IFS under a 65

Your van is coming along nicely. Lots of great ideas on this rig. Keep on moving forward and keep those pics coming, it's quite inspiring.

mounted up the headers. real happy with the fit. The custom bends removed the cat and made the squeeze inside the rails nicely. The ends of the Y tube are swaged to I hope to cut and weld those joints to avoid a bulky clamp



remounted the intake just to get a sense for how wide the engine would be with both sides bolted together. the alternator wont fit in its traditional spot, I will have to machine a bracket to drop it about 4 inches. I bought a junkyard dog house from the bigger engine ( I am not sure what engine designation that came with but it was about 6 inches longer than my original cover and wider on one side as well. I will need to modify the dog house but only minimally I believe at this point. I also centered the engine so the seats will need some custom mounts as well.


worked on the brake lines. working from the rear forward.

Looks like tons of work and progress being made...Fantastic job! Gonna look Great when it's all said and done!

Finished the brake lines last night. hard lines to the rear crossmember and across the diff. and a separate line to front and across the front subframe. I couldn't find any hold downs that I liked so I machined some simple aluminum clips and tapped the frame for a flush bolt down. I did install residual valves in both systems but not a proportioning valve. With the engine placement I'm hoping to avoid a need to adjust the rear brake power but I did leave a blank run in the rear line if that becomes necessary. I bought the steel for the wheel tubs and planned on starting in the rear as they are not that different then what came with the van originally. Although I hope to achieve a more modern stance, the wheels are not oversized and the drop wont mean I need to push up the tubs (hopefully)  I couldn't get away without notching the rear rails for the differential so the floor will have a cross tunnel between them. not sure how exactly that is going to look. 2016 making progress!

Just killer...when this van is finished, definitely national magazine or SEMA show material!

test fit the two front doors. not too far off for the amount of body that was/is missing. The roof swap along with a floor replacement had me worried the van would sag or be out of square, but if the doors are any indication its not in too bad of shape.

I replaced all the hinge pins earlier in the build with hardened stainless pins and brass bushings instead of the plastic OE ones. so the hinges really hold their position nicely

Awesome build. I agree w/ magazine worthy and/or sema. The work your doing on this rig is beyond. The wheels look a little puny in that last pic tho

Is that what it takes to turn low? How low? What are the rim and the tire specs? Looks like 17" x 7 or 8" ~8-9" wide tires w/ a 25.5"-26" diameter?

I want the van to appear "period correct" with a modern stance so I went with a smaller tire/rim combo that would tuck under the front and still fill the wheel well.

I have  a professional bodyman coming in on the weekends to help me with some of the finer details on the front end. since I was only getting in his way, I decided to make a mess somewhere else on the van.


I really like the look of that triangle window on the handi-vans and passenger vans. mine is a panel so it doesn't have the window. I laid out what I would want it to look like. I centered It in the space of the B-pillar, as my side doors don't have a window, the new triangle window can sit away from the front door and not have an uneven gap side to side. If you look at the layout of a factory triangle window, it is not centered in the pillar.
the height is the same, but the window is slightly wider as you see here.


I want to keep the OG profile. I started by laying out the corners on MDF (or HDF) depending on what state you live in. I cut out a 90 and a 70. figuring I can make three 90's and leave one slightly open, and then use the 70 for the short angle.


jig-sawed the edge, routered the inner section and then laid out the hardware to sandwich them together.
countersunk the bolts and the T-nuts so can pound on it flush later.


here is a closeup of the finished buck


I traced the wooden buck a bit longer than the pattern and cut it out.

then a couple of runs in the stretcher, and a few hours of hammering (or it felt like it)
the piece comes out of the jig for a test run.


not bad. I made the straight pieces on my brake using a sturdy piece of DOM that matched the profile instead of a clamp and then broke a small return to hold the glass. The corner will need some inner work before its welded to the straight run. The hold down holes will get cut out. One down, three to go!

Nice work! I love seeing builds like yours. Very inspiring!! As far as those triangle Windows, I love the look of a panel with these installed. I wanted to do that mod to my old panel van but I never got the time before I sold it and moved east. (Now I have a window van)

LOVE the look of the triangle windows on panel vans. Have seen it in the past and they give it that little something extra!!! I only wish I had your talent! You're doing a Fantastic job with this van...Can't wait to see it complete! Well done!!!

Great work!!!! I really like those side windows as well. I was hopin, somewhere down the line I could find an old Sports van or something with them that i could cut out and put in mine.
Keep up the great work and pictures!!!
Chaz

window project update. sorry the pics are not in chronological order but if you scroll through you will see I finished the outer corners, cut and shaped them to the sides, and then welded the whole thing together. Butt welding thin sheet metal is not my strong suit and not easy IMO. I tried to tack, grind, and hammer to avoid distortion. Question: What filler size and makeup is anyone using for that old metal when TIG welding. I thought .035 ER70s would be the right mix for the old metal but the filler just isn't big enough for my feeding abilities. Anybody running anything bigger than .04??
As you can see once I got the outer frame done, I made a tray inner structure to hold the glass. I do plan on using some metal filler and polyester and then I think a small rubber profile along the inside edge will finish off any minor imperfections left. I have to tell you; cutting the side of that van was very nerve racking and I had to take a few minutes to talk myself into it before I actually put the wheel to it. But once I started cutting, I was committed at that point. I wanted to be able to place the frame against the body and see how much roll the body has. It has more than I accounted for in my frame and I will need to modify the outer frame body before I cut both pieces and try and butt weld 50 year  old sheet metal to my hammered sheet metal.
I have a cardboard pattern at the glass guy so I should be able to test fit once I get the frame tacked.

Wow, thats great work!

WP

awesome project keep it going

Any new updates on this

Wow... if I had a pinch of that talent! Really impressive... what do you do for a living, fabricate rocket ships? The quality in your metal work is very nice. I am amazed at the creativity and workmanship. Wow

Can’t believe it’s been almost three years since I last posted or worked on the van. Time flies and life happens I suppose. But here we are . I bought a salvage yard EPS electric power steering column and motor From a 2009 Prius and are trying to retrofit into the van

I had set up the rack manual with a gear box out of a Mazda box truck I’ve posted that in another chat. Now I simply have to replace that linkage with this EPS. First thing I did was cut up the column to get a look at the splines. Then machines Where the steering wheel would be to except a double D you joined. The intermediary shaft was more difficult required cutting the splines on the rack machining a sleeve and brazing or welding the replacement Toyota shaft on the rack itself

Here it is marked up in the van it’s pretty tight fit as my Accelerator pedal and brake pedal are both under the floor as well

suicideking wrote:IMG_4385 by suicideking15, on Flickr

IMG_4384 by suicideking15, on Flickr

Is this a kit that can be bought or did you make these?

I bought a mustang III kit and modified it to fit my application. It would not fit in this chassis as is.

Nice job, it looks like it was made for the Van. Oh, it was made for the Van!

Installed the drive by wire throttle assembly from my donor trailblazer (see earlier posts) the whole assembly is made to fit under a dash that the van simply doesn’t have. The solution was a universal pedal from a hot rod magazine and some clever cut and replace parts to join the two. The new assembly is bolted under the floor with the pedal only protruding.
As per my usual; the mock-up and thought process took way longer than the actual fabrication

I'm in awe of the talent and guts required to pull off this type of project!