Latest Project: 2001 E350 V10 14 passenger

[Pangle]

So, I had been looking to get back into the van game for awhile now, but being that I live on an Island the pickens are kinda slim. I have a shop near my house that I use when I dont feel like doing work on my vehicles myself. I drive by there everyday and had noticed a 4x4 Quig van 14 pass sitting at the shop for some time. Come to find out the owner is a gentleman I had previous sold one of my old vans to. I contacted him and sure enough he was considering selling this one at the shop. I know it had been sitting there for some time, so I spoke with the shop owner whom I know well. He advised me that it spit a spark plug out, which is common on this era ford motors. The shop seems to think that the spark plug issue was previously repaired and the insert which was used had failed. I have yet to get my bore scope in there to see for myself what was actually going on. After speaking with the owner of the van we were able to make a deal, and I bought it basically "sight un seen" as far as the spark plug issue. It also has some rust in the lower rockers but overall its a 4x4 van with a potentially good v10 and only 70k miles.

I purchased the van for $2500 which made me comfortable enough to take the risk on the motor and being able to fix the issue. My Calvan kit arrives this weekend as well as a new bore scope which is hopefully going to tell the story or what im getting into.

IF the insert is in fact failed and still in there the game plan will be to try and determine which insert it is. I doubt its a Calvan insert as they are known to be one of the best and have a very small failure rate. I am hopeful that I will be able to use the kit to prep the cylinder for the calvan insert.

IF it is infact a Calvan insert that has failed my only hope at that point will be to use a slightly larger insert kit to bore out what is left of the failed insert and install a NON calvan insert which is larger.

This is the best case scenario... Worst case scenario, I jack it all up and have to remove the motor to get to the head to have it repaired at a machine shop!

couple of pics sitting at the lot and once I got it home...


Ill keep ya posted

 

[motovan_mn]

Great find! Looking forward to your progress on this.

 

[Pangle]

Sept 5, 2022 Update: Well let me first start by saying ....YESTERDAY WAS A GOOD DAY! The past two days have been spent stripping the interior and cleaning it as much as i could. I have found a few problem spots which will need repair but I have seen worse. The front driver side floor pan and one or two small spots in the rear of the van will need to be addressed.

I have some POR15 and a 2 gallon kit of MOnstaliner on order for when the body work is finished. I dont plan to go crazy on the body work if im honest thought. I will fix and patch the holes, seal them and coat them with some POR15. But I will not be spending days sanding and filling minor imperfections, as the MONSTA covers a lot of it.

OK, now to the good news. So i mentioned that the van had been sitting at the shop since FEB. The owner was working on it personally and had been dragging his feet. Well he apparently had misdiagnosed the issue and was scared to under take it. After purchasing the van i ordered a new bore scope and the Calvan Insert kit. When the bore scope arrived I was able to look down in the spark plug hole and it was fairly clear to me that there was no insert in the hole. Which means the issue was never actually fixed, or fixed and failed. This was great news as i could now proceed with fixing it and inserting the insert from the calvan kit. The process took about 45 min to complete, and after finishing and putting in a new spark plug the van fired right up and ran smooth as silk! I was gobsmacked that it worked, was easy, and that my gamble on this van has seemingly to this point paid off.

It does however need more cleaning and repairing issues that i had originally thought but we can work through that in time.

The previous owner used the van to drive about 4 miles from his house down into Waipio valley here on the big island, which is a fairly rough road with deep puddles, dirt and sand. HE NEVER TOOK CARE OF IT. Im surprised its not in worse shape. There was INCHES of dirt and debris in the foot wells and nooks all throughout the van. I spent the day pressure washing the van inside and out!

I havent taken the seat brackets out yet as im still waiting on the correct TORx size to come.

 

[Pangle]

Today I did some more cleaning and an oil change.. started to work on the under carriage cleaning it up and painting. Tomorrow im gonna get some body work gear etc and start prepping the body for the MONSTA when it arrives..

 

[Pangle]

OK.... so lots has been done since my last post. I have completely cleaned and prepped the van floor prior to installing the insulation, subfloor and finish floor. There were two or three minor holes that need patching but not too bad. This van was NOT cleaned ever by the previous owner. He used it to do tours in a remote valley and just left all the dust and dirt sitting inside the van. I have gone through every nook and cranny trying to clean it as best i could.

I was able to put in a layer of reflectix, followed by a 1/2" subfloor and then a finish laminate flooring with a rubber backing on the bottom to finish it off. I think it came out OK but not great. These vans are curved everywhere making it a tough go, but I think it came out nice. Of course I still need to do the finish trim etc.

I wanted to keep one of the rows of seats to carry a few passengers as needed and to divide the living areas. inorder to make it look good I had to "inlay" the brackets so it looked nice.

I have ordered solar, a fridge, bed building material, new rear light. and a bunch of other things to keep going with the project.

Monsta should be here tomorrow for painting this week sometime. I am excited to get this baby looking presentable.

 

[ace944gs]

Looking good! What is the black stuff along the base...looks like paint? Adhesive?

that van was in bad shape, lots of work to get it looking livable again.

do you have a plan for the headliner?

 

[Pangle]

@ace944gs Hey man, thanks! yeah a lot of work is an understatement!

The black stuff is a combination of layers, first was some rust conversion spray, next was the rustoleum professional black paint, and in the corners and around the edges I tried out some gorilla glue sealant spray. Its kinda thick and is supposed to seal seams etc, so I gave it a shot.

The headliner is a major eye sