Info Beast in the Bushes

[Yardpilot]

Finally got some work done out there. I do dislike bureaucrats. Anyhoo, I'll have some new pictures up as soon as I shrink'em down a bit. The brush pile is catching up to the size of the van and I'm barely started.

I would appreciate any info on the following door tag numbers.

Warranty Number
E14TH487486

WB Color Mod Body Trans Axle
190 M E143 589 F 2

GVW IRS Cert. Net HP RPM DSO
3600 85 3600 72

There is nothing under that IRS marking. I am having trouble getting the lines to match up.

Is this a 65? I can't find anything on that "F" transmission listed anywhere. Maybe I'm not looking in the right places.

I cleared out a bunch of ants and sat in the driver's seat. The clutch pedal acts like the linkage is working fine, with a big hint of rusty scraping. The shift linkage can be moved, but doesn't like it. I did not get all the ants, but I think I'll steer clear of that subject.

Yes, there is plastic on the nose. One of the pictures will clearly show where a big patch cracked off. It isn't real thick. There is a light crack in the windshield.

There are no hinge springs on any of the doors. It looks like that is by design. There are only belts that limit how far the doors open.

The internal roof bracing is broken, each brace snapped just about in the middle. I'll get pictures tomorrow or the next day. The top therefore sags toward the center 6" to maybe a foot. There are a couple of creases but no tears. There is rust, but not nearly what I expected.

I can't get underneath yet, but when I stepped on the bumpers she went up and down like a sorority girl on spring break. Bouncy with lots of squealing.

So far it looks like everything is there. I'm still intrigued by that one windshield wiper thing. The last vehicle I had like that was a 48 Chevy pickup.

Any info would be appreciated. Would you believe my wife thinks I am getting obsessed with this project? I can't imagine.

You know, I think it is getting smaller as I dig it out.

[squirrel]

I don't know the answers, but I think I figured out where to find them.

http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/10...-vin-info.html

[SuperBuickGuy]

and yes, you are killing me with the lack of pictures....

[Yardpilot]

Pictures, I hope

Okay, so a couple of extra pictures got in here. I'll get it all sorted out lunar or satyr.

The Beast herself, a few of the carbs I found awhile back and another shot of the slightly splayfooted truck. Oh, well.

[SuperBuickGuy]

all I want to know is how you keep your hemlock trees from rotting out in the center before you chop them down into firewood

cool van, man.

[Yardpilot]

all I want to know is how you keep your hemlock trees from rotting out in the center before you chop them down into firewood

Them thar chunks is from a big old red fir. I had two of them to take down, one dead, one not quite so dead. The wind blew the healthier one down across the road. The other is still standing. The cut up one was 125' tall. One that came down earlier that size is split and in the shed. There's another dead one less than a hundred feet from the end of my driveway that I'm taking down. Getting the firewood in this year isn't going to be half bad.

cool van, man.

Oh, I think it will be. Maybe something a little different. A 'chute on the back would be a good start.

[squirrel]

Ok, I take back what I said earlier about the transmission...this is wild, I never heard of it before. Thanks for the picture

[Yardpilot]

A little bit more done.

These are no doubt going to come up out of order, but I'm working on that. Ignore the date stamp. I didn't reset the camera. It defaults when you pull the card. The underneath pictures were taken by reaching under blind, pointing and clicking. I do NOT like black widows. One crawling up your arm makes you twitch all day. The pile of junk came out of the back. Chairs and a make-shift bed, it looks like. Is that tiny little thing in the back really the gas tank?

I'm thinking about pushing the top up a bit using frames of 2x? top and bottom and a couple of hydraulic jacks.

Hey, this is my excuse to by that wire-feed welder! Gotta love it.

The brown furry girl is Marlee. She is three, yes she does have a sister, no they aren't allowed to date. Besides, she is a single mother. I also have her sister and one of her pups. They will show up in pictures on occasion. Some of the best people I have ever known.

[milner351]

That's one heck of a roof dent. I'm sure with some lumber and floor jacks you can get most of it out from underneath.... paint the roof flat white and nobody will be the wiser.

Love the coil overs in the rear, look like the old "Load leveler" Monroe models.

I've never spent much time in one of the "cab over" vans... looks like an adventure awaits.

