Hello from the UK, new owner...

Hi, just thought i would say a quick hello. I was referred here from www.fordsix.com by Sakstrini.

I have just taken delivery of a 1964 Econoline Travelwagon, that i purchased from Ebay. The van was located in California, and i had it shipped 8000 miles to the UK. And i'm already absolutely hooked and i haven't even driven it yet....

This is the first picture i took of it, as it was delivered to me a couple of weeks ago...



I also have a few piccies from the Ebay ad. The van is now located in my garage, so its difficult to get a decent shot of it...







It has a 200 inline six engine that has been rebuilt recently, and seems to run fine now i have put a new carburettor on it. The wiring was all original, and has now all been removed, to be replaced with a custom loom. Then it will be put into service as a campervan.
These things are very rare over here, i have never seen one before, until one appeared over here for sale on Ebay. I went to look at it, and fell in love with it, but it was far too rusty for my liking, so we decided to import one ourselves....

Regards
Sy

Welcome Sy. Looks like you got a real nice Econo there.

Cheers, Sy !!!

Welcome to the site Sy.

donivan65 wrote:We got a member Simon in Newcastle upon Tyme,,,,,,
he has a Dodge Van,,,,,,is that anywhere near you?????

Not really, its about a 5 hour drive from me, so quite a long way apart for such a small country...

Sy

Just curious, how much is gasoline and diesel going for over there?

- Larry

I've just done a quick calculation. Our local station is quite expensive, but last time i went, they were charging £1.20 a litre, which works out at £4.54 for a US gallon, which is $7.72 at the current exchange rate for a gallon.....

How much do you lot pay then.....?

Last week I wanna say $4.15 / gallon. Saturday night in Elkhorn Wisconsin it was dirt cheap at $3.20, then same gas pump, Sunday at 12:30 PM (what the hell, no way!) $3.06!

Something is very wrong out there. My wife said there were major gas lines in Atlanta last week. Wait in line (on que?) all morning long, get to the pump, Sorry, WE'RE OUT. Something about the formulaion required by the EPA. Rest of the nation has gas, except the south east. Go figure.

Congrats Sy!

I filled up yesterday at US$2.99/gallon!

donivan65 wrote:So about how much does it cost to ship a Van over the pond, and how long does it take?????? Do you have a choice of how they ship it?

I paid $6000 for the van, the extra costs involved were:

Shipping $3000
Transportation in USA to docks $500
Import Duty and VAT $2200
Transportation in UK to my house $350

So basically, the price of the van doubled to get it here, but it was still worth it. You couldn't buy a good van over here for less than that...!! I went to look at one over here that was up for $8000, and it was a wreck. The bodywork was full of bondo, and it needed a lot of welding and respraying.... At least mine had a good shell to start with. I'm already absolutely in love with the thing.... I can't wait to get the building work finished on our house, then i can get on with the van...

Sy

Looks great! I remember that van being on Ebay.

G-Man wrote:Are still alot of the Thames vans around anymore???

Nope, the wife really likes them, but they are extremely rare. I have never seen one come up for sale over here. The only one i did see was in South Africa. Unfortunately, as is often the case, what was once considered only worth scrapping is now quite sought after....

There are still a lot of classic cars about over here, but the vans and trucks were all used as builders vans and so they were all trashed and crushed....

Sy

Hi Sy, nice campervan you got there. The little Fords are pretty rare over here in England. Seen one or two Econoline campers over the years.

There's a pretty Dodge A100 family wagon doing the rounds at the moment. I myself have been running a '68 Dodge A100 Xplorer conversion. Basically panel van with a bit stuck on the back!
Look forward to seeing your van at some shows.... as for the gentleman enquiring about Thames vans they've nearly all gone to the scrap yard in the sky!

Hey Terry, I love those Xplorers.

BTW - Welcome to the site.

Hi Terry

What part of the Uk are you in...?

Hopefully we will be able to make it to a few shows next year in the Van. It needs quite a bit of work before it goes for an MOT, but fingers crossed it will be done in time....

I will be looking out for any vans next year....

Sy

Hey Terry! I heard you sold your p/u. Is that true?

Anyhow..I've always thought your Xplorer was awesome.

Sy - I am based in the midlands (Warwick) and try to get to shows in the summer. A good source for people who like vans is the NSVA (National Street Van Association) - even one or two old fords in their ranks.

Nate - Yup. Sold the pick-up after seven years. Found I wasn't using it that much. Two trips to the drag strip per year and pootling round town on sunny days, didn't warrant the money on maintenance and fuel. The camper is going well - it went on a trip down the South-west coast of France and almost made it to Spain! A round trip of 1500 miles and no problems except feeding it petrol.