Reviving a 69 Dodge Sportsman Van

[Landman]

Scott, beautiful, meticulous work. I wish I had seen this before doing mine. It would have been a lot neater and easier on the painter.

[Scotts_DG8]

This is Wednesday evening June 5th, 2013.

Thanks for the comments guys. Pat, I have a hard time believing that your car could have turned out better as you did just an amazing job on it. But I guess there's at least an area or two (or three, maybe four?, five, who knows) that if my skills were as sharp then as they have become since I've started this I would have done differently.

Today I finished up the body work on the last door which was the passenger front door. With that I thought I'd take a bit of time to properly hang the doors for alignment to be sure everything fit where it was supposed to. All came together without any major issues, a little tweaking here and there and I was happy. I thought it was a good opportunity to grab the camera as take a few pictures. Although they don't show every little area that was worked the body glaze "spots" give you all an idea of the amount of work each door had, and it still doesn't tell the full story. So on with some pictures.

The first set shows a walk around the outside of the van with the doors closed.

Next is a walk around with the doors open. I did include a couple of close up pictures of the two side cargo door window latch areas that I transplanted from my original doors just to show that they too turned out nice requiring a thin coat of glaze. There were also at least 8 screw holes that were fill welded before being glazed on each door from a previous owner that had screwed paneling to them, not unlike all the uprights and roof braces.

The next task is to use a SEM rust converter/sealer on the inside of the doors before spraying all the doors with the white epoxy. I've already played with the SEM product and it works as advertised turning the surface rust black after coating it, it will take maybe a single day to complete this task. You can't really see it in the rear open door picture but I've already completed most all of the body work on the floor under the doors. The rest of the floor only has minor areas that I will take the time to glaze but the whole floor will be sanded as there is a lot of dirt in the primer coat the media blasting place didn't clean before spraying.

So, that brings this update to a close. Until the next time then. Scott...

[Landman]

Scott, it is well on its way to becoming very "straight". And anyone who pays attention, can see it took a lot of work. Judging by the marks on the drive, it made many many trips. to the work area.

[Scotts_DG8]

This is Wednesday evening, the 12th of June and it's time for another small update. One of the things that I've yet to admit to myself is that it just doesn't make sense for me to dream up any sort of time estimate for when another given task will be completed. My original thought was that I would have all my doors finished sanded and in epoxy primer by this time this week, no surprise really that it didn't work out that way. There is a bright side though in that I did squeek in completing the two side cargo/passenger doors. The rest of the story goes like this:

The doors were a real stinker to work with, as they had a lot of dirt in the original primer that was sprayed when it got blasted. And it's almost impossible to get my hand up into the pocket of the door as the external sheet metal dips in towards the inside panels. The back doors had the most rust that had to be sanded along with the dirt in the primer and just those two doors took almost a day and a half. Then I had to apply the SEM Rust Seal product over all the inside seams and surface rust areas. I started to think about the time invested and thought that I should go back to the side cargo/passenger doors and work my way back around to the back doors, after all the inside of the doors were complete so all I had to do was to surface sand/prep with the 150 grit for the primer. Well I learned that it was going to be a bigger job sanding down the original primer as it was gumming up the paper left and right and leaving streaks. I had to resort to using an 80 grit disc and it still took almost an hour per door to get the old primer down to near the metal surface before hand sanding it with the 150 grit to finish them off. The opinion I came to was that these doors were sprayed with the epoxy primer without the hardener which caused all the problems I was dealing with. My neighbor (the body shop guy) stopped by to check it out agreed that no hardener was probably the issue and probably help the dirt to settle it to it. I closed up last night about 6:20 after he left as the forecast was for rain last night. I got up this morning to a sunny start to the day with no rain and was outside by 8:40 with the intent of getting at least the two side cargo/passenger doors sprayed. It was one thing after another but by 11:30 I started mixing paint to let it set the 15 minutes before shooting. I used the prep-all to clean the two doors and gave it another 5 minutes before I started spraying. I mixed originally a 12 oz shot or paint/hardener thinking it would cover both doors, I was wrong again, and mixed another 9 oz before spraying the rest. In the end I couldn't get inside the doors all that well because the HVLP gun cup would not allow the gun tip to spray inside, I'll have to pull out my old school gun for that task.

