Welcoming a new member to our home...

On Saturday morning I packed the wife and 2 boys and headed for Kentucky. Mike (Wideload) and I have been working out the details on his '66 Sportvan for a couple months all hinging on the sale of the 2005 Scion Xb that the wife and I were trying to get rid of. It went pretty fast once I got it cleaned up and on the market and so I sent Mike a PM telling him I would take the van.

We got to Mike and Cindy's about 11:30am and got to work drove it up on the dolly, swapping the rear tires with a set of 14" I had (taken off my 64 panel), and got the driveshaft off.

Tammy was super excited once she saw it and has been talking about nothing else. When we first started looking for a van she really wanted a window van for her daily driver but they were far and few and expensive if we could find anything. When Mike had his 2nd Gen up for sale I stopped on my way to North Dakota and jokingly said, the wife would love the Sportvan! He told me he would let it go and I sent Tammy a message as soon as we left.

Mike did a LOT of clean up on this van. He had a thread on taking all that carpet and glue out and he sure did one hell of a nice job!

The floor up front will need to be replaced but no big deal, I got a half sheet of 14 gauge at home and we are going to start that as soon as I can get the 64 off the lift and pushed out of the garage.

So here are the plans...

1. Replace floor and tunnel in the front.
2. Put in floor shifter for the auto. Right now this thing is super dangerous. Just starting it will cause it to jump in reverse. The shifter is actually backwards, where park is down instead of the up position.
3. Install A/C and tint windows
4. POR15 the interior.
5. Sound proof and insulate Doghouse and floor.
6. Get all the original moldings sanded and repainted a lighter brown.
7. New wood flooring, headliner and vinyl side panels.
8. Get seats recovered.

This should keep us rather busy. Motor runs awesome. Last will be exterior paint but Tammy has already decided on a "Hot Chocolate" and light brown two tone. We will try to match the colors inside as best we can. I am going to stop on way home at a guy that does seat refurbishment in his garage and does awesome work.


She has named her van Coco 66...

Mike had 2 Fiero seats for the front, the original bench seat which is in AWESOME condition, and we have 2 nice captains seats from our donor. I really wish I could find that checkered material like on the original bench seat since these are really close to the color scheme that Tammy wants.

Here is a picture of the van how it sat in Mike's garage.

Cool story, nice looking van!!
Good luck with it, sounds like a great project..

Joel

Right on!!! Glad to here all has worked out on getting that van. It looks pretty nice. Hope you have two computers cus good luck getting Tammy out of the forums and picture galleries now...lol. It sure is great when a couple shares in the same hobby.

Hello All:
I just picked up a 67 G10 in pretty bad shape. I am new to forums and would love for some advise on where to get parts. I need to replace the windshield frame and top.

sweeet van, wish she was mine

maybee wrote:Hello All:
I just picked up a 67 G10 in pretty bad shape. I am new to forums and would love for some advise on where to get parts. I need to replace the windshield frame and top.

Welcome to VV maybee!!! You have a P.M.

I got the rear end put back together and installed in the 64. Hopefully it will be good enough to at least roll it out, there are no outer bearings. Lol. I still need to get down to Mobile and pick up that rear end from Chris.

Tomorrow I will try to get the front end put back on the 64 and let it down off the "Lift" I made for it. I will be putting the panel project on hold while I get her 66 done.

Hopefully this weekend I can get the front floorboards and tunnel cut out and get the steel cut for the new floor frame started on the new tunnel. Still need to decide on a floor shifter for it. Been looking at one out of a Jetta that looks promising.

Congrats on your (her) new van Matt.When ya stop burnin up the road maybe you can get some time to work on them.lol

Nightmoves wrote:Congrats on your (her) new van Matt.When ya stop burnin up the road maybe you can get some time to work on them.lol

Ain't that the truth! But hey I got the `64 almost ready to come out of the shop and I got the sheeting for the pans for the floor cut on the CnC.

Ok so I got the 64 out of the garage with some serious pulling action from the 3rd Gen. Tammy did a good job pulling me. It was hard to pull since there are no bearings in the rear end, but also, no brakes. LoL!

Beyond that, we got the 66 pulled into the shop. First I wanted to post a picture of another seat option. This seat is from my 1980 Fiat Spider. The seat is nasty dirty from being in storage but it fit perfect on both sides. These cars are not super hard to find and since the seats have been the same from 1968-1986 there should be LOTS of them out there.



We got a set of Fiero seats with the van. Thanks Mike!

We got the drivers side in, found out where it was comfy for Tammy to sit and I fabbed up and welded a mount for the dog house side bracket. Tammy decided to try it out once I had it in. Lookin good baby!!!



I will get the other side done this week.

I plan on stopping at the paint distributor to get paint chip samples for her repaint. After she picks exact colors we will take those chips to find some matching vinyl. I need to order some Por15 to get the inside covered so I can get some sound deadener in.

We worked on getting our Fiat seats finalized in the van today.

I already had the drivers side brace made but needed to get it mounted and painted just so it wont rust any till we get the carpet in the front and I will make a panel that covers the opening. Here is the drivers brace installed and painted.



Moving on to passenger side, the floor was a bit rusty right up against the wheel well so I cut that piece out with the plasma. I will get this sanded off and get the new piece I cut installed. I found it was a bit rusty about half and inch up the wheel well so I cut 2 inches out that I will patch and paint also. Here is the rough cut out.



The passenger mounting brace I wanted to do a bit differently since I am thinking of putting something under the seat and I wanted a bit of clearance. I welded a piece of tubing to the doghouse over to the wheel well then braced it with a piece of 3/16" thick flat bar.



For the back brace I used a piece of 3/16 flat bar for one side and welded it to the factory flat piece on the doghouse. Got it all welded, drilled our holes and painted it.



