Howdy I'm New Here!

[black-aerostar]

First of all Howdy Everyone!

I was so impressed by Brooklynbay's posts I had to join.

I’ve been a proud owner of the Aerostar since day one.

This is going back 23 years now.

I’ve had very single year that came out and currently have four.

All are AWD’s with the 92, 93, 94 all being Eddie Bauer.

I’ll post in a couple of places of interest. Brooklyn keep an eye out for them I have some fairly interesting questions to ask.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! I think that you might have more experience owning them than I do. My first Aerostar was my 88 which was purchased in September 1992. I've never owned the E-4WD model. How did you find this website?

 

[BrooklynBay]

Don't forget to list your vehicles in the sticky thread above which says: How many people own or have owned an Aerostar. What did you do with your old ones? Do you have a collection of spare parts like I have? You should try to gather as many parts as possible since these vans are no longer made, and you might not be able to get things so easily as they get older.

 

[black-aerostar]

I sold off my early ones when the 92 came out.

Every time I see an EB AWD I simply buy it doesn't matter the year.

But I do target the late 93 and 94 EB AWD's more than any other years.

My 93 is the oddball in the bunch it was built 10/93 and is titled as a 93 but! It has the third break light which was 94' and up only option.

I've had my 93 since new and had as nice as the day it came out of the showroom. That's until some idiot took the red light while my wife was driving it and she smacked into his F150 head on @ 40 MPH.

I took the nose end apart. Not too bad.... I'm gathering all the parts I need and plan on putting her back together.


Brooklyn....

We need to figure out how many EB's were made between 93 and 94 which is the end of the run for EB's.

I'd like to know how many of each color were made and so on.

I have a brown/tan EB AWD built 10/93 which should be the start of the 94 run and my 94 was built 4/94 which should be at the very last part of the EB series.

I've never seen a brown/tan EB AWD combo other than mine and to top it off I've never seen a black one either.

I'm now looking for the baby blue one and possibly one with cardinal red interior.

My wife thinks I'm nuts but hey I want them to be part of my very extensive car collection.

That's what saved my ass when my wife got into the accident.

I told state farm it was part of my car collection (which is was) and they paid over $8500 + paid for the down time while looking for a replacement when they totaled it and gave me the salvage for $250.

You guys think hey you didn't do too bad I still think I got short changed.

My 93 has/had 16k original miles I paid over $34,000 for it when it was new.

I guess its better than the original $1500 that state farm offered.

When I threatened to take ALL my business away from them and threatened to sue within 72 hours they magically came up with a better figure.

I showed them that one guy from PA's Aero with the 5.0 to show them that there are people like me out there that do collect these types of vans.

 

[black-aerostar]

Brooklyn....

I forgot to mention.

I search the internet at least a couple of hours a day looking for them.

Since I make my living online I open up a window and google the heck out of aerostars.

When I find them I ask the seller to take as many pix as they can and simply buy them.

Makes for great road trips.

Last year I bought a white EB AWD with leather from a guy in Brooklyn just for the leather seats.

It ran so nice I ended up keeping it instead of using it for parts. I paid $700 for it.

I bought my 96 AWD with 81,000 miles on eBay from someone in CA also last year for $500.

I wanted to keep the 96 for parts just in case any of my AWD's failed but it ran so nice I used it as a daily beater.

I put over 45,000 in the 18 months I've owned it.

It tows 5000+ pounds like a dream. That one has the 4 speed trans with the electronic OD. I was thinking of sticking that tranny into one of my EB's one of these days but I'm wondering if it would work since the electronics seem to be different.

I have two aeros to spare and one of these days I'm going to figure out how to stretch my nicest one and make it into something really unique. = )

 

[BrooklynBay]

Do you have pictures of your collection? I've never seen leather seats in these vans. There is an option for a child seat that folds down. I only saw a picture of it, but never saw it in any van. Do you have any sport models? How do you ship these vans back? Do you take a plane or a train to see them, then drive them back? What kind of work do you do online? I'm surprised that you never came across this site until now since everything is linked to Google.

 

[black-aerostar]

I just saw this site for the first time last night.


I usually buy mine online after doing extensive google searches.

Once I find one I'm interested in I get the seller to take a crap load of pix.

One of the important factors I look for is the production date.

Anything from 8/93-6/94 in EB I buy no matter the color or condition.

I have a few pix around.

I'll snap a few when the weather clears of my 93 & 94 EB's as I'm sure you havent seen an original E4wd in the colors I have.


Leather is fairly common for EB's you just have to know where to look for them.

I've seen about 8 or so over the last couple of years.

I saw one recently in a junk yard in CA but the leather had black mold on it so I passed it up.

When I buy them I get a one way ticket for 99 bucks then take a nice relaxing road trip home.

If I happen to break down which only happened once, no big deal my wife picks me up with my excursion and trailer.

I've done this 5 times over the last several years and have a blast every time I do it.

When I'm all said and done I want to fix my 93' EB and get two more but they have to be exactly what I'm looking for.

I'm looking for one with the cardinal red interior and the seafoam green-baby blue EB in a AWD and I'll be done.

I found a dark purple one at our local junk yard last weekend it's a 97' I've never seen that color option before.

Its a factory car for sure too bad it was not a nice example I'd probably would have had that one as well.

Let me know if you ever come across that seafoam-baby blue color, that's the one I'm really after.

Everyone asks why not paint one of mine, that would be too easy, I want it to be original.

I'll PM you what I do for a living.

 

[BrooklynBay]

I'm surprised that you have so much room to store all of these vehicles. Land in NY is super expensive, and renting a one car driveway is about $150-$200 a month. A garage would be even more.

