66 A-100 in AZ

guess it's time to do a post here.
Raw material. Advertised at 700, talked down to 500. Here are the sale pictures from CL.







Had to get a couple more wheels mounted and aired up. It also came with the full set of Cragars, and a pair of bigger tires I had mounted to the rears. It also came with a bunch of junk in the back, which seems typical for the cheaper ones!

After getting it rolling, I pulled it out of the back yard and loaded on the trailer. Home? No, there was a race to attend first! Got a note on it while there and was able to buy a couple parts. Ended up not using them though.
Here it is the next day at home. The other steel wheel tires were shot, so used the cragars on the right.
You can see the bumper someone hacked into the rear. This accounts for cut wiring, holes for the wiring and license plate holder, and why I'm still looking for a nice rear bumper.

While crawling around it while on the trailer, I found that it wasn't a 318, but a 360! Nice! However, after messing around with it and getting it running, I found that they had used the neutral balance flywheel instead of the offset 360. Shakes at idle and worse at higher RPM. The motor was pretty tired too, and as a final insult, the front cover rotted away while running and squirted hot water at my butt! Good thing I have another decent built 360 in the garage.

Wanting an auto, I kept an eye out for others and checked junkyards. No luck until I found a parts truck! Yes, a PU was found that was a V8 auto. It was in LA so another road trip. The seller had a big industrial yard and the van was tucked away in there. He had to spend almost 2 hours with a forklift moving steel beams that a renter had stacked to get to it. He then took it over and torched out ther rear he had already sold.
It's a real shame the PU was hacked up for a camper years ago, but I ended up with almost every part I needed in very good shape for a VERY reasonable price. BTW, if you see a yard that has a watch-mule in it, they can get physical! Even with the owner there, the thing would not leave me alone.

I stripped the PU down, learning some of the differences between the early and late ones. The doors ended up with a guy in San Diego. I still have the rest of the bare shell.
Another friend in San Diego found another A-100 in a yard and grabbed a bunch of the other small items needed. He got a pair of pop out windows too.

A friend here in the Prescott area rebuilt the transmission from the PU, adding a shift kit, part throttle kickdown and a host of other cool tricks.
So now I have an engine, transmission and will get a nice converter to make it jump.

I had done searches over the net and had bought a service manual to learn more about these. It was a while before I found this site. I'm a member of a couple other forums and had joined the Yahoo group, but can't remember where I heard about it. Sure glad I found this site, though.
I stripped down the van, and had a body guy come over to bid on fixing the sheetmetal. It was way out of my price range, so I'm taking a body shop class at the local college starting at the end of this month. I do have a prep and paint guy lined up and paid to finish it after I get the bad stuff fixed. I also have a line on a soda blaster so after the metal is pretty straight depending on my amatuer abilities, it will get fully blasted in and out, top and bottom.

Current thinking is White inside and underneath. The hard part on that aside from all the cleaning, painting and assembling without tearing it all up is the blackout in the front. I dislike seeing the stuff behind the grille on any car, and it really is bad in an A-100. So I'll have to figure out a way to have all the Blackout in the grille area without having an ugly underside. The center is easy, it's the area on each side (like the steering arm and drag link on the left) that is going to be a tightwalk. The inside floor will be shot with bedliner tinted White to hide the dents and waves, and to quiet it. No thoughts yet on an interior.
The engine is going to be Mercedes Purple. I bought a pint to test out, but decided it's too dark and Red. Transmission is natural.
I haven't decided on the valve covers, but will probably run the old 318's with the wire holders.
The Cragars will stay. They are not what I would buy, but they are old school and were included. They polished up pretty well too. The other decision to be made is the rear wheel wells. They were cut out for the old wheels and tires, and will have to be fixed. I don't know if they will be flat like stock with a lip to the inside, or a flair of some sort.
The last choice will come down to how well the prep work comes out on the body. The painter dislikes shooting White, and has said he will be able to get it straight enough to shoot a dark color. If so, it will be the new 2010 Challenger Plum Crazy Purple. If not, bright White.
Here's a side shot of it after I pulled out the lift blocks but before it was stripped. It will sit like this or a bit lower. I've disassembled the front springs from the PU, and will see how it sits with just the 5th one removed. The third one has the clamp holes, so I probably will reassemble with those.

