt, but results in some minor corrosion on the underside of cars and trucks.

I have been casually searching for a diesel RB window Ford van. I found one in Florida at Shumate Truck Center and am curious about the corrosion in some of the pictures scroll through the pictures here.

My experience has only been with Colorado cars and trucks, so would this be a nightmare of corroded nuts and bolts? or is it probably pretty clean?

I've eliminated this one due to my own timing, so that is why I am posting the details, but I am curious what you think, or what your experience has been with Florida or other coast cars.

Thanks,
Neil

 

[Utah KJ]

Depends if it was driven into the ocean or not.

 

[njtacoma]

I hope it wasn't driven into the ocean, but I don't know for sure.

Is there truth to the idea that coastal vehicles rust because of exposure to salty air?

The corrosion I see seems mostly surface, is that what you see, how do these pictures compare to other coastal vehicles?

 

[ujoint]

The Florida rigs I've seen have all been really nice. But, get pics anyway.

 

[njtacoma]

I don't have a van to compare it to, so I wasn't sure if that was normal surface rust on the frame, or something to be concerned about.
Also I haven't purchased a vehicle at a distance before, so I was looking for a better understanding of what I was seeing.

I have disregarded this particular unit, but it is pretty uncommon to find a Regular body passenger 7.3. Here in Colorado vans aren't common as people haulers, even in the 80's it seemed suburbans were more common then vans, unless it was a shuttle company. I guess everybody thinks we need 4wd for the 6 snowstorms we get each year.

Thanks for the info again.

 

[k9lestat]

there is a an older 4x4 van than seems to be in decent shape for sale on Craigslist in the Charleston area

http://charleston.craigslist.org/cto/3878710645.html

[url]http://atlanta.craigslist.org/nat/cto/3941310103.html







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[polksfinest]

i live near them and all they have is gov's and county vehicles that are slap wore out i have friends that but a a couple of trucks from them and not had any luck

 

[njtacoma]

Thanks polksfinest,
I was wondering about that. Some of the trucks look decent, but others look done for. I keep looking for my unicorn van, not quite ready to fly across country and drive a van back.

 

[DaJudge]

Florida vehicles can definitely have rust! The salt air eats them up! They will have rust in really wierd places, underneath the cowel, the drip rails, etc. It is not the usual bottom up rust you get in the rust belt.

 

[bdog1]

Unless salt water is involved, (beach or storms) I see very little rust on FL vehicles. There are a lot of vehicles that migrate down from the Northeast here though.

 

[k9lestat]

Unless salt water is involved, (beach or storms) I see very little rust on FL vehicles. There are a lot of vehicles that migrate down from the Northeast here though.

he is right.

 

[njtacoma]

Thanks for the info!

 

[surfingsnow510]

Yep, most of you guys are right, I live in Florida, not too far from the beach, but far enough to where the salt air doesn't affect me. I live in Daytona, about 20 miles from the beach, so i don't have to worry about it, but most of the people i know that live across the river next to the beach tell me their cars don't have major rust, but a lot of the little things, such as nuts, bolts, etc. , especially aftermarket things , but usually the vehicle has to sit for years and years to get real rusty

 

[iin10ded]

agreed. here in sf theres literally a micro rust belt out by the coast. all the shiny bits are surface rusty. come a mile inland zero rust anywhere. being from boston its a laugh comparitively. surface rust does not equal that deep corrosion and fusing that hapoens. id say anything in fl should be great, provided it didnt live ON the beach


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[tommudd]

Check the bottom of the doors etc. I used to buy a lot of Chev. Caprices and Olds 98s out of Florida for resale up here in Ohio. Lots of the doors would be rusted out in the bottoms where salty air/ moisture would get in and lay if they lived close to the ocean . Also check roofs and roof rails for rust. Most are good but a few can have serious issues. Almost bought one Ford van that the roof rails had lots of rust almost to the point of no return