Took the plunge on the weekend and cut out the rotting sills on my 93 AWD Summit wagon, to see just how bad it was underneath. Not TOO bad fortunately, and now I know why the 93-96 wagons often rot out the bottom of the A pillar. If this was an automatic AWD rather than the 5 speed, I'd just run it till the trans gave out and ignore the rust.
I really do wondor why the body engineers don't block up the alignment jig holes that let all the water, salt and dirt into the box section with, say, a 1 cent rubber bung. Well, actually I don't wonder: it's the design life decision of the vehicle. At 8 years, any rust is still at an acceptable level and usually not visible. At 13 years and 200,000+ km, its at the very end of the life.
My son wants the van to cart his band equipment around in, once he gets his licence, and in 18 months I doubt I could even give a 93 away. So, a few hours with a MIG, and a couple of hundred dollars for some custom sill panels and some heavy duty sand blasting, plus a some paint should keep the old girl going for a few more years.
Stewart DIBBS