Lockleaf Posted June 10, 2018 Report Share Posted June 10, 2018 Long live the Grape! Quote Link to comment
racerx Posted June 10, 2018 Report Share Posted June 10, 2018 Nice....always liked those 1st gen Econoline. Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted June 14, 2018 Report Share Posted June 14, 2018 Two things checked off today... The brake pedal kept getting stuck halfway down whenever you were in reverse. Took a look and noticed the pedal was fouling the shift linkage... We took the pedal loose and filed a bit off the edge and it works like a champ now. :thumbup: Then Tim decided to wrestle and cuss at his trailer hitch for awhile... And after much discussing, drilling a few holes, and wrestling this fat pig into position, the van now has a hitch... :thumbup: 2 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted June 14, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2018 The angle of that picture makes it look a lot more protrude-y than it really is. It is dead flush with the purple part when looking straight down at it. Also, I may or may not have a Hello Kitty receiver plug to put in there on Saturday... Ok, I totally have a Hello Kitty receiver plug to put in there on Saturday! Quote Link to comment
125 CSL Posted June 14, 2018 Report Share Posted June 14, 2018 Going to leave it at the stock ride height or lower it some? Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted June 14, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2018 Going to leave it at the stock ride height or lower it some? If you'll go back and watch what I call "The Most Important 18 Seconds On The Internet," AKA the video of me driving out of the parking lot, you'll see that with my fat ass in the driver's seat, the nose droops to a really nice stance, IMO. We have a bit more planned inside which ought to add some ballast back there and "lower" the thing, we hope. So, to answer your questions... yes. 2 Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted June 14, 2018 Report Share Posted June 14, 2018 So, to answer your questions... yes. And if it has enough gears to pull 70+ on the freeway, I'm still trying to convince him we need some slot mags, and maybe also ever so slightly smaller diameter tires, which would also lower it some... ^_^ 3 Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted June 16, 2018 Report Share Posted June 16, 2018 Ever have one of those days where no matter what you do it doesn't go how you want it to? Yeah, that was today... First thing in the morning Tim fired it up and took it for a test drive. Still a bit warm on the gauge (crowding 200). So we start looking for a way to feed more air to the radiator. Wasted several hours on that, did not work, will spare the gory details to protect the guilty. Final assumption/plan is that we need an undertray to duct more air to the radiator. We will be building that next week. :thumbup: Decided to try one more test drive, after the extensive comedy of errors, to go get some lunch. Ran flawlessly all the way there, and stayed under 180F. Time did get his HK hitch cover installed, though... :thumbup: And so you can see how hellaflush it is... Next week undertray, more test drives, and maybe consider a clutch swap. What's that? I didn't mention the clutch? Yeah, I could have sworn we put in a new clutch disc when we put the engine in, but it seems to be slipping if you romp it in 2nd gear now. I am hoping there is some "bedding in" process for this clutch. Otherwise, we will be pulling the transmission soon... :blush: 2 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted June 16, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2018 OH! I just remembered something! Those pointy-headed engineers at Ford really knew what they were up to when they designed the ram-air ventilation on this thing. While we were driving to lunch, I flipped open the vent on the passenger side and was hit with a very refreshing blast of less-hot air into my crotch. T'was quite nice, I must say. 2 Quote Link to comment
]2eDeYe Posted June 18, 2018 Report Share Posted June 18, 2018 Some staggered slots would look oh so right on this . :cool: 2 Quote Link to comment
q-tip Posted June 18, 2018 Report Share Posted June 18, 2018 Some staggered slots would look oh so right on this . :cool: This, please this. Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted June 21, 2018 Report Share Posted June 21, 2018 So, today we made a thing! Fits very well and should help cooling quite a bit... And new pedal pads... 1 Quote Link to comment
DaBlist Posted June 21, 2018 Report Share Posted June 21, 2018 So, today we made a thing! Fits very well and should help cooling quite a bit... Ooow, so much nicer than the cardboard one Freiburger and Finnegan made 2 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted June 22, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2018 Ok, I can't ignore this picture any longer. I have seen this before, and it did put bad thoughts into my head, but... *sigh* no, just... no. Quote Link to comment
racerx Posted June 25, 2018 Report Share Posted June 25, 2018 Mad max...I like it though, he just needs to install a solar panel on his roof Quote Link to comment
