Blaino's '67 A100 Custom Sportsman

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I'm thinking it's going to look great.... In the lowered pic, will that be your drive height and will it go lower when your parked? or just adding bags to keep at ride height?

Well, for now I'd static drop and have around that general area for ride height. I eventually want to bag it so it will lay on the ground, and have a way low ride height. But thats one of my things I keep going back on, bagged lowrider, or lowered gasser feel? Hmm..

We went to the junkyard last friday and pulled a new engine were going to have rebuilt.



We pulled a magnum 360 out of a 1997 dodge ram. This should scoot the van around no problem. we also pulled a a518 out of a 95 conversion van, so now i'll have overdrive.







I also installed my 3rd row seat last weekend. It still needs to reupolstered, but a blanket thrown over works for now.



I turn 18 in august, i hope to have the engine done and installed by then. We're just letting our machinest clean it up, and we'll build it back with a cam and carburator and that'll be that. i hope it sounds wicked.

Thats' cool ! With a 360 magnum it's going to be a rocket ! Bill

Doood That vans gonna be killer! -GothY-

Thats the plan! Haha. Thanks!

I put some 90s budnik rims on my van Friday night for a car show this weekend. They are super sweet. They were orignaly bought around the time I was born (1994, I'm a youngin') and are for a 1940 ford sedan delivery. Well, they've been on top the shops office for some years now sitting, while the '40 sits on steel wheels in primer. I polished off dust about as old as me, and they look amazing! I didnt tell my dad I took them until Saturday morning, he wasnt too happy. But wow! They look pretty good on my van too. I need some spacers to make sure the tire flex wont hit my leaf springs (I have about quarter of an inch of clearance, it that) with the 10s on the back, but other than that, they fit perfect. I won't be keeping these wheels, but its something fun to look at and kind of throwback to the 90s.

the fronts are 16x8, the backs are 17x10.

This is a close up of the wheels. Its also a before and after type deal.

Heres one from the show. This is me next to my brother's Toyota truck. Its a 1992 Toyota with an older 350 with a LT1 intake modded to fit, fuel injected, and all run off of an LS1 computer. Its pretty nifty, and really fast. It has a fantastic sounding exhaust.

Its also the first older Toyota truck like that to lay body on the ground with 22 inch rims. Its a pretty neat truck. He also has a 2003 Sierra 2500 HD that has air ride and a 72 chevy pickup that is bagged. I'm sure I'll post pictures of all those on here eventually.

Hey guys! Long time, no update. I'm back to my old original rims and tires now. My dad sold his '40 Ford Sedan Delivery with the wheels i was using.

On another note, I'm getting really close to finishing up this engine. Next i can start to rebuild my tranny and then put it all together. The engine has now been rebuilt and I painted it this past weekend! Lots of time, money and work into this. I hope you all like it as much as i do! I'm posting this from an iPhone, so i hope these pics fit.











This last one is with the intake and valve covers just sitting on there. We're waiting on nice new bolts we ordered to put those back on, an then we're making one last big order of parts and it'll be complete! Im so excited.

The blue is the Chrylser Corporation blue from NAPA and the white is something we just mixed together with some paint at my dads shop with a little
Metallic. Its base and clear coat.

very nice , sweet van , thanks for sharing

Nice work, thanx for pix

It's great to see younger generation appreciating these vintage vans and keeping them on the road where they belong.
Two thumbs way up!!!

Wow, how lucky to have a shop like that to work in! Everything is looking amazing!

Hey guys! I haven't posted much here lately. So, small recap on life/my van. Since my last postings here I have graduated high school, and I am attending LSU come august for Graphic Design. Because of school, band (I play tuba), and other commitments the 360 has just been sitting pretty much untouched. I bought all the rest of the parts since the last time I posted though. Everything was ready to roll! So, plans were made, fell through, made again, something came up, blah blah. Well, finally the time has come! My van will be getting its engine swap! We started this weekend. Here is me starting to take off my doghouse. It reminded me of putting on headers in the middle of summer in my driveway- way too hot for anything outside. But atleast I was in my dads shop with all the tools we could ever need.











So, we eventually got the van lifted up and engine out in a short amount of time later friday night. If anyone is looking for a 318 or 727, they are for sale.

The next morning, we loaded up all the parts we needed at my house and loaded the engine on the trailer and drove it to my dads shop about 15 minutes away.



