Number Two

I was playing around on craigslist and I found a nice panel van that I just had to have. I haven't even finished my club wagon and I am already getting another project. my wife must really love me.

I know it is pretty nasty looking but it is healing up nicely

Anyone wandering what color I am painting it?

I saw this toy van and I loved the colors. so I bought one and told the body shop to match it. only difference is I am going to be tinting the windows.

New face design.

here is a better look at the grill ribs, I think once the van is painted they will look great.

All ready for paint

the body shop called me yesterday to have me come in and take a look at the body work and finalize the paint color, Boy I must say she is looking good.

Now I see progress

front sheet metal is all welded on and if you notice I wanted the front to look a little cleaner then the vans normally look so I had the body shop shave the turn signals from the front and I am going to hide them in the grill also I had the ribs shortened on the sides of the grill to a "V" pattern

now she is all naked the whole thing is been striped down to bare metal.

New face lift

here is a few shots of the new face. I had the body guys bend under the mounting flange for the grill so it mounts from the inside of the grill opening instead of the outside.

Too tough for me.

I decided to take the van to a body shop and let them fix the sheet metal here they have already transplanted the new (new to me) sheet metal on the falcon

Wear gloves

when I was cutting the sheet metal away from the donor van I hurt my finger. here is the before and after the stitchs.

found some donor metal in the junkyard.

found this front sheet metal on a old rusty van but I think I can use this for a skin graph.

OH NO

so after I got the van home I started to clean it up and found that I didnt look to close a the paint job...someone had some fiberglass filler and patches in the van. so I started to look more into it. I sanded down the face to find that the one of the last owners filled the front with a lot of fiberglass.

inside wasn't so pretty. I know that radio isn't factory but it looks pretty close.......ha.

This is how I got the van. it was running and driving. The paint looked pretty good and the van drove pretty well also but would only go about 50mph tops.

The Story

I am starting this blog to archive my 1967 ford econoline restomod.