White Steering Wheel

Does anyone know if the white econoline steering wheel was an option or part of a custom package? Seems I saw it mentioned somewhere but can't find it again.

I believe they only came in the deluxe vans.

I wonder if the deluxe vans only came in certain colors in 1965?

It was part of the custom equipment package. Deluxe Club Wagons, Custom Club Wagons and Spring Specials came with the white wheel.

I'm really fuzzy on the Custom Equipment Packages. The white wheel was part of it. Turn signal trim, woven seat covers, Floor mat. Full head liner. Horn ring. Cigar lighter. I'm not very sure how the outside trim fit into the package. Most of these options were available separately but I don't think the white wheel was. I had a 65 regular Supervan that had the white wheel and horn ring, turn signal trim, but pretty much nothing else on the package list. I don't know about the seats as they were missing. I believe the club wagons were the only ones with color restrictions. Econolines were open to any color in the Ford palette. I have a 67 window van in Club wagon blue but no seats or interior trim. Chrome bumpers, narrow side trim, white wheel and horn ring. I don't know why they came the way they did.

Brent, The questions you ask, I can see you have a deep interest in Econolines. You really need to get with Jay Long over at Econosrus Yahoo group. He can answer all these questions right off the top of his head. He has been studying Econolines for decades. He really knows his way around them. He's taught me all I know. Cut out the middle man and go straight to the source. I just get confused and mess stuff up anyway. LOL.

I've been following your restoration and I'm really impressed with your progress. Can't wait to see it finshed.

Duane in Tennessee

EconoUSAparts wrote:It was part of the custom equipment package. Deluxe Club Wagons, Custom Club Wagons and Spring Specials came with the white wheel.

That is correct Tim, but I have white wheels in regular vans and non Club Wagon window vans as well. I've never studied why I have one in a regular van as I really didn't care but the fact is it's there. The only thing in the VIN tag is a Beige Custom Interior. Outside it had turn signal trim. Nothing else.

Duane in Tennessee

The reason I ask about the color is I have been curious as to the color of the Honey West Spy Van. When I first got my van we talked about it where I used to work and I've just been trying to find out as sort of a "Quest".

Anyway the Spy Van had round mirrors, a 61-64 step rear bumper, a white steering wheel and pop open rear door windows. It also had the later steering wheel to dash brace and a dash pad. The show was in 1965-66 but I think the van was a '64.

Having exhausted just about every avenue of investigation to figure out the color, I was thinking the white steering wheel in a standard van might lead somewhere.

btw, I've also exhausted all apparent avenues trying to find an original picture of my van when it was a dog catchers van in Grangeville Idaho from 1963 - 1993. I wrote all the town's clerks and police department asking if anyone had, knew of, or had ideas of where I could score an original picture of the van with the City markings on it.

Guess I get bored sometimes!

The white wheels were part of the custom equipment package and that was the only way you could get one on a US built Econoline. You could get the custom equipment package on any Econoline.

I had to laugh at the story about trying to find a picture of your old van. Not at you but at us. I found an old USGS van and sold it to Rip Van Arkie on here. He tried to find some history. He got very little help from the dept. Seems most people couldn't care less about some old van and can't believe anybody in the free world would. Seems we stand alone in our love of Econolines. Don't expect much help from the real world.

Duane in Tennessee

My history search on my van actually went pretty well. The guy I bought it from has a small used car dealership in Oregon. He said it was a Dry cleaner van in Lewiston ID. Which I found out from "Texas John" was incorrect. John said it was a Dog Catcher Van a little to the south originally.

I wrote the Idaho DMV and got a Title History of the Van and found out it's first 30 years were in Grangeville ID as a city vehicle. And judging from the holes in the floor, probably from cages etc. it was as John had said...Animal Control.

I also got a good picture of the rest of it's history from the DMV files and contacting some of the previous owners. Unfortunately after dozens of imagine searches and email enquires I have not found a picture of the Van "on duty" lol

It's like you said Duane, most people couldn't care less and were shocked I even was inquiring about it. The Police Chief that I wrote was pretty cool about it but didn't have any info that could help.

My GF has an idea though to contact any newpapers in the town that go back that far and ask them if they ever did a story on it or with it in a story and maybe get a pic that way. Chances are slim, but with a town of only about 2000 back in the 60's, a new Dog Catcher Van in town might have gotten some press.

Following a lead from a newspaper editor I talked to a woman whose husband was the Police Chief during most of the time my van was in service in Grangeville. He has since passed on, but she said he took a lot of pictures and would look thru them for me to try and find a picture.

