Reviving a 69 Dodge Sportsman Van

In the list of vehicles that I own, one is a 1969 Dodge A100 Sportsman Van. I’ve made the decision that I would completely go through it this year; Engine, Body, Paint, etc. I’ve had thoughts about posting the project and my efforts here but not sure of the interest. I’ll at least take a moment to tell the story of the van since I’ve owned it.

The van originated from Oregon, and I’ve owned it since March 2007. It was delivered while I was in the UK on business and when I first saw it in the drive it was covered in a big blue tarp that was tied down nice and tight. After an hour I had the tarp off and had an up close look at my purchase. It was a bit dull/ruff and was not running but was solid and was equipped with the 318 and an automatic. Checking out the inside I noticed that the instrument panel was broken out, the rearview mirror broken and the radio kicked in. Without question it was the evil neighbor kids, I was not happy. In the garage it went until summer.

The summer of 2007 I decided to try and start it but soon after pouring some gas in the tank that the filler hose connecting the filler neck and gas tank was rotten and had holes in it. I had to pull the tank to replace the hose, looked simple enough. I rapped on the tank and it was empty so I took the filler hose clamps off and undid the tank straps and they fell away but the tank still hung there. Hummm I pulled a little on it and nothing. Confusion set in, no straps, everything loose but it still would not budge. I repositioned myself so that I could see the top front edge of the tank and got a large screw driver and tried to pry it, it moved enough to show me that a previous owner had screwed the tank to the floor. After getting the tank down, there were 8 screws through the top of it, I had it cleaned, repaired and a liner put in. With the tank back in I added some gas, a battery and turned the key. It was trying to start but nothing. I decided to run a compression check and pulled the plugs and found three cylinders were putting out next to no compression. I had other things to do so let it sit until the fall of 2008. Oh, a high point of being under the van was learning that the van has no rust on the bottom; all areas of the floors look clean and solid.

In the fall of 2008 I decided to pull the heads and check to see what the cause was for the loss of compression. After removing what I’ve come to know as the dog house (engine cover), I had the top of the engine off and saw that it needed a head job but worse that the engine block walls were cracked in the valley. Again, the previous owner had to of not had the proper amount of antifreeze and the block blew. Two days later I came across a ’71 318 engine on craigslist for a good price that was just removed from a wagon. I checked it out and all looked good so made the purchase and brought it home. I put it on the engine stand and that is as far as it went, again due to other activities. The rest of 2008 and 2009 were very busy so no progress on any of the vehicles.

This year I did entertain the thought of selling the van but the more that I was around it organizing things I decided that I would put the engine that I purchased back in. While preparing for this by pulling the the old engine out I again revised my thinking and decided that I was not up to letting it go so I might as well do something with it which brings me to this point in time. In the last couple weeks I’ve torn the top of the replacement engine off and noticed that it was showing quite a bit of wear, did a complete tear down and the engine was off to the machine shop. I’d already found someone that is going to media blast and epoxy prime the complete van, but have decided that I will piece it out to them and have since pulled off and stripped all the doors, 2 front, 2 side and 2 back. I already learned that all 4 (side and back) bottom lock bolt rods will have to be repaired due to rust, and the back driver side door has a few rust holes that will need to be addressed if possible or in the worst case be replaced. The doors will be going to the blaster tomorrow and I should have the rest of the van stripped down within the next week and with luck at the blaster within the next two weeks max.

So that’s the brief history and where the van is today. I’ve posted a couple pictures of what I’ve got to work with. Again, knowing that this is not one of the truly vintage vehicles that would probably be of much more interest I will continue posting progress updates based upon interest shown. Hope you all found this of interest. Scott

Scott, I just love stuff that is brought back from the dead. So pls. do keep us updated on your progress. You will find that lots of folks will be interested as you go along the process. Keep up the great work, and look forward to many more posts and pictures. When I get the Avanti done, also in this section, I plan on getting to our 1979 Chev Sportsvan. The rust gremlins are really doing a number on her.

Those vans are great, I had a 66 with the same body style, the cool automatic stick shift mounted straight out of the dashboard, flat split windshield and It was powered by the toughest slant six I ever saw. Dad put over 150,000 on it, I put 40,000 on it and then a rear leaf spring finally rusted through the floor after 10 years of rough winters with salted, pot holed Boston roads. I scrapped it but pulled the motor and put it in a 73 Van. I worked that van for another 4 years. Aside from tune-ups, a few alternators & oil changes it was still running strong when I sold it.

Dug around and found an old picture of the 66 as I utilized it for a rehab job and the donor body of the 73.

Good luck with your build. It is what is, a cool old American truck that I’m sure a lot of folks can relate to.

Thanks for the comments and the photos, they do help and I can see the motivational angle. I’ll keep posting as things evolve but as of right now I’m still in the removal phase as opposed to the resurrection phase, not much entertainment there. Bagging and tagging…

I am hoping to bring it back to mostly stock condition with minor changes/improvements here and there but nothing that should be overly obvious. Maybe that won’t be totally true as I do not have a set of stock rims, if you all noticed there it did have a funky set of rusted chrome wheels on it and although I would like a set of stock rims I am going to make due with a set of road wheels that I have and radial tires. The original paint is something close to what it shows in the pictures already posted, which was a repaint, but with the white stripe which was visible under the weather-stripping that I had removed. The color scheme that I am going with will be the original 1969 Dodge Truck Mojave Yellow (kind of a soft yellow) with the white strip and white road wheels (maybe stock steel wheels down the road). The interior will consist of the original seats in black and an original ’69 A100 Sportsman bench that I found will also be black. The engine cover and dash will be black too. I am also toying with the idea of upgrading it to the custom model if I can come across a good set of interior panels.

