Hi All,
New to the forum and hoping to finally get my Econoline truck....real soon, depending on the response to this post maybe this coming week.
I have the opportunity to buy a 1963 Econoline Truck around here (CA) a few miles away. I have been looking for a truck like this for some time but I really do not know which years are better than others as far as availability of parts, better engine, trans etc. Can those of you that are Econo nuts please advise me.
I will be making arrangements to officially kick the tires in the next few days any advice on what in particular to "look" for..missing this, rerouted that,?? I'm pretty knowledgeable about vehicles and engines so the obvious things are not necessary to mention but I'm hoping someone could list things specific to this production series. I really want one but I know as with most vehicles certain years are better than others and if I have waited this long if I have to pass on this one then what can you do. Who wants more headaches anyway..I have enough projects
If this makes any difference the plan is to use the truck for a delivery vehicle removing the bed adding dual wheels and putting a flat bed on it. By the way the owner tells me it was an Air Force truck. (seems to be alot the them out here)
Thanks for any help
J.P.

 

Hi there and welcome to FTE.
Well you can check the shifting these trucks are prone to binding in shifting. The bottom of the colunms get wore down because peolpe miss greasing the grease nipple on the colunm inside the front grill. Also the where the linkage conects to the tranny get wore. The bushings get wore down and again get neglected so the metal gets rubbed through a bit. This one you can easliy fix or find parts.
King pins usually wear out causing sloppy steering.
These things can be repaired and are just things that get neglected.
As for best years and motors. That is personel choices.
Your 63 that you are interested in should have the heater box mounted on the floor. Also the engine will have no crossbeam under in. 65's and newer have heaters mounted under the dash and the engines have a crossbeam under the engine.
Also 65 tranny parts are more likely to interchange with other half tons. where 61-64 there is a problem there.
61-64 have 144 or 170 6cyl engines. In 65 they were changed to hold a 240 or 300 6cyl. Still some had the smaller engines.
The 300 is a good working engine and hard to kill. The others are prone to wear out the blocks. Depends on how they are used.
I have trhee trucks and it is great fun to drive. It has been 10 years for me to drive mine and I'm itching to get back at it, but too many projects have kept me from restoring it and back on the road.

Also a 5 window cab truck is more prefered and fewer of them. The extra windows does not seem to make any difference on the price, just I prefer the corner windows.
Don't be afraid to call back here. If you get the truck we can help where we can.
Have fun with the truck and enjoy the unique truck it is.

 

I owned a 63 E100 p/u for 10 years they hold a ton of stuff BUT they are hotter than he!! inside. Mine had the 200ci with three spd and was a military police tk from texas. Cool extra lights above headlights look close around the heater for rust.