Outskirtscustom's 1980 Dodge Van Project: parking solutions DEMOLITION!

[outskirtscustoms]

It's only Money right? Lol

Yeah money that can be spent on bikes.

 

[TexasDart]

I remember making a cool tube grill for my daughter's car after and accident. I made it out of an aluminum tube from a shower rod. It looked pretty cool.

I have a /6 in my 65 Dart...my buddy calls it my tractor car...does kinda look like a tractor under the hood.

I run a Pertronix ignition in the distributor..got rid of the points and put a 2brl manifold and weber on it. Runs much better now.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

Nice! I made a grill for an S-10 I had out of 1/2" PVC pipe and a few blocks of scrap wood. After I painted it it looked almost factory.

 

[Onewheelsqueel]

I hear ya on the bike money. I flip flop on where I spend my $. Right now I'm in car mode.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

Same here but I am trying to put my little bit of cash where it needs to go rather than going crazy buying stuff I want for it... if I did that I would easily get in way over my head and have thousands more than it's worth into it. Main things I need to focus on now are new battery, carb rebuild, drop the tank and clean it out, oil change, new plugs, wires, cap, rotor, new oil filter, new air filter, new fuel filters, radiator flush, grease all the suspension parts and wheel bearings, belts and hoses, turn the motor over and get her running good, bleed the brakes, new tires, then a bit of body work, then interior, then paint, then I'll worry about finishing touches like emblems. So still a long way to go but it's coming along.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

Found a few cool things out and about today, I was at the local antique shop / junk shop and I found this in the back. Having just bought a van I HAD to buy it.



Then the other day I found this cool old chromed out CB radio for the van at the flea market so I picked it up cheap.

 

[heartlandcruisers]

Found a few cool things out and about today, I was at the local antique shop / junk shop and I found this in the back. Having just bought a van I HAD to buy it.



Then the other day I found this cool old chromed out CB radio for the van at the flea market so I picked it up cheap.

that would be a sweet start to build you're van that would scream 70's van cruiser .
the cb is pretty cool looks to be 70's but i could be wrong it would be cool though with a big whip antenna on the rear bumper.
looks like it says cobra that's top end stuff and back in it's day would be considered high end.still might be pretty valuable though and im glad to see one of those. i had one in my truck but i sold the truck with it in it.

 

[heartlandcruisers]

This is what true love is all about.

true dat ceebee my wife got me my Honda twin star for a late valentines day i love that woman more then i do my bikes and that's saying a lot lol
of course she wants to ride it as well which is also cool.
not being chauvinistic or anything like that,but sometimes women do not understand a mans visions and finding a woman who does see our visions is almost as good as finding a Shelby airflow for 5 bucks lol
Sean

 

[Nagant]

The CB is a Courier, a completely different brand than Cobra. Although it doesn't matter that much because both contracted with Japanese manufacturers to make their radios at the time period yours was made. I can't tell exactly which model because of the blurry pic. It's definitely a early to mid 1970's model because it's a 23 channel. The 40 channel units started to come out at the very end of 1976. That was the end of the 23 channel units. Being one of the more deluxe chrome bodied Couriers of the period makes it slightly more desirable but not highly valuable or desirable. If you have the original bracket, power cord, microphone, box, paper work, and if the electrical and physical condition was very good or better it would be more desirable.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

I hear you there, I love my fiance more than anything in the world. She actually likes my ideas for the van and understands my obsession with cars and bikes. She did tease me though because I told her I'd never own a mini van no matter how many kids we had but I had to explain myself that this is a full size van, and I'd make an exception for a VW Microbus or Corvair van.

The CB radio is a Courier Classic 3, It's not the original mic I took it off another of the CB radios he had there. I mainly want it because there was one mounted in the van so I am going to put one back in it so those holes in the engine cover are being used. Not to mention it'll be a good spot for a big chrome brick. They can also be handy when out on road trips and you're looking for a "Smokey report" and a lot of vanners still have CB's in their vans so when I get it going I can use it at the van ins. I also like keeping a vehicle true to the period it was made.

 

[Onewheelsqueel]

Right on.