The doors were dropped off at the media blasters today and I chatted with the body shop across the shared parking lot and they will be spraying an epoxy primer after they are cleaned up. The body guy also noted that he use to have a ’68 A100 pickup when he was living back in California and loved it. I should get the doors back either by the end of next week or early the week after as they were just getting in a big aerospace job that has to be turned around in short order as a complete lot.

The owner from the machine shop also called and said that the engine work was done and asked if I could get over there in the morning to pick it up, no problem. The so it looks like I could pick up the engine tomorrow, so I’ll try to get over there by 10 to get it.

I’ll try to get some additional relevant pictures posted soon. Scott

Well today I did pick up the engine from the machine shop. Upon initial inspection I feel they did a good job, on the machining and a really good job cleaning things up. I’m still waiting on a few parts from the parts store before assembly can begin. I’ve included pictures showing what’s pats were picked up.

I mentioned that I had a set of road wheels (5) that I was going to be using, well two of the five were really dirty with some rust one more so than the other and I needed to clean them up before thinking about putting tires on them. I spent a couple hours on the one pictured just to get it clean and shot a coat of primer on it. I’m still in the process of cleaning the second. I hope to have a set of tires on the van next week so that it can go to the media blaster early the following week.

While I was attaching the engine to the engine stand I noticed in the corner of my eye a bit of movement and turned my head and saw couple rabbits had just run into the yard. I happen to have the camera handy and they were willing to pose so got a couple shots of them.

Tomorrow will be checking with the parts store on the parts and finishing the second wheel and with luck get a coat of paint on the two. The other ongoing task will be continuing the stripping of parts in preparation for the media blaster. That’s it for now… Scott

The good news is it was another nice day today to get some things done, the bad news is that the weather forecast has it raining and cooling down into the mid to low 50’s for the next 4 days. It won’t bring things to a complete stop, just slow them down a bit.

I did put a call in to the parts store today and learned that they had the engine parts but somehow missed making the call to inform me. I picked up the cam/lifter kit, rods, oil pump, timing gears/chain and other minor items. They asked if there was anything else, and I said “no, not until I get home” and as it turned out I got home and realized I did forget something, joke was on me.

Well instead of jumping back in the car I decided to finish cleaning the second wheel. This took another couple hours, then shot primer and a quick coat of white on both. They turned out ok for a temporary job.

After finishing with the wheels I decided to check out the parts I just picked up a little more closely. Made sure the rods were a stock size and that the pistons pin had a proper fit. Had a look at the oil pump and cam and then checked out the timing gears/chain, well I was a bit confused on the timing gears as they have no visible timing marks. They are in a sealed package and I can’t see the backside but I am hesitant in opening the package in case I need to return them. Since I have to make the trip to the parts store tomorrow anyway I’ll take it along with me to see what’s up. Oh, and just to let you all know I’ve oiled down all machined parts as soon as they were home just to protect them until they are assembled.

One bit of information that I read on the web the other night was that there was a rubber manufacturer that makes the vent window rubber gasket. I put a call in to them today and although they are a bit pricey but they do make them. The vent window gasket was the only weather stripping that I hadn’t located as yet, so now that is another thing I can check off.

Oh there is one other item today, I’m sure there’s probably no need to communicate the following but just to state the obvious; I will be posting progress and/or comments along with an occasional question here and there when I have something to report. That being said there may be small leaps in my progress that won’t get captured on a daily basis and will get rolled into a day or two’s worth of activity but I will keep things moving along. I do have an aggressive timeline that I am trying to meet and that is to have the majority of this project completed by the end of October or sooner. That’s it for today… Scott

Had a 70 in High Scool ... GR8 lil van !!!!!

Today, Sunday 09-May-2010, yesterday it was very windy and rained most all day and although it was in the low 50’s and a bit breezy today there was no rain so I managed to get some time outside on the van. There are still a lot of parts to be removed, bagged and tagged. Today I removed the front bumper, headlights, wipers, windshield washer, instrument panel, glove box and the heater ducts.

It all sounds kind of easy but the additional time to bag and label everything along with dealing with the fussy bolts or screws slows things down some. In general I’ve noticed that the wiring is in decent shape, a bit stiff but for the most part uncut (only the horn wire so far). I’ve got about another hour to finish removing the complete wire harness from the dash. The heater has only the two hoses and 8 screws to remove before it can be pulled.

Using current progress as a base line, I’ve estimated that I will need 3 more days to have everything pulled from the front of the van, inside and below.

And interesting observation was to learn that the van was painted the Light Tan Poly with the white stripe, this was visible after removing the parking light and could also be seen on the horn after removing the grill and the driver side headlight bucket area. One of the other things that I ran into a problem with was to break off the end of each of the heater ducts, I’ll have to find new ones or fix the ones that I have. There are other items such as the one headlight ring which has a flat spot from hitting something but this is common for these rings, and I may be able to fix it. The front turn/park light lens will bother need to be replaced, one is broken and the both are worn/dull and scratched up. I see that I only managed to take one picture of the outside and none of the dash, so they will have to wait until next time. Scott…

Scott, good job in getting things apart. The bagging and tagging will pay off for sure down the road. I am surprised that you are not finding much rust. I expected to see lots of rust around the headlights and behind them. But they look great. Keep up the good work.

I am surprised that you are not finding much rust.