I did take a couple pictures, first the before pictures. Those of you that may be following this may realize that there is a bit more glaze on these doors than was shown in my earlier pictures when I thought I had all the body work done. Same old story, never say you're done with something unless you're actually done. I obviously uncovered a few additional areas while sanding/prepping for the epoxy primer.

And the after pictures. BTW, just as I was shooting these couple pictures after I just finished spraying the first few drops of a quick shower decided come down. I didn't have enverything cleaned up or put away so I had to put the camera away and work fast to get things put away and the van back in the garage.

And as it turns out I've got other activities that will keep me busy over the next few days so things will have to wait until after they get done. When I next update I hope to have all remaining doors spayed with the epoxy primer. Until the next update then, Scott...

[Scotts_DG8]

Where things stand as of Saturday evening, June 22, 2013. Well it's been about a week and a half since my last update. I have been making progress although it seems to take a lot more steps to go a yard. It's really nothing more than running into the same type of things that I've run into before, thinking that I'd found all the little dents and dings and while thinking I'm surface sanding the doors to prep for the epoxy primer I continued to uncover more. The good news though was that today I did make another milestone even though it was small. The back doors and front passenger door are no in epoxy primer. I've included the following few photos of the end product.

I included the picture of the bottom of the front passenger door only because it was the door that I had to cut and replace the rusted section and I wanted to show off the end product. I did see looking at this picture that there is a hole that the weather strip clips into that is full of paint that I will have to clean out, but other than that I'm happy with it. Besides, having this picture will save the need for a people from to get down under the door to check it out.

The temps hit just above 90 today in the afternoon and was probably in the low to mid 80's while I was spraying the doors but then the cloudy rolled in shortly after these pictures were taken. The rain did show up south of me which was a good thing so I pulled the last door the needs to be sprayed, the drivers door, so that I could clean out the inside and paint it with the rust seal I discussed/used earlier. Some may ask why I didn't waint and spray all the doors at the same time, well it has taken so long to get to where I am I didn't want any more high humid days to go by on the exposed metal. I'll be doing a small dance in the driveway when the last door gets sprayed and I can move inside the van. That's the update for today. With luck the next update won't take another week and a half. Scott...

[keiser31]

Boy, that van is getting sweeter all of the time. Keep up the excellent work, Scott and I can hardly wait to see the work on the '31 DG8 coupe when you start the restoration on it.

[Scotts_DG8]

Thanks for the comment John, I at times wish that this thread and all the work was about the '31 but it's not the case. Besides I get to cut my teeth on this project refreshing and building upon my skills some before tackling the '31.

This is Thursday evening, the 4th of July. I hope that all that pass through this thread have had or are still having a great day. My day was tasked with getting the last door wrapped up with the body work and in the epoxy primer. I believe I mentioned that I was hoping that I was going to have this update ready and posted sometime last week but I think that I may have again taken a week and a half (and a bit more) to complete this one single (and last) door. The reason for the delay had been the rain and more rain that first week that kept me from even thinking about making some kind of progress. This past Sunday I did get a couple hours in but the rain again chased the van back into the garage. The other delay was due to having to complete other required tasks around the house, lawn, weeds, laundry, etc... But enough of my complaining about the weather, on to the pictures and report.

Those of you with a great memory know that this door was pretty clean, no real rust repairs to deal with so it should be a simple task to clean up and get in primer, no? Well nothing on this van so far as body work has turned out to be a simple task. There were numerous dents and dings and the inside face of the door near the edge has a spot to screw attach a metal loop that holds a strap to stop the door from swinging out of control. Well the door obviously swang open hard at some point and the strap attachment area was caved in when it stopped the door, I had to pull the stud gun/puller out again but am real happy that I did. The damage wrapped around the corner and bucked the corner so a bit of hammering was required there to straighten this back to square. Another area that was missed by me was the fit of the door as it was kicked out at the bottom where the outside bottom of the door extended past the wheel opening. I went back to check my pictures to see if it was like this originally and came to find out that I did not take a picture of the outside drivers side before taking it apart so I had to go back to pictures taken when it was originally purchased and before it was shipped. Bottom line I did find one and it was originally kicked out at the bottom too, not any more though.

