Wheelchair Accessible Project Ideas

If you can ignore the street-roddiness of this one, this is VERY similar to my GMC, just not as BIG. Forgive the photoshop, it's a quickie and I only had one crap picture to work with (thanks carnut.com)

 

theres a old, 1958 i think mercury panel truck...really cool its from canada too...pretty rare...it had a 351W, built up a little and needs a new distributer, hes askin like 3,000 for it

 

I think a Divco or a Corvair van would be cool and different.

For the Corvair, get a rampside truck body and "cut and paste" the ramp onto the side of the van. Then the upper half could be fabbed from steel or even a Jeep-style side curtain (just for bad weather, mind you!) You could leave it open during good weather for the roadster "wind-in-your-hair" feel.

There was an earlier thread of a guy who had bought a 'vair van and drove it home to Florida. It was light geay with painted steelies and trim rings. Looked really cool. Paint it white with a red/white tuck-roll and red or black steelies (stainless trim and spider caps)! That would be the cat's meow!

 

got any pics of the '58 Mercury. Are you in Pa?

I might be too far away. I,m in Deeeeep South Texas by the Mexican border.

 

I have to applaud you and your son, this is the true spirit of Hot Rodding. I'm a disable Vietnam Vet and while I'm not confined to a wheelchair I am missing my left arm, but it has not stopped me from doing what I love, building hotrods, racecars and restorations. A buddy of mine has MS and is getting rid of his cool 60 Chevy Impala because he can no longer get into it easily and I'm trying to come up with a car or truck that he can get in and out of easily and drive. I will be following these threads to see what other HAMBERS have for suggestions. I thought of a 4 dr 57 Chevy wagon for my friend. Go to redhookcarclub.com and click on picture gallery to see Hollis Cochrins 60 Chev. Also send me a PM I have a decal I would like to send you.
God Bless You and never say "I Can't"

 

Vintage56 on here has a Falcon Van ('65 maybe?) window van that's in his dad's shop in Tuttle, OK that is owned by his brother who lives in DFW. It doesn't run, but it had cool wide 14" slots on it last I saw it. I know dad wants it out...

 

Front wheel drive would solve a load of problems with this. If you go with a Suburban or a panel, you could have a very low and perfectly flat, or even sunken floor, and you could get the rear chassis to virtually sit on the floor if you bagged it. You wouldn´t need a long or steep ramp then, or maybe no ramp at all.

 

I went ahead and measured my son while he was sitting in his chair and I determined that we need at least 60 inches of clearance for him to fit into the vehicle.

Does any one know the back door and floor-to-ceiling measurements of a 1947 to 1959 Chevy suburban or even a Ford, Mercury, Dodge suburban type vehicle?

We need a suburban because of the windows. We want to run the wheels off this thing and if we get a panel, well The Goon won't be able to see anything.

Thanks again,

 

I'd do a 57 ford panel... bagged with electric doors in the back!!

 

Econoline, or A100 Dodge van, astros, slammed, 2x pipes, mild motor, and done.....

 

What about using a lift? There are some neat lifts available for vans that might work good. I saw an under the vehicle lift that would keep the interior space open. Also some of the vans use a rear drop floor with the bumper attached to the door so you can't tell it's modified when it's closed and the drop floor hides behind the bumper and the bumper raises with the door. Just some thought for ideas.

 

Johnny is the definition of sex appeal. No doubt about.

 

It's a great reason to install air bags.

How about a COE hauler, it has a ramp,
you'd just have to put in a "backdoor" so
to speak. I love the idea of this, I'll keep
thinkin' on it.

 

Iknow what you are going through for my brother inlaw had muscular distrophy and the biggest problem we had with vehicles is the headroom. Even with a fullsize Ford Econoline he had to duck when rolling in. The Divco or early school bus would be the answer. I don't know what type of distrophy your son is dealing with but my brother inlaw was never able to drive. We would put him in the middle of the front bench seat of my '70 Nova SS and match race intown. He loved it. I'll keep an eye on the posts and help when I

 

howabout a `53 Pontiac Hearse?

 

Kustomz our current van has a lift at the moment but she is getting tired. Our biggest problem is headroom.

I showed my son Craigs ride and he really liked it. I think my wife likes the suburban more tham us but I guess she is just tired of the old van.

Spinner, My son has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy but we don't like to dwell on that. We used to put him in my old '65 P/U and in our Edsel but it sort of lost the fun when he couldn't cruise with me. I never liked the fact that he had to go in a seperate vehicle when we went to shows.

Thanks for the advice.

 

Found this freebie van through the Stovebolt site. Too bad it's in California.
http://humboldt.craigslist.org/car/605651061.html

 

One other idea I will try to get more info on. A friend of mine's inlaw's have a boom type lift in their van that is fairly short and they use a strap that hooks to the wheelchair and lifts wheelchair with the person in it. I was also thinking about the drop floor idea if you had air ride and had it setup so the drop floor at the door is setting on the ground giving you a ramp into the vehicle.

 

Kustomz, Those are some pretty good ideas. The boom lift would be too risky the wheelchar alone weighs atleast 350lbs. We have a lift on our van that might work on a van.
I would probably go with the air ride and a low slide out/fold out ramp.

