1964 Econoline

Paint starts to bring things to life. The top of the cabinet was that sort of psychedelic woodgrain pattern that anybody over about 55 years of age will recognize. The carpet, although not shag was a heavier pile than you get using embossing powder so it is short turf fibers used in model railroads. I think I missed a narrow black line between the bigger sections of the carpet but once body is on won't see much of it anyway. 

And all painted up. The dash is coming with the Flintstone body and will have white panels like the doors, seats and doghouse have. The blanket will be familiar to pretty much anybody with military, police or firefighting experience anyplace in the world. You can probably feel the itching kicking in already. Still need to make an 8 track player for the cabinet but have to did up a chrome radio I know I have someplace for that. Nothing but the front seat are glued on yet since I need to have the body to ensure spacing is correct. 

As far as I know there are no existing pictures of the real thing but most of the details are etched in my brain even after al this time so it is very accurate at least in my head.

That's it for now since...

I ain't got no body

Tcoat, I really like this build.  I'm a big fan of the custom van craze of the 1970's so any panel van from the 1960's-1970's is of intereswt to me.  I'll be following this build along closely.

tjs

MR TOM SCHRY

Tcoat, I really like this build.  I'm a big fan of the custom van craze of the 1970's so any panel van from the 1960's-1970's is of intereswt to me.  I'll be following this build along closely.

tjs

 

The real thing was built by a guy in 1974 so it was a very early member of the custom van craze. It had passed through a couple of people before I got it and I soon discovered why.

The 351 Windsor engine they had crammed into it was just to much power for driving in anything but the best of weather. Nobody dynoed it to see what the actual horse power was but it had a performance cam, four barrel, headers and a few other performance upgrades I just don't recall. Combined with the placement and light weight f the van it was almost impossible to drive when wet out or even if the tires got to cold. It was also an hour job to pull things apart just to check and fill the oil. 

The C6 auto transmission in it had the most wonky home made linkage ever. If you left it in park while running for more than a minute it would pop into reverse all on it's own. 

On the plus side, in warm weather when you could get traction, it would pick the front wheels off the ground for 50 feet!

I eventually got bored/frustrated with it and sold it (at a hefty profit) right in the heart of the van craze. Nostalgia has now twisted my perspective of it and if I could get it back, as it was, tomorrow I would!

Quick mockup using the Dodge body. Looks like I am  going to need to trim a hair off the barstool height but the cabinet is bang on. There is no way the front seats will fit in using the locators. They don't even clear the kit body so need to move closer together. I raised the rear about 3 scale inches when I built the suspension so the rake looks about right.

MAN!  I love that stance of that van.  It just looks so TOUGH!

tjs

MR TOM SCHRY

MAN!  I love that stance of that van.  It just looks so TOUGH!

tjs

 

Wait until it gets the high gloss black Econoline body on it!

Oh and side pipes. 

Tanker-Builder

Hi ; It looks like you are definitey on the right path here, Good job so far!

 

Pretty happy with it so far as it fits my memory of 45 years ago pretty good. Never thought I would ever be scratch building a 1/25 scale bar stool though!

After much disscussion on another forum it has been determined that the dash as molded includes a pad along the top and golve box that mine did not have. In my van the dash was just steel painted a semi gloss black with the panel around the instruments, ash tray and flat govebox door in white. The padded glove box will ruin the symmentry of the white no matter how I paint it so it has to go. 

I have never worked with resin parts before so have no idea how hard it would be to remove it. Is there a good way to sand/grind/crape or otherwise flatten it out? Don't want to ruin it in the name of accuracy but it just will look wrong as is!

If accurate, the latter models should ship with at least two extra. rebuilt tranmissions

Tcoat, Gloss black paint scheme and side pipes!  Am I back in 1975 living the dream?

tjs

MR TOM SCHRY

Tcoat, Gloss black paint scheme and side pipes!  Am I back in 1975 living the dream?

tjs

 

It was truly a creature of the '70s. The side pipes are going to be a challenge since they were cheap "Made in Japan" (remember it was the 70s) things that no kit has ever duplicated and will have to be scratch built from memory. The lucky part is that they were not exactly complex. 

I have a body!

I need to find some slightly smaller tires. These just look like balloons. The chassis needed some considerable rework as the body is about 3/8 inch shorter than the Lindberg kit.

That  is looking great Tcoat. I remember those days.  I loved those old vans. You are doing an excellent job replicating the details. I once owned a 66 GMC van. Like you I wish I still had it.

lurch

That  is looking great Tcoat. I remember those days.  I loved those old vans. You are doing an excellent job replicating the details. I once owned a 66 GMC van. Like you I wish I still had it.

