Pretty In Pink: Aerostar Edition

Illustration for article titled Pretty In Pink: Aerostar Edition
Photo: Face be

This thing is RAD.

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Photo: Face be
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Look at that repair manual.

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Look at that WOOD

All for $4,000

The description is pretty detailed too:

“Can you drive this away? Yes.

Can you drive it back home to Florida, California or Uzbekistan? Maybe? I drove it 200 miles to pickup a motor a few months ago and I got there and back without issue.

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Purchase Includes:

The van (duh)

Extra set of tires and wheels (street tires)

Ford Aerostar Shop Manual (big blue binder)

Box of parts to redo brakes and front end

All the sex appeal and/or restraining orders that go along with owning a hot pink box van

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Do you want to compete in 90s car shows but can’t afford a Bronco? I gotchu fam.

This is a 1987 Ford Aerostar van complete with a 1992 hand done pink paint job. The vehicle sat as a testament to 90's audio and visual equipment in the Gibraltar Trade Center in Taylor Michigan most of it’s life. Xzibit wishes he could flex this hard. Sadly, the equipment is long gone but the vehicle has insanely low miles for being an 87 and has very little rust on it.

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I purchased Bugsy the van for the Gambler 500 where she did a comically good job on Michigan’s sandy trails. I’m now selling her because I have other car projects and she deserves to be driven and restored. It’s a clean Michigan title.

The Good:

Engine is the 3.0L V6 and the mileage is accurate. It only has 76k. The plugs, wires and EGR were replaced and the K&N air filter (+10HP) cleaned and oiled. The starter and battery were also replaced. Just like Sex Panther cologne.... 60% of the time it works... every time.

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The automatic transmission was rebuilt prior to me purchasing the van. Sometimes it shifts a bit harder than I’d like but reading up that’s par for the course for these transmissions (along with them having the build quality of paper mache).

There is rust where the previous owner scrapped the crap out of the side. That has been tastefully repaired with Unicorn duct tape. There is also some bubbling on the bottom. The structure itself is damn near rust free. Replacing the starter took me 10minutes if that gives you an idea of how the underside of the car looks.

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Prior to the Gambler 500 we replaced the shocks all around and installed newer used tires on the vehicle. I’ll include the other tires (which are fine for the street but not trails) with the van (aka I want all of this out of my garage in one go). We also have a box full of brake parts and front bushing/swaybar links. We sent it with the as is brakes and we were fine. A brake refresh is probably in order now.

The interior has a working radio with adequate speakers (you can hear the radio while going 80mph). We also installed LED puck lights inside that come on with the driver side door or the stock dome light switch (so you don’t look as creepy sitting somewhere). We also installed an aftermarket fuse panel on the side of the driver side if you want to install anything else easily.

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We swapped the previous mustang seats (yes there were grey foxbody seats in here) with light pink seats from a chevy van. They are clean and are very comfortable. We reinstalled the stock rear bench seat and all seat belts work. The floor is actual hardwood. We installed a floating 2x4 storage unit/bench (aka it’s not bolted/screwed into the vehicle itself) that can easily be removed. The rest of the interior is ready for whatever weird stuff you’re into.

All the windows are tinted. The driver side window and windshield are fine but the passenger side is trash. Only reason it’s still on is so it isn’t obvious that the windows are tinted. The headlights were also replaced recently.

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The Bad:

The steering rack leaks even after we installed a new power steering pump. The steering works but expect to refill it every couple weeks or rebuild the rack.

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The heater core is bypassed. It blew up on me on the freeway earlier this summer. I’ve driven it a couple hundred miles just fine with the bypass but if you want heat you’ll need to replace that.

The fuel gauge is uh.... well it reads. Does it read correctly? No idea! We used miles just to be careful.

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No water leaks but all the weather stripping is showing its age.

Thanks for reading and shoot me a message on here with any questions. Again, it’s a hilariously fun van. I hope one of you nuts is interested and can keep her on the road for 75k more miles.

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Chris”

On the Trails:

Idling as of 10/05/20:

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Someone buy this so I don’t.