I love this van and the fact that you are taking it to events and doing something with it under its own power makes me irrationally happy. Consider this a pre-emptive thank you from all the car people that will see this thing out and about and have their day brightened.
Tonight was interesting. We were driving the Candy Van and stopped to help some old dude that was broke down in the middle of a rural country road. He literally just stopped in the lane with no hazards on. He said he had been there for over 45 minutes after his S10 overheated and wouldn't start. I put a gallon on antifreeze I had in it and it started but was running rough. He said he lived a couple miles away so we told him we would follow to make sure he made it with no further problems. he insisted on giving us a bag of Cheese Doodles and a light up plastic lady as payment. It seemed like we might have been hurting his feeling by turning the gifts down so we ate Doodles on the way home and now the van has a mascot.
In reply to logdog :
You accepted the Cheese Doodles and the Plastic Lady? I think in some cultures this means you are now married.
In reply to John Welsh :
Luckily for me, here in PA it isn't legally binding unless you get a pig too. 
After being in California for 8 days, I was itching to make a little progress on the Candy Van and install some of the goodies I bought while out there.
The pedal covers I bought fit the clutch perfect but the brake pedal is a little different. It fits ok but I will order a correct one at some point.
The new armrest, while not the right color, is much less stabby than the original.
Old
New!
The original plate light was destroyed but the new one gets to live a happy in life in PA rather than meet its demise at a crusher in Long Beach.
One emblem came from Long Beach, one from Chula Vista. They are both on the fenders now but Im not sure which was which.
In preparation for winter, I sprayed 3 quarts of Fluid Film under the body and in the doors. I didn't take any pictures but imagine a fat guy covered in lanolin overspray rolling around on the ground with an air hose under a van.
We also waxed the paint. It cleaned up nice. I didn't have time for a proper buff/polish/wax but we wanted to get something on it before winter.
Mrs Logdog did the waxing on...
While I did the waxing off...
All cleaned up! We took it out for a little Pennsylvanning
I was home for about 36 hours before I had to leave for work again. I decided to take advantage of New Hampshire's 0% sales tax while enjoying the "upside down Vermont" state by picking up some dino juice, filters, and coolant. The Candy Van had a recent oil change when I picked it up but I always like to do it myself.
Somehow referring to your wife as Mrs Logdog sounds funny.
AngryCorvair said:Is it optical illusion, or are the rear wheels forward in the rear wheel openings?
Somehow I missed this question when you posted it. The wheel position does look a little forward, but that appears to be normal, at least on SWB Fords. Here is one I saw on ebay with a similar position.
One of the things that hasn't worked on it since I brought the Candy Van home is the dash lights. I took a wack at fixing them tonight. Luckily things are simple enough behind the dash I was able to get by without a schematic (although that would have been easier)
I had a blown fuse, but long story short, the source of the issue seems to have been the radio. The aftermarket install had some poor connections and I believe the instrument panel wire hit the dash frame popping the fuse.
I had to make a trip to the parts store for fuses. I had some glass fuses but not the mini style used on this circuit. The fuses I have are too big for any of the circuits on this van so I will recycle a few spares next trip to the junkyard.
Let there be light!!!!
Last night we bought an EVTM off eBay to help with future electrical diagnose. It should be more effective than using my tongue and seeing if I get shocked.
Love it. I did the majority of my high school driving in an '89 (circa 2004) and several family friends had 300i6 versions just like yours in the 90's. Woo nostalgia.
For the time being I am happy enough to use the center dash mono speaker set up. Eventually I will add speakers elsewhere but its not a project I wanted to deal with now.
The factory speaker was huffed. I replaced it with the cheapest 6x9 at Walmart.
It required a little massaging to the grill but it fit with relative ease.
All my cars seem to end up with recycled Honda parts on them, the Candy Van is no different. Since its a stripper, it didn't even have a 12v lighter. I reused the one I kept from the Civic when we built the Champcar.
One of those vintage looking radios would have been ideal, but it got the same radio that lived in the GMC Savana and the Grand Caravan. Now I can load up the thumb drive with Molly Hatchet!
Our Tradesman package Ram does not have maplights. That was something Chrysler decontented out for the work truck. The Candy Van is in the same boat. We fixed the Ram a couple years ago with 1 dollar headlamps and now we have copied it for the van. They work pretty good. Now we can read maps, the nutritional labels on Twinkies, and do Sudoku puzzles at night!
I like to use the rearview mirrors from LeBaron convertibles with built in map lights. I've also used Foxbody Mustang map lights, but those really don't work well in a van.
The aircraft style map light is the go-to for period correct lighing.
logdog said:All cleaned up! We took it out for a little Pennsylvanning
That picture could be right out of the factory brochure. 
In reply to Cooter :
Due to future use as a racetrack camper, the long term plans include a house battery and LED lights throughout the back. I kinda like the idea of adding some aircraft style ones. It currently has 2 factory dome lights but they are only activated by the headlight switch.
In reply to stuart in mn :
Wait until you see my 2019 Fat Guys, Vans, & Tiger Print Speedos calendar that's coming out!
Today we made a road trip down to the U Pull It to look for some replacement seats. Before we left I made us a fancy curtain out of a 1x3 and a Harbor Freight moving blanket to help soften some of the noise that an empty cargo van that was designed when comfort was only for Buicks. 
Since storage is such a premium, I also designed and built personalized center consoles. Each was equipped with a custom duct tape roll coffee cup holder.
A cup holder and spill container all in one. Might be a great at holding the cup, but if it's not...
In reply to logdog :
I'm really enjoying following along with this one. That's all, carry on.
As cool as the factory seats look, our primary reason to replace them is comfort. The low back, with no arm rest, and no recline will make for a a less fun Lemons Rally after 2000 miles in the saddle. I'm getting soft!
Conversion Vans are getting a little scarce here in the rust belt junk yards compared to what they were a few years ago. We had dreams of finding some nice Corinthian Naugahyde captains chairs.
What we found were vans that had seats that looked like a badger and dachshund fought to the death in them.
We ended up with a set of second row captains chairs from an early 2000s Astro. Really clean, not soaked from the rain storm, no weird stains. The are not the ideal color but a set of tan saddle blanket seat covers should help them look period correct. They have a slightly bigger mounting pattern but should bolt up with minimal modifications.
At the yard.
In the garage posing with our sweet 50cc pit bike.
John Welsh said:A cup holder and spill container all in one. Might be a great at holding the cup, but if it's not...
It worked surprisingly well! Mrs Logdog engineered the duct tape part.
We accomplished a few things on the Candy Van today.
First up was replacing the leaking master cylinder. Luckily all the bleeders were in good shape and opened up. I checked before beginning the job in case I needed to plan on wheel cylinders and/or calipers due to rust. Luckily everything came up Milhouse!
The old.
The new. Its an AC Delco boxed part. Hopefully that doesn't cause some sort of automotive cross pollination problem.
I also swapped all 4 shocks. After removing the old, I don't think they were doing anything. I could easily collapse them by hand and they would stay that way unless I pulled them apart. All 4 corners got KYBs
I also changed the oil. While greasing the chassis I discovered a problem. The driver's side lower king pin dust cover thingamabob was crooked and looked to be ready to fall off. Whoever did the job cross threaded it pretty bad and damaged it. The spindle is a little boogered but I think I can save it with a little time and a thread file. Hopefully tomorrow I can find a replacement. My initial internet search made it seem like it might not be the easiest part to get by itself. It looks like they usually come in a kingpin rebuild kit. I figured I would stop by the local old school NAPA and see what they had.
I also discovered a radiator that I will want to give some attention to before the rally.
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