 

[DoOver]

B-A why do you like the 93-94 models? Is there something specal about those years? I am looking for a 97 AWD model mainly because of the "5 speed" tranny.
Brian

 

[black-aerostar]

Try to find an Eddie Bauer AWD extended with quads and let me know what you find.

They're so few and far between.

Oh and one with a third break light.

 

[black-aerostar]

here's a few 97 AWD.


http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/cto/1066155791.html


http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/cto/1095287032.html



http://www.vehix.com/inventory/VehicleDetails.aspx?sellerid=5F000000003A55&zip=77552&radius=24874&condition=Used&smodel=Aerostar&make=Ford&Limit=75&SearchPagePosition=1&inventoryid=770000013CFF28&N=127%2B4294967242%2B4294962982&Ne=11%2B16%2B17%2B10%2B1%2B2%2B19%2B20%2B25%2B24%2B7%2B3%2B14&path=%253FLimit%253D75%2526N%253D127%25252B4294967242%25252B4294962982%2526Ne%253D11%25252B16%25252B17%25252B10%25252B1%25252B2%25252B19%25252B20%25252B25%25252B24%25252B7%25252B3%25252B14%2526Nf%253DpLocation%25257CGCLT%25252029.2894992828369%25252C-94.8320007324219%25252040.233675%2526PostalCode%253D77552%2526RadiusInMiles%253D24873.6309353221

 

[black-aerostar]

I found one with the child seats!

http://detroit.craigslist.org/cto/1093296788.html

 

[black-aerostar]

Here's a true EB 94 AWD http://detroit.craigslist.org/cto/1076601279.html


Too bad its a rust bucket.

 

[BrooklynBay]

The green/gray one in the first picture has rust on the bottom too. The one with 202K miles is way too expensive.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Black-Aerostar, do you have any thoughts about switching the E-4WD system off? There is a thread in this section on this. Did you ever consider converting an Aerostar to run on electric? There is another thread on this in this section.

 

[black-aerostar]

Black-Aerostar, do you have any thoughts about switching the E-4WD system off? There is a thread in this section on this. Did you ever consider converting an Aerostar to run on electric? There is another thread on this in this section.

I've never tried to switch the E-4WD off.

Electric? lol What I would like to do is put a 5.0 or SVO in one of mine.


By the way you asked how can I afford a garage to house all my cars.


I built my current house around my car collection.

It sits on almost 5 acres. So there's plenty of room to grow.

I have a big enough "garage" attached to the house where I can keep at least 10 cars in the back if I don't put my boat in there. It's tiled and it has A/C and bar-b-cue pit. = )

Gotta eat when working on my rides....

I said cars not trucks or vans. lol

The regular garage I could fit 3 small cars or 2 aerostars or my Excursion and maybe 1 aerostar.

I also have a car port where I keep my enclosed toy hauler and my parts cars. I could probably fit 5-6 parts cars there at any given time.


Remember I do this as a hobby without the intention of ever making a dime.

When I'm finally all said and done, I'll sell off my massive collection of "extras".

Mostly vintage BMW parts.

I had to build an upstairs (not completed) just to house all my car parts.


I keep saying I'm going to "finish" this year, then something else pops up, it's been that way for years with no end in sight.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Your house sounds like a collector's dream. Do you have room for an extra bed? Did you ever see Jay Leno's cart collection? He has really nice stuff. http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/ All of his stuff is completely restored, and he even has steam cars.

 

[black-aerostar]

The green/gray one in the first picture has rust on the bottom too. The one with 202K miles is way too expensive.

? That one is 110k miles and about $2200.


I would pay about $1700 for that one.


Minor rust isn't really an issue with me.


I took my 93 and replaced from the tan down on my EB on both sides.

NO BONDO ever = ) I had my friend weld new metal all the way around where you couldnt tell it was ever done.

I also used POR 15 on the new metal.


In my opinion that's not too bad by that one pic.


My black 94' EB that's from Canada had Ziebart done when it was new.


The only very minor spot of rust which all get is on the pass side sill.

I plan on stripping the entire van down and giving it a new paint job and repairing that sill with new metal.

I'm also going to call Ziebart and advised them where they put the plug after they rust proofed it rusted and failed to see what they have to say.

Other than that minor spot and those damn running lights that wont go out unless I pull #14 fuse out the van is basically perfect for what it is.

I have plenty of "spares" laying around to make into a show car in time.

Between the 93 that my wife crashed and the 94 that I just got I'm going to have my hands full for most of the summer, that's if I don't add anything else.

As soon as it stops raining here hopefully later today..... I'm going to get that one EB 91'

I can't pass that one up. It's nice, It's cheap and worse comes to worse I can always have it as a spare for parts. My wife says yeah rrrrright.

Who knows I might be working on a complete date run of EB's 89-94 lol

I have the 92,93,94 and soon the 91' all I need to do is find a nice example of an 89' and 90'. lmao

 

[black-aerostar]

I've met Jay that the Viper invitationals.


He's a cool guy. We have a couple of things in common.


We like vintage Porsches and love VIPERS.

He has the first Viper I own the last two ACR's ever built. (old style)

I might get an 09' if I can get financing. Right now I have too much going on to plunk down $135k on a new Viper. I'm in line to get the last (new style) ACR if the breed dies this year.

I'm sure Leno is going to get dibbbbbs on the final Viper ever built.


I just got an email yesterday AM that CCAP (conner ave. assembly plant) finally went to work yesterday after a 3+ month lay off.

This means that they went into production on the 09' Vipers with the first ones rolling out within the next 10-15 days.

 

[black-aerostar]

My house is TOO SMALL!


If the economy wasnt shot the way it is I would have built my house at least three times the size.

Now that would be a collectors dream.

My business is down by at least 70% right now.

I hope that's the bottom.