64 G10 Free Candy

Long time lurker. Been working pretty steady for the last year on my 64 and I figured I would share some pictures of my progress. Picked the van up as a basket case for $300 and went from there. plans are full air ride (finally nearing completion), warmed over 6.0L LQ4 (with potential for boost in the future), 4L80E then drive the hell out of it. Looking to go for more of a shop van style, well as shop van as you can get with a slammed van.

in the begining



getting there (rear is solid right now, bags going in soon)





Trying to get supremes to work. still not 100% if they will or not. all depends on the amount of tubbing the doors will require without Interfering with the window mech.

cool project, what are you using for front clip ? My 64 has a 5.3 with a whipple supercharger, but have a low mile 6.0 that might end up in it

Welcome to VV. That's a great looking project you have there. Can't waite to see pics of the air ride system.

Yeah, this is looking great. Don't be afraid to post a lot more pics for us who are considering air ride (and all the mods needed for it) but haven't gotten around to it yet.

pan58head, I used an 87 dakota front clip. made sence as it already had rack and pinion and the bolt patern mached the rear end i put in (ford 8.. its a real bastardized set of running gear but it should work out well in the end.

I'll definately post more pics, however I did not go the standard aproach (as standard as bagging these vans can be haha) and simply graft in a front clip to the existing unibody rails. I built a full rolling chassis for the van. this has created some challenges for sure (primarily in clearances on the front portion of the van) but it was the route I wanted to take as I really enjoy building chasis'. I also wanted to try something different from what I saw others doing.

Cool , more pictures would be great always like to see how someone else does stuff, thinking out of the box not many people have caught on to the 8.8 ford rears, disc brakes, usually posi and there cheap

Few more pictures for you guys. The bagging is pretty straight forward. typical dakota front clearancing and lower contorl arm mods. The back I designed a parallel 4 link with adjustment for instant center (as the van will be making a few or more passes down the track). If it was only going to be a street van i probably would have gone with a triangulated 4 link.

mocked up dakota clip. Built in a 2" Z as the xmember will hit the ground prior to the frame laying out on a stock dakota.



Start of the frame.



Front stubs and "clocked" rack



nearing the finish line.



this was just before I put it under the van and rolled it out of the shop. I still need to attach the panhard the mount the rear bags (over axle) and shock mounts. shock mounts still need to be done in front as well. Then we'll move onto body mounts and motor/trans placement (for which I've gotten a wealth of information from the site, thanks all). Really all thats left to do is everything.

The 8.8's are a great diff. Disc brakes (depending on year), posi (on some), and 31 spline axles (explorer) all for a very reasonable price. great aftermarket support as well. And, if you need a little extra room for tire you can always narrow the driverside tube 3" and put a passenger side axle on the driver side. no machine shop or special order axles required.

Yeah I'm running a 9" out of a 67 ford van was a direct bolt in except for moving the shock mounts Rear end is about 1" narrower. Building a whole frame seems the easiest way

Picked up a crusty 6.0 LQ4 over the weekend. Should keep the tire shops busy.

Your gonna love the ls, lots of them around me cheap because of chevy truck frames rotting in half. They are going in everything down here from race cars to rock buggies. Did yo get the harness and computer? They are a very simple harness to make stand alone

I did get the computer but the harness was butchered. I'm going to be running Holley Dominator system though. I needed a controller for my trans regardless and the dominator will control the trans plus a lot more, including boost..... Cant wait to dig into the motor but I've got plenty to do before I get to it.

Been plugging away slowly.

Ride height ish.







Aired out.





Needs some tweeking yet. the body seems to be leaning to one side a little. Some creative clearancing may be required prior to attaching the body mounts. all in all it's slowly starting to get there. Body mounts, engine and trans mounts are next on the list.

How many hours you got into this thing so far?

That’s really hard to say considering I give my buddies a hand on their projects as well. if I had to venture a guess I'd say somewhere in the neighborhood of 300-500. a lot of time was spent on the chassis fab.

How many more hours you think you got to complete it?

Tons! I'd figure somewhere around 2000 to get it done. I'll likely be rebuilding the motor and trans which will add time as well. who knows though things may fall into place and come together sooner, but I don't think I'm that lucky.