woo hooo! van in paint and body!

took it to my guy a couple days ago. its still has a few things to finalize but i am going to stockpile the parts so i can hit it hard when i get it back. so psyched! its been a long road.

looks awesome. love the front grille opening widened

Wow, I wish I could sculpt with metal like that. Do you lose any seat height in the front?

Better TIP !! that painter really =GOOD!! hes going to be a small midget to paint all the underside rockers & panels!!!    

66mnecotruck wrote:Wow, I wish I could sculpt with metal like that. Do you lose any seat height in the front?

yes....5 inches from the body drop! haha. when i sit in the seat there is only about 3 1/2-4 inches between my head and ceiling.

bad ass. love the wider grill!

Sweet!

Cant wait to see it painted!

Congrats! Can't wait to see what that grill section looks like once it's all been painted up!

F*cking A man!! Can't wait to be there myself.

thanks guys. heres an old pic with the grille in.

mothradeath wrote:

66mnecotruck wrote:Wow, I wish I could sculpt with metal like that. Do you lose any seat height in the front?

yes....5 inches from the body drop! haha. when i sit in the seat there is only about 3 1/2-4 inches between my head and ceiling.

What year is the van? I just realized an advantage to the 61-64 models. They are better for body drops since the steering column is more, pardon the term, erect, lol. The 61-64 column isn't tilted back as far as the 65-67 models are so they used thicker seats and taller seat brackets. So if doing a body drop you could compensate for about half of that by using the later, thinner seats and short brackets, just an fyi.

the steering column would be obnoxiously tall still. look at where the wheel is in this pic. mine is a 65 btw.

mothradeath wrote:


the steering column would be obnoxiously tall still. look at where the wheel is in this pic. mine is a 65 btw.

True, I had forgotten that aspect but it could be shortened if so desired to keep that stock look of the column. Are you going with a tilt column or what?

yea...every little thing you do opens up a can of worms for another issue. im shortening and using a different gear box to go to the new steering rack on my mustang II front end. i would love to eventually do a tilt column tho.

If you could figure out a way for the wheel well to move with the tire that would be wicked. at least at the apex of the wheel well. If the seat could drop back down when at ride height that would be nice.  Just the area under the seat drops as the truck rises and no longer needs the clearance. Just a thought. If anyone could pull that off it looks like your it:)

Might mess up your paint though:)

It is already some SEMA looking sh-t!!!

I did a sketch so you wouldn't think I was a total nut:) The wheel well movement would come from a rubber diaphram. The seat would lock in the ride position and unlock would trigger when you drop it.

66mnecotruck wrote:

I did a sketch so you wouldn't think I was a total nut:) The wheel well movement would come from a rubber diaphram. The seat would lock in the ride position and unlock would trigger when you drop it.

The seat would tilt forward making it hard to drive. Besides, the whole wheel well would have to move to make it work. By the way thats a real nice sketch you did!

You're a total nut! Haha j/k. So this it to give additional headroom when its at drive height? I see what your saying. I just think that whatever you do you have to make some sacrifices somewhere. Like I new my windows wouldn't roll all the way down and would have 2 inches of glass exposed but I wanted my new arches to come all the way out so that my tires wouldn't hit when turning the wheels lock to lock. I am running Supremes with dish whereas some guys are just running steelies with no dish so they don't have issues. Even coby has his beautiful thin wood seats as a sacrifice to make more headroom. It just seems like somewhere along the line some sort of comfort sacrifices will have to be made

For sure! I was just throwing it out there, that van is a work of art!

jimthefred wrote:

The seat would tilt forward making it hard to drive. Besides, the whole wheel well would have to move to make it work. By the way thats a real nice sketch you did!

Thanks!, unfortunately my skills start waining in the 3rd dimension:) The seat is only tilted forward in the un-drivable dropped position. The "whole" wheel well doesn't need to move. It gives way to the seat frame via the flexible rubber diaphragm. It is "do-able" , "want-able" "need-able" is another story:)

I think the reason it wouldn't work is because the wheel well gap when the van is aired out was built to be as minimal as possible. Maybe half an inch at the most. The seat is as wide as the wheel arch is. If you cut into the arch to allow for the seat mounts to pass through the van wouldn't go all the way down because now it would be hitting the seat mount cutouts.

I drive an 83 vw gti all the time with even less headroom than my van has everyday with no problem. I will be looki.g into trying to get about an inch of extra room with getting my seat frame tighter to the wheelwell tho. Maybe by arching the frame rails. Sacrifices.....sacrifices.

Well, we put a man on the moon. Should be able to get a seat lowered if you really want to:)

heres a sneek peek of the color and the wheels if anyones interested. just got it back yesterday. keep in mind this is kinda the first stage of paint.