hi all a little o/t sorry but i just got hold of a 1977 ford econoline van and im thinking of using it for a project of some sorts maybe a 51 f100 body or similar we dont got these econoline here in australia so i havent seen anything done with one so im wondering if its been used before the body is no good to me but the chassis and drive train are perfect it has factory 351 windsor c6 auto and 9 inch diff matching engine and chassis numbers so geting it on the road wont be so hard ( it can be hard sometimes here in aus ) so does anyone know of this chassis been used before? or even better has anyone got any pics of anything with this chassis ? thanks for your time simon
As far as I know it's a unibody, so there's no way to seperate the chassis from the body. GM vans certainly are, seems to me Ford and Dodge are also.
from what i can see it looks to be able to come apart but i havent got it home to see for sure yet it looks to have a realy strong chassis and rubber blocks where the front bolts down but i havent been under it wouldent a unibody look more like a vw from underneath? sorry for my ignorance
then it has a frame... I would start by measuring the wheelbase. if its close (within a half inch or so) then it will work for a frame donor. aside from that i don't know if it will work.. I haven't seen an econoline frame by itself so I don't know if it will be easy to put an f100 cab and bed on it.
it doesent have to be an f100 and the bed wont be used i dont thing im thinking more along the lines of a flat bed im sure whatever body i end up with i will make fit one way or another i just assumed the chassis will be kinda like the bronco chassis of the same year so f100 came to mind and i always liked the 51 thanks for the help cornet and rusty
Ford vans are not unibody.It has a separate chassis,however,the driveline is offset toward the passenger side...several inches,I believe.I would break out the tape measure before thinking about a body transplant.
you could be right doug b when sitting in the drivers seat (right side here ) there is a little less foot room than the other side but being a van your sitting right ontop of the engine could it be a problem if i sit a cab behind the engine and compensate for the offset ? cheers simon
I doubt you'll get the van chassis to work with a pickup cab...they're just built completely different...why not swap the drivetrain into the F100 chassis or whatever you end up getting?...
having matching engine and chassis numbers would make it easy to register but if it cant be done then i might just use the drive train yeah i agree but the 60s trucks are just so ugly imo are the 51 f100 truck bodies any bigger than the pick up bodies or the same ? its all carpeted and has a real 70s vibe but i just have no use for a v8 van and cant justify the cost of running it but i love to build hahaaaa thanks all for your input simon
Make a COE ramp truck race car hauler: Remove the body aft of the front doors. Graft on the rear foot of said body to the door B-pillars. Add a vintage ('50s) COE front clip. Be careful. I had a similar post deleted as being too far O/T when I suggested a narrowed Chevy Astro van be used to make a C-cab w/ Model A fenders. Nobody could visualize it and by the time I had a concept rendering drawn up my post was gone.
chassis is most likely very similar to a f100 of the same era. had a look at an early 80's one just recently and it mostly looked just like a f100 of the same year. f100 chassis is not real wide either. around 37 inches at the rear and 33 or so at the front. has that van got power steer and if so where is the box mounted ,behind or in front of the front axle. if you want to part with it when you get into the project and don't have a use for it let me know...cheers....
thank you flyer a coe car hauler is a great idea and when time comes to look for cabs i will keep it in mind and i wasnt expecting this thread to last to long but im glad its still here for now i know the 77 econoline is boring as bat shit to most of you guys but its the first one i have seen here and it was free so im hoping to build something on the cheep if there is any such thing heheee yeah i thought it looked like a bronco chassis but its been years since i seen one and it is power steer and the steering box is in front of the axle but it is still left hand drive and is operated by a bike chain from the steering columnon the right not sure what will be used at this time but ill keep you posted thank you for your input simon
One of the nice things about the van chassis is the very small kickup over the rear axle. If the track is not too wide, it might make a good chassis for an old pickup. You might have to set the engine back some and move the stearing column, but I don't see it as a show stopper. Scott M.
I know for a fact that the f1 and f100 have been put on full size bronco running gear. You will have to fab the cab mounts. Whether the frame width is right or not I know you Aussies arent afraid to fabricate. You might have to channel your ride just because. You will have to relocate the rear end, and shorten the driveline, but it is doable.
Seems like it would be easier to just swap the drive train into the '51. Plus, that would be way more cool than anything with the van body, not to mention cheaper. Several companies sell kits for the Windsor to '51 install.
An Astro is unibody, with a front subframe, so that may have something to do with it; I looked at one to buy a couple years ago so I know those for a fact.
i did notice the chassis being nice and low at the rear and could see a low flat bed . i dont want to start moving things around to much hoping to work around what i have .not looking for a show stopper just something a little different thanks cavisco for your input your right i dont mind fabricating stuff and love channe'd l bodies but not sure about shortning anything on this one . like i said i would rather work around what i have cheers for your input duste01 to buy a 51 here that is a roller you might be looking around 6 to 8 grand then fitting my running gear in it and all that is not whats on my mind. im thinking more along the lines of buying a body from some farmer for $200 and making it fit to what i have .maybe an old bedford or somthing . i wasent thinking of a clone of anything with an old van chassis just something cool and different thank you oahueli for your input
You could turn it into a 4x4!!! off topic for te hamb but here's where you can find parts... http://www.pathfinder-vans.com/html/ford_conversion_parts.html I sold mine a few days ago too cheap. it was a 1 ton with a 460 and best cash in hand offer was $1800 I drove it 600 miles to the guy and he paid for the fuel to him and the rental car home. not too bad for either of us. I have another van cut up in the garage. I was thinking of building a hotrod. I was going to chop narrow section and channel a 76 ford pickup cab. I junked it. I cut the entire roof off the van 2" in from the drip rail I cut through the roof side beam behind the front doors and a few inches behind the driver's door down to the floor and then cut the step and rocker away from the floor up along the inside of the kick panel and a few inches short of the bottom of the cowl, across the cowl to the other side. I now have 2 door frames with the side cowl and each has half of the upper cowl where the wipers go. and half of the upper window frame. I'm thinking of (no committments here) welding them back together. it would have about 2' removed from the center and after squaring them up I'd chop the top4-6 inches and build in the rear of the doorframes like an extended cab and fab a floor and firewall. I might section out the side body indent as well. Tis is a really sad rappy photohop job but it was just to fit the pieces together not make it pretty
krakkerbox? it isn't a hotrod fo sho If anything it's something to practice on without hurting any feelings for f*$king up something old. the photohop is really bad but i think I kan make it similar to a diamond t kab...(i'm missing a key on my keyboard today it aint working abdefg...)
how bout cutting the 51 into a cab over! Van Chassis work great for cab over swap and it would be something different.... Or if you could find an old COE like a white or diamond truck err lori or what ever the hell you guys call it over there!
The pre-'72 FULL-SIZED Ford vans are unibody, as are the pre-'71 Dodges and pre-'71 GM cvans. All FULL-sized vans built afterward are body-on-frame. I'd go the COE route, if it were me building that van into something. Put a nice hauler bed on it, then build a cool early-style race car...!
Cboy on hotrodders.com built a roadster using the twinI beam front suspension. , and drive train... He posted about 100 pictures of his build
I bought this dodge van ($100.00) for the motor and trans 360/727, and desided to have so fun before i called the junk yard. I guy offered me $500.00 for it when im done...
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