I'm Robb from the Mid-Michigan area.
Well this was a rescue. I never seen myself driving a van but a friend called me and said "you want a van?" My first answer was "no". Then he explained to me that one of his family members had this van that he needed to get out of his parking lot or he would be fined. He said you have a car trailer so I called you to see if you could haul it out for him. He said it's been sitting under a car port for the last 2yrs and he didn't know what kind of shape it was in or even if it ran. When I got there it looked a lot better than I thought it would. It is a 1999 SLT AWD. It had wrinkles in the dr side front fender, the mirror was tore off and the window was gone from the mirror hitting it so hard(All the damage was outer panel). Other than that it seemed to be in really nice shape. When I got it home I rolled it off my trailer and left it sit for over a week before I had the time to mess with it. When I got to it, I put a battery and 5gal of gas in it and it fired right up. The guy told me that the reason he parked it was because the brakes didn't work and he couldn't afford to fix'em.
I found an Astro on Craigs list that was being parted out, and it just so happened it was the same exact color as mine. The guy sold me the complete door and fender for $150. I replaced the front rotors, brake pads, and calipers. I also replaced the driver's side idler arm, the front wheel bearings on both sides, and rear drums and shoes. All together it cost me under a thousand bucks.
But... Can I call it a truck?" 