VanSquatch Build Thread!

[GorillaJoe]

Vansquatch!

Back in June of last year, I acquired this beast:

1988 Ford E-350 Clubwagon XLT.

This was a government bus that somehow traded hands and became impounded at a government contract yard. I got it for $750. Just wanted something to fart around with as a project.

However, I ran into some issues. The van was listed for sale on CL and a few other places, and I had seen it for weeks. Low and behold state laws require impounded vehicles to be listed in a "NEWSPAPER" for 3 weeks according to the DMV supervisor we were dealing with, before it can be sold to the public. Damn. Well, I end up saying "I'll pay you for it and sign paperwork if you hold it for me." No problem. Van was running and driving fine. I'm happy.

So I wait for the 3 weeks. This impound yard also services vehicles. So they get it ready for smog. It passes. The day I go to pick it up, the guys start saying something is wrong with the fuel switch (dual tanks) and they were tearing it apart trying to fix it.

In the process of doing so, something went wrong. The van is now running like crap. They said they connected the front tank only. By this point I told them to stop messing with it and I'll drive it home.

They told me they'd have it back together the next day. The next day, I actually lost my job! Nothing that was my fault, boss just couldn't afford my services anymore. That's fine, I'd work freelance.

So I get the van the next day, 10 feet out of the gate, it dies. The lot owner says "I can't help you. I've done all I can."

Notice the passenger side rear wheel is wobbling while I drive it off of his lot after getting it to start again. These guys put a dodge 8-lug rim on it. 4 different tires, 4 different rims. The problem here is, the hub diameter on the dodge 8 lug is smaller than the ford hub. Great, idiots.

Scumbag grease shop owner gets the finger and I get a tow.

Get it home in the next post...

 

[GorillaJoe]

It was too dark to really see when I got it home, but the next day I went to work on it.

I didn't have a garage at the time so I was working on it in my apartment parking lot.

I inspected the inside and out really good. My initial excitement about how clean the interior was wained when I really got to look at it.

(sorry for this blurry one)

Gross really.

First thing I did was replace the fuel filters. When I poured the filters out into my drain pan, it was like mud had come out. Yipes! My tanks were probably rusted to hell. Oh well.

Notice that my fuel gauge isn't working anymore either no matter which tank I switch it to. Confused as to what those guys did, I got on my creeper and found they had completely disconnected the rear tank, cut the wires and did some other fun stuff to it.

I fixed little things, replaced fuses and plugged the fuse box back in (The impound yard disconnected it). Now my interior lights and gauges work, radio turns on, lights, etc. And now the van drives!

As of now I am conserving funds due to having lost my job, so I'm looking for free-or-cheap things to do to the van (next post).

 

[GorillaJoe]

The next morning I come out and find the battery completely dead. I check all the connections, and inspect the fusebox. None of my lights were on when I put my Deep Cycle battery back on it.

I pull out my multimeter and find two things: The alternator is pumping out 21.8V! Factory should've been 14.6V. The previous battery appeared to be boiled over. Battery acid has eaten away at the paint under the hood.

That still didn't explain the ampere vampire.

But I found it! My voltage regulator was on the fritz.

Once that was replaced, noticed my voltage was still too high. Decided I'd put a new alternator in. Bingo!

New 100A alternator under the hood, new battery cables, new voltage regulator, brought down the voltage to the battery at 14.6V consistently. A few other electrical demons also disappeared when the voltage was proper. Whew.

Now the van was running and driving like a champ.

I ended up getting a new salvage wheel and tire from the junkyard and threw it on. I'd eventually have to get new tires soon, these were dry rotted.

Good news though; custom plates arrived the next day!

Sweet. A51GL; Area 51 Groom Lake Nevada Test Site plates! I know, I'm a dork.

 

[GorillaJoe]

My exterior looks like crap. Oxidized paint, dents, stains, surface rust, missing trim, chrome is going, some weird spray paint over the govco ID on the door.

Fiancée REALLY wanted to peel the decals off. Who am I to deny her this pleasure?

Also removed the useless aluminum side-steps. They were wobbly and gross. Also improved the look of the van without them (in my opinion).

 

[96Delica]

Hahaha that's awesome!!! I'll always have a soft spot for a full-size van. Keep it coming!

Sounds like the yard just went underneath with a pair of shears and went to town eh?

 

[GorillaJoe]

Yeah. I wasn't happy. I'm usually pretty civil and calm, but that day I wasn't. Let them know how I felt for sure. I'm still fixing things they messed up underneath. Will detail that in a few posts.

 

[GorillaJoe]

Decide I don't like the chrome anything on the van. Including the grill, ladder and mirrors. I had a few ancient cans of rhino liner and plastidip I'd use. Black seems like a good color!

