1961 econo van the work begins

Looking good Fish, wish I had your skills

Keep up the good work.

Thanks Bruce, I do mess up a lot but I'm willing to go back and try again till it looks right.

Here Im going to try to get the door to fit right, the left side of the opening is off a bit so Ill start there, cutting the angle, moving the wall in then reconnecting the skin, grind the sheet straight to have a nice even gap, then I'm going to use the right hand door to align the left, the left needs to be cut and rewelded also. Once I have all that done I am going to have to repair the bottom edge its kind of cut on a curve so it matched the old roll pan lol some people's body work...

The door looks better it opens and closes with no effort ill straighten up the gaps as I add and grind more material to strngthen the corner

Thanks Fizgig
Here are a few more of the door project, i cut and ground the skins on both the door opening and the door to get this straight line, the bottom of the left door still needs work to fit better but the gaps look pretty good now

You just keep working miracles with that metal! Mad skills I wish I had, for sure!!! Your patience and efforts are paying off in a big way. It's hard to believe you were able to massage that corner back into place when you see how hard it was hit in the initial pics. Can't wait to see how it looks when it's all painted again! Sorry if I keep saying it but Nice Piece of Work, Fish!!!

Hardly Vanny, its you and all the other guys encouragement that keep me going, its great to have friends who appreciate what you love doing, my kids look at it and go ehhh, yea great dad, that 1/4 of an inch made a huge difference......



I have been looking at and measuring the engine I think its going to fit right in no changes at all, the bolt pattern looks to match the tranny perfectly.

I was able to strip the corner during lunch today, then covered it with primer 2x

Nice job! That looks way better..

I'm coming into this kinda late but just read the entire post and saw the awesome pics.. WOW! Great work Fish! Wish I had half your skills. Absolutely incredible transformation from where this van was. I will be in Southern California in a few weeks I may have to stop by and take some notes! Unfortunately its like the frozen tundra here in Pennsylvania so I haven't been able to get much done on my 66 Super Van yet but your certainly giving me some inspiration. Thanks for posting pics, keep up the great work!

So today I go after the drivers side rear door, as I said before the seam gap is off and it looks like someone cut it to fit the damaged rear opening, well it was more than that lol there must have been 3 lbs of bondo on that door!!

I removed all the old paint and plastic, Im now heating and shrinking the bubble in the middle (they used a dent hammer to pull out the damage then just bondo over everything) Ill fill the holes pound stretch and or shrink the metal to get it back its making good progress so far, probably another ten hours or so to get it right..

I also got a wire brush and gave the inside a bit of cleaning man those things work well!!

Fish, you are an animal! Nice work man, getting after it!!!

Thanks for all the great comments guys!!!

Lol I am wearing myself out is what Im doing, but its fun, I usualy work during my lunch time, I live close to work I go in early work 5 hours take a two hour lunch then go back and work 5 more, but Im off for a couple of days since the surf was not so great today I decided to work on the van instead, it was going to be an easy fix but it ended up taking the entire day and a few more hours tomorrow to complete, but the door is pretty much back to the original shape the bubble in the center of the door is gone, I just heated and shrank the metal around the damage to remove the extra material

I'm just in awe of what you can do with the metal. Would love to see you in action someday! Looks Fantastic...like it never even happened!

After looking what you can do in just a few hours and your lunch break...I thinking if you keep at it, your van should be in a fresh coat of paint by Monday...lol...WOW..Excellent work my friend.

BTW QCT and any of you guys want to come by see the van have a water (I don't drink anymore sorry) chat about vans what ever Im in Mission Viejo CA, your more than welcome.


You see the blue paint on the side there? It was a color I was using for another project and I just hit the corner with it, its not quite the color I want, but pretty close, Im going with a Turquoise solid paint job with the interior being black for the front and vinyl mats, the back will have vinyl padded walls and ceiling a bed and carpet colors at this time blue light blue white with some type of Hawaiian print for the curtains and bed cover.

I got the back door smoothed in and pretty much done, I did a 360 photo shoot to show you guys how far the van has come, its hard for me to believe!!

Here is the damaged rear




And what she looks like now




Nest Im going to sand down and primer the entire exterior of the van, then go inside clean and sand down also and primer, I am not sure if I want to put the engine in before or after I paint it, it would be easier to detail the engine box and spray the underside, I'm close to building a trolley for it and taking all the running gear out, so it can be rotisserie painted..

I'm luving the progress reports and pics regarding your van. Keepem coming

Great work! That rip in the drivers rear was insane. I'm looking forward to seeing the progress.

Hey guys thanks so much, Im enjoying your builds also, great way to share and learnIm getting to the point of smoothing the primer and dealing with the small dimples and scratches made by sanding with heavy grit paper, Im down the the 400 level now using water to keep it flowing and keep the dust down, the door in the back took three tries its looks decent now I still have to trim off the bottom and make it even, opens closes locks and now looks just like the other door.
I got two 1965 bumpers for the front and rear, Ime going to weld the brackets to the bumpers then have them chromed (I bet the bumpers and chroming cost more than I bought the van for lol).
Ive decided to buy a new front passenger side quarter panel the one I made has more plastic in it than the whole rest of the van and its such an easy cut and weld in piece its not worth compromising the build because of it.


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Won't be long now! Excellent!!!

I moved forward a bit today removing the paint from both side doors the panel below and in front, this time I used a stripper (the chemical type not the girl type they are too expensive  ) to remove most of the paint its a bit cleaner less dust but you still have to sand it down to the metal.

I love this thread and can't wait to see how it turns out! That's some High Quality work you're doing Fish!!! Are you changing the color? And if so, what is your choice?

Hey Fish, your doing a fabulous job!!!

Thanks Vanny and GMman, and everyone who keeps posting positive responses its great thanks so much!!
Vanny, Im going to use a turquoise blue, the original was mint green, at this point the van has no collectable value its been to damaged and fixed, its just going to be a fun hot rod/surf van...

Check this out, I went out and got a new toy, a 17" pneumatic dual drive sander let me tell you this think kicks ass, I wish I had given up my 2x4 block a long,  long time ago, I can do a side, flat as a pancake, in about thirty minutes using the 150, it just mows the ripples and bumps down, I had thought I was pretty close to being flat on the major repair side, well this sander and two different colors of primer told me differently!
In the next few weeks I should be able to produce show quality sides with this.

Interior does anyone have plans or full sized patterns to make paneling inside the van? I know when we built my fathers van back in the seventies we went down and got a paper full sized pattern pretty simple and it came out nicely, I think I could make them if I had to, but It would be easier especially on the corner fills to have a ready made pattern.

Is that a pneumatic long board?