Projects 1962 Econoline "The Box" Build Thread

Good Afternoon guys. After a year of building, we got the Econoline on the road this winter. I was able to bring her to So Cal for the winter this year to do some winter cruising and here is the first video of us cruising down the highway. This will a backward build thread, as I am showing the driving van first, and then I will start from the beginning to show what it took to get her to sit this low and be a safe driving vehicle. I have thousands of pictures of the build, so I will post as soon as I can, but it will take a bit of time to get it all done from beginning to end and try to get it to make some sense.

 

did the old thread get deleted in the changeover? i was curious why i hadn't seen any more on this.

 

Like the van and it looks good going down the road..the music is a bit much for a old curmudgeon like myself. HRP

 

Sorry about that...it seemed better than the loud air noise coming from my buddies car that was following me.

 

Love these trucks! Let's see some more!

 

I think the thread got deleted when they did the swap over and changed all the categories. I'm going to start over later this evening from the very beginning and redo it. Hopefully they're okay with it and don't wait until I get all 800 pictures up before they delete it again.


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my parents had three of these vans.. I feel bad now for hating them. cools-ville bro

 

Are you able to drive the van over speed bumps?

 

I've been wondering about your van project! it sure looks great rolling down the road. how does it handle? does it feel like you might die if change lanes to fast like mine does? much body roll? are you still here in California? great to hear from you again.

 

I think I saw this on kickstarter? looks like nice work!

 

Thanks for the kind words, it has shown up in a few places now that it is done, and I am flattered.

Here is the day I brought it home. Picked it up in California basically stock with John Deere Green wheels.

 

First thing I did was to put some 14" smoothies on her with pinstripe whites. She was lowered a bit, but rode and steered like crap. Bottomed out on the smallest bumps.

 

The first thing was to break up all the black. Barn Yard paint job around the windows.

 

I drove it for about a year, and then stuffed her in the 2 car garage and started to tear it apart. Love the old bumper lift.

 

dig it. true north… excellent.

 

Good morning. I am in California until around April 1. I work long hours and about seven days a week while I'm out here but I should have some time off in a couple weeks and was hoping to hook up with a cruise somewhere in Southern California. I'm in Palm Springs but would happily get to Riverside or to Los Angeles for a cool cruise on a Friday or Saturday night around the first or second week of February. If you know of any let me know.


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Ahhhhh....only the true old school punkers know who that might be....

 

Gonna build a triangulated 4 link for the rear with a notched frame to get the wheels to tuck inside. Started by cutting out the floor between the frame rails. And then the wheel tubs. Then extra challenge is that this is a unibody van. So this was the best way for me to cut out and get an idea of the notches that I had to build. I used a Suzuki Samarai rear end for mock up, because if was the right width for the 15x12 wheels to fit up in the body.

 

Had to build the notch from scratch because of the odd shape of the frame. The unibody had a taper as it goes up for strength. Clamped then in piece by piece before I cut out the original frame.

 

Got the notches all tacked in, built the plates for strength to box in the rear frame, and then got the rear set in there for fitting.

 

chop it and drop it!

 

Then I cut out the floor for the forward crossmember for the upper and lower bars of the 4 link. I built the crossmember out of the same size metal as the frame using 3 different parts to form the driveshaft tunnel. Got it tacked into place.

 

I love it! But if I chopped it even one inch, I would have to cut a hole in the roof so I could see out. We channeled it 4 inches, and if I had any hair on my head it would hit the ceiling now...

Nice work. Looks killer.

 

And for your other question, I am very pleased with how she drives. Very straight, no bump steer, had it on the highway at about 80 and she cruises great. Super happy with the Mustang II and the 4 link. Would not change a thing on the build. I do realize that I have about 2000 man hours into this with the help of 2 buddies, worth it...

 

thats great to hear about it handeling well. i plan on putting a ifs on my 64 at some point, for now my 40 coupe is in front. i do have a stock front axle thats been dropped that i'll try out. if you feel up to it, i live in rosemead, about 1hr-20 mins from palm springs, and 2mins off the #10 freeway.pm me if you get bored and we'll talk econolines.

 

Sounds great, have family in Redlands and in LA. I will catch up with you sometime and we will take a cruise. Any Tommy Burgers around you, gotta get em every time Im here?

 

For the lower trailing arms, I used some big steel so I could put the bags on the bars. Cut them to length, cut holes in then ends, fit some pipe in the holes for the bushings. I rolled metal for the end caps and welded them all together.

 

Made the brackets for the front of the lower trailing arms.

 

Then built the lower axle mounts for the trailing arms.

 

Then I got the brackets tacked in and rear end tacked in.