Oh, there is rust here and there but mostly surface rust. The worst appearing rust spots are on the front passanger step entrance and floor area. Although it looks bad it is solid and you can hit these spots with a hammer to confirm it. There is one bad spot that will have to have some metal replaced, it's on the passanger side just behind the front door/wheel. Just how bad it is will not be known until it gets medial blasted, but I think that it's more small holes than anything major. I think I mentioned earlier, there is no rust anywhere on the floor under the van. And I've learned the hard way to bag as much as possible and label everything. Scott...

Well, today Wednesday 12-May-2010, I managed to get out to work on the van again. The first order of business was to get some tires on the van again so I collected the wheels and made a trip to the tire store. I was told that it would be several hours and they would call when they were ready.

Came home and after a quick lunch went out to the garage and managed to get some things organized some until they called saying the wheels/tires were ready to be picked up. At the store the normal clerk I had been dealing with was out and when the other sales person gave me the price I was caught by surprise as it was $50 more than planned. He noticed and asked if there was a problem, I said yes and asked what price the tires were, he told me and I noted that the price was quite a bit more than what I saw on their web site last night. He called and found out the price did go up last night but did honor the lower price. All turned out good from a pricing standpoint but I also learned that the two wheels that I cleaned up and painted were bent and they couldn’t balance them. Not a complete loss as I had only paid $20 for them, I’ll do some checking to see if they can be trued if not I will replace the two but for now to roll with they will do. It is kind of disappointing though.

Back home the first thing I did was to take some time to mount the wheels on the van. This was followed by finishing the removal of the driveshaft as I left it attached to the axle when I pulled the engine and transmission. Checking it out in the light I see that I have some cleaning to do before it goes back in, there is plenty of surface rust, as is shown in the picture.

I went back to removing the wiring, there were still the engine harness and connections that needed to be labeled and dissembled before I could route the wire harness back up through the hole in the floor to the interior. One thing that I learned was that the engine harness is very brittle in several places and the wire covering cracked just moving the wire. I’ll do some homework to see what the availability of wiring is. The main harness is for the most part uncut which is amazing, there are two spots that were spliced into that will need to be addressed. There is one wire that was cut and I saw that the neutral switch on the gearshift was not hooked up and there was no sight of the connector/wire within the main harness, so this too will have to be researched more.

I managed too to pull the transmission gearshift and cable out without issue. At the same time I removed the gas pedal which is in reasonable condition but it does have a thin crack were it flexes at the base. I had also removed the vent door on the driver side and noted that it was screwed to the opening, it was missing the hinge on the left side and the rod going across the top of the door, there was a screw to act as a rod on the one side to hold it in place. Removing the letters spelling DODGE from the front of the van I managed to break the bottom pin off the first “D”, bummer.

And finally I had taken some pictures of the worst rust again; as I mentioned the inside passenger floor is solid but has a good amount of surface rust going and the step is rather light surface rust. I did also manage to take a picture of the passenger side behind the front wheel to show the rust bubbles; I’ve no idea how bad it is but it is the only type of spot like this on the van. We’ll see how it looks after it is media blasted. Same picture shows one of the tires I just picked up; again they are probably not going to be the permanent tires my brother thought that they would look cool and they really were rather cheap.

So, tomorrow it is suppose to rain all day again so there will not be any work on the van. Friday is it clears early enough I will be removing the steering column, brake pedal and whatever else I can pull on the front. Scott…

Well its Sunday, 16-May-2010, and although I’ve not posted for a bit I’ve been busy. I’ve now got most everything removed from the front of the van. Well there still is the one bumper bracket as there is a problem with one of the bolts. It turns out that the bolt was put in at an angle, in my opinion this happened from the factory. And then there was the driver side shock/sway bar like bolt that runs through the axe, that’s another issue, this bolt is suppose to slide out of the axle but it has enough rust that it didn’t want to move. Not wanting to burn the bolt out, I worked with it for a couple hours and finally managed to move it about 1/16<SUP>th</SUP> of an inch, I checked it again this afternoon and had it moving 1/8<SUP>th</SUP> of an inch so I’m going to just continue to soak it in WD40 and working it because that’s how I am.

I’ve removed the front brake lines and shocks, the engine mount supports and the exhaust manifolds before removing the exhaust pipes/mufflers. I also removed the rear bumper, so no picture, and would have taken the rear bumper brackets off but the last person to put the exhaust on welded a bolt (actually the bolt head) on the bumper brackets and they will have to be cut off before te brackets will slide out the openings.

So, what’s left to remove? I’ve still got the rear brake lines and the master cylinder (it has two bolts holding it on), the gas tank and lines, the rear shocks, rear lights and the rest of the rear wiring harness. Oh, the rear windows still have to be removed too.

I have to get the van outside of the garage before any cutting occurs as I will not work with any chance of fire occurring in the garage. When the gas tank and lines are out I’ll then deal with the rear bumper brackets. And as far as the one front bumper bracket is concerned, I was mentioning to my neighbor how the bolt was in at an angle and when trying to remove it the plate/nut inside the frame rail broke loose and started to spin hence the bolt will not come out that way. He came over and had a look and offered to bring some tools home from work and will cut a slot in the bottom of the frame rail to hold the plate/nut so the bolt can be removed and then he’ll weld a new plate/nut in place, cut a piece of metal and patch/weld the bottom back up. He said when he was through you would hardly see it if you were under the van. Oh, I should mention that he’s been a body guy for 35 years. He didn’t have to ask me twice if I want him to do it.