Duncan Posted June 25, 2018 Report Share Posted June 25, 2018 Somewhere on the internet is a very comprehensive video of this van. It's been lowered a little and looks fantastic, IMHO.. http://www.speedhunters.com/2013/10/van-go-art-collides-utility/ Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted June 25, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2018 Were I to "replicate" this setup, I would go with a "draw through" where the carb is in front of the turbo. Then I'd flip that intercooler over, and angle it slightly, so that any gasoline pooling in the matrix would drain down to the intake manifold. Finally, instead of running around the outside of the van, I'd make a "chimney" of sorts inside and run the plumbing straight up through the roof... but I can understand why they did it this way. Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted June 28, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2018 I bought an 82" long throttle cable and cute little aluminium gas pedal assembly to eliminate the monkey-motion throttle rod situation that was giving me so many fits on the drivability front. Today I got cracking on installing it. I got the cable attached to the carb and had a look to see if it was going to be long enough (as the actress said to the bishop). Oh yeah, it's long enough (said the bishop to the actress). I then "attached" the cable to the pedal and had a go at working the throttle. Huzzah! Success! Buuuuuuuuut, I wasn't happy with the way the cable attached at either end. I disassembled it all and had a go at attaching the cable the other way round on the pedal. Without pictures this next bit is going to be difficult to 'splain... so I won't. I'll just say that I thought I needed to remove the two nuts (insert bishop/actress joke here) on the sheath. This I did but then the screwy-downy thing was too long (bishop/actress) to thread all the way down. To make a short story long, while de-longifying the screwy-downy bit, I nicked the cable and it immediately began to fray. I made an attempt to salvage it with a ferrule, but now it's too short to actuate the carb... or even install on the carb, for that matter. So, I just now ordered another cable, and paid twice the amount of the cable in shipping to get it here on Friday so we can try again Saturday. And I installed the license plate. 2 Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted June 30, 2018 Report Share Posted June 30, 2018 And I installed the license plate. Light up bolts... After much fussing, cussing, and discussing, the new gas pedal is in, the new cable is in, and it works. :thumbup: 4 Quote Link to comment
Duncan Posted July 1, 2018 Report Share Posted July 1, 2018 That pedal is pure 60's all the way :thumbup: Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted July 2, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2018 That pedal is pure 60's all the way :thumbup: I need to go in and paint the insert area purple... ok, I need to convince John to go in and paint the insert area purple for me. 2 Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted July 5, 2018 Report Share Posted July 5, 2018 Wiring for license lights connected via a cool little wiring connector. Since they may have to be removed at a future date to replace the license plate, we wanted to be able to easily disconnect the wiring... Since we didn't have a jack for the van, we got a really tall Nissan jack I had in the spares and decided to mod it a bit to work for our purposes. First up, welded a bolt to the spinny end so we could use the 4-way to raise it... :thumbup: Tim didn't like how the top end didn't really have much retention to it, so we got to cutting... Cut a bit of angle iron... Then he welded that on too... We did some more fiddling with the gas pedal (not really much to show) and we think we have that dialed in now. :thumbup: Took it for a lengthy test drive and while the throttle is doing well, we are still having some overheating issues we need to solve. Not exactly sure how just yet, but we are going to try using an engine driven fan and a fan shroud instead of the electric fan... 2 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted July 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 Apparently there is no place where I can just walk in and buy an engine driven radiator fan anymore, so I had to order one from Amazon. Of course that means I won't have it in time to play with it this weekend. I also ordered the clutch kit... which won't be here in time either. I'll probably spend tomorrow removing the electric fan and re-purposing its power wire for the heater I'm going to install eventually. I might have a look at the transmission to see how big an ass-whip the clutch job is going to be as well. We'll see. Quote Link to comment
]2eDeYe Posted July 6, 2018 Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 Somewhere on the internet is a very comprehensive video of this van. It's been lowered a little and looks fantastic, IMHO.. http://www.speedhunters.com/2013/10/van-go-art-collides-utility/ It was featured on Hoonigan. :cool: 2 Quote Link to comment
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