Samvans '66 handibus

Wow! That is one sweet looking van Sam. Makes me want to get out there and work on mine! Great job!

Very nice! Makes me want to get mine painted.

WoW ! That is Classy ! Very nicely done ! Bill

I got a couple of things buttoned up. I decided to bypass the old windshield washer pump and install a universal kit. It fits nice on one side of the dog house and it's wired to the stock push button. I put an overflow tank for the radiator on the other side. Of course it's winter (80 degrees) but it's running pretty cool. I hope it's the same come summer.

Nice and neat...a place for everything and everything in it's place!!!

Nice work, Sam!

I took my van to it's very first car show Sunday. Miserable weather in the morning but it stopped raining and warmed up a little towards noon. There were a couple of VW's and a Corvair rampside but mine was the only A, E or G van. Tons of lookers and positive comments.



Driving there was the first time I had it on the interstate. It runs cool and the remote starter solenoid is working like a charm. Still some bugs but she's getting there!

Hope everybody is doing ok yalls way , are they 70 chey p/up mirrors on the doors ?

It looks Fantastic, Sam! You should be proud!

Danny! I didn't mean to blow off your question about the mirrors. They are re-pop GTO mirrors I got a while back. I didn't realize until after I got them mounted that the passenger side doesn't angle in enough to do any good. One more thing on the list of things to do.

Since summer's already here where I live, it's time for A.C. The owner of the shop that's doing the install had the idea to roll down the underside of the dash to make room for the Vintage Air Gen. 4 evaporator. We can also fit the dash vents in this area and maybe my gauges. I think most of the glove box will still be able to remain too.

I was really surprised how little damage was done to the paint from bending that lip down. These guys are good!

Wow! What an awesome job they did...they made it look factory! It's amazing to me how much better these cabs look with such a subtle change below the dash. That looks Fantastic Sam!
That's definitely a Keeper! I think that shop is going to be busy once people start asking you who did it. Congrats, nice to see a shop that does such good work!

Thanks, Vanny! Yeah, once it's done, it should look like it came with the A.C. from the factory. Now that they got the evaporator mocked up, next is all the hoses, ductwork, controls and vents. The van has been running cool - between 180 and 200 degrees and so we went with mounting the condenser in front of the radiator and upgrading the fan. I hope this doesn't lead to overheating but if it does, we'll relocate the condenser. I need to tint the windows to help keep it cool inside. Hopefully by Friday, I'll have a bunch more to look at.

Rolled down the dash? I assume they split the corner welds and pulled the metal down, and the gray corners are new fabrication? Looks really well done! Nice!

As for you car show comment, When I take my van to shows, rarely is there any other earlies there...A, E, or G. Usually only a VW Bus or two. I think I've taken my van to at least 7 shows and only once saw an Early.

The gen. 4 Vintage Air unit has heat and defrost too so the shop made these adapters for my stock dash vents.

They do nice work!

A.C. install is complete! Just in time for summer. I want to drive it for a few days before I tell everyone how wonderful it is though. I still need to do the body work and paint on the dash but I'm thinking about changing out the gauges and getting a stereo so I'll wait 'till after for that.

Let us know how it works out for you and thanks for the Great Pics!!! That cab looks Superb...you set the bar really high!

Nice

I had to pull my gas tank to get a new sending unit so while I'm waiting for it to show up, I decided to finish up a few things on the list. I'm sure this will amaze everyone.

The Devil's in the Details!!! Nice piece of work, Sam! What are those seats out of?

Thanks Vanny.
Check out pages three and four on this thread for info about the seats.

Man that's a nice piece. I'm jealous of your a/c, getting pretty hot up here in St Pete and that install looks nice and clean.

It's good to hear from someone who's close by! I wish I could tell you how great the AC is but since it got done, I've been having fuel pump problems. I'm not getting power to the pump so it's actually a wiring problem. Coincidence? Maybe. Par for the course? Definitely...

So I guess I had a broken ground wire up by my ECM at the fuel pump relay. All fixed now and I've been driving it to work every day 25 miles each way. I'm happy to say (hopefully without jinxing myself) that the van is running cool even with the A.C. on. I'm running the Cougar radiator with a Spal electric fan and it's staying between 180 and 200 degrees. For summer time in Florida, cooling a V8, I'd say that's pretty good.

I got my windows tinted last week. I went with a ceramic tint that's supposed to block a lot of UV rays and heat without having to be too dark. I didn't think really dark tint would look right on my van and I also don't like not being able to see at night. I got 70% on the whole windshield and 60% on all the others. It wasn't cheap but what is these days! But I guess for 15 windows, it wasn't that bad.



I also built my van a new house! I added on another garage space at my place. I matched the roofline and the look of the rest of the house so it looks like it was always there. The only bad thing is that it has a pretty low ceiling so I have to work on the van outside if I have to jack it up. Now I have an excuse to build a shop...