What's up fellas?

New to the vintage-van scene. My van just turned 58,000 original miles. Hard to believe, I know. Sometimes you find that one that didn't get driven very much. Good to be here guys.

64HandiVan, Welcome I'm pretty new myself love to see some pics of your van! Bill

Welcome to the site. Glad to see you guys here.

Yeah...Curious minds want to know? lol
B.W.

Well, this one is good. I ran across this van during the summer of 2001. I was running errands and past by a service/gas station. I could see the front end of the van but not much else. It was surrounded by other broken down vehicles and various five gallon containers and misc. parts. It was so sqeezed in that the doors would barely open. I went inside to grab a water and inquire about the van. It turns out the van belonged to the owners childhood and lifelong friend. He brought it in for a new set of tires and a service in 1985 and never went back to pick it up. He didn't mind storing it for him, so there it sat for years. I am certain all the little dings it has on it came from workers bumping stuff into it over time. I gave him my phone number and ask him to let the owner know if he was interested in selling I was interested in buying. So I went on my merry way. I never heard from him. I went back that direction about six months later, and spent a little time walking around it this time. There were fewer vehicles around it this time. I could peek inside this time and found that it registered only 49,500 miles or so. From the looks of the body and what appeared to be almost no rust under it at all I thought this might be correct. I was a little worried that all the shag carpet may have held moisture all those years. Yes it was wall to wall dirty brown and green shag carpet. Every surface including the dash. Those boys, whoever they were, had no shame with the shag. So I went inside again to ask about the van. He told me his buddy wasn't interested in selling, so I gave him my number again and ask him to inquire for me again, you know, maybe he changed his mind. Never heard from him. This went on for a couple of years. Every few months I would check in to see if it was up for grabs. It never was. Life got ahold of me and I just about wrote off any possiblity of owning that van. So I went on my way and all but forgot about that van. At the time I probably didn't have the funds to start a project any way. A couple of years later I received a phone call from someone asking me if I was still interested in the van. I said "What van?" He said the van over at "so-n-so" station. It took me a moment to understand what van he was talking about. I said " oh, that van." Well, yeah.
It turns out he was retiring and had sold the buisness and the building and he had to clear out everything within a month. His buddy really didn't want the van anymore and his wife didn't want to see it come home. It turns out he was the original owner. It was a delivery van for an electronics store he owned in Berea, Ky. This particular van was the last one he purchased for his business before he sold his business and moved to Nashville. I asked about the milage, he told me it was driven about 25,000 miles while in service. He had a couple of sons who wanted him to keep it so they could turn it into a camper van. Now I know where all the shag carpet came from. It was fashionable at the time, but that was the first thing I was going to rip out of there. I should have taken pictures of that interior... oh, the smell. They had built a two by four box so they could store stuff underneath. After taking all of that stuff out of there I didn't find any rust and none underneath the van. The only areas are on the raingutters where it sat on an incline and it pooled. It drained into one of the back doors so there is a bit of rust there but not much. I went about the task of rebuilding the fuel system and suspension, brake lines, any rubber lines. I pulled the motor and resealed it and was surprized to find an engine that looked as it it had not even been broken in yet. It had no radiator when I bought it. I assume someone sold it for the copper, so I had to go through that process for a while. It now has a radiator from a 1965 Chrysler. Dual core that just happened to be the right size. I put on electronic ignition. I am not a fan of adjusting points. I slapped on a pair of wide whitewalls (i'm a sucker for some whitewalls) and it is now my daily driver. As you guys are well aware I get a thumbs up everywhere I go. I'll post some more pictures. I am hoping to paint in the spring.

Welcome 64Handivan good to have ya here. Great story about finding your van. Glad to have another site member closer to me. I'm right outside of Paducah Ky. If your up this way give me a shout. wideload

Great story! Welcome!

Very cool story!!! great to hear he saved your no#[b]

Welcome aboard!

Welcome. Looking forward to the pictures....