Van Restoration Project

laserjock

Almost there...
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You guys having issues with your red head steering boxes is got me all nervous now. I thought they were supposed to be the best. Reputation is looking tenuous.
 

79jasper

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If you research into other forums on the issues people are having lately, you would probably end up throwing in a parts store box. Lol

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yARIC008

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So been slowing working on the headliner so I can tackle other items finally. Upholstery place couldn't find material big enough for it. They wanted to do it with a seam on it so I said hell no. So after looking around forever I could only find a really really light gray, almost a white that was wide enough and long enough. So how else to solve the problem than to dye it darker myself. I've never really dyed fabric before so why not learn on the most fragile fabric around and a roll that 7 yards long and 6 feet side. UGH. It barley fit in my washer (was only tub I had nearly big enough). I swashed it around for a long while with hot water. It didn't end up getting as dark as I wanted, but it's close. Another stupid thing. I wanted the headliner place to remove the old material and put this on. He was convinced he would ruin the board trying to do that and because the old material was all still holding fine they put this new stuff over it. So, i hope it works out in the long run. I guess if not I'll be pulling it all back down and redoing it again. I think next time I'm just going to tackle trying to glue it on myself.

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Dying material, yay.

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Drying on the pool fence.


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Finally installed after a long while. Don't have all the retainer clips in yet. Still need to tweak it some too as apparently i left lots of hand prints in it. My rubber roller works well to get them out. I think it has to do with it being double layer now. Ugh.



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Got new vents.
 

DOE-SST

1994 E350
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I always wonder if every other ford van guy reacts the way I do when I see a truck engine interior. "Wow there's so much room to work in there!"

Yeah.
I try not to roll my eyes when friends ***** about working on old trucks. I've worked on most general aviation aircraft where a lot of jobs you can see the part or touch the part but not do both at the same time.

I'm blessed to have a mill, lathe, welders, etc, so I can fab up factory specialty tools in 20 minutes.
 

F350camper

BOOST!
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Looks good man! I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about the fact that its two layers now. I think it's pretty standard to cover the factory cloth. I'm sure after a couple of FL heat cycles it will be smooth as new.
Anyway, good job! And it looks great!
 

yARIC008

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Okay, so it's been a while. I've been slowing chipping away at it and have made some good progress lately. Will try to show it all here...


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The main accomplishment and the thing I've been planning for some 5 years now was defeating the roof rust. I sand blasted all of the rust off the roof and gutters. Was a nasty job and took several days while dodging the rain and heat. This picture shows some of the sand blasted area and me already applying the chassis saver.

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More chassis saver. It basically blocks oxygen and stops any new rust and stops any existing rust.

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Some of the edging...

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Roof finished with the black chassis saver. It got two coats of this. While I was doing this I found rust around the windshield...
 

yARIC008

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So, out came the windshield.

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cleaning it and priming it.

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Nice new windshield with new OEM molding. No more rust. Wish I had taken better/more pictures of the rust situation. I used a needle scaler and sand paper to get most of it off. Would have loved to have sand blasted it, but what a mess that would have been...

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With window rust fixed, applied two coats of aluminum chassis saver to roof. Really should have done this first then the black. But I figured that out a little late.

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Did A pillars too.
 

yARIC008

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After the layers of chassis saver and urethane sealant around the edges and new windshield. The white Monstaliner was put on. This is midway through 1st coat.

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Here it's done. It turned out okay. It started to cure half way through the second coat so i got chunks of rubberized coating in it. So that sucked. If i want it to look better only choice is to do another coat. Important thing is it's completely rust and water proof now. At least for the next 50 years or so hopefully.


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After i got the roof all sealed I did a leak check and hoped to find nothing. Butttt..... still had a damn leak. So long store short, i ended up pulling all the windows out and resealing the Butyl between the window spacer in the van. It wasn't too bad of a job and was much easier than I thought it would be. Manged to not break any of the glass. The old Butyl came off fairly easy, which is probably why it was leaking.

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Found more rust under this window so sanded it all down and put a layer of chassis saver, then white touch up paint where it would be seen. Glad I got this rust cleaned up. Also, all the nicks that were created getting the windows out were sealed back up with touch up paint.

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Another shot of the windows out. The edges cleaned up real well with MEK.
 

yARIC008

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And all back together. Nice to report no known leaks or rust now...

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Found new bug shield finally, woho. I like the look of this one much better than any of the new ones. They only made this one for a year or two back in 1992.

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Nicely sealed front cowl against new window.
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So finally on to putting the interior back together. Finally found a new steering wheel too. I didn't really want the leather wheel, but i guess technically it's an upgrade. It feels real nice.

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Got the new center console painted up with OEM charcoal.
 

yARIC008

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All the new trim redone and reinstalled. Finally coming together...

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This door still needs some work, mainly the chunk out of it. Would really like to just find a new whole piece, but haven't been able to find it.

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Getting there. Installing more insulation as I go to by gluing it to the back of the plastic.

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Getting interior back in, cleaning it all up and dying/painting with PPG elastomeric stuff that's all OEM color.

Well that's it for now... one of these days it will be done...
 

genscripter

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Man... what you trying to tell me here? lol

And, i'd really like to see that van up close. Never seen another IDI van in person of 92-94 vintage.


From the CL ad: "Need serpentine belt reinstalled."

Uhhh, that's a 8 minute job. Something tells me that van was severely neglected.
 

yARIC008

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Not that I update this very often anymore. But, recently I put my red head steering gear back on. It sure drives tight but still no return to center, kinda just figuring it must be the tires at this point somehow.

I replaced the entire steering column at the same time, the refurbished column came with new shifter bushings and bearings for the steering shaft and ignition slides and such. I get no more clunks or anything while driving now or turning and if shifts so smooth into gear. I also replaced the steering column to steering box shaft. I had replaced from the steering box up to the first joint a while back, but went ahead and replaced the rest. Got all the parts from Borgeson, pretty easy to do.

At the same time as all that I ended up having to replace the clock spring too as it blew up from being old and I guess getting some WD-40 in it. The steering wheel just kinda bound up, i opened it up to the picture below.

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Literally 100% of the steering system is new now over the last 5,000 miles and no return to center. I'm going to take it to get aligned one more time next week as the red head has to use a different pitman arm with a slightly different angle. So the alignment probably is out some small amount now, but I don't anticipate it will fix the return to center. Probably in the next 3-4 years I'll replace the tires again and need to figure out what to get.

My list of things to fix gets smaller and smaller by the week. I'm almost down to just driving it now and not needing to fix things.
 

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