Now that we have the bracing in and the seats fit good I will get the floor and wheel well patched in and sealed then look at getting sound proofing and carpet.

Could I get a moderator to move this thread to Member Showcase for me?

Looking good. Matt!!! I bet the fiat seats are gonna look great in it once it's all finished. I have been thinking about going with 240z seats in my 69 Gmc Handi Van but I might go with fiat seats now.

moved!

Thanks Chebby.

Got the floor board and the fender replaced. I painted them with a rust converter just to keep the rust off till we get some Por15 to do the whole inside.

Going to get the wire wheel the old paint and glue off and get ready to primer the front end. I need to do a search on sound deadeners again. I know there were a few different options that were cheaper than Dynamat.

I hadnt taken phone out to get a picture of the floor. It is a bit rough, I needed to add some filler to the sides since it was a bit out of shape. I used TIG rods and the MIG welder to add material to the original metal and get it up to the level of the new panel. I will use my 7.5 inch grinder to smooth it out before it gets painted again.

I just wanted it covered, it is REALLY humid here from all the rain and I didnt want it to start rusting on the new welds.



This week the wife and I went to the shop where we will be getting out paint and she was able to pick out her colors.

First off the van is going to be called "Coco 66" on the plates. She has really wanted a Hot Chocolate colored van. This was the shade of brown she picked and it looks SWEET!.



The secondary color was a bit tougher. We wanted to get a lighter brown but it was REALLY limited for something like that, that would match her main color. Most we bronze or cream/tan. I thought she should get a little more adventurous. So to go with the Root Beer brown this is the chip she picked. I think it is going to look AWESOME!



Mike had all the interior plastic panels, they will be painted the same orange and then we got some matching brown vinyl that will have foam backed and sewn in diamond shapes for the finishing panels and roofing.

I am sure we have ALL seen vans suffering from the missing stop on the front doors dent... UGH! The 66 is no different...



Drivers side was gone from the door to the body, the only piece was the piece welded to the body. Passenger side had it all complete but the brace in the body had the welds broken. I decided I wanted to replace the whole setup.

Here is the kit I made. I will do a feeler to see if any one would be interested in buying these sets.

2 Body brackets
1 rod
1 door plate
1 stop plate
1 rubber bailer belt cushion



Rod Assembled





Drivers door that still had the bracket on the body...

Door Mounting Plate



Drivers side looking down from the top




Passenger side body mounts



Complete mounted to body (Passengers door is off so I didnt have picture of it in the door.)



All done! No more nose dents!!!

How close does it come to the window when rolled down? Or are you far enough down the door? Don't no the chevy vans all that well, and was wondering if this is to replace the stock parts that would normally be in that same location anyway. Looks nice that's for sure.

The brace that mounts on the door plate forces the rod to pivot more parallel with door as it closes.

This replaces the stock pieces. I just copied what was there in my CAD software and cut it out and mounted it.

Very Nice....our fords have the straps on the doors that kinda stick out. wouldn't mind trying to make something like that fit.

I think the biggest challenge would be an indent for the pivot on the body and the bolts.

The Chevy has a "Pit" on the door and the pivot on the body slips into that pit.

If you send me pictures of the inside of your jams I will see what I can come up with. I am sure if you chamfered the holes and used a pan head bolt that sat flush we could make one work.

How thick is the material around the edge of your doors? Would it be able to have a .035 deep chamfer? 45* chamfer would need to be .035 deep to hold a 10/32 pan head flat against the material I believe. As long as we could chamfer it, the slot where the rod slides in could accommodate the body pivot bracket.

Hmmmm not sure how thick doors are. The door posts would probably be thick enough. I will have to take a look at it and see what I have to work with for door edge and get back to you.

Monkey wrench in our restore, yet again.

I bought a 1990 300ZX from a buddy for a VERY good deal. The car wasn't running but it only took me 10 minutes to figure it out. $400 and 3 hours of labor and car purrs.

He had the car repainted and seats recovered 2 years ago. Tranny rebuilt and new exhaust 6 months ago. New tires and 18 inch Liquid Metal rims. Also almost new tires on 16 inch rims.

A guy had backed into the front of the car which scuffed the front bumper and broke the passenger side headlight. This head light has been Satan in disguise! First one I bought was for a Japanese version of the car. Sent it back, bought another one. I got it from UPS yesterday and the glass was broken out! Ugh! So now waiting for my money back on this one to buy another.

I need to get rid of this thing so I can put the money into the 66.

Hey Matt, didn't mean to ignore your post about the '66, I've been busy working on my stuff at the camper and haven't done much vanning this summer. Your progress is looking great. Keep the pic's coming.

So last week I made a couple of purchases for Tammy's B-day in 3 days. I bought her an HEI Distributor and the adapter to switch to a 2 barrel carb. I didnt buy the carb yet, need to budget it in. Hoping the stuff will be here this week.

Thanks to Dan for his advice and help in picking out the right stuff.

Looking at replacing the tank with a 16 gallon aluminum fuel cell from a guy on Ebay. I need to find out if it has an in the tank fuel pump or not. Was going to redo the tank but seeing as how his tanks are only $150-$200 I would rather replace it. I seen he has a lot of different dimensioned tanks so will get good measurements on what I can make fit and go from there.

I went to the Pick A Part in Birmingham a couple of weeks ago and while there wasn't much to be had I did score a few of the trim pieces off of a few new vans that hopefully I can modify to fit the pop outs on side windows.

I started wire brushing the front floor boards and tunnel and dog house but was tired so pulled the van out and pulled my Fiat in. Worked on that for a few hours while I had parts cutting on the CNC.

Progress is slow when I am having to work on this stuff alone.