Oh, and along with a ton of other holes on the sides, top, and all through the interior, there is a big one just in front of the roof support in the middle. I may remove the stock antenna in front and run an antenna there in the middle of the roof. I'm thinking an old school CB style with a spring base. I know that AM/FM radios prefer a shorter antenna, and I probably won't be taking this on extended road trips (White underside!) so I don't see the need to have a CB radio. Any of you old school vanners know of a good solution for this?
I need to know which (or both) holes to weld up.

There are other details too, like paying for all the chrome, new side mirrors that attach to the stock stalks,
if I should rebuild the stock wiring harness of just go all aftermarket, and brakes. I also have all the stuff needed except bearings to put together a 5.13 sure grip diff. Oh, and the exhaust after the headers. Either over the axle and out the back (tips?) or dump in front of the rear tires (zoomies or tips?).

I haven't bought all the seals yet, but at least they are all available except the darn vent windows. AZ is not kind to rubber!
I'd like to also mention that Evaporust works well. I've been soaking small batches of parts (you do tag and bag when disassembling, don't you?) and they come out very nice.

Rod looks to be in great shape and a great price for it. Keep those pictures coming as you go along

G-man, I wouldn't say great. Aside from over a hundred holes in and out, there are lots of dents. You can see some in that rear shot in the first post. The rest of the van has similar dings all over. At least it has very little rust!
I would have been time and money ahead if I had bought a nicer one, but this way I KNOW what it is.
Vanish, I bought it in Nov. of last year, got a lot done by April of this year, and have been busy with other stuff most of the time since then. The doors were stripped and pictures shown back in April. Just getting back on it the past couple weekends, getting ready for the auto body class.
I have to take some pictures of the recent work, although the point is to erase past sins (holes).

Very cool indeed! We have a nice A-100 to mess with ourselves...just taking our good old time as well! I managed to buy those "Block Huggers" from Summit the other day for the 318. Just finding the time for everything is the pits!! lol

B.W.

BvrWally, Nice!
Hope mine is that smooth in ~6 months!
Are you staying primer gray or are you going to put some shine to it?

Some paint in a year or so? lol

Well, I'm officially doing metal work. The body class requires a test panel before letting us students loose on our own projects. I finished that the last day and got to start on the van today.
Lots of stud gun work so far, trying to pull out all the 'innies' and get it smoother. I've got 3-4 of the right side creases pretty close and am working on a big one next to the LR bumper hole.
The work is coming along, I just hope I can get better at it quickly enough to get it ready by end of class in December.

Hey bud,thats great! Glad for ya.Reckon it's never too late go to school.Great you can apply it to your hobby/passion.Unlike Shakespeare.

Well, I bent up some metal rod to define the shape of the rear wheel flares.
I stuck tape over it to help visualize the shape.
Still contemplating if I should go with this, make changes, or just repair back to stock and have the wheels stick out.

I think the flares would look great. Bill

Looks great keep us updated as you go

As nice as what I think yours is gonna turn out Id vote for the flares, would keep the crud off your paint.

nice score rod, looking good...............

Lookin' good Rod, great mock up on the flares.

Due to the enlarged fenders I vote for flares! My sportsman from AZ had dents every where too! The body was too nice to customise as far as flares go. My tires stick out a little. Either way you will have a sweet ride when your done!

Thanks, guys! I appreciate the comments.
I'm really not liking the gap around the tire. The lip is about 3/4 " out past the fattest part of the tire (I used a board against the tire to set the wire out even). The radius is 2 inches larger than the tire (one inch per side) and that's the part that looks funny to me. I also have the top of the radius up a bit for suspension travel.
I think I'll redo them with a tighter radius, since the center of the wheel is below the bodyline anyway, so I don't need a big gap for hand to install the tire. I may pull a leaf and lower it a bit. I like for the center of the wheel to be even with the bodyline. I'll have to toss an engine or something heavy in the back to get the ride height where I want it, then build the flares.
I also have to make sure the body cut is the same on both sides before using that as the meeting point for the flare. The tape was just to get some idea of the shape.

What size tire you plan on runnin?