I've had a vanagon, they rust out quickly
And the Toyotas didn't????
In your area especially, ANYTHING from 1995 and older is likely to be riddled with rust issues, and anything that you'd buy from that era that has not been subjected to the salt will soon be.
I am not sure what exactly you are after here, nor do I know how large your family is (or will be). However I do think that any older vehicle, especially something as fiddly and hands on as something that has an engine swapped into it that was not there before, is going to fall far more into the hobby car category than a reliable family vehicle.
And I am also not sure that going for something that old strictly to avoid an annual inspection is necessarily the wisest choice either, given the fact that it will almost certainly be less of a headache to maintain a newer as-built vehicle, inspections and all, to carry your family around. Even if it is gasoline fueled.