I taken numerous pictures of which I decided to post 16 and as there is a limit of 10 per post the other 6 are in the next post. You’ll note that I took a couple pictures of my manifolds; this was just to show you that the passenger side had a ’76 vintage date coded manifold while the driver side had the correct ’68 year. That’s all for this post. I’ll be posting again in a couple days. Scott…

The other 6 pictures mentioned above.

Scott, If you need front lights I have some good ones from my 1969 A-108 that I used to own. I have parking and head lights. Also water pump,windsheild wiper motor and switch. Windsheild washer pump and maybe the resivour. Dan

Dan,

Thanks for the consideration, I sent you a PM.

As far as current activities, as it turned out I’ve gotten sidetracked between rain and getting a few other things done around the house this week and will be back on the van in this weekend. My plans are to get the van body to the media blaster the end of next week or just after Memorial Day, I'll pick up the doors then too. The reason for the end of the week delay is that there are a couple small things I would like to get sorted out on the body before it gets blasted. Scott…

Well it’s another Sunday, 23May2010, and although it may not appear as much of an update through pictures I have made progress on both the van and a bit of organization within my workspace.

As far as the van goes, I had three problems remaining with dismantling the parts from the front. One was the driver side bumper bracket, with a stubborn bolt that did not want to come out. Well, the thought was that it was the nut/plate in the frame rail was broken from the spot weld and it was spinning. As it turned out, which the pictures show, the nut was still fastened/welded to the inside of the frame rail. A little bit of analysis after opening and getting a chance to view it leads me to believe that the rear bumper bracket bolt was already tightened up before the front was attempted to be put in. When they tried to put the front in the bracket was a bit off from the hole in the frame rail and the bolt used the out of alignment as a thread and allowed the bolt to go in and push the top of the nut away from the inside of the frame rail before the end of the bolt threading into the nut at an angle and jamming. It took a lot originally on my part to work it loose and when it did it spun making one believe that the inside nut came loose. A bit of persuasion from the inside and mutually on the outside finally helped to extract the bolt. I still need to pull the nut up tight to the frame rail, but I need to get a half inch grade 8 bolt and some washers that I will pass through the nut and torque the half inch with the washers down to pull it up tight again. I also need to tap/chase the existing nut out to clean up the threads and get a new bolt. I’ll get this done this up coming week and the then weld the frame rail back up.

The second item that still needed to be removed was the driver door hinges. The driver door was the only door where I had broke bolts while removing for media blasting. After breaking several drills and trying easy-outs/bolt extractors the only solution was to completely drill the bolts out. The hinges have been set aside and the holes that were drilled out will need to be addressed. I do have the hinges on the extra set of doors that I have if needed.

The third item was the infamous shock/sway bar link bolt through the axle. I’ve now tried liquid wrench, WD40 and now PB Blaster with little success. Maybe it is also that fact that I’ve not had a of room to swing a small sledge hammer to tap it back and forth, just the room to turn it with a breaker bar which I can still only move it about one eighth of an inch. When I pull the van out on the drive I will be able to get a proper swing, which may just be happening as soon as tomorrow.

And finally, as I have 4 cars in my garage and lots and lots of parts I was in the position of needing to reorganize as I had a lot of parts in the back of the van that needed to find a new home. Well I spent a good day and a half sorting through things and figuring out where things needed to be. That’s now accomplished and the back of the van is now empty and I still had not interfered with any of my precious floor space. That’s about it for now, I’ll get another proper update posted in another 2 – 3 days. Scott…

Well it’s the Tuesday evening the 25-May-2010, and I’ve got pictures, and of course just everyone likes pictures…

Ok, so in my last update I mentioned that I was going after the last of the items down below, this was the rear shocks, brake lines, emergency brake cable and rear bumper brackets. You know how you can be distracted by something not quite as important as what your objective may be and you choose to redirect to that distraction, that’s kind of what happened with me. I kept looking at the interior and wanted to know what was under the wood, and besides the wood did have to come out so it was a productive objective. I thought that this task was only going to be a hour or two at the most, but in the end it turned into a 5 hour effort, screws (way to many screws) kept breaking and where in some crazy locations. But I both prevailed and gave in, as you can see in the picture showing the piece of carpet still attached above the back doors, I get that tomorrow. What I saw after removing the wood and vacuuming the inside out was that it all looks pretty good, again a little surface rust in the rear passenger side corner not unlike the rust shown on the front passenger side floor. Oh, I should also say that the driver’s seatbelts still need to be removed as I just saw that I hadn’t pulled them looking at the pictures I was going to post, another task for tomorrow.

I managed to also get the gas tank out since my last post, not too much trouble over all. I got 2 ½ gallons of clean gas out of it. The gas will cover the lawn mowing for most of the summer, that was a mini bonus.

I also removed all the rear wiring, it was a long run, it ran from the passenger rear brake/stop light down under the van and across the back valance up to the driver side rear brake/stop, through the filler neck cover into the main interior and up to the chase just on the inside of the drip rail and then ran to the front driver side A pillar. All connections are also labeled.

And in closing this update, I’m not sure that you can see the nose in a previous picture showing the portion that was pushed in but now you should clearly notice that it is looking almost normal. The neighbor who is the body guy by trade I think is getting attached to my project, not really a bad thing, and thinks that he should be able to get most all the rest of the dimples out of it this weekend.

So, that brings us up to date. Tomorrow is another day and still lots to do before it goes to be media blasted. Scott…

It’s Wednesday evening, 26-May-2010, and I’ve got a few more pictures...