[STINEY]

Wow. I am impressed with your patience.

I would have had that dug out and back at my place in a day or two, tops. Excitement would have prevailed.

Then I could have let all the black widows infest my shop - you probably have the better approach!

The roof caving in really suprises me, I've never seen snow do that. Maybe it had a start from roof-humping by some spirited hippies?

Nice start to a seemingly easy restore though. Disassemble, blast, bump dents, paint, reassemble and enjoy. Its just begging for some polished aluminum slots!

Digging it out should be easy enough. I've rescued from similar situations......use shovel to dig a gently sloping "ramp" on BOTH sides of all four tires, attach tow strap securely, air up tires, and gently "rock" the pair (tow vehicle and van) a few times till it POPS right up outta there.

Unless one or more wheels are froze up - then traction and brute force is your friend!

Good luck and thanks for sharing.

(Oh, and about the gas tank thing, if I understand you correctly, the tiny thing INSIDE is NOT the gas tank, the gas tank is underneath and looks like a 15 gallon one to me. That tiny thing is probably the bumpout for the fill tube.)

[SuperBuickGuy]

I'm not a bug guy, a friend once gave me a 40 Ford pickup cab (with cool stencils on the side) - I said no because the entire driver's side door was filled with a wasp nest - drove 8 hours to pick it up - drove home without

patience is also the right choice for big roof dents - that and pushing up the widest area possible

[Yardpilot]

Good call on the gas tank. No hippies in this case. Loggers. Lotsa the same habits, though.<G> The floor appears to be quite solid, so jacking and blocking shouldn't be a problem.As for the snow, this little lady was parked in an area that gets an average of about fifteen feet of snow a year. Last winter our total was 178". In January we caught 5 1/2 feet in three days. That's every winter for the thirty years she has been parked here. I scrapped out a travel trailer that ended up less than three feet high from being squashed by the snow. The trees and bushes that had her hidden are only about 400 feet from the house on our acreage. I guess you could say she is already home. As I don't have a shop, just a shed with pretensions, I'm thinking I should put up a run-in shed for her so she can get out of the weather for the winter. Maybe big enough for the little wood stove I scrounged. That would be nice. Yes indeed, we are going adventuring. I am confident it will be a long strange trip indeed. Sounds like fun to me, too.

Do you think a drag chute would be too outre?

[Caveman Tony]

Okay, all you bodywork gurus... how would ya fix that colossal cave-in of a roof?


Methinks the plan should include a cut n paste from a pristine van/longroof...

[Yardpilot]

More Beastiness

Went out to air up the tires. After thirty years of sitting, I guess three out of four ain't bad. One is off the rim slightly and jammed with dirt. Two others started delaminating as they came up. Oh well. C78-13. Now that's tiny! I looked at a tire ad and the price said, "Starting at $39.95." I'm used to seeing those and then looking further down the list to the two-hunderd dollar section before I find a size I can use. This little dickens uses the first one on the list! I think instead of messing around I'll just get four new ones. It'll save trouble and I can use them later anyway (I hope).

Baby steps. When I rebuilt my tractor I followed some old-time techniques for getting her up and running. Perhaps I should do the same here. First, I dumped a gallon of kerosene in the engine and let her sit for a few days, turning her over daily. Then I drained the engine, filled it with cheap oil and diesel and repeated the process. Then a complete oil and filter change. That ol' girl has been running for several years now. Would the same be a good idea here? How about cleaning or flushing the transmission? Rear end? Of course I'll get plugs, points, wires, tuneup kit (I bet I won't find that in a bubble package at the local department store), and so on.

The battery box is located behind the driver's seat. The top was sitting in the junk I took out of the back. Heck, all four hubcaps are on the wheels!

Looking down the road, I would like to go to local cruises and parades with this little lady, should the project work out. From what little I remember of these, they had some cooling issues. I'm thinking maybe I could up the radiator capacity a bit. How about adding a fan or two to pump more air through the doghouse? Would that help keep things cool both for the engine and the interior? Lots of ways to go.

[squirrel]

I would just make sure it has oil in everything that requires oil, see what the coolant situation is, and run a gas can to the fuel pump (disconnect the line from the gas tank). Put a battery on it, and fire it up. I'm assuming the engine turns freely, if it does not, then you need to do the stuff you're talking about.