hello everybody

first time posting here, altho i've been lurking here for a long time. i have always liked
all of the old vans, not just one brand. if i did this right, you should be seeing my '66 pro street
chevy van project and my '66 falcon deluxe club wagon. i have had the falcon for 5 years. i
bought it to help motivate me to work on my chevy. so far it hasn't woked to well. i keep working
on the falcon, so i can keep it on the road:) i have had my chevy since '96. i'll work on it in
spurts, then work on my falcon. i'll be glad when i can drive my chevy, should be a hoot
from light to light:)
wildbillinva

Welcome!!! What kind of side door you building there..cool looking..

Welcome Bill , Good to have you on this site too. Always liked your Chevy(& Ford too)

Bill, Watched your van (chevy) for a while now can't wait to see the progress as it goes .It's an exciting van get it on the road!!!! Bill

Welcome, I really like the chevy. If you don't mind shairing with us, What type of rear suspension are you using? The slicks look way cool.

Welcome !!!!

welcome

i'm using a parallel 4 link with airbags in the rear. right now it has a panhard bar,
but i'm going to change it to a watts linkage, front and rear. the vertical bar
in the door opening is a temp brace to hold it together till i get the frame done.

Sweet !!! I was wondering what you did with your gas tank. But there it is I see it now.

Awesome That babe is going to hook up.

Thanks for sharing.

Welcome Will Bill.
That Chevy is also Wild . Whats your plans for a power plant.?
I have a similiar dream for my 65 chevy no door,so I will follow your progress as it gets completed.
Feel free to start a gallery with lots of pictures.

________
mike

WildBill, your chevy is looking killer. That thing is gonna be radical, I like it. Falcons are nice to. Good taste.

nothing radical. this lt-1 from a '95 trans am found me, along with the
4l60e tranny. i friend was going to put it in a project, but gave up on it.
i got the engine,wire harness and computer for $800.00, has less than 75,000 miles on it. then the guy that had the trans said i should have it, so i got
it for $300.00.
wildbillinva

WOW! Nice project van you have there WildBill. I'm likin' your daily driver too. Keep us posted on both!

welcome to VV

Those EFI SBs look like they were made for these vans. Just curious ,what size are those tires?

that is a nice project you have going on there. there is allways room around here for some more earlys

the rear tires are MT 33 x 21.5 on 15 x 15 weld rodlites.
wildbillinva

http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=15892
just in case anyone else was wondering what the stone thing is
with my falcon.
wildbillinva

Figured it was a furnace. Very cool read! Thanks for sharing the info.

Dan

thanks for the warm welcome. this is my 1st project i have ever tried. in the past i have just put a stereo, nice seats and some carpet in my van. i didn't
have the means or the place to try something like this. so what i'm trying to say is "i don't really know what i'm doing" the project has evovled over the years, as i learn more. originally i was going to use a covair van front clip because i wanted to get rid of the king pins. then after i found one at a junk yard and brought it home , i started to realize that was going to be alot of work and the engine would have to be moved way back, then i thought i'd try moving the leaf springs, and do a axle overspring to get the ride height i was looking for. that's why the front axle has the plate welded to the bottom of it. after i mocked it up and saw that the tie rod was rubbing the top of the springs, i decided to go with air bags and a custom suspension that i could design and build using the machines at work. i know, still alot of work:) but now it's more like a really big model. i use to love building models when i was a kid. now i realize that a parallel 4 link is not the best choice for a driver, but i'm to far into it to change it now. i'm getting a little better at thinking forward now, so i don't design myself into a corner, but i'm sure i'll screw up again:)
but it is my therapy:) the best part is almost all of the stuff i have made to date, has been pulled out of the scrap hopper at work, so i'm keeping my material cost way down. when i get some time, i plan on starting an album here, cause i have a ton of pics of my progress over the years, including my designing dead ends.
wildbillinva

Bill,
We look forward to seeing some pic's... "We love pic's here" And like you most of us started out with simple projects and slowly graduated to larger and more complex challenges. It's good that you have all those resources at work to help you keep the cost down and opens many possibilities that you many have otherwise not considered.

Dan

finally making a little progress on my front suspension. here are some pics of the radius rods i have designed for my van. i'm going to use poly bushings from a suspension kit i got at a local 4x4 shop. these will pivot from the stock front spring perches, and heim joints where they connect to the batwings. also got the batwing cores chamfered for welding the plates on, and welding the assemblies to my axle. made a little jig to hold the cores and the pivots for final machining.
wildbillinva

Man! Nice vans. Great fabrication work, too!

Nice Work Wildbillinva!

I appreciate the design and development part.

M1D