I pulled the rest of the brakes out of the van which included; the rear lines, the proportioning valve and finally the master cylinder. I also needed to pull the emergency brake lines so they would not interfere with the media blasting and this prompted me to remove not just the emergency brake cables but the shoes and wheel cylinders. All parts are bagged and labeled, and I should point out if you noticed the rear brakes contained all new parts, a bit dirty but new which included the shoes and drums. I’ve not checked the front yet, that will hopefully be tomorrow.

I pulled out my torch and cut the bolts that were welded to the rear bumper brackets. And the rear brackets came off without issue after that.

Tomorrow I plan to remove the front drums to pull the shoes and wheel cylinders and that then pretty much completes the stripping for media blasting.

I next plan to plug numerous holes that were drilled into the floor, at least 8 to 10 holes that are ½ inch in size that I’ve seen and probably 30 small 1/16 inch holes from screws that held the wood floor in. I will be welding and sanding/grinding all of these.

So, there probably won’t be another update until sometime this weekend at the earliest. And in parting tonight I wanted to say there is one surprise to be found in the one picture showing the brake shoes, the question to you all is what to be found in the picture? Scott…

Are you referring to the spider webs? Or is it the lack of a connection to the emergency brake cable?

Are you referring to the spider webs? Or is it the lack of a connection to the emergency brake cable?

Actually it's a bit more than the webs, if you look close. I did enlarge the picture I posted to actually see if you could see it. And knowing not all will take the time to to search the photo, on the left side of the bottom spring above the adjuster is an actual black widow spider. The good news is that it was dead and dried up. I did jump back a bit seeing it and ran and got my raid out so that it would be handy. That was a bit of excitement that I didn't need...

Since the van is an Oregon van, I can relate. Those buggers are everywhere here. Glad to see that you are going "whole hog" on the van. It makes me want to start in and finish my A100 compact pickup. I must work some more at "architorture" to do that and since I use it every day as my driver, it will be tough to do.

Since the van is an Oregon van, I can relate. Those buggers are everywhere here. Glad to see that you are going "whole hog" on the van. It makes me want to start in and finish my A100 compact pickup. I must work some more at "architorture" to do that and since I use it every day as my driver, it will be tough to do.

As far as the spiders are concerned I know that there was at least one that got out because I did see one last year in the garage, he didn’t last long though but since then I've had my eyes open for them.

I am hoping that this is not a long term project as mentioned above, but I do know that things happen that can stop the best plans in their tracks. With luck though I still am planning on having this pretty much wrapped up by late summer to early fall. I really would like to take a spin around the block in it this year before the snow flies here in Michigan, hopefully more than once.

From a planning point you should get a good idea of what kind of effort is involved in doing one of these. I would imagine thought that a pickup version of these would go a bit quicker yet, and then again you don’t have to go to the depth I’ve chosen to. Besides, I don’t know that this will ever be a daily driver for me, but who knows. Scott...

Just a quick update. Pulled the front brakes and learned that the drums and shoes are not new like the rear although the brake hardware is new.

I also managed to chase the threads on the front bumper bracket nut that was messed up and now the new replacement bolt threads cleanly into the nut. The tab that was cut out will be welded back together this weekend.

And a side note, I went out today and bought 30' of SO 8/3 wire along with a plug and socket to make up a long extension to use my welder outside the garage. It took less than an hour to put it all together. It will be a handy item to have around.

So, as it stands now I am really down to the body work (all metal work only) that I want to get done before sending it off to be media blasted. I'm going to allow another week to complete the body work so it will not go to the media blaster for another week. So the next update with pictures will be of what body work get done. Scott...

Mike, the neighbor that does bodywork, came over and first played with my welder for a little while. He asked if there was any place on the van that he could test it before jumping in on the frame rail. Well I mentioned that I was going to go around and weld up the screw/drill holes so I guess he could do a couple near the side doors. He welded up three small holes and was happy so I cleaned up the frame rail by stripping the paint off with a wire wheel and then he welded it all back together. It turned out pretty darn good, the welds are still a little high but it will level out and look real good if not normal after it get ground down (leveled off) some more. Mike liked my welder, a Miller 210, stating it worked real nice.

<O:p</O:pWe then worked together doing some finish bumping out of the vans nose. I was using the dolly on the outside of the van and guiding him where to hit or at times we traded places and he was outside while I was inside. The nose really looks good without being sanded down, and with a little sanding, a little filler and/or putty and it should look as good as new. There are still a couple small shallow creases along the outside sill area on both sides that I will need to pull/level out yet, I’ll do this during this up coming week. Sorry, noticed while looking at the pictures that I didn’t get a snap of the nose. I have one next time. He was done for the day after that, but he really was a lot of help.

<O:p</O:pI also used the pressure blaster that was borrowed from a friend to clean the two small spots that I wanted to. One was the little crunch at the bottom of the rear body seam on the passenger side, it poked/pulled the rear side of the seam away from the front side of the seam and had some surface rust that needed to be eliminated before it could get bumped out and pulled back together again. The second was to clean the surface off the rear of the front passenger side fender/wheel opening to see how much rust was there. After playing with the blaster for a little bit I figured it out enough to accomplish what I wanted to. I did learn that all the valves on the pressure blaster are worn out and need to be replaced as once you hook it up to the air it is always on no matter what valve you try to close. Both spots got cleaned up and I sprayed them with a self etching primer as there is no sense to use an epoxy to just blast it back off again when it goes to the media blaster. The worst spot is the fender/wheel opening, it will for sure need to be patched, there is just too much metal gone. Not a major biggie, just going to take some a little effort. As I last said that I would be posting in a couple days and here I am posting the next day again, who knows when I’ll post again, no more predictions. That’s it for today. Scott…

Well I know that it's been a few days and to be honest there has not been a lot of progress with the rain passing through most every day and I don't want to be using the welder in the rain (nor the garage as it is just to full). And, either waiting for the rain or following the morning rain I've been busy getting some other things done around the house.

