Front Suspension Modification

Met a great guy on Monday while working on one of my projects. I had the Econoline parked out front and he stopped by to ask some questions. Turns out he’s the owner of Full Scale Hot Rods and Customs in Ventura. His name is Troy, and this is the shop’s website: http://www.fullscalehotrods.com/

He told me to stop by as he was working on an Econline pickup for himself that had some interesting features I might like to see. Since everyone is always trying to improve their ride, I thought I would share the front-end modifications he’s done to the truck. He also has an independent rear out back, but those are easy to figure out and not nearly as challenging as getting the front done.

Most of the front suspension mods center around a Mustang II crossmember, but what Troy did is go with an ’82 VW Vanogan front clip. I grabbed my camera to get a few shots which I’ll paste in below. In a nutshell, he cut the frame rails of the VW which then slide right between the Econline rails. Lined it all up, boxed it in the front and rear, and tacked it in. With a helper, it took a couple of hours to get it aligned and tacked. Nothing needed to be shortened, lengthened or anything. Only mod he had to make prior to the install was to notch the steering rack mount to clear the front balancer on the 351 V-8.

He fabed up a bracket for the intermediate steering box, cut the stock steering shaft to adapt it to the rag joint, and that was about it (it steers like a slot car!). In looking at the conversion there are several things to recommend it. First, the frame rail height of a stock Vanogan and an Econoline are very similar. This does away with trying to sub-frame, a sub-frame when trying to fit a Mustang II crossmember. Second, the surgery needed to accomdate the upper control arms is minimal, and will be virtually unnoticeable without taking a close look under the seats. Third, you end up with stock ride height, but he said that lowered springs are readily available for the Vanogan. The fourth and best thing is that this can be retrofitted without tearing up a lot of the cab flooring.

Just some food for thought …… now I just need to find a junked Vanagen!

Just when you think your gonna do something new, then Bam! someone has already done this. I just got done w/ measurements to do this same from end. I have been working on Vanagons since the late 80's and done a few diff engine conversions and suspension setups. It's great to see these pics as it will make it easier for my job ahead. Thanks for posting this and nice work on your buddies truck!

Vanhaulin wrote:Just when you think your gonna do something new, then Bam! someone has already done this. I just got done w/ measurements to do this same from end. I have been working on Vanagons since the late 80's and done a few diff engine conversions and suspension setups. It's great to see these pics as it will make it easier for my job ahead. Thanks for posting this and nice work on your buddies truck!

Don't feel too bad, the guy that did this conversion got the idea from another guy that put one of these into his Econoline!

I don't want to sound as tho im being a troll on your thread, and I mean not to strike up an argument....I do understand that you are pointing out the fact that there are great similarities in the size and height of the rails. But, I don't think its really a couple hr job or as easy as your portraying. That gentleman has some obvious skill and there are quite a few issues that would come about by attempting to do this. He most likely is using a different steering column to be able to link it into that knuckle which reverses the direction ofthe rotation since the rack is in its location. Fab work on the knuckle to mount, as well as figuring out how to run your shift linkage so it clears thad crossmember and control arms that now on its way, possibly even clutch linkage clearance. There's just alot of stuff going on there. He did a motor swap which may be an auto to eliminate some of that. There's just a gang pile of cutting, tabbing, and basically reengineering on two different vehicles. BIG WORK!

Must agree with Mothra- many dont have the skills or knowledge for this -yet even i am interested in what is done - it gives us options ! yet im one of the old school guys that like the Straight front axle & leaf spring setups. Only thing id change in a van is addition of power steering, power barkes & adding A/C .

mothradeath wrote:I don't want to sound as tho im being a troll on your thread, and I mean not to strike up an argument....I do understand that you are pointing out the fact that there are great similarities in the size and height of the rails. But, I don't think its really a couple hr job or as easy as your portraying. That gentleman has some obvious skill and there are quite a few issues that would come about by attempting to do this. He most likely is using a different steering column to be able to link it into that knuckle which reverses the direction ofthe rotation since the rack is in its location. Fab work on the knuckle to mount, as well as figuring out how to run your shift linkage so it clears thad crossmember and control arms that now on its way, possibly even clutch linkage clearance. There's just alot of stuff going on there. He did a motor swap which may be an auto to eliminate some of that. There's just a gang pile of cutting, tabbing, and basically reengineering on two different vehicles. BIG WORK!

I have to agree with you that it is “BIG WORK.” It always is when you are dealing with major chassis modifications. The guy that did the conversion is a master fabricator, and does extensive vehicle modifications like this all the time for a living. I’m a retired service engineer from one of the big 3 auto makers, and have built many highly modified vehicles over the years, so my perspective is a little different from that of a week-end hobbyist. The total hours invested from start to finish for someone with the skills and tools should be in the 40 hour range. The time to locate the clip and tack it in really is about 2 hours if you have a helper, which is what my original post said. It takes some guys 2 hours just to get the truck up on jack stands, so I wasn’t trying to imply that the total job was 2 hours, just the time it took to center the clip and tack it in place. The remainder of the time is needed to fabricate the misc. boxing plates, brackets, column modifications, and finish welding. The column he used is the stock unit – the shaft was cut at the top of the box and modified to fit the VW rag joint. If you review the recent thread on installing a Mustang II crossmember that Vic in Gardena undertook, you’ll see the unusually high amount of fabrication work it took to get that unit situated properly between the rails. The real point of the post is as an alternative, the VW transplant is by far a much easier swap to accomplish, and in a much shorter period of time than anything else I’ve run across. Would I recommend a non-car guy attempt it? Probably not, but for those with the desire, skills and tools, this looks to be a great option.