The following pictures are the same door just prettied up with a coat of epoxy primer. I'm happy with the end result and best of all it completes the outside body work.

So what's next? Inbetween the chance of rain showers forecasted for the next 6 days I plan to move inside to get that all straighten up and finalized. One of the first tasks will be to put the gas filler neck cover back together and then finish with the sanding of all the screw holes that had been weld/filled and glazed over. If I could count on it not raining for a week it would pretty much get done, we'll see how the weather plays out. That's pretty much this update, a lot of words and a few pictures of a single door getting sprayed with primer. Until the next update then. Scott...

[keiser31]

Looking great. I have a question....is that a hole on the bottom of the driver's door? I am not aware that there was anything attached that low on the door.

No...I am talking about the one on the skin here.....

Edited July 5, 2013 by keiser31 (see edit history)

[Landman]

Looking great. I have a question....is that a hole on the bottom of the driver's door? I am not aware that there was anything attached that low on the door.

I wonder if that isn't a porthole to gert at sometrhing. About the bottoms of the door being pushed out, could that have happened by closing the door on dangling belt buckle? I seem to do that a lot on my Mustang.

[Scotts_DG8]

Looking great. I have a question....is that a hole on the bottom of the driver's door? I am not aware that there was anything attached that low on the door.

John, if you are talking about the larger hole shown on the bottom left side of the door in the second painted picture it was also shown on the passenger side door (with the plastic plug) back on post #115. I'm thinking it is either an inspection or access hole for some reason or another, the metal is a little flatter around these holes too so my opinion is that they are factory. Scott...

[Scotts_DG8]

I wonder if that isn't a porthole to get at something. About the bottoms of the door being pushed out, could that have happened by closing the door on dangling belt buckle? I seem to do that a lot on my Mustang.

Pat, my same thought/opinion on the hole that I just posted (like minds I guess). As far as the door being out at the bottom, if you use the hole that is being discussed as a point of reference it was kicked out from the bottom of the body line to the bottom edge of the door about a quarter of an inch. I ended up using a large hard rubber mallet and a piece of 2 x 4 and walked it back into place. If someone was watching this method of body repair they would have thought the door would have been all mangled but it turned out real nice (as you can see). Scott...

[Scotts_DG8]

Looking great. I have a question....is that a hole on the bottom of the driver's door? I am not aware that there was anything attached that low on the door.

No...I am talking about the one on the skin here.....

John,

I see that you had added a picture of the hole after Pat and I had taken a stab at which hole was being mentioned. The hole on the outside bottom of the door skin is shown in one of the first pictures in my thread and is the spot that the front reflector attaches to. I've pulled the original picture to include for reference. Also you, and others following this thread, can see how much has changed from the start. Scott...

[Scotts_DG8]

This is Monday evening the 8th of July 2013, and although this is not a formal/proper update that includes a report on what progress has been made and it would also include pictures to back it up, it more of a comment to say that the rain is getting old around here. I've gotten maybe 3 hours on the van since my last update and much of that is taken pulling it out and setting up to work and shortly after seeing the first few rain drops and then rushing around putting things away before a flash down pour passes through. It's rather hard to do body work exposing bare metal to rain or water puddles that cover the back driveway and take 4 or more hours to dry up. The good news I guess is that this cycle is suppose to break this Thursday, at least the weather people are reporting it this way, and should last for a good number of days.

I did though make a little progress in that I did get the surface rust that was behind the inside gas filler neck cover cleaned up and it was then sealed up with the SEM Rust Seal product I mentioned earlier. It will get sanded a bit here and there where it may show after the cover is welded back in place and then the whole area will be sprayed with the epoxy primer. Other then doing the rust seal thing I also made sure all the pieces that make up the cover fit back where they should. So until the rain takes a holiday things will be moving slow on the van. Until the next proper update then, Scott...

