Short, Ugly, Old, Fat, My girl Vanette

Kinda what I am thinking. With maybe a safari rack on top?

a little late to the thread, but as soon as I saw this I thought, "man, if he fixed that up and equipped it right, a food truck chef would love one of those." we have a couple different food trucks in town, and I'd totally give my business to one that was rolling some kind of kickass vintage machinery. maybe a little small but at the very least it could make an awesome advertising piece to sit outside of someone's store with a logo on it.

Anti-stance turbo diesel towpig didn't miss beat, she is a good one. Thanks again!

Wow. I didn't realize just how big Vanette is. Room for lots of hot chicks!

Gasoline wrote: Kinda what I am thinking. With maybe a safari rack on top?

I like where this is going!

I'd worry about crossbreezes. Otherwise, it looks great. A brush guard would look good, too.

DoctorBlade wrote: I'd worry about crossbreezes. Otherwise, it looks great. A brush guard would look good, too.

The height is deceiving. The real weight is low and she is pretty wide. I was a little concerned that she would fit the trailer. I'm thinking a 17x9.5 wheel and a BFG all terrain KO 37.12.5. Not too ginormous. I don't know why I don't take a real picture of the width?

ZF 5 speed was cleaner than the rest of the truck, think it was replaced not long ago? PTP ports on both sides.

Picked up a ATS turbo off a 6.9l IDI Ford (all this for $65.00! Love the PullaPart!) . Ran the numbers looks like s T04e which should be fun for the 300. Looks like we are going turbo! Will probably need to make the move to Mass Air from SD.....if anyone runs across a '95 maybe '96? (I think '96 is ODB2?) mass air 300 parts truck/van I am interested in the ECM/harness.

Let's see: a 1957 (ish) P van with 4x4, powered by a 300 six banger with a boneyard turbo.

Curmudgeon wrote: Let's see: a 1957 (ish) P van with 4x4, powered by a 300 six banger with a boneyard turbo.

Gasoline wrote:

DoctorBlade wrote: I'd worry about crossbreezes. Otherwise, it looks great. A brush guard would look good, too.

The height is deceiving. The real weight is low and she is pretty wide. I was a little concerned that she would fit the trailer. I'm thinking a 17x9.5 wheel and a BFG all terrain KO 37.12.5. Not too ginormous. I don't know why I don't take a real picture of the width?

I keep forgetting this is an old box truck. With a decent width on it it would be pretty stable. It's not like you'd autocross it, right?

There is not much distance from front wheels to the back ones.

Is that a wood floor? Cool.

Needs some black light posters and shag a licious carpet.

DoctorBlade wrote: Is that a wood floor? Cool.

Yes, Wood floor.

There were 3 layers of ugly carpet over the doghouse and front pedal area. I imagine it gets hot and noisy without a/c and more layers of carpet were added to make it more tolerable.

There is a guy in Atlanta that parts out R/V's and has rooftop AC units for sale. I am thinking about that. Yea? or Nea?

A dumbass friend said that he would fashion a James T. Kirk Captains chair for it.

I have that request on hold.

Gasoline wrote: Anti-stance turbo diesel towpig didn't miss beat, she is a good one. Thanks again!

You were worried about that beast towing?

Gasoline wrote:

DoctorBlade wrote: Is that a wood floor? Cool.

Yes, Wood floor. There were 3 layers of ugly carpet over the doghouse and front pedal area. I imagine it gets hot and noisy without a/c and more layers of carpet were added to make it more tolerable. There is a guy in Atlanta that parts out R/V's and has rooftop AC units for sale. I am thinking about that. Yea? or Nea?

Hell, yea. Get a dual unit, heat and A/C. You might see if they can come up with a gen set too, all the comforts of home.

pinchvalve wrote:

Gasoline wrote: Anti-stance turbo diesel towpig didn't miss beat, she is a good one. Thanks again!

You were worried about that beast towing?

"Great White" and I are still in that "Get to know you" part of the relationship. She was cheap and I'm not completely easy.

She did throw a hubcap coming thru Thomaston GA. The hubcap is headed somewhere West to parts unknown. I just continued North to Atlanta.

Gasoline wrote: Anti-stance turbo diesel towpig didn't miss beat, she is a good one. Thanks again!

Ha! I didn't realize this was your screen name. When I saw the truck, I thought "man, that looks like m... That is my old truck!"

I didn't make it overseas unfortunantely.

That is a cool ass old stepvan.

Gasoline wrote: There is a guy in Atlanta that parts out R/V's and has rooftop AC units for sale. I am thinking about that. Yea? or Nea?

All it's missing is some coils and it'd be a shoe-in for a toaster oven. AC+ insulation would be on my shortlist.

OK, time for a "Vanettupdate".

I have had a set of Cragar Eliminator 500 wheels sitting around for a few years. Two are 17"X8" and 2 are 17"X7". They are a 5X5" pattern that I thought I would use on a AWD Astro van but that has not come to pass.

The Vanette is 8X6.5" but the more I pictured in my mind what the 500's would look like on the Vanette the better I liked the idea. I put a set of Pirelli Scorpion light truck tires on the rims to commit myself to the idea. Yea! I like it. So no 4X4 Stepvan this will be a dropped Stepvan.

So, now I need to figure a way to get a 5X5" pattern under her and keep a fairly robust drivetrain? I know I don't want adapters. Current rearend is a Dana 60 full floating. I thought about and looked at several Dana 60 semi floating rearends and even ran across a Dana 70 semi-floating. Moser Axle said that they could plug and drill the axles for a 5 bolt pattern, but the centering lug might need turned down also. This is turning into a whole lot of money with shipping etc.

Scanning Craigslist I cam across a guy selling a rearend out of a burned Chevy truck 454SS (1990). He said that his transmission popped a gasket sprayed the exhaust and the front end burned to the ground before fire trucks could get there. This is perfect, and $$$ cheap.

It gives me a pretty big 9.5"? ring gear, 3.73 ratio, gov-lok posi (good enough for me) and most importantly a factory 5X5" bolt pattern. It came with new drum brakes, but I am probably going to go with welding on disc brackets when I weld on new spring-under perches.

For the front end I was unsure of how to make the 1 ton spindles work. I had a 1963 F-100 straight axle sitting around and for giggles compared it to to the 1957 Vanette axle....they look very similar. Same 2" leaf spring width and 32.25" spring center width. Speedway motors makes a disc brake swap for a '61-64' F100 straight axle. I ordered one. It comes with a 5x5.5" pattern. I used a Rotten Leonards bolt pattern change tool and redrilled the hubs to 5X5". I also pressed big(er) 9/16 studs front and back. The Rotten Leonards tool in my drill press worked perfectly, 5 stars!

A suspension at last!