Ford E350

dar395

Adventurer
It arrived on a trailer, the guy said it ran when he loaded it but as the snow and wind blew no luck in starting the old girl. With the drivers wife at the wheel we were able to push her off the trailer and tow her into the yard where she sat in a silence stance. Is she worth starting a build with?


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dar395

Adventurer
Looking better?

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Dirty and striped parts, After searching for a long van either GM or Ford I found that prices for these are higher than for the standard size vans, cargo's seem to be harder to find and seem to be a bit more beat. We're looking to travel longer and further over the next few years. Hope to have the build ready to use this June. Still cold, snowy & blowing but as you can see it's looking better!
 

dar395

Adventurer
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Spending much of the day just checking out the Van, seeing what is missing and if any thing is broken. I'm a RockAuto.com shopper and one of the reasons I stick to Ford and GM is parts are available on the cheap.

Purchased a new Battery and upon installing the old girl fired up and runs a smooth as silk! The 5.4 seems to be in great shape and a quick run tells me that the A100 tranny shifts strong as well as steering and brakes all past with good grades!

The battery was only showing three months old! but as I put the new one in on comes one of the overhead dome lights, so I'm guessing that when pickup up the driver may have left it on. That three month old battery won't take a charge at all, no receipt for the purchase so I just bought the new one.
 

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dar395

Adventurer
Parts are coming!

Above I posted two pictures one showing the rear quarter above the tail pipe to show how clean this southern body is, And than one showing the seat racks just behind the drivers seat showing that it was used as a handicap transporter.

When looking at this van on the auction site I could see there seem to be no rust, but after calling the motor pool guys and talking with them I was told about the handicap seats as well as this was also the reason the miles were so low.

Funny how information can change what we see in a photo! Most would see the lack of seats and missing door handles and misplaced door panels, what I may have seen is 46k miles, a maintenance program and very clean body with the interior looking like hell and scaring away the bidders!

After checking over the van closely and feeling that this is the correct platform for my long term van-camper it game on.

We're taking our last trip in our GMC van this month for ten days and then upon returning will put her (Delta Dawn) up for sale, before we go parts have been ordered and arrive daily. We feel that over the past three years of Van camping and building that were better at it. This again will be a budget build, but a lot cleaning then before as we've seen other van builds and understand way more than the old van platform. :rally_guys:


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dar395

Adventurer
Lots of work ahead!

Rockauto.com and ebay are both great source tools for our use, Today I heated up the garage just to open boxes that have been arriving all week. From rotors, bumpers, hitches both front and back, door handles, air and gas filters and much more the work will be heavy for a while, but I'll know the truck better as I proceed. I'm hands on and I have a clear plan of what we want. Hope you follow along!:coffeedrink:


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lOOk at the two battery boxes from ebay the guy said they were rusty, they're clean and just $16 I think because he said "Rusty", just a lot of odd needed parts but all good prices and quickly shipped. Budget builds don't need to be cheap builds!
 

djbonsu

Adventurer
Mega deal on the battery boxes indeed! I too love Rockauto and have saved ALOT of coin purchasing things from there. Good luck with the build!
 

dar395

Adventurer
After a great 10 day trip out in the GMC van we're back and putting her (GMC) up for sale it was gone by the afternoon, it was still in great shape with just 74k on the clock, the sale puts us in a rush to complete this van (Ford) as we have our next trip coming up in the 1st part of June.

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but as we leave our life using the GMC the Ford will be a great travel rig, the added space as well as added options will be treasured improvements.

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dar395

Adventurer
Building an older van off the surplus auctions can sometimes be a challenge, at times the paint and body functions such as door handles, hinges and such may have had more use more than normal. I unlike others like to see no trailer hitches as you can't tell what was being towed. Running Vin's through the Vin Decoder's you will be able to find out axle's, tow package, engine any much more. I always call the motor pool's and get more information on oil changes and repair done. Living in the " Rust Belt' it is by far most cost efficient to buy out of the south and ship staying away from the shore lines and such.

This van has not a sign of rust the underside is very clean as well, but on the other hand I don't thing the van was ever waxed and very little washing, the inside as well has much dirt and cleaning of both the body and interior is taking a lot of time. A full three days of cleaning and I'm still not done, nine hours of paint cleaning just on the right side we're able to see it shine. The van seems to have a mil-dew type coating on the paint maybe a mold, I had to buy special cleaner at $50 for just 500ml (My Beer funds). It will be a very clean van when done.

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This van also had lock hasps on the side and rear doors that I had to drill out to remove, patching to touch-up before cleaning the paint.

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dar395

Adventurer
Taking a short break from the clean in just an hour and 15 minutes I was ab;e to replace the rear bumper and add the two hitches (Rear and Front) this starting to change the van into a travler!:ylsmoke:

Before:


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After:

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