[keiser31]

John,

I see that you had added a picture of the hole after Pat and I had taken a stab at which hole was being mentioned. The hole on the outside bottom of the door skin is shown in one of the first pictures in my thread and is the spot that the front reflector attaches to. I've pulled the original picture to include for reference. Also you, and others following this thread, can see how much has changed from the start. Scott...

[ATTACH=CONFIG]202010[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]202012[/ATTACH]

Oh yeah.......I forgot yours is a 1969 and has reflectors. I was looking at my 1967 and wondering why mine had no hole.....DUH!

[Scotts_DG8]

A short update as of Thursday evening the 18th of July 2013. There has been a lot of water (rain) that stood in the way of any major progress, the good news though was that it for the most part stopped, at least from an every day thing. The Metor Detroit area is not much different than a lot of the country right now with high temps and high humidity, this doesn't though stop work on the van but it does slow it down a bit.

Since my last update I have now managed to get the gas filler neck cover installed, this was a big steps. I did think to take a few pictures to confirm this accomplishment.

The first thing that I did was to sand the area behind the cover and put a good coat of the rust seal on it. The funny part of this statement though is that to prep for the epoxy coat most all of this rust seal coat was sanded off before the epoxy was sprayed.

The next pictures are after I had finished sanding the parts that make up the cover and the hidden wall/floor area and applied a coat of the epoxy primer. I knew in advance that some of the primer would be impacted after welding the pieces back together but I wanted a solid protected coat on everything that was going to remain hidden.

The last task was to grind and sand and spot fill the areas that were welded and ground down. Then I taped off visible seams and applied seam sealer. I should have mentioned above before welding the lid on there was also some seam sealer used inside prior to welding the lid in place along with around inside of the lid. After every thing was prettied up I sprayed some more epoxy primer. You'll notice that I spent a little more time and sanded/prepped to finished off the inside corner and the door post next to the cover.

I was hoping that I was going to be able to complete (sand/epoxy primer) the whole driver's side wall on the inside before posting this update but it wasn't going to happen. I finished cutting the grass earlier enough and even though it was 98 here with the high humidity I was planning to pull the van out and tackling that wall, the rain ended up changing my mind on that.

My current thoughts were to next do the inside walls up to the front doors and then the front seat area. But because I'm not looking forward to doing the inside roof area I'm going to make that my next task just to get it out of the way, then it will be the walls and finally the floor. So that's where things stand and with luck the weather will not continue to impact progress to much. Until the next update then, Scott...

[keiser31]

That really looks great! Interesting cutout on the floor under that cover.

[Scotts_DG8]

That really looks great! Interesting cutout on the floor under that cover.

The odd cutout is where the gas filler neck passes through and there is a plug/cover with a rubber gasket on top of it that goes around the fill tube and is pushed/tapped into place from the bottom while installing the neck. I'll cover that when we get to assembly and I'm working under the van down the road a bit. Scott...

[GARY F]

great job. sanding inside of the roof has got suck. my first restore i used sandpaper inside the trunk with all the hills & valleys & cutouts. 63 bonneville. now on my 63 GP i bought these sanding blocks with a rough sanding surface on all sides. semi flexable. i did the trunk inside in way less time & easier. bought them at the paint supplier. maybe this will help ease the pain. when i worked for NCR back then i think it was 1968 they gave us the same type of van as a service vehicle with the V/8, auto trans on the dash. good luck, i keep watching your updates.

[Scotts_DG8]

Gary, the job is a bit easier although it's a matter of perspective. There are ridges in the roof, high and low areas along with the cross ribbs. I will take a picture of what tools, sanding blocks I use to complete the job to give an idea of effort but it is still hard as you are working overhead and I don't know about most people but my arms will get tired after a bit and I have to take 5 to regroup before going on.

On a side note to all that are following along, there was a good storm that passed through a couple hours ago and broke two good size limbs from the neighbors tree that backs up to my lot and crushed one of my burning bushes but with luck fell just behind my garage. The size was about 8 inches where it broke thick off but drops down to 6 inches and extends the width of my garage behind my garage. I'm very happy that it missed the garage. So I have at least a good day to cut and clean things up before I can get back to the van. Scott...

