My trusty 240 wagon grew up in Rochester, NY and must have seen a lot of salty roads in its time, because it is beginning to get very rusty. Not just the usual tailgate problems, but also fenders, doors and rocker panels. It has 142,000 miles so mechanically it is just getting broken in.

I think my options are as follows:

1) Sell it for whatever I can get for it and buy a replacement which has much better sheet metal. I would want a manual transmission though, and these are kind of hard to find. Also would like something other than vinyl interior - cloth (like I have presently) or leather possibly.

2) Cut out the (many) rusty bits and replace with new sheet metal. The cost of getting this done professionally I would imagine would be horrendous (any thoughts?), and I'm not sure I have the time to do it myself.

3) Find a donor car with a good body but bad mechanicals. There is actually a 92 with a bad automatic transmission for sale that I think is in otherwise decent shape. How difficult would it be to swap my manual tranny in there? Then I would have lots of spare parts too (assuming the 89 and 92 are mostly compatible)

Anybody else been through this? Advice is welcome.