Rhino Lining should give it excellent grip on the ladder!

Rhino lined the mirrors too to protect against brush scrapes and rock impacts.

Plasti-dipped the grill which didn't look bad, but the chrome was peeling off:

Grill is plastic. It was cracked top right, but not a functional issue:

Have plans to fab a new front bumper for the van anyways, so I figured I'd finish off the plasti-dip can on the bumper.

Didn't care about masking anything. The paint looks terrible. Van is gonna be changing colors anyways.

 

[GorillaJoe]

A few weekends later, while taking the van on a drive, damn tire rot finally gets me one morning. Blew out as I was dropping the girls off at work, IN her parking lot.

Note this is on the new rim from the salvage yard.

I fortunately grabbed the other 3 off of the salvage van. Threw on another tire and limped home. That tire went flat when I got home too!

Crap. Time to shop for some tires.

Threw on the third rim and drove it down to a shop that had a special on some off road tires.

Beefy! And it improved the look of the van too!

Touched up some of the surface rust spots when I got home (black splotches top rear) with rust converter. Will sand them when it's time for paint.

 

[GorillaJoe]

Wasn't able to get much else done for a few months. Began moving in early October out of my terrible apartments. Got myself a 3 bedroom 2 bath house in a nice golf villa.

My Volvo and the box truck we rented. Sad part is, the Volvo blew a turbo cooler hose that week. I was fed up with it so I ended up also buying a new car with money from my IRA and 401K. Oh well, I needed it!

Lincoln LS V8. Sexy car. Jaguar 3.9L V8. Lots of power!

This purchase unfortunately cut into my van build funds a bit. I started a list of things to do to the van in the meantime.


Click the photo to access my google docs list. A lot of that is just fantasy really when funds become available, but still, a helpful guide when I start tearing it apart.

Vansquatch at his new home:

 

[GorillaJoe]

We had a pretty nasty winter this year where I moved to. Rain, cold, snow. I also started on some pretty intensive freelance projects to help fund my new purchases (house and car).

In the meantime, the van developed a few weird issues

Upon accelleration the van started bogging down and stinking. Note that I haven't replaced the tanks or fuel pumps yet.

I took a video of it here right before we moved:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWK6mZNf4Eg

I replaced the fuel pressure regulator, fuel filters (previously), fuel caps (locking gas caps) and it still is giving me an issue. My next few things to do will be to drop the tanks and rebuild the fuel system from back to front.

I had a gentleman come out and siphon the gas from the rear tank since it was already disconnected. There's a check valve in the front tank so that one is still full of bad gas.

A few idle months of letting the van sit on my sloped driveway (with the parking brake on), and the van developed squishy brakes. It is also throwing the "BRAKE" light on the dash. So this is a new issue that has come up.

For a bit there I was discouraged to do much on the van.

Until it snowed.

The van still runs and drives so I played with it in my neighborhood a bit. Squishy brakes were a little scary but they still worked when I needed them to.

I plan on doing a proper 4WD conversion on this van in the future (from what I understand, it's a pain in the butt and requires fabrication on a lot of parts, but I don't care!)

This made me want to keep going on the van instead of scrapping it or selling it.

 

[southpier]

it'll get there. we all need projects!

 

[GorillaJoe]

Now that it's spring, the weather is starting to clear up. I could now tackle a few projects.

That is, until my new cars radiator decided it wanted to crack. FFFFF!!! There goes $200 I could've spent on the van.

Once that was finished a few weeks ago, threw a bottle of this stuff in the van and let it idle:

Note: This stuff smokes a lot. And I mean A LOT. Neighbors called the fire department. Fun day.

 

[GorillaJoe]

I was all rearing to go last week to start working on the van....

I never attempted to move the van into the garage fearing it was too tall to fit. 81" tall garage... van is 82.5" tall with the tires.

So weather keeps thwarting me.

So today; I let the air out of the tires some, cleared out some more space in the garage and started tiptoeing it in.

A little touching won't hurt!

Just a few more feet!

IN!

And it only swapped paint with my garage a little bit! I'm not sweating right now or anything.

 

[GorillaJoe]

it'll get there. we all need projects!

Yup! I'm so happy this is something I can work on. It might take me years, but it's something I want to do.

---------------

On that note, I've found out that the transmission doesn't like to shift unless you let off of the gas at high RPMs. I replaced the vacuum shift modulator but this still didn't fix the issue. I'm thinking I've got a vacuum leak and this is what is causing my revving issue and shifting issue.

This has the 460ci in it by the way.

 

[RickM]

You need some micro donuts to drive it in on. You do the 4x4 conversion in the garage, and that bad boy ain't coming out.