Brent's Van (uante)

After having the paint removed from the doors...it was time to weld up the ridiculous amount of mirror holes that were drilled in them. Thirteen holes on the passenger door and almost as many on the driver's door.





My friend Tim welding up mirror holes



After the weld grinding, dent removal (especially the back doors) and paint prep, I'll be at a stand still til I return to Arizona and start the main part of the project. I've decided what I'm going to do with the van and I might start a new thread from this point forward in the Member's Vans section.

Back in Arizona finally. After 3 months in storage my van started with just a few tries. It was a blast driving it around the storage area...for some reason I grin every time I get behind the wheel!

uante wrote:Back in Arizona finally. After 3 months in storage my van started with just a few tries. It was a blast driving it around the storage area...for some reason I grin every time I get behind the wheel!  

It's hard not to grin from ear to ear. Our earlies are a blast. Looking good. I'm picking up another one tomorrow.It's a 64 Falcon Club Wagon with everything except the rear seat, which I already have a spare.

In the next couple weeks I'm going to be configuring a plan for restoration of my van. This will include painting and dent repair, engine cleaning/repairing and bottom side cleaning and painting. Also I've to to re-weatherstrip the doors and replace the windshield gasket.
Once all that is done, I am going to work on the interior and make a replica of a old Hollywood van. Seems like an almost overwhelming project, but I'm in no hurry. I'll have to research on this site and see what is best to use for interior paneling to help decide what to use.

Looks like you've got Old School Air conditioning already!!!

Driver's door mirror preview:
After welding up 8 holes, this door is finished for the moment.
I'm sure liking it a lot more now with original style mirrors.
The passenger side was even worse with 13 holes filled in as seen in previous post.

As long as you're able to see out of them, they're much less intrusive than the newer style. Nice work!

Thanks Vanny, little by little

Latest work was to take all the equipment and switches out of the dash, except for whats needed for driving atm. Replaced the 10' of positive battery cable which ran from the battery to a big ol' honking switch in the dash and back to the engine with a 48" cable just from the battery to the engine. Had to remove the battery tray and box to do that and only found 26 cents under the seat But I guess more positively, didn't find any rust!
(to see big ol' honking switch see page 3 last picture)

Put the rear doors back on for a look after the dent removal...so much better than with all those deep dents!!! I can finally sleep at night! lol

Took all the glued in insulating foam out of the van so dents, surface rust and roof holes (13 ea.) could be worked/welded. Texas John (I believe) did a good job gluing that crap down...it was a bitch to clean up and get ready for the next steps.

Removed the heater and original front wall insulation. Going to try and save the insulation somehow as I'm sure it's impossible to get like the rubber floor mats.

Cleaned up the worst of the rust and filling in the many drill holes in the floor. Still have about 28 holes in the cargo area.
Obtw, found out if you remove the little cigarette holder thingy from the ashtray, it becomes a perfect Red Bull cup holder!

Brent, the floors looking great! Takes a lot of energy for that kind of work...Guess the Red Bull will take care of that!!! Keep up the nice work...well worth it!

Drove my van to the body shop today to have the roof and dash holes fixed. Not being a welder, I didn't want to try my hand at it and make matters worse. Driving on the freeway with no doors or mirrors was interesting.

Thirteen holes in the roof, including a large one on the back end for a huge light they had installed back there. The rest were hazard lights I suppose from the van being a city dog catcher van at one time. Matter of fact I wrote the city last weekend in the little town it's from and asked if there were any "in-service" photos of the van, but only one of three people wrote back today, and they don't know anything about the van.

The 20+ drill holes in the dash are also being filled. Can't wait to get all them done and after I fill the remaining 28 holes in the cargo area, that will be a total of about 98 drill holes filled from the doors to the roof. (Drill happy bastards!   )

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH= YES!! A ="HOLY VAN"!!

Looking good! I did not get the right steering column bracket in. Let me know if you want the drivers flip lock.

More progress against the "Great Hole Dilemma"!
Roof holes welded and dash holes filled. About 70% of the holes
needing fixed are done. Yay!


Siren Holes Welded


Rear added on light hole Welded


20+ holes in dash filled


Heater Box restoration underway...

Lookin good!

Man that looks GREAT! Like it never even happened!!! Really Nice!

Nice! I need to do that to my van dash still too, including filling a huge radio hole. Looking great!

Thxs...I'm pretty happy with it. It's a shame to have to do all the work to the van, but there too many things wrong to save the original paint for what I plan to do with it.

I'm a fan of "Original" but not a fan of Dents, Drill holes and Rust lol

Got the "Blinkers" working...thanks for the signal assy Bruce.

For my Birthday I decided to start work on the bottom of the Van. Figured I'd get that done first then finish prepping for paint and etc.

I've done this with several vehicles in the past and it usually seems overwhelming at first but moves along quickly enough.

Started in the right back and progressed forward through the rear wheel well taking out the probably original exhaust and to get better access the step assy. Wanted that out to rhino coat the full step anyway later.

Had to hammer out some dents in the rear step side metal and rear wheel well...seems someone ran over something nasty at some point and made a couple dents under there.
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Going In!!! Started out nice and clean, didn't end up that way!


Step assy out for access and rhino coat of step


Simple exhaust out. Looked really old, probably the original.

Looking Good Brent! Nice work so far. Are you going to add an exhaust system that will give it a little growl when it goes???

Well I put dual exhaust in my Torino to make it growl and I like it for that car. Not sure about the Van...but it's not going to be a "Hot Rod" or anything so probably just go plain jane.

uante wrote:Got the "Blinkers" working...thanks for the signal assy Bruce.

You are welcome, glad I could help.