I do though have a couple pictures of the nose after it had been bumped out that I had missed posting earlier and it looks real good. A bit of sanding, filler/putty and more sanding and it should look like new.

Although there are showers forcasted for the next couple days yet I should be able to get some time on the van in. I would like to get it to the media blaster by the end of next week at the latest so a proper update is coming. Scott...

Scott, If you need front lights I have some good ones from my 1969 A-108 that I used to own. I have parking and head lights. Also water pump,windsheild wiper motor and switch. Windsheild washer pump and maybe the resivour. Dan

Dan,

I just wanted to say that I really liked the parts that you sent and I am very happy with them. If you have any other items that you might have saved from the van that I might be interested in please let me know. An example of other items would be rear lights, both the stop/turn signal and back-up, headlight trim rings, etc. Keep me in mind and let me know if something surfaces that you think I might be interested in. Thanks again, Scott...

Well the last few days there’s been a lot of rain and along with a severe storms that have passed through. It was clear long enough on Saturday that I managed to bump out the passenger side rear wheel opening.

As I needed a different type of body hammer to bump the dent in the body seam (visible behind the wheel opening in the previous picture) I decided to drilled out/remove the remnants of the original spare tire carrier and am now ready for a donor once I find one.

I got a call that I could pick up the doors from the media blaster so made the trip this morning. It wasn't until this afternoon that I had a chance to take a few pictures of them. The driver's door is probably the best door of them all. You can see that there is very little (next to none) rust but there are stress cracks around the bottom hinge.

The passenger door begins to show some of the challenges that surface after cleaning with media blasting. A bit more rust at the very bottom of the door and again the stress cracks around the bottom hinge.

The remining doors are pictured in the next thread. Scott...

The continuation of the doors. The side cargo doors when viewing them in general look rather nice with little to no work required.

The side cargo front (right) door, a little rust and the stress cracks.

The side cargo rear (left) door, again a bit of rust and stress cracks.

The rear cargo doors. One of which is the worst of the lot, and one is the best of the lot, but again not so much when viewing them on the surface. The good news? Neither have stress cracks.

The rear cargo passenger side door. This is the best of all cargo doors.

The rear cargo driver side door. This door is the worst of all cargo doors and best canidate to be replaced.

So, that's the new knowledge that I have on the doors. I can only hope that there are no reveals like this when the body is media blasted. I will give it a bit of effort to search for at least one and maybe up to three doors. We'll see. I've only got this week to get some things done on this before taking a week (up to two weeks) off to do a complete redo of my sisters bathroom which will begin this coming Sunday. I'll post another update later this week. Scott...

I forgot to mention at the end of my last post that if anyone that may be reading this post has knowledge of a source of one or more rust free doors for a '68, '69 or '70 Dodge A100 Window Van to please let me know. I would appreicate it. I will of course work with what I've got to begin with but it is always good to have backup options. Scott...

Dan,

I just wanted to say that I really liked the parts that you sent and I am very happy with them. If you have any other items that you might have saved from the van that I might be interested in please let me know. An example of other items would be rear lights, both the stop/turn signal and back-up, headlight trim rings, etc. Keep me in mind and let me know if something surfaces that you think I might be interested in. Thanks again, Scott...

Glad to be able to help. Good to see the stuff get a second chance. Sure beats the scrap yard! Dan:D

Great thread, a good read too:cool: Although it did just cost me an hour of my life;)

Alan

PS first post in this subforum but I'll come back to check progress:)

Alan,

It’s good to know that you enjoyed reading the story on my project. I got stalled for a little bit on making any kind of proper progress due to rain and getting organized to take a week or two to redo my sisters Bathroom (down to the studs) so I’m sorry to report that it will be a little while before I can get another update posted here. I plan to make up for it though when I finish the bathroom.

I have though managed to pick up a few items for finishing the body work. I’ve picked up a porta-power that was needed to push out the dent in the body seam behind the passenger wheel opening that I mentioned earlier. I also picked up some more epoxy primer along with some miscellaneous bodywork supplies that were needed. Also, believe it or not I’ve always made do with my basic welding helmet and after using my neighbors auto-darkening helmet I decided to look into what they were currently going for. It must have been fate as the welding supply shop had a sale going on and I picked up a nice Lincoln helmet for a really good price, this will help greatly.

Again, I want to say to all of you that have followed along and enjoyed the story, which I appreciate as it is a nice bit of incentive to keep this project moving along, I’m sorry say that there is going to be a bit of a break in the progress for a couple weeks. I could report on the bathroom remodel but this site is not a home remodeling site, but at the same time I will tell you that my sister’s house was built in the late 30’s and I am taking it back to a more vintage/period look. The bathroom will get a new tub, toilet, and have the period pedestal sink, black/white mosaic floor tile along with a smaller 3 X 6 white subway tile with a black border pattern.

That’s what I’ll be up to the next week or two. Scott...