[Scotts_DG8]

This is late Thrusday evening the 8th of August, 2013. Boy looking back I see that my last true update was the 18th of July, that was 3 weeks ago. Sure wish I was updating 3 weeks of work on the van but I'm sorry to say that I've only got less than a week in on the van since then. To recap what I've had to deal with I mentioned at the bottom of my last reply a comment that a couple good sized limbs broke off during a storm that came through from a neighbors tree and I had some cleaning up to do that would probable last a couple days. Well that was before I saw exactly how much came down and totally missed the neighbors tree that was still trying to fall down. I was up on the roof of the garage cleaning branches off it when the neighbor behind me (West of me) that owned the tree that lost the branches came out to tell me that the tree is hanging on the power line and something needed to be done soon. I didn't know what he was talking about at the time but as I was cutting up and cleaning out what turned out to be 3 large 35 foot long branches that hit the back corner of the garage and landed behind it I noticed the tree right next to the fence had a bad lean on it. It was a huge Elm tree that for whatever reason did not fully blow over and who knows what was keeping it up. The electric company was called by both the neighbor to the north (who's power line to her house was stretched/bowed out 6 feet) and the neighbor behind me that owned the trees. They came out Sunday afternoon, two different people. The first guy said we won't touch it as it is a customer drop and the responsibility of the customer. The second guy came out and talked to the guy behind me and then came over to see me. He said at first that they would not do anything. I wined the best I could and noted that the tree was about to go, blah, blah, blah, and in the end he said let me talk to my boss. He came back 10 mintues later and said they would do it and a crew was in route. Two hours later a crew showed up and looked at the situation and said not their problem and wanted to know who called them in. They were going to leave and the neighbor behind me chased after them and returned empty handed. A few minutes later the crew comes back an a guy said that they would drop it in my yard but would not take it away for $$$, but I would have to agree to it if they did it. The neighbor said he'd pay them the $$$ and all it would take was for me to say ok. The tree moved a bit from Saturday to Sunday and I just couldn't see it hitting the garage so I said ok. They drove around and back into my yard a big 40 ft boom truck and proceeded to drop the tree, it took them less than 90 minutes. Now it was my problem to get rid of it. The tree people were saying 3 to 4 week before they could even come check it out, two never even returned my calls. I finally had one that I had dealt with in the past come by and said $900 to take it away, I said what can I do to reduce the cost. If I cut and stacked it on my driveway $550, I told him I'd let him know. I thought why not get a dumpster and do it my self. So the next day I got a 30 yd dumpster and did it my self. It was a mess to untangle all the branches and there were a lot of large trunk size limbs to remove. I finished up Saturday, a week and a day after the storm, the dumpster though did not get picked up until 5 PM Monday so there was still no van work. Here are a A few pictures of the mess and what was left of my burning bushes which also in the end were cut down.

First the 35 limbs that I first saw and cleaned up. The last picture here behind the garage show the tree that was standing straight up two days prior.

This is the twisted mess that was left when the tree was dropped in my yard. The last picture does not do these limbs justice as they were 16 to 18 inches by 12 - 14 feet long. The neighbor asked to leave the trunk cut high, why who knows.

Now, this explains about a week an a half of the three weeks, so let move on to a proper van update. Scott...

[Scotts_DG8]

Still Thursday night, just later. The van work picked up starting the 1st of August but was interrupted by rain numerous times. The good news though, for me at least, was that I did finally manage to finish off the work on the inside driver's side wall. It was a lot of work. And for those of you that followed since the begining may recall the gazillion screw holes that I fill welded (that's the biggest reason for all the blue glaze inside the van). I cam across some that were not fully filled and I just could not bring myself to just glaze/fill over these holes.

So let see some pictures!!! Alright, first up are some before epoxy primer shots. The majority of this sanding was all hand work as a sander would not fit into most places, my fingers have now been in places they just shouldn't of had to go and they paid a price in the end. And as a reminder the biggest reason reason it all needed to be sanded was because there was so much dirt in the current primer from the media blaster. If I had a Custom and all the inside panels I would not be spending the time but since the inside walls are what you see they too have to have a decent clean finish.