 

It is fun just how many people across a couple of forums had a sixties van of one make or another. With the number of people that have said they had one I am actually sort of surprised that this era of vans is, and always has been, almost completely ignored by the mainstream manufactures. They pumped out many different versions of the '70s vans since they were the bigger part of the craze while us poor early adaptors went without.

Opened up and padded dash removed. Resin isn't so hard to work with and my trepidation at the task was misplaced.

Quick mockup to make sure everything fits. About a 1/4 inch taken off the bar stool height so nobody bumps their head!

Much more appropreate sized tires swapped for the balloon things had on at first. Need to drop the nose about anothe 2 scale inces though. 

Yeah:

    I had a 68 Chevy van. Strange in that it was a work-family vehicle that the kids painted smileys all over. When I bought it ,mechanically and interior wise it was great. The paint was just Deep red primer!

WOW!  Those new tires,wheels, & hub caps look great on it.  That interior looks so cool too.  I agree about needing to drop the nose a bit more to achieve that proper stance.

tjs

MR TOM SCHRY

WOW!  Those new tires,wheels, & hub caps look great on it.  That interior looks so cool too.  I agree about needing to drop the nose a bit more to achieve that proper stance.

tjs

 

The wheels and caps are the same but now they are not lost in the huge tires. Still not decided if going with the while lettering out or just the blackwalls. The real thing had very faded white letter on the little that remained of the poor old tires so that may be a third option. 

The stance was perfect untilI lined up the floor with the door opening and lost just a hair of drop in the front. Going to have to cut and reposition the leaf springs to get what I need but that is no big deal.

Paneling, and decorations ready. Some will be paper and some decals. This will be my first venture into printing my own decals.

The posters are all accurate to what I had except the Cooper one. I had a promo poster for his Vancouver 1975 concert but there do not seem to be any pictures of it and I had to go with close enough. The small ones will be 8-track tape labels. The only concession I made to accuracy is the inclusion of the two model magazine covers as neither existed back then and I wasn't building models at that point in my life. Besides, I don't think I could post the real magazines I had back then here anyway!

Yes it truly was a child of the seventies. Just look at that paneling!

Front end dropped a tad more so stance is finally right. By today's standards it looks extreme but was pretty normal back then.

PERFECT!  Oh, bring back the 70's and put Boston on the stereo!

tjs

I like this project a lot - and not only because I'm a "van man" myself - my first car was the "square" VW bus, and my second car is a fourth generation VW bus - I have owned it for 20 years now, let's see if I can make it more...

This project is so cool because you are modelling something you know very well - and many modellers miss the fact that knowing your subject well is the foundation for a good model - much more than fancy paints, airbrush skill or tons of aftermarket.

Good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

MR TOM SCHRY

PERFECT!  Oh, bring back the 70's and put Boston on the stereo!

tjs

 

I will add a Boston 8-track for you. Although "Don't look back" is not a good theme song for this build!

Pawel

I like this project a lot - and not only because I'm a "van man" myself - my first car was the "square" VW bus, and my second car is a fourth generation VW bus - I have owned it for 20 years now, let's see if I can make it more...

This project is so cool because you are modelling something you know very well - and many modellers miss the fact that knowing your subject well is the foundation for a good model - much more than fancy paints, airbrush skill or tons of aftermarket.

Good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

 

About 25% of my projects are things I know very well from experience with the subject or something at least very similar. The other 75% will get about 2 hours of research time for every hour spent on the actual build. I actually enjoy the research as much as the building. Every once in a while I will just build something with no reaserch at all but that is just to take a rest before my next round of intensive internet searching.  

Wow! Love the build! Love the swivel seats too.

Lookin' very cool.

Thanks everybody!

I have doors. The hinges are a tad ovescale but they are more to hang the doors on in the open position so it isn't too obvious. The closing part of the deal is just a bonus. Once all black you will hardly see then anyway.

The doors were made by skinning over the cut out resin parts with very thin styrene and the hinges are the Lindbergh kit parts for the front doors of the Dodge. 

They fit better than the pictures make them look and will need some tweaking after paint anyway. The doors are not wrinkled like they look here that is a trick of the smudged marker ink and the resin showing through the styrene.

This is how it will be displayed. The inside of these doors was really easy to model since the structure was covered with paneling and the latch mech is all hidden. The outer lips are all scale thickness.