Well, it's been a two weeks and I know that I said that I would be done and back on the Van Project but I was over optimistic that I was going to have my sisters bathroom remodeling project done. Not to spend a lot of time talking about the bathroom, but the walls were taken down to the studs, the floor and subfloor was replaced along with seeing that I had to sister up the existing joists due to the original plumber cutting a couple good size sections out. Then there was the plumbing that had to be redone, from the crock/stack to the toilet, tub and sink (Drain and Supply). Lots more work than I would have guessed, but from where it is at now it is at least another week but for sure less than two to finish it. There is one wall that still needs to be covered before the tile work begins and there is a quite bit of tile work that needs to be done.

<O:p</O:pTo make amends with some of you that may be interested I did take a couple hours off Sunday and made a trip to a somewhat local vintage van meet and took plenty of pictures. The pictures are posted in an album that I created if you’re interested in viewing it, there were a few nice looking vans in attendance including an original Corvair that was really nice looking. The visit to the van meet really made me want to finish the van as I see that there are not too many that are left original. I also had taken a couple hours a week ago and went to the Greenfield Village Motor Muster, I’ll be posting some pictures of that visit too in a couple days, there just hasn’t been enough time this past last week. Scott…

PS, I've included a link to the album to make it easy to get to for those interested.

http://forums.aaca.org/members/scotts_dg8/albums/baker-s-milford-michigan/

Today is Thursday evening – August 19<SUP>th</SUP> 2010 and I see that it’s been 7 weeks since I last posted an update here on my A100 project. Well I did a lot more time on my sister’s bathroom than I would ever had guessed I would. The good news is that I finished it this past Monday with the installation/replacement of the new toilet. My sister still has some things to get to decorate/finish it from her perspective but my part is done, HURRAY!!!

Also although I can do the home remodeling work, I did all this myself with some minor assist from my sister, I pretty much work the same as I would on a car and things just have to be done right. I did get a day off here and there but focused my attention to things that needed to be taken care of around my own house.

As far as the van, I did make a sideline trip to pick up some parts that can be used on the van or at a minimum as a pattern. I picked up an original floor mat for the front which although it has a couple cracks in it is complete and can be used as a pattern; the same for the front headliner which is warped some, but along with the headliner I got the bracket that holds the back of the headliner to the cross rib. I also picked up an original sliding side door step which is in ruff shape, I will be looking to see if I can find one in better shape before restoring this one but at least I have a complete step now. I picked up a complete original spare tire carrier that was originally cut out of my van, when it was removed it was done so to maintain the original mount points, a little clean up and it can be welded back in its original location. I picked up some letters from the front which I was missing the “D” after it broke when removing it. I also picked up a complete driver side vent door that is in good shape, just needs to be cleaned and painted. And last but not least I picked up a couple doors which I will be using to repair my original doors along with additional internal lock bolt hardware that can be used for the other two doors. That’s it on the parts addition. I’ve included a couple pictures of the parts.

<O:p</O:pNow, in closing I’d thought that I would post a couple pictures of the before and after of the bathroom project. I know it’s not car related but it did hinder me from making my planned progress on van for a chunk of this summer. Maybe it will better explain the amount of time that passed.

<O:p</O:pExpect updates to resume in a few days, I have a couple other things to take care of around the house first. Thanks for all the interest.

<O:p</O:pScott…

Nice job on the bathroom! Are you gong to be in Dayton anytime soon?

West,

<O:p</O:pThanks for the comment, the pictures really don’t do it justice. But you have to keep in mind that I’m not a speed demon on this type of work. If you followed along the time line from my original post when I started the bathroom to the one where I said it was going to be a few more weeks there was a total of 9 weeks spent on that bathroom. As much as I wish that I could work faster at that type of activity it's a fact that I don't. I've had several offers of doing some type of remodeling work for someone after I did her kitchen and again the offers have rolled in after the bathroom. I do better time wise with the cars and other mechanical things, it's when it gets into the "artistic or aesthetic” work that things slow down because I want it to turn out the best I can possibly make it. I could run into this same slow down with the van or car(s) too when I get into the body and paint work, we’ll have to see. I can only hope that my activities and end product on the van turn out as well as the bathroom. Scott…

I understand how you work. I know that when I'm doing remodeling or restoration, I'm constantly thinking about "the next guy" that may be working on it. In the back of my mind, I don't want that person scoffing at my work, even though I'd probably be long gone.

Today, Thursday Sept. 9, 2010, I’ve finally got most of my immediate side jobs squared away and had spent a good number of hours on the van again. I left off working at addressing those body boo-boo’s before having the it media blasted and epoxy primed.

Well I decided to start off today on the sole rust spot on the van which was on the lower rocker area behind the passenger front wheel, I had posted a picture or two of this area earlier but have attached it again. I determined after poking and prodding the area that was effected what needed to be removed and after taping it off used my air cutoff to remove the brittle section. Well was ended up being exposed was a bit of a surprise to me, it was packed about 6 inches tall with sandy dirt that was stained red from the rust. I poked at it with the screwdriver and it was pretty solid but the top couple inched broke off before I remembered to get the camera to take some pictures.

I cleaned it all out and then got the air hose and blew out the remaining dirt/dust. I decided that I needed to see just how bad it was and dragged out the pressure pot media blaster and clean it up the best that could be done. It showed more pitting and small rust holes under the scale but not all that bad, I decided that the best approach was to seal it back up and applied several heavy coats of primer on the bare metal. The picture after priming shows the pitting that still exists, the pin holes on the wheel well are around some solid metal and my opinion is that I should be able to spot weld these up again, we’ll see.

