New Guy Here - 61 Econoline Club Wagon

Hello VV,

I have been searching for a pre-smog California van for about a year now.  I live in the Corona Area, Ca in a city named Eastvale.  I just bought a 61 Econoline over the weekend.  Van was originally listed in Los Angeles Craigslist, but turned out it was located out of state in Sunnyside, WA. I had to go to Oregon/Washington to pick it up.  As fate would have it, I was already planning a trip to Portland for a friends bachelor party.  Long story short it ended up on a shipping trailer and I am supposed to take delivery tomorrow the 12th, we shall see.  Maybe some of you recognize the van from your CL searches?  Apparently an original California Van, moved to Washington with a guy from California.  Rust is pretty minimal.  I drove it about 150 miles and it runs, stops and drives along fine with 99K original miles.  I look forward to fixing it up and making a cool beach cruiser for the family.  Here are some picks to start off.  I look forward to getting to know all of you.

Thanks,

Jerry

1961 Econoline


Front


Rear


Driver Side and loading


Folding Middle seat, is this normal?


99K


Passenger side has fairly thick Bondo chipping off...looks like side doors and rear were hit at some point.  Not too bad though, should be repairable


Original Bottle caps?  Is that what they call them?


Original AAA sticker


Interior

Looks like a great van. Welcome to the club!

Welcome to VV. That's a nice looking van.

Welcome.

Great looking van there and Welcome to the BEST Vintage Van site on the planet!!! Keep the pics coming...Please and Thank You! Make yourself at home and don't be afraid to ask questions. Lots of knowledge and helpful people on this site!

Welcome and congrats on a beautiful Club Wagon, enjoy the journey.

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!  I received the van today from the shipper. The delivery guy ran into a few issues on the way and ended up taking an extra day, no big deal.  The van came with these original NOS(?) door weather strips for all 6 doors, a bunch of receipts from the early 90's, a Chilton's manual and Ford shop manual for a 61 Econoline.  Also, in with the receipts were about 20 pages of vehicle drawings/diagrams showing the van assembly with part numbers, pretty cool.

Van on trailer


Parked in Front of my house


Original Key Chain(?) - Don't think this dealership is still around...


Door Weatherstrip, still new in packaging.  6 bags total, one for each door according to the diagrams I also found.


Door Weatherstrip Pic 2


Manuals, Receipts etc.


Weatherstrip Diagrams


Just made the pics full size so my tired eyes could see them better! Vanny

VanHoosierdaddies wrote:Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!  I received the van today from the shipper. The delivery guy ran into a few issues on the way and ended up taking an extra day, no big deal.  The van came with these original NOS(?) door weather strips for all 6 doors, a bunch of receipts from the early 90's, a Chilton's manual and Ford shop manual for a 61 Econoline.  Also, in with the receipts were about 20 pages of vehicle drawings/diagrams showing the van assembly with part numbers, pretty cool.

Van on trailer


Parked in Front of my house


Original Key Chain(?) - Don't think this dealership is still around...


Door Weatherstrip, still new in packaging.  6 bags total, one for each door according to the diagrams I also found.


Door Weatherstrip Pic 2


Manuals, Receipts etc.


Weatherstrip Diagrams

Who did you use I'm looking for a shipper for my truck that is stuck in Seattle waiting for a truck?

I went with Andrew Transport, worked with a broker named Renee. The actual trucking company I have to get back to you on.

VanHoosierdaddies wrote:I went with Andrew Transport, worked with a broker named Renee.  The actual trucking company I have to get back to you on.

MDR Trucking is the actual company that picked up my van in Portland. His name is Michael and number is 503-420-9239.

VanHoosierdaddies wrote:

VanHoosierdaddies wrote:I went with Andrew Transport, worked with a broker named Renee.  The actual trucking company I have to get back to you on.

MDR Trucking is the actual company that picked up my van in Portland.  His name is Michael and number is 503-420-9239.

Thanks Montway isn't doing anything.

Hey all, I have been busy playing with the Bus making a little progress here and there, I figured I would add some pictures to my original thread to keep them in one place?

New headliner. Got the first two panels in for the most part,s till need to finish the rear two panels and trim it out. Plan to cover with bamboo fencing anyway so doesn't have to be perfect.



Front Headliner, Door panel with new armrest and 3 point seat belt installed. Not sure I will keep the wood door panel, might go back to the painted metal one, maybe cover it in vinyl when I ahve the seats done...

Driver side seat belt and headliner.


Replacement Side Doors with Vinatge german Steel Scissors for free found in door panel.

Having good doors sure makes it easier and they look great. Keep those pics coming...she's looking real good.

Making some progress on the interior.  Got my seats done!  Working to lay carpet now so I can put these back in.

I was wondering what this piece is? My van doesn't have that and it looks like just the thing needed to hold headliners and edge them out nicely. Does it go most the way around the inside roof?

btw, Nice Job so far! Seats look Great!

Thank you. That is part of the fiberglass interior trim kit. In the back the fiberglass kit goes all the way around the windows. Just above the all the doors there are just these smaller trim pieces.

Thanks for the info. Oh what's the blue convertible I'm spying in that picture? Looks like a nice toy

That's my 67 Camaro.

Brent, here is another picture showing the interior before I started taking things a part, I think you can see the fiberglass trim around the doors and windows in the back.

Thanks for posting the pic. Nice to have those old ceiling pieces to use as a template. Did you ever find out if the middle seat is original?

I think it is original, however I don't know these vans that we'll so hopefully someone else could confirm. Ithe appears to be a bit different with the folding portion, correct?

Man, that interior looks Marvelous! I thought the middle seat was made like that to make it easier for entry into the back seat. Seems to me I remember seeing some station buses back in the day with that middle seat. I could be wrong but it looks original to me...Be gentle, Econo gurus, my memory isn't was it used to be...

Yes, the split seat helped folks get to the rear seats.

Made addtional progress over the weekend and got the carpet installed.

Carpet Padding


Carpet Padding


Carpet in Progress


Finished!


I still want to pull everything out and Por 15 the entire floor, before i do that I need to weld in the new passenger floor pan, right now it is just screwed in place temporarily. I was just too excited to get the seats back in so had to lay the carpet.