 

This guy is building a '53 F100 panel truck with a Caddy Northstar engine. Seems pretty cool if he can get it all worked out.

http://www.hevanet.com/enygma/index.html

FWIW, my mom is in a wheelchair, and headroom has been a problem for us, too. She has two vans at the moment; both are Dodge Caravans. One is a side entry, the other has the ramp in the rear. Both are decent, but I kind of miss the '90 Ford Econoline that she used to have. The roof had been raised on it about 8" for more headroom. The Caravans are really good for hauling engines/transmissions and bikes, though.

Anyway, I hope the link gives you some ideas.

 

Delivery trucks are cool , Id try and find one of those they make cool rods and you can do a lot to them .

 

Creepy J

Thanks for the info. I've used the lift on our van to lift some engine blocks and transmissions thats whats cool about having a W/C lift.

Thanks for the link, now I can picture what some other HAMBers have recommended a Caddy northstar. I imagine that is how a Buick Rivi' conversion will look too huh?

 

No problem at all. I have a '56 F100 panel truck, so that's what led me to that link a while back. My mom tried to convince me to build mine like that, but...

I don't know a whole lot about the newer Rivi stuff, so I can't comment. For that matter, I don't know much about Northstars, either, but it seemed like an elegant solution.

Selfishly, I think that the ramp vans are great!! Excellent for moving car parts and such around, but not quite big enough for friends to call you to help them move.

 

I vote corvair pick-up or corvair van. that would be bad ass.



would he be driving it? or riding along with you? does he have full use of his arms for hand controls etc? Whats the extent of his disabillities? it might be cool to have some kind of seats that could swivel 180* around so he could transfer from his wheelchair to the carseat without much trouble. The good thing about the corvairs is that they are already low. you could bag it and get it even lower.

There was some dude on monster garage i think? that had a cool setup. He had a truck with a tonneau cover that opened and a boom type hoist that would pull his wheelchair out from the bed and place it next to the driver side door. this way he was self sufficient.

You also might want to watch the movie "silver bullet". Its a cheesy 80's steven king movie, but the main character is diabled and his uncle builds him a cool fast wheelchair. I thought it was the coolest thing when i was a kid.

 

Ollin,

I like your vote. It looks do-able. My son is 14 years old and he wants something more "mean looking" but I think if he sees some more pics of some "well-done" Econolines he would like them more.
Don't get me wrong he is not conceited but he is a Muscle/Kustom fanatic.
He will pretty much be riding shotgun as he has a very limited mobility of his arms. He can move his hands an forearms but, he cannot lift them to his face. He cannot be transferred he pretty much has to be tied down in place with some straps or with a locking plate.
On another note he would like to modify his chair to go faster. He can get the front wheels off the ground in a wheelie every chance he gets. I remember when he was small he asked me to put NOS tanks on his chair for Christmas.

 

If headroom is such a problem why not put air bags on wheel chairs?

I'm only HALF joking, Hhhhhmmmm....

 

A couple thoughts:
One is right out loud crazy, but if you've the skills ... could you build a modifiable wheelchair, something that would allow a reclining/elongating feature when required, thus eliminating a lot of the head room obstacles? Just thinking outside the box here.

Secondly, I had an early (65) Econoline, and there is no limit to how "muscley" or "custom" those can get. Check out the galleries at Vannin.com for some killer pics of custom vans done right. The ford and chevy dog house (centrally located engine) might prove an obstacle, which is another reason to check out the Dodge A-100's, which if memory serves had the engine in the rear (think wheel stands?). Also, don't forget a lot of those custom vans grafted the roof of a early 60's Buick station wagon onto the top of them (can't remember the model at the moment) not only adding head room, but providing light from the wrap around windows and killer good looks too.

Thirdly, if your son wanted something older, what would stop you from doing a similar roof raising treatment similar to the aforementioned econolines with another donor body? For instance, take a 50's burban, and graft a sectioned, narrowed donor roof from either another burban or a panel on top of the existing roof. Hell, with all those windows, it would take some of the aesthetic coolness of the 21 and 23 window VW buses but still remain hardcore American steel. Remember Ecto-1 from the Ghostbusters movie, the 59 Caddilac ambulance? Remember the bubbled roof it had, something similar to that. I think with a little imagination it could be cool as hell and serve a utilitarian function. Hell, I had a stoner friend back in the day who mounted an Aluminum skiff upside down to his van for added headroom. Poorly executed, but very functional.
Just thinking out loud here.

 

Nice, mean looking is key. You might want to do a matching chair with a Corvair and add a read door to it. Up the ramp, open the back, strap into the passenger side and go.

 

i like the idea of removing the back of a corvair truck cab, seems like the simplest solution. the interior height will be an issue in anything. i'm at about 60'' in he chair, too, but i transfer and have a lowered floor in my daily.

in the long run, there may be a time that tranferring may not be an option, so i've thought about what i'd have to do when that time comes. for me, it'll probably be a 70's chevy van with a lowered floor, adjustable suspension and a side-door ramp. then i'll have a dragon fighting a wizard and some naked chicks airbrushed on the sides...

 

My boss has a patent on a front wheelchair suspension that might help the young daredevil land a little softer from wheeelies. Invacare uses it but it would be easy to retrofit to a chair.