I then took one of my spare rusted out front doors that I just stripped of the internals and glass the previous day and cutout a replacement patch, this took a little bit of time to make it fit the curve and the opening. Although the patch has been completed I will wait to stitch weld it after getting the spare tire carrier bracket fitted, which brings me to that task, prepping to install the replacement spare tire carrier.

The spare tire carrier needed only a little bit of trimming with the metal grinder before attempting to position in its original position. I decided to use the pressure pot blaster again and cleaned the surface rust on the attachment points before checking the placement. You never know what you’re going to find, under the paint on the top of the wheel well where the one end of the bracket mounts I found a two plugs of copper braze. I assume that the owner that removed the spare tire carrier created some holes and came up with the brazing solution. Obviously the old braze will need to be removed before the replacement tire carrier can be welded back in place. I started cleaning the braze off top of the wheel well on the inside and still have a little left to do as you can see in the attached picture.

I then thought to myself I should check the underside to see how it looks. I used the blaster again to clean the dirt/crud off the inside of the wheel well. You can see in the attached picture that there a couple big plugs of braze hanging down from the bottom, these too will need to be addressed. I decided to call it quits about then for the day, I still had to clean up the media that was on the driveway and put things away for the evening.

Tomorrow if things workout I should be able to finish cleaning the braze, finalize the placement of the spare tire bracket and pull the welder out and make it and the patch panel permanent. I should be back to posting more frequent updates as I originally started to do. Hope that you all enjoy the update, it was good to finally be making some progress. Scott…

Today, Sunday 12-Sept-2010, I had made it outside to the van again. As it turned out Friday I managed to eliminate all the braze material on the wheel well using my little cutoff wheel as a grinder. It ended up exposing quite a large hole (a combination of two spot weld holes) and a smaller one near it, it was a result of removing the braze material from the top and the bottom of the wheel well. Sorry, I didn’t get a picture of it. I was just ready to begin welding the screw holes when I noticed that the shielding gas for the welder was empty. As I work outside the garage most of the time, especially when welding, I rushed to close things up and put the empty tank in the car to make the run to the welding supply/gas store. By the time that I got home it was 4:30 and I was not going to pull things out again. Saturday I had a bit of running around to do in the morning and as it turned out it rained all afternoon.

Today though it was nice and I managed to get a several hours in on the van this afternoon. The first task was to add a bit of metal to the bracket as when it was removed it was ground/cut off a bit short. You can see it to a degree in the picture. You can also see I needed to weld a split on the body seam that the extension sits on and is welded to.

I also managed to fill weld and then grind about 20 holes on the floor and the passenger rear wheel well, there were a couple that had to be touched up that I had not cleaned up yet.

The biggest task that I decided to tackle was to fill weld the holes on the top of the wheel well where the spare tire bracket mounts. As mentioned above there were two large holes, almost a solid single hole with a very thin ribbon between the two, and the smaller hole nearby that needed to be filled. I got a piece of copper flashing that I had laying around and cut it to size before putting a bit of a curve to match the wheel well. I then used some magnets to hold it tight to the bottom of the wheel well covering the holes. Then slowly I began to fill weld from the top, cleaning with the wire brush and grinder. As you can see in the photo, it is pretty much done, I still need to grind it down smooth and then clean/grind smooth the bottom to finish. That’s about it on the van for today, I probably have another day or so to wrap things up on the welding and grinding of the remaining holes in the floor, the patch shown in my last update and finishing up with the spare tire carrier, all to my own satisfaction.

Oh, and I'm ok with anyone that felt the need to snicker out there on the welding. In my own defense I'm sure not a production welder which you can for sure tell. Besides I’d not welded in at least 10 years and had a heck of a time being consistent. I would go from a great weld to a skipping weld now and then. I didn't have any issues with burn through or blowout, which was a good thing. It will get quicker and better again with time. Scott…

Just a quick recap as of Tuesday - 14-Sept-2010. First I'm sorry to say that there are no pictures, I know everyone loves pictures and as the saying goes a picture is worth a thousand words but all there would be to see is a lot of gray spots, not all that interesting.

So, that being said I'm left to painting a more vivid picture with a few words. I'll try and spare you the thousand.

115, nothing more and nothing less. You might be thinking; "What's the heck is 115 suppose to mean?" The answer; 115 happened to be the total number of holes in the floor of the van that needed to be filled, and I know this because I did count them all today. I just couldn't bring myself to puttying them over. I'd already mentioned I had prepped (ground/cleaned), filled/welded and ground/leveled 20 holes. They were my first. The last two days I repeated this step a total of 90 more times, and so you won't have to pull out a calculator to figure it out that's now 110 holes behind me. That also means I have 5 left, 1 small one that I missed and 4 larger holes that I need to crawl under and put a backing to before filling/welding them which I was not up to today. I am also happy to report that the welding has already greatly improved with all of these holes behind me, the majority only being a small spot to level.

Besides the 5 holes I've still got the rocker patch to weld up that I mentioned earlier and a second patch that I forgot to mention to cover a 2 inch CB antenna hole that a previous owner had put on at some point. The spare tire bracket also still has to be attached yet, the fill/welding of wheel well turned out rather well too. I've got to climb under and tap a couple low spots back up and then grind/clean/level the underside of the wheel well. While I'm down there I will knock down/level those spots that might extend more than a small bump, upon my initial peak there are only a few that will need some attention.

I'll try for a few pictures in the next couple days. I can only hope you all that happen to be following along can find some interest in these minor and mostly boring activities in the big picture. Scott...