The new Surf Wagon aka The Surf Sub

Well I guess it is officially a hobby now

My wife and I had plans to restore our 1966 Ford Falcon Club Wagon but life threw us a curve ball in the form of a 1967 Ford Econoline HD with windows. The 66 had some pretty significant rust issues and some body work that I no longer had the time to learn to fix so I would have had to pay $$$ to get someone else to fix it. The 67 was in significantly better shape with almost no rust, including original paint and a bunch of the hard to find bits and pieces that we tried to acquire for the 66. I was able to purchase it and have it shipped down to San Diego from a city north of San Francisco.

From what I learned from the seller, it was originally purchased by Pacific Gas & Electric and then was passed on through two families. The last family used as their family cruiser until it was parked for a while. It has a 240 cubic inch inline six with a rebuilt C-4 transmission with the heavy duty 9" rear end with a 3.0 ratio.

We are now planning to restore the 67 and sell the 66. I plan on buffing out the original paint to see how nice I can get it for now. The color is definitely growing on me. I have a custom throttle body injection kit that I bought for a Jeep CJ-7 from Redline Weber that I am going to adapt to the 240 since it has just been sitting in the attic gathering dust. Here are some details of the kit: http://www.racetep.com/k9555.html Definitely not a cheap option but worth more on a car then in the attic. I plan to add the D&D front disk brakes. I also have an original dash skirt and original fiberglass window surrounds from a Club Wagon that we will be adding to the interior. Reupholstered front seats and fold flat Ford Aerostar seats will round out the interior with faux wood flooring. That is the overall plan thus far. I am sure it will change quite a few times by the end but it is a much better starting point then the '66 for my skills.

On to the pictures:

Getting loaded on to the truck, they even sent one that matched



Some exterior shots




Some interior shots




Hope that the paint will buff out well



It is definitely not perfect YET! But we are well on our way now to having an awesome van. I will definitely try to keep the updates coming as I start sorting thru it and executing my plans.

Matt

More pictures can be found here: http://public.fotki.com/66SurfWagon/my-first-album/

Congrats, looks nice and solid. Can't wait to see your progress! Thanks for the pics...You Scored big time on that one!!!

Thanks for the pics. Congrats on finding a great looking van.

Congrats on getting that one. I would have loved to add it to my collection. I like that chrome yellow paint. So much I could do with that one. That's cool it still has the build tag. Jay Long over at the Econosrus Yahoo group can decode that for you. They offer a little deeper look into how your van was built and can give the exact day it was born. I'll be watching you build this one.

econosrus

that's a great looking van! I loved my no door hd that I had. that paint looks like it will buff out reasonably well.

Congratulations on the van! Interesting doghouse...never seen one with rails around the top like that.

Thanks everyone. I am super excited. It is officially registered in my name now and the wife and I are debating on keeping the "5RF WGN" plates we ordered or getting something else like "5URFSUB" as a play on "surf's up" I rebuilt the Autolite carb but it still did not run right so I figured I would dive right into prepping for the TBI kit. I took the intake off and will be doing some clean up and removal of the emissions stuff. Hopefully in a week or two I will have it back up and driving again. I will try to add pics to my Fotki album as I go.

@Uante - yeah, there are a few things that are not "standard" but I think it adds character. Most of the things look like they were original from the factory though. There is a solid smooth floor that looks like it runs from the back up to the doghouse that was welded over top the normal floor. Definitely looks like it may have come from the factory like that due to paint residue, etc. It also has a mounting hole/post of some sort welded to the floor.

@Econopoor - I will definitely get Jay to decode the tag for me. I also plan on trying to order a build sheet from Ford. I am really curious what the DSO code decodes to; probably the Chrome yellow paint but interested if it is anything else.

uante wrote:Congratulations on the van! Interesting doghouse...never seen one with rails around the top like that.

Sure would keep riders from sitting there! Probably for a cargo tray...nice van!