Now the finished (epoxy primer) shots. You will notice that I sprayed a bit of the floor, about 4 inches out from the wall, as I just couldn't see doing a clean paint break at the wall/floor intersection. It will be a lot easier to scuff/sand the couple inches and overlap from there when I finish the floor. The pictures are just a little dark sorry about that as they don't do the results justice.

As of tonight there is no official rain in the next weeks forecast so there is a possibility that I could get a good weeks worth of progress in, we'll have to see. If you read my comments back in my last proper update on July 18th I made a comment that the weather should not be an issue making progress and then the storm came through 2 days later and changed everything. So, I'm done for this evening and we'll just have to see if I can make a bit more progress in a shorter time frame. Until the next update then, Scott...

[Landman]

Scott, if I was there I'd take that elm off your hands. I could make some nice things with it. that is likely the reason your neighbor asked them to leave the trunk. That stuff is worth $$$$ to a woodworker. Nice work on the van.

[Scotts_DG8]

Pat,

First, as far as the Elm goes the neighbor is not really interested in it, he just told the guys to cut it down low enough to just to let get the wires free. I told him I would drop the rest at least down to top of the fence line, which he had no problem with at the time, but I reconsidered as the trunk is about 18 to 20 inched thick and maybe 14 to 16 feet (maybe more) from the fence top to the top of the trunk. I would crush anything it fell on and I didn't want to replace the fence for what it is. If I wasn't so deep into the van I would consider taking it down to the ground but that is not going to happen this year. Scott...

BTW, thanks for the comment on the van.

[Guest subwyking]

New member, but have been following your thread for a while. It was a large part of the inspiration that drove me to finally get mine out of storage this past summer. My truck is a 64, purchased by my grandpa in 64. It's been driven by my dad's side of the family (including my dad's drivers test) all the way up until me driving it for my drivers test in 96. I went to work on reviving it about 8 years ago, and then had to put it away for 4 years due to deployments/moving. But, she's back in my garage now. Runs like a top, just needs a little bit of love on the body. Thanks for all your pics/posts! They have been incredibly informative, and have set the bar pretty high for the work that's ahead of me!!

Thanks,

Russ

Edited September 30, 2013 by subwyking (see edit history)

[Scotts_DG8]

Russ,

You've got a nice project there with a lot of family history behind it, that's a lot of motivation and inspiration there on its own. I'm still glad that you've found my thread on my efforts to bring back my '69 Sportsman of intrest and that it may have had a hand in getting your project back in motion. It's also always nice to receive complements on ones efforts but I believe/hope that my bar is attainable by most, it is just time and patience (at least for me). Good luck with your effforts. BWT, where abouts are you and your project based if you don't mind answering.

Another site that I mentioned in my thread that you may find of interest is the Vintage Van website, they are a great group of guys and they focus on only the early Dodge, Chevy and Ford vans. A lot of them do have modification they've made to there vans but there are a number of stock rides there too. You may just find it of interest. Here is a link to that site: http://vintage-vans.forumotion.com/forum

As far as my progress goes, I see that I've let quit a bit of time pass since my last update (6 weeks). I've been making progress but it has been slow, a lot of it due to the weather (rain) since my last update and there is still my speed (or lack there of) that plays into it too. I'm just getting close to wrapping up the inside passenger side (front to back) so that it can be sprayed with the epoxy primer. When I have that area completed and sprayed I'll do a proper update with pictures, with luck it will be soon.

Again, thanks for the comments, Scott...

[Guest subwyking]

Scott,

I'm currently living in Omaha, Nebraska. I haven't made a whole lot of progress recently either. Just finished moving.... again, and about to leave the state for another 3 months. So I don't imagine progress on mine will pick up until the spring. I have the motor and electrics all working as they should. I think my time this winter will be spent stripping it back down to a rolling chasis, repairing what little cancer is on it, and giving the rest some TLC. The body is pretty straight for as much hell as it's been through. My dad came up last month, and he got to drive it for the first time in well over 20 years. He got a real kick out of it. I'll have to check out the vintage van forum, looks like a good resource. One you might check out, if you didn't already know about it, is:

http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/DodgeA100/info

Great for tracking down hard to find parts.