 

[partsguy]

This is way cool! I always had a soft spot for hot rod vans. The tv show "Ed, Edd, and Eddy" had a purple one with flames in the junkyard scenes. You could make it look like that

 

[partsguy]

Here's a link to the van:

http://ed.wikia.com/wiki/The_Retro_Van

 

[outskirtscustoms]

Looks cool but purple isn't my color. I'm thinking of going with silver and black two tone, then paint the stock wheels black and get some chrome lug nuts to give it a hot rod vibe.

Also had a visitor today when I was cleaning out my shed. I talked to the old guy who used to drive my van, he said the mileage might be correct. He said he knew it had around 35,000 miles when he left the company in 1987 and it wasn't used much after because it was a stick and only a half ton model. He said the wear and tear to the seats is from them getting in and out of it constantly and the side doors were used a lot. I also asked him more exactly what they did. They worked on radios and communication equipment for anything from police radios to emergency radios for fire departments, ambulance, and things like that. He said one time he got it up to 90MPH with a police escort to go fix the police radios in another town. The kicker is through sheer coincidence the guy who drove my van 30 years ago lives two blocks from my house.

 

[dracothered]

@ outskirtscustoms for some reason I doubt it really is only 38,432 miles total on it. That would mean if in the first 7 years (total 35,000 miles) of its life it got 5,000 miles average put on it a year and for the next 27 years it got an average of 127 miles average a year. I don't remember how many years you said it has just sat not being used, but lets say it sat 7 years so that would mean for 20 years it only had 171 miles average a year on it.

So lets say it really has 138,432 miles on it.
7 years @ 35,000 miles = 5,000 average a year
20 years @ 103,432 miles = 5,171.6 average a year
7 years @ 0 miles = 0 a year

So if you think about it, it really isn't that hard to believe it has 138,432 miles on it. Now of course there is a slight chance it really does only have 38,432 miles total on it.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

Well I'm putting the story together from 3 different guys, the guy who drove the van 30 years ago for mobile radio (Neil) said he knew it had 35,000 miles when he quit to go to work for Delco in 1987, the guy who owned the van originally (Larry) said after Neil left the company it was used rarely on quick part runs because it was a stick shift and had no A/C and was parked shortly after that.

The guy I bought the van from said it sat in the garage since 1987 and the decals from mobile radio were never taken off, the bench was still there, the extra wires were still there, it's like it wasn't touched since mobile radio sold it so I don't think the guy who owned the garage where it was found ever really used it.. So what I have heard from the 3 different guys lines up so I am hopeful, also it is unknown as to weather the dead guy ever put the title into his name so there's a chance I might have a 1 owner 38,000 mile van.

I'd also think that if it was 138,000 miles instead of 38,000 miles there would be more wear to the seat under where your left leg would be due to the clutch action, more wear on the clutch pedal pad, The guy who owned the garage passed away or I'd ask him what he knew about it but either way the motor turns and the oil and antifreeze look new and they said the oil was changed every 3,000 miles religiously so it should still be fresh. So I know it will run after I get a battery and change the fluids and such. I also found out I may be getting a house with a 2 car garage so I am really keeping my fingers crossed that that comes through because working out of a shed and a van sucks.

 

[dracothered]

Ok, if you have that as the back story then it changes what I think and it looks more like you have a van with 38,432 miles on it.

Now you may find that since it really didn't get used allot for the last 20 to 25 or 27 years, you may have some dried out oil seals. Just be looking for oil leaks after you get it running. The front main and rear main oil seal may also have a flat spot in them from the crank sitting in one place for many years also. This will cause an oil leak.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

Yeah I plan to replace the soft rubber goods on it before calling it 100% roadworthy. And I check my oil religiously, I kinda got used to doing that with my old International pickup. It smoked like a forest fire.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

Now we're getting somewhere! I got the rest of the grill slats that were broken cut out and threw some fresh paint on it and it looks a million times better with both sides of the grill. I am going to be backing the grill with some expanded metal mesh to give it a more complete look because without the slats it looks kinda bare and busted up. If I don't like how that looks I'm going to chop the grill out entirely and make my own out of PVC and paint it with some of the same paint.







Here's one idea I had about the missing slats in the grill. Extra turn signals or fog lights.

 

[dracothered]

I would go this route with it and put the mesh behind it.