Just picked up a '77 shorty! What was I thinking? It has the 300 I6 with 3 on the tree. It runs real smooth and is entertaining to drive. So little power compaired to the 460 in the truck. Anyhow, I want to do a road trip with my kids this summer. Hope this works.

 

That looks to be in remarkably great shape at least body-wise. I don't see any significant rust.

The chrome windshield moldings are missing--those could be found in a lot of scrap yards, up to 1991 should fit perfectly. The attachment clips are still available too.

 

Nice. Any plans for the interior? 3 on the tree. Boy that brings back some memories.

 

Boy howdy does it ever! I recall how a Hurst Competition floor shifter taught me about the phrase: "we learn more from our mistakes than our successes.........". Maybe the biggest lesson learned was RTFM or in this case the instruction sheet George included.

 

It only has 2 small.places of rust that needs addressed. Thanks for the advice on the window molding.

 

Im still working on what to do with the interior.

 

I'm in the auto/truck glass business so glad to help if I can.

 

Nice find! That 300 is pretty bulletproof. Someone correct me if my assumption is wrong, but I think that engine is still being used in agricultural applications, like tree chippers.

That body style is my favorite. If I ever hit the lottery, my DD will be a 1978 F350. Crew cab, short bed, 4WD, 460, automatic. Just cuz. Oh, and candy apple red, of course!


But I do have to say, if you know what a three in the tree is you are an old bugger!


At one time my family owned a 48 Chevy sedan with a vacuum assisted 3 in the tree. My mom was expert at that thing, as it was her DD. It was fun watching her handle that thing. Packed with 6 kids, driving up a hill with a stop sign at the top... she handled it like a pro.

 

You've got a good looking van there! I wish mine were in that condition. You've also got one of my favorite combos there for the Econolines. A 300 with a manual transmission.

I'm a big fan of the 300. There is a lot of potential there if you want to do some mods to add some more power to it. Ford restricted them pretty badly in stock form.

 

Thanks! I was always under the impression that the 300's we're as good as they could get without throwing tons of money into them. Please share a resource or two with me. That is a rabit hole I'd go down.

 

The 300's have a similar bore and stroke to the 400 V8's. Yet Ford decided to throw a little 1V carb on a restrictive intake manifold and a run a restrictive exhaust manifold. I think they didn't want their base engines showing up the 302's.

Yes you can throw a lot of money at them. But there are also a lot of improvements that can be done fairly cheap. Sometimes it takes a little creativity to do it on a smaller budget. But they are easy to work on, so it can be a lot of fun.

One of the best bang for the buck mods is a freer flowing exhaust. You can just do the exhaust system itself. But changing out the manifold gives a much better improvement. One of the most common mods is swapping out the stock carbed exhaust manifold for a pair of the 300 EFI exhaust manifolds. Starting in 1987 the 300 went to fuel injection ( 87-97 ) . And when it did they went to a pair exhaust manifolds that are basically a pair of cast iron shorty headers. These will bolt on to the older engines and flow much better. I've bought these used for as little as $20.00 for a pair. But the going rate is usually around $50-$100 a pair. And with a little time and a few supplies you can port them to flow even better.

Here's some pictures of one of the efi exhaust manifolds that I ported:

Before pictures .





After porting.







But If you want to spend more money there are multiple companies that also sell headers for them.



A couple good sources for info on the 300 is the inline 6 forum here on FTE:


https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/forum52/


And the forum over on the Fordsix site:

https://fordsix.com/viewforum.php?f=2



I've got like 8 or 9 240/300's in my collection now. If I see a cheap one for sale, I like to grab them. I'm building my own multi-carb intake manifolds and building my own headers. I also port my own heads. So it's definitely a rabbit hole that can be fun to go down.

 

Auto glass business indeed!! I have my first econoline, a 1990 e350 club wagon... and it needs a drivers side rear-most window (fixed glass) and I’m having no luck yet finding one. Also, do you know of a source for replacement latches for the opening windows? I need about 6 of them!

 

I have no idea about the latches----your best bet is hoping member NumberDummy comes along and helps with OEM part numbers for the latches you need. They'll be in extremely short supply even though they would fit model years through 1991.

Before I talk about the glass you need/want I want to see a photo of your van showing the window location and type of glass it is. I won't supply it but can give you a usable part number so you could find it locally.

 

Boy, would I like to pick you brains right about now! Trying to figure out if it makes sense for an amateur to swap an almost new windshield from a wrecked vehicle into its replacement which has a cracked windshield.....

 

Probably not---you don't mention the year but without semi-specialized tools and more than a bit of knowledge/experience doing this you'll have two cracked windshields.