Take care,

Russ

[Scotts_DG8]

This update is late in a couple ways; it's late evening Sunday the 13 of October 2013, and it's been basically two months since I posted a proper update. Truth be told it has been a wet year here and when it wasn't rain it seemed to be something else getting in the way, more specifically my ability to accomplish something in a reasonable amount of time. I've worn out/off my right hand thumb and index finger tips and with age always moving forward found a few pains here and there that probably weren't there as early as last year. But enough of that, after all this is an update about actually making some progress.

This update will span a couple posts to cover all the pictures that I will be posting, that being said on with the update.

First, I did happen to come across a piece of floor that I could us to patch the front passenger floor. I had welded up some rust holes in the recessed dog bone but there was no way it was going to look good. It was not much different than doing the window latch replacements I documented in depth earlier so will skip the welding step.

Then it was on to smoothing and finishing off the inside passenger wall, well the was the intention but as I already diverted to patching the floor area it became a mix of the inside passenger wall and a portion of the floor. In the end it became a problem of managing my scope. I just could decide when to stop before spraying some epoxy. I did have a minor bit of sanding rework to do here and there as there would be small spots of very light surface rust that would appear after a good soaking rain, this occured even with it being inside the garage which was no real surprise. I also learned that there are some areas that are just a stinker to work in again, but I found that standing on your head and using your left hand I could get the job done. Another decision I made was to remove the seam sealer in most every seam as the sealing effect was just not there any more, that was a fun job. So after weeks of work this is what it looked like before I actually sprayed the epoxy.

As you can see I finished off the door openings on the passenger side and the rear doors. I decided that I was running out of time so choose to limit my floor work to about 24 inches in from the side and the back which you can see by the green masking tape of the floor. I had just finished applying the seam sealer and mixed the epoxy primer before taking these pictures. Right after taking them I went over everything that was going to get sprayed with the prep-all and then it was on to painting. I'm sure that I don't need to remind you all but will, you can click on all of these pictures to see a larger format. Enjoy. The results follow in the next post. Scott...

Edited October 14, 2013 by Scotts_DG8 (see edit history)

[Scotts_DG8]

Still Sunday evening but this post contains the money shots (sure). I finished spraying the epoxy primer last night at about 7 PM and then spent just over another hour cleaning the gun and putting things away. Bottom line, it was dark last night so no night shots were to be had. I pulled it out today to check it out and this is what I saw.

It look like it turned out pretty good in the pictures as you can see, but it looks better in real life:D. One of the things that I observed when spraying this side was that there are areas where my HVLP gun has a heck of a time getting into. I was hitting things left and right when I was spraying the wall section with the spare tire carrier and the brace at the bottom of the wheel well and door post, not to mention the back side of the rear door post behind the spare tire carrier. I'm not sure how I'm going to proceed when I get to spraying the color coat, I'll have to talk to the paint guy and see what my options are.

So, after a big gap in updates this should give you an idea of what I've managed to accomplish. I'm not sure what will still get done this year as the forecast for the up coming week shows the temps dropping down into highs that are only in the mid 50's. There is a strong potential that this may be the last bodywork update until spring next year. I do have to admit that I am a bit disappointed that the entire inside is not in primer, let alone painted. The one thing that I had learned to this point is doing the van is a heck of a lot of work. Hope you all that have followed along enjoy the update and we'll see what comes next. Until then, thanks. Scott...

[unimogjohn]

Great job Scott. Boy, she is sure looking good. You may not get it painted before winter, but think what the spring will bring. And during the winter you will be able to shine up the little pieces sitting in the front room in your easy chair. (Ask me how I know). Congratulations, you have come a long way.

[Landman]

Hey Scott, that is a lot of work for stuff that will be hidden. It shows an exceptional attention to detail. I think the "reviving" in your thread title is a bit of an understatement. Like John says, there are a lot of other parts to take you through the winter. By the way, did you make that dogbone patch or was it available?

[Scotts_DG8]

Thanks John and Pat for the nice comments, they mean a lot really.