After a couple of weeks I called her back to make sure she didn't loose my number and she said that hadn't found anything yet but talked to a couple of guys who knew of the van. They told her the van initially was used by the fire department but when it wasn't used very much it was given to the Animal Control unit.

She said they were all going to look for any pictures and let me know. Can't wait to see if they find anything.

Thanks for the update. We are all waiting to see the classic photos.

I wish you the best of luck in your quest. These vans served many purposes in the past and it's cool when you can help preserve some of that!

I'm getting closer to finding an old "Working Picture" of my Van. I contacted a local newspaper in Grangeville and Dorthy the editor suggested I write a short article about the van and she'd publish it.

Here's the Article to the Paper.  

The Grangeville Van

Every once in a while we find ourselves in the lucky position to preserve and document a small piece of history. Sometimes the event or subject is widely significant, and sometimes it's only important to a few.

I currently find myself in the position which most likely will prove to be the latter. My name is Brent Lee and I am a retired Air Force Master Sergeant living in Phoenix, Arizona. For many years I've had an interest in vans from the 1960's. In early 2014 I started looking for an old van for sale that was as rust free and original as possible. I was particularly interested in the Ford Econoline and during my search I came across a listing for one in the state of Oregon on Craigslist.  

After a couple of weeks of indecision and negotiations with the seller, I finally decided to purchase. He had said the van was from Idaho and thought that it was once a dry cleaner's van in the town of Lewiston. After my "new" van arrived I started researching its history and found that it actually never was a dry cleaner's van, but was a Fire Department and/or Animal Control vehicle in the town of Grangeville, which I found much more interesting.

Armed with this new information I took a closer look at the van and it all added up. There are drill holes in the roof and markings typical of a mounted light on top in two locations. In addition, there were over 50 holes drilled into the cargo bay floor and dash for what I would presume would be for animal cages and switches for lights?

A title search later showed that the van was the property of the City of Grangeville for 30 years, from 1963 to 1993! I tried several methods to find an original picture of the van when it was "in-service" but so far, nothing has turned up. I am hoping that someone reading this article would remember this vehicle and provide a lead to old pictures of which I can include in a "story book" about the van's restoration.

Here is the earliest picture I have of the van; it was taken for the ad on Craigslist. I believe the colored wrap around stripe on the sides was added after its in-service days to cover up official city lettering, but I'm not sure of this.

If you have any information about/or pictures of the van, please contact;

I got a response last night, a couple days after the article was out from a guy named Clyde, a retired Fire Department Officer.

Brent

I just saw the article and pix in the Central Idaho Post and told a friend that the van looked like the one we had on the Grangeville Fire Department.  I then read the article.

The Van was used as our Utility Vehicle.  It had racks in it for our Air Bottles, A Generator and Smoke Exhaust Fan, A High Expansion Foam Unit and Tools. It was equipped with a Low Frequency radio  antenna on the side and a VHF Antenna on the top and a Big Red Light.  I had it rigged inside to mount a Backboard and carried a Stokes Stretcher on top.

I will see if I can find Pix of it when in Operation.

Clyde H.
Grangeville Fire Department Training Officer (Retired).

I wrote this back thanking him and seeing if I could find the answers to a couple questions I've had.


Hey Clyde

It was great to hear from you! Thank you for responding to the article and for giving me the interesting information.

I hope you are able to track down an old picture or two of the Van. I searched for many hours on websites associated with Grangeville, but wasn't able to find anything. However I did manage to reconstruct a fairly accurate ownership history of the van.

I've been restoring the van for the last 6 months or so and with all the holes drilled into it, I can see there must have been a number of racks. Your description of what you carried in it certainly verifies that! I bet you have some interesting stories to tell involving its use as your utility vehicle. Did you drive it much? There's only 22K miles on the odometer and it's thought that is the original miles, not 122K since the town was so small and usage might have been low.

Of course I have a bunch of questions that have been stirring around in my head since I got the van a year ago. I'm going to compile a "Storybook" about it for the small car shows I go to which is one reason why an old picture would be awesome to have. I was also wondering if there was lettering on the side of the van saying Fire Dept. or something. It would seem there might have been since that blue was painted around the sides.

Well I'd like to thank you again for responding. I have a link to a thread on a vintage van forum about what I'm doing to it. If you're interested in viewing that let me know and I'll send you the link.

Take care and enjoy the Superbowl if you're watching today.

Brent

Nice!!!!! .Looking forward to seeing a picture of it under earlies at work.

Brent, looks like your persistence is starting to pay off. Congrats and I hope Clyde comes through for you with pics! Very cool indeed!