Yeah I know. I'm jones'in for garage time. Only thing I have done is sanding some filler when I could scrape up the time, so there wassnt much to take pictures of. It's been the month from hell. Wind blew and the shit flew on all fronts... and the ride isnt over yet....


I keep eye balling the big pannel while I sand. There is one bump about mid van at the top of the pannel right below the gutter rail that I'm not happy with. I can feel it and when I look from the back twards the front I can see a small hump in that spot. Slap a straight edge on there and yeah there is a bump. I'm just not sure if it was the panel its self or the sub structure. Either way, I Think I want to heat it up, rip it off, and do it again. Maybe do the side in three pannels instead of two, as its easier to man handle. But being on the fence about it I didnt weld it in place yet. It's subtle, but possibly noticable. I'll always notice it and if I don't fix it now, it will always drive me nuts.


I did however, pick up another 68 A108 sportsman custom window van yesterday. No big plans for it. Just a tune up, swap out some stock parts and drive it.


At least I have my own van to drive to shows in now. Or go pick up more sheet metal in etc... That was a royal pain in the ass having to keep borrowing a van.

I'm pulling the motor and slappin it into the new rat van. Might as well use the b@$tard.... It's depressing to see perfectly good motor literally just sitting there collecting dust. I would have had to pull it anyway further down the line for a handful of reasons, so I'm just killing two birds with one stone. Good weekend project (just need to order another super long Lokar throttle cable. Thats the only thing I'm missing.)

When the Van is ready to go down the road and has paint on it, I'll either put the motor back, or with some luck stuff a stroker in it (assuming I can save enough pennies up between now and then.)

VROOM! VROOM!

What engine u got?

318 bored 30 over, compcam, Edelbrock Performer intake and carb, stock manifolds, MSD 6AL box and e-curve dizzy. Would have liked to put some roller rockers in it but I ran out of cash during the build. Wish I would have put higher flow heads on it too (rebuilt the stock ones). Oh well, maybe next time. I always wanted to build a stroker....

Being a low-buck project, JJ doesn't the fancy equipment most vans on this site get, but after two hours of diggin' through boxes of "spare parts", I did come up with something a little better to replace the well worn brake pedal pad and the no-buck, "temporary" gas pedal (plywood and home-door hinge) JJ's had for the last eight years.



For the gas pedal, I started with an old Mr. Gasket "Hippie Foot" cover, which clamps on top of the stock pedal with a couple of straps screwed to the cover.



I started with a new, rectangular piece of wood to attach the cover and hinge to, but thought it looked crummy, so I cut another piece of wood the same shape as the "Hippie Foot". Then I cut a Piece of metal in the same shape, except the bottom which had to extend down to the pivot hinge (another nickle-plated home door hinge).



Unfortunately, the end of the throttle pivot rod (shown below) jammed in between the "toes",



so I had to make another piece (aluminum, this time) with a sandal shape under the "toes".




For the brake pedal pad (a Cal-Custom clutch pad from a Chevy truck clutch/brake pad cover set), I cut & bent two pieces of aluminum the same size and contour as the rubber insert. Then, after removing JJ's old pad, bent the metal so it matched the curve of the aluminum pieces. then I clamped them in place on the pedal and drilled a hole on each side of the pedal arm.



Then after grinding two little pockets in the rubber insert (to clear top of bolts) I inserted two carriage bolts in one of the aluminum plates and layed it down against the bottom of the rubber insert, bent the metal pad straps over, added the second plate
(to sandwich the straps and hold them tight), then bolted it to the stock pad.



The dimmer pad just slips on and uses an Allen-head set screw. Total cost was 78 cents for carriage bolts with right thread for gas pedal pad. (Hippie pads were free from friend years ago, the clutch/brake pad set was removed from a '67 Chevy C10 I totaled 15+ yrs. ago)



P.S.- I will strip/repaint brake pedal arm and that nasty old carpet will be replaced with new carpet (tan & black) after I'm done with a few more mods (new steering column, plug wires, exhaust manifold heat shields, new insulation,vinyl door edging, and pleated cover for dog house, cold air intake, new front doors, dash pad, gauge cluster and others I'm sure I'm forgetting).

Nice!

You are using the wrong welding equipment for the job, if you're going to weld thin body panels you should tig weld them. I understand tig welding equipment is expensive and tig welding is time consuming but the results are worth every hour and every penny.

Ive seen a lot of versatility and a lot of great things done with a good MIG setup...

Of course, even the little harbor freight flux welders one can do well. And obviously one can weld thin body panels using mig, but it's practical to use tig. The lack of a tig welder is one reason why I have been hesitant of repairing the body panels and floor pan on my van.

Zap Zap.... rinse and repeat.

Someday I'll learn to tig, If anyone they wants to sell one at a sick price PM me. Until then I'll keep Mig welding....seems to be getting the job done so far

Cleaned the garage after the motor swap so I have room to work again. I got more sanding done the last few days. Plan to start hitting it harder again. few hours every night that I can manage to squeeze out.

Zap Zap - wrap up the window removal. Then the last 2 rocker panels (on the driver side). then flip hindges on the front door....etc.

Got to chop chop some floor out, I did lots of messuring and decided to do the mustang 2 front end. YEAH IFS! The trans pan sits about 4" below lowest body panel, so I'm going to have to raise up the drive train just a smidge in order to totally lay it out on bags. It's cool though, gives me a chance to install a skid plate and stuff. Now that the engine and drive line is out, its going to be much easier to work on. Ripped out the fuel tank too, thats in the way. Need to find a good location for a fuel cell.


Is slow progress, but progress....