Nope, that's staying in there. I'm slowly gonna be converting this old company work van into a 70's ******* wagon.


Next I gotta find some dark wood paneling to insulate and finish the walls inside this beer can

This summer, i'm also gonna be getting a bunch of old genuine 70's bright red **** carpet from an old house that's installing hardwood in it's place.

Put that on the roof in the van, and parkay hardwood on the floor




And no unfortunately not a hide-a-bed. Just a regular old Sofa. Old Roxton made in Aug. of 1977

 

John the more you share about your van the more I love it! Mind you I couldn't use it for my work but I like the spirit of it---reminds me indeed of the *******' wagons of years gone by..................

I've seen the **** carpeting on the floors running halfway up the walls which were then finished in hardwood paneling. Ceiling has recessed lighting, something that the rope lighting of today could replicate very easily. In fact if you PM me I have some of that I'll donate to your refurbishing project here.

Just too cool IMHO!

 

I'm not decided for lights yet what i'm gonna do.


I have a Van pic file in my computer containing over 800 van pics, inside and out, and I'll be going through 'em for ideas

 

I'm friends with van owners who still go to Truckin's, have seen tons of custom interiors, my 73 is a work in progress at this moment, getting a custom seat slide built for the drivers seat, lookin to gull hinge the slider on it too. **** is old school, the killer for it is that the stuff is hard to find and extremely expensive, I'd love it in the back on either side of my bed in the 73, the new thing is wood, as in wood floor and bead board walls, otherwise known as waynes coat. Used carpet, well, not in my van, the small area and summer heat, you talking about stinking from it's wear and contents spilled/ground in over the years.
Steer clear of spray foam, the acid in it eats the finish from the walls, the foam collects moisture and in a short time your van will rot away, I can give you links to guys who witnessed it.
I'd love some of that reflective backed roofing roll stuff, the non-tar type to put on my walls, put Styrofoam panels over that spaced for air to pass between, yeah boy, leave a gap at the bottom of your wall to the floor for air too, don't seal the wall tight.

My van is at the end of the video, the first van used to be Cloudy, was light blue and had clouds on the top, has been modified over the years leading to it's dark paint now, you'd need to see the custom work on the front doors and fenders. He's been working on custom hinges for my slider to hang it.

Hay Mark, look at this Gulwing door 4-8-12 - YouTube

 

Custom wheelchair transfer drivers seat, it's catching on the spring mount here, but will be done soon enough, there are power ones available, I have one, it's wearing out, they are very expensive, so this friend offered to build a manual one.

Cloudy's Van Service Marks Seat Mod Apr 9 12 - YouTube

 

'83 E150 351W Edelbrock heads,stealth intake,670 street avenger,comp cams,headers,Detroit locked 9in rear,D44 front,4.10 gears,35 in. BFG AT,custom built aluminum front and rear bumpers with warn 8000 lb winch in front...Gets lots of thumbs up.

 

Looks great, I'd like a set of heads too, are they iron or aluminum?

 

Here is a shot of the engine just before/while it got the new cam/top end.I bought it with the 4x4 conversion and realized the 351 needed way more power,bigger tires,locked rear diff etc etc...

 

Aluminum Performer RPM 202 160 valves,473" 493" LIFT,Crane roller rockers,Cloyes double roller timing set.The power increase is amazing.Added a Griffen aluminum rad,31 in.with two 1 inch wide cores because it was getting too hot.Now I have to resrict air to the front because it stays too cool on hwy trips(160-170 deg).I'm going to put a smaller Griffen rad (26 in)in to see if it helps.I have a mechanical fan.

 

I want to do something to my 302, not sure about the expense of aluminum heads tho, that looks great is it all matching then, heads, intake, and cam, I was eying those but I could get a long block for the price.

 

Nice van;
I had a 351w setup similar to yours, darn thing did NOT like the newer summer fuel, and twice a year I would be rejetting it. Have you had similar issues? I was (at the time) living at a fairly high altitude, so that may have had a bit to do with it...

 

Swap out the thermostat first. Unless you have some unusual bypass setup or the outdoor temps are very low, the size of your radiator shouldn't control how COLD your engine gets, so long as it is large enough to prevent it from overheating. Your thermostat should be closing off to keep the engines internal temp up. Also check where your temp sensor is, and make sure its measuring the engine, not the rad temp (Previous owner did that to one of my trucks.)

Edit to add: If you removed the Oil-To-Water transmission cooler, and went oil to air, then you have removed a HUGE heat generator, and that may cause the radiator to seem overly effective.

 

Never dump the in radiator transmission cooler, it is important to get warm fast or risk transmission damage, the radiator helps get it to operating temp when it's colt outside, even with an external cooler hooked in the line, it still is necessary.

 

The griffin rad doesn't have a trans cooler so I've added an external trans cooler in front of the rad.I believe I have a 190 deg. thermostat.The reason for the rad swap is that I already have a 26in. Griffin in my 460 F250 4x4 and I don't think it will be enough to cool it in heavy traffic situations.The 460 has ported cast heads with 553" 573" cam,LT headers,Stealth intake,electric fan,two external trans coolers,etc...I put a piece cardboard in front of the vans rad when I go on the hwy.In the city it stays cool in traffic(195-200 deg)Mechanical oil,water gauges in both van and truck(water temp sender is in intake manifolds) .nn62/allpictures620.jpg[/IMG]

 

Tried to post pics in previous thread and they were deleted.I'll try to repost.