Later on, I wrapped my headers and we pretty much did final assembly on little things that we needed from the other engine or didn't put on yet. We (me and my two brothers) scraped the bottom and cleaned it up using some steel wool and then undercoated where we wouldn't be able to reach after the engine/tranny is in. It cane out great! We cleaned up the engine mounts and other little fasteners and painted them, also. Sunday we began fresh and I read in here for info and came across Hoffy09's awesome mount be came up with for his transmission. So, we are doing something similar to that and made a template. My brother bought a cnc plasma cutting table a litle whole back so he's going to cut out the bracket. All the files are saved for anyone interested in buying a bracket to do the swap. Pictures will be posted once mine is on. Until then, my tranny is held up by a ratchet strap.







Its not often you see your van from this angle!



When we went to mount the engine mounts we realized that the mounts dont work. Basically, a LA 318 has two left mounts. Just one side of te engine has 4 ears to mount the mount to. So, the magnum 360 just wont fit the passenger side bracket. So, we cut it. We flipped the triangle part and the boxed in part over to the opposite side and made a "right" side bracket. Sorry I forgot to take pictures and only have an after photo.



So, this worked well until we went to mount the engine in the van. The engine sits really far over to the drivers side and wont settle in correctly. We cant even fit a header in on the drivers side. So, we plan on buying LA 360 mounts as we read this will solve our problem. To be continued as far as this goes.

Now off to the transmission! It seems that I found out today our vans have "short tail shaft 727" trannys. They are way shorter than a normal 727 to fit. This makes my overdrive a518 tranny about 8 inches too long. Well, we still installed in and measured. We'd have about an 8 inch drive shaft if we left it and so nothing was damaged we would have to put an inch spacer on the bump stops so I dont have as much travel. Well, thats out the question. My plan is to lower this van pretty drastically so thats not an option. So, plan B! We are looking into using a 4x4 a518 tailshaft so it is shorter. The 4x4 normally goes into a plate that goes to the transfer case, it does not have a tapered end like mine does. So, we could take a 4x4 tranny, block off the end and use the tailshaft like normal and have a way shorter overdrive a518 for use. This lengthens the driveshaft almost, if not to, stock measurements. I can then lower my van and do whatever I please. This is still up in the air, I will let you all know about that. Building continues next weekend! Stay tuned!

We joked that my brother could spread his hand and touch my transmission to rear end thumb to pinky finger. Close! Hahaha.

THAT is a Real Nice Clean and Straight Looking Van you have there. Anytime you change something from factory there is always obstacles to hurl. But remember all good things come to those who wait and looks and sounds like you will have a AWESOME Van when you and your family are done customising it. ...JOE VAN...

Looks Great!!!!

Lots of nice work going on there. and it's great to see a young blood taking intrest in the entire early van community...

lookin real good, cant wait to see that engine in there

I forgot to post this, my van rode in style on the way home. This is a glimpse of
My oldest brother's 2003 gmc sierra HD. Custom front end to the 2011 gmc swap done all in metal, no plastic or fiberglass. Bagged on 24s and has dump truck air bags in the rear so we can tow a good sized goosebeck trailer with it.

Im having trouble re-sizing my photos, but if you'd like to see the full photos right click on them, hit "copy" and then "paste " that info into your browser and hit enter. Image should pop up!

It's great that you get along with your brothers so well and help each other out on projects. I love to see that. That truck looks way cool down so low and towing a trailer with a van on it!!!

You are doing some really impressive work. Let us know how your 4x4 trans idea works. I actually flipped my rear shackles to raise the rear because I am going for the Gasser look, and since I did that the length of the 518 is not as big of an issue as it seams to be with yours since your van is going on the ground. I posted a couple more pictures of my tailshaft pointing straight at the rear yoke.

Now were actually thinking about rasing the transmission with the 2wd tail shaft. Cutting the cross member and plating it after, moving the mount up to basically the floor and the transmission will work at a good angle with the rear axle once we flip it to lower it. One big problem though is we have to lower it right now, which was unexpected and the wait for a dropped axle in the front is about 10 weeks at Sid's dropped axles. So, hopefully we can come up with someone and get this thing on the road asap. But thays the transmission plan for now.

My driveshaft has finally been made! I have not installed it yet, but will do so soon. It should work just fine with my transmission length. The whole driveshaft is about 7 1/2 inches long, with an inch of pull out. I'll probably put travel limiting straps on the rear so it doesn't drop too much. I don't have pictures of anything lately and not much has been done, but I'll throw this on here for a teaser.