John, there are a few small parts/pieces that I will be working on this winter for sure, but it will be in my basement as opposed to my easy chair although I do pull the service manual out now and then while sitting here.

Pat, I had thought about attempting to make one (Dog Bone floor patch) but ended up putting a request out for a clean floor piece and with some luck someone came up with it. As far as the amount of detailed work I'm putting into this, it's really become a rock and a hard place. This is not the Custom Sportsman model it's the basic Sportsman so there are no interior panels, that leaves the inside exposed as delivered from the factory. If I had all the panels I sure would be spending a lot less time but the panels of a Custom (window/wall and trim) are really hard to come by. The good news is that I'm down to doing the underside of the roof which is pretty clean (no dents to speak of just a lot of sanding) and the remaining floor section (still a number of small dents, welded up screw holes and surface rust pits to be glazed).

Again, thanks for the comments. Scott...

[GARY F]

looks great to me. i enjoy following you.

[Scotts_DG8]

Gary, it's good to hear from one and all that have taken the time to follow my efforts on this project. I'm glad that you, and everyone else reading this (or just looking at the pictures is ok too) found an interest in what I've choose to tackle. There are still many challenges ahead and the progress does slow down a bit (well maybe a lot) during the cold/wet months around winter but I'm driven to bring this to completion, hopefully a lot sooner than later. Again, thanks for checking in. Stay tuned. Scott...

[GARY F]

when i worked for NCR in the 60s & 70s they gave us a dodge van just like yours as a service van. i think it was around 1967 or 68 if i remember correctly. it had the V-8 and the auto shift on the dash. in ours NCR always put a crash protector behind the motor from floor to roof and side to side incase of an accident.

[Scotts_DG8]

This is late Sunday evening, April 6th, 2014. The snow is for the most part just about gone here and the temps are just starting to get into the mid to upper 50's, at least for now, so I'm getting antsy and want to get back at this project. It makes it harder looking at the projects that are starting to come to life here too. I've still got the yard to prep for the spring and other odd jobs to take care of before starting back on the van but with the weather starting to look like it actually might be warming up I should be able to get going on those shortly. Last year I didn't get started until mid May and I'm hoping to get started sooner this year, we'll just have to see, anyway I thought I'd be optomistic and raise this back up toward the top so I don't have to search for it. Sorry this isn't a proper update with photos and all but with some luck it won't be long. Scott...

[keiser31]

Good luck with some good weather, soon, Scott. I cannot wait to see more great progress of yours.

[Guest Jason Silva]

I am starting restoration of the '68 A100 pickup that I took my original drivers test in. I found and read this entire post today (01/02/2016) but noticed that the story stops before final paint and reassembly. I was looking forward to seeing and hearing about the final product. Where is the rest of the story?

[Scotts_DG8]

Thanks for your interest in and taking the time to read about my project. I had to side track from the van project to tackle other projects for a while. My hope is to get back to the van this coming spring/summer (2016). I've done a few little side projects on the van that I hadn't posted an update on where I restored the heater  box and sliding step as an example. If you read my entire post you may have come across another site that I'm pretty sure is mentioned that only covers vintage Ford/Chevy/Dodge vans, it may also be of interest and helo to you and '68 Pickup project. A link to that site is the following: http://vintage-vans.forumotion.com/forum

 

I hope that you enjoy your '68 Pickup, these vans are unique and although there were lots of them built there are not all that many still on the road. If you would like to post a photo of your van and what your plans are with it you are welcome too. Again, thanls for your interest. Scott...

[GARY F]

scott.  good to see you back. I missed following your post.  waiting for more. I might have mention before that when I worked for NCR they gave us 68 dodge vans for company cars. with v/8 and auto shift on the dash.

[Scotts_DG8]

Gary, I too am missing my posts and am looking forward to posting more as that will mean I'll be back to making some progress on the van. It can be hard at times to stick with my current goals and not diverting my time back to the van.  I've stood gazing at it numerous times but it just had to move to the back burner for a while. I mentioned that I restored my heater and will take a bit of time to organize the photos I took and post them in the next few days. Thanks for having the interest in following along. Scott...