Gothy's new 68 High top NOW WITH PICS! :)

Hey Gothboy, nice project, and thanks for inviting me over. More life here than any other FC van board I have found. I have really been missing having a place to go for tech help with my '64 A100 (1st year, #5510).

i couldnt have built mine properly without this site
all the guys are more than willing to help with any problems you might have,,

Oh yea, these guys are LEGENDS of how a forum should be! I dont think theres a nasty person on here. So I try to be just as nice as the rest haha!

UPDATE!!!
I finally worked upo the initiative to pry out the first "square" window behind the driver so I could put in the louvered jalousie window i got from Beachvan. Took me a couple days of pulling them all apart and reanimating them. I bought new glass for this one and put it in to see if I was right about how much I would like it. I LOVE IT!!! SOOOOO... Check the A-Parts thread now! I have parts and need parts!

I now have 3 pop-out windows that I would like to send to a good home. All working fine, though the rubber on 1 is known to be scary lol. I will trade if you happen to have what Im loooking for. I dont want money, just other windows.

I am looking for 4 crank open louvered jalousie type windows to fit the 4 square window holes.

ON a side note, I mentioned on FB a strange problem Im having. Perhaps you guys could share some insight for me pleeeeeeease?

My fan belt keeps stretching! It sounds weird, but heres the deal. My dodge runs a chevy 350, and so do almost all my cars. The same setup in fact (so I only have to keep one spare motor around lol). I tighten my belts all the same, but have still have never had this problem before.

It was really stretched out shortly after I first built and ran the motor, so I assumed since it was an old belt that it was just worn. (still probably the case).
So I replaced it. Gates 7440. after a month it got loose. I attributed it to "new belt syndrome", re tightened it and continued. A few months back I noticed it was getting warm again. Checked the belt, sure enough it was loose again. etc etc etc a couple months and now the adjustment things maxed out. Seems to take about 6-8 months for me to stretch a belt to max. The vans running warm again, and I know its the belt.

The question. (I know its not me...this time) sooooo could it be engine heat soak? When I shut it off each time i "pop the hood" open all the way till roof and leave it for a couple hours. Its definitely not "parked" heat soak, but could running heat soak be enough to do it? Im also running the stock dodge v8 7? blade mechanical fan. Ive never had problems before running large steel mechanical fans, but this time something is obviously different, and causing different belt stretch results...

Any ideas?

sounds like your water pump might be bad, loosen the belt and grab the fan and see if theres play in the water pump pully, if theres play the bearings are bad, replace the pump.the bearings can lock the pully for an instance cousing the belt to wear out and stretch

Check waterpump play and make sure the
Fan pulleys on both waterpump and balancer don't wobble. I doubt heat could stretch a belt that much.

Waterpumps only a couple months old. Hrrrmmm.. Doesnt mean it cant be bad, just means I have to check it to be sure.

This is soooo confusing!

I've seen it on a few cars, often the belly button SBC.
Make sure the alt mount is holding the alt straight.
It's more common with the aftermarket brackets, but I've also seen it with the stock stuff that has been hacked on.
What happens is that when tightened, the belt is twisted slightly, causing it to have different tension on the outer compared to the inner. I'd guess that it's like running a tire with low pressure. It heats up internally due to the flexing, causing it to get too hot and break down.

COULD BE YOUR ALT. LOCKING UP TOO,

just for grinns - look at how the belt is being tensioned?? alt id bet - is there a lock washer begind a flat washer there ?? if not that 1 bolt can loosen creating that problem ur having!!

Hrm.... All high probability sugestions. @Twin I blindly looked around in there last night, more hoping to find out if there was another pinhole causing it to run warm. Not the case. I checked around to see obvious things like belt tension, see if I could spin the fan (I can a little with not much effort) water level, and for any other sources of pinholes (hoses loose clamps streaking at freeze plugs, etc). The Alt is still at max on the stock chevy bracket. I thought maybe the bolt too, but just by looking its where I put it. I can check all of these things further. This is the silliest problem. lol. Id rather go back to playing with my windows lol.

As for a slightly croocked alt, or bad alt and bad waterpump, this will need to be checked into further. Thank you for the ideas guys!

Why a stock chevy bracket.??? i thought you were running a mopar.???

He swapped in a 350/350...

Does the belt still have the corners at the bottom of the V or is wearing rounded off ? If rounded off check your pulleys for wear. Most likely the crank pulley would be the one to wear out.

Something I would check is your pulley alignment. With the belt off, tighten up your alternator as if you had a belt on, and see if your alt is twisting slightly to throw off your pulleys. Can you get a straight edge in there to see if everything is lined up after alt is tight? One other thing I would check is to make sure all pulleys are the same widths. I have found that some alt come with a newer style pulley that is slightly wider or may even have a different degree of angle for the "V" and belts don't like that and tend to where prematurely. Just my 2 cents on it.

Didnt get the chance to take a closer look yesterday. will have the opportunity later this afternoon. And yes, the belt will come off today (the good way lol) for further inspection. This problem is confusing!!!

Hey Gothboy, I need two windows and 3 latchs as one of mine is broken in the casting. Do you still have those pop ups?

sent you a pm amigo.

The "boys" get together. I'm calling it the Super Mini Micro Van-In...

Anyone know where I can find a black metalflake steering wheel, close to 15 inch? google was useless. Im going black and red interior, but would like the red to be a solid red so no red metalflake wheel for me. Ive got some black metalflake fabric lined up to me my tabletop under glass so I want things to match.

Every time I see that pic Dawgboy it makes me laugh. The perspective makes it look as though your van would fit in the back of mine. When in reality, your van has room, mine is full of crap lol!

Check over on the HAMB. There are a couple metalflake steering wheel threads.

Moon, JC Whitney, and old speed shops new, swap meets for used.
I don't recall any new black ones though...


another option would be to find a fifties or sixties 2 tone one and paint it Black/Red. Or modern

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/CON2R-SW2SPOKE-RED-Two-Tone-Twin-Spoke-Steering-Wheel-Red-and-White,58567.html

heres one -many others =google it= http://www.garyssteeringwheel.com/

Problem is he doesnt sell them he fixes them, and I dont have one for him to fix! No leads on google.

I cant find a place to BUY a black metal flake steering wheel from. The black ones are hard for me to find.

ICHECKED ON EBAY, NO LUCK

Paint one.

I'm thinking the metal flake would be hard to see in black.