Van Restoration Project

[robert alston]

how did get the head liner out i was afraid of tearing it up

 

[yARIC008]

The headlinder is mostly held up with plastic clips. They have like a 1” wide head and push up into the metal roof. Also, on the sides, its usually under the plastic trim, so you have to pull those first. Also, all the seat belts and sun visors have to come down as they bolt through it Overall, not that difficult to get down. Finding large enough fabric and gluing it is the hard part.

 

[robert alston]

you pull them out by hand or a tool

 

[yARIC008]

I used some needle nose plyers.

 

[robert alston]

ok thanks

 

[yARIC008]

So been forever since I've updated this. I noticed I never showed a final picture of my wiring. I'll have to go take one and post it. The wiring job took months to complete and then I never showed the final product and how it's all labeled and organized under the sill plate. This weekend I waxed the entire van as she had been a little neglected and used touch up paint on tons of little dings. From about 3' away the van looks brand new, lol. It feels smooth as silk too. I still have the annoying steering issue where it doesn't return to center completely but I've grown to just get used to it. Maybe one day I'll figure it out. I put the OEM steering damper back on today, probably won't really help with anything though. I did today order a disc brake conversion kit for the rear drums. I absolutely hate the rear drum brakes, so the conversion will be the next major adventure. I'm hoping it'll only take a day or two to install as it looks pretty simple.

I'm also about to roll over to 400,000 miles soon and I'm pretty annoyed the PSOM is going to roll back over to 300,000. I'm almost motivated enough to try to come up with a work around to give me proper milage. I'm thinking about finding an LCD screen that will fit and using a raspberry pi to power it. Maybe I can use the VSS signal at the PSOM to figure out the mileage in the raspberry pi.

 

[yARIC008]

So did a fun little upgrade today. The lighting in the back of the van had been lacking and I realized about a year ago some vans came with courtesy lights in the rear. Even though this was an custom ordered XLT it somehow wasn't included. This van is one of the first few off the assembly line so maybe they didn't have them yet for some reason. Anyway, I found a couple NOS units and installed them today. It was terrifying cutting into my headliner after all the work that has gone into it, luckily didn't screw up too bad. I ran wires from the rear light to give it switched and constant 12 volts. Ran the wires through the AC venting which is probably how they were done from the factory.

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Cutting a hole.

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AC vent out to get some access to the back side.

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Complete.

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[Cant Write]

I never did get around to installing that turbo, oh well, maybe one day...

That was a long time ago, post #9 from 2015.

Did you ever install it? If not, is it still collecting dust and you wanna sell it? You surely don’t need it at sea level I should prolly stop being cheap and just order a hypermax kit before they stop making them.

At any rate, top notch work and I’m enjoying it. Cheers!

 

[yARIC008]

I actually ended up donating the turbo to a friend of mine and he used it on a project truck a while back. I am kind of getting worried about parts and such, these things are getting old and it's going to be harder and harder to find stuff.

 

[Bigeasy16]

I just read over this whole thread back to 2015 haha. I love the van, it reminds me of when I was 7 in first grade. Dad had a 2000 E350 with the 7.3 power stroke. He would pick me up from school in it and nobody understood why it sounded so weird . Got rid of it but seeing yours makes me want one again. Love it man!! The Things awesome!!