bent hinge and stuck strut on back door (liftgate) of 88 van

[perfoxhil]

I have a stuck strut (damper stay) on the left side of the back door. I tried to remove it but there seems to be a pin in the way of the ball coming out of the socket. Should I try to get new struts that come with a hardware kit? Any suggestions where to get this?

I also have a bent hinge on the left side of the back door. I bent it quite a bit when (foolishly) trying to force the door open. Now the door won't close without coaxing and there is a gap at the top left which is open to the rain. Should I remove the hinge and try to bend it back somehow? Any ideas on where to get another hinge?

I may also consider going to a scrap yard and pulling the struts and hinge. I also need a passenger side wiper arm. There seems to be a van in Arlington and another in Buckley. A bit far. Any ideas on where I might find a scrapped van more near to Seattle?

[timsrv]

On the van the struts unbolt from the top (permanently attached to bracket) and the bottom has a ball/socket combination that's permanently crimped together. The inner shaft of the strut unthreads from this ball/socket combo. The struts can also be removed by unthreading the lower nut from the body and leaving the ball/socket on the strut. It's hard to believe, but I've never had a gas strut fail on a Vanwagon (and I've had a lot of them). I've dealt with this on a couple Previas, but never a Vanwagon. I just did a quick eBay search and found these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-New-Liftga...d3efe5&vxp=mtr.

Price is good & they do include the upper bracket (looks like you'll need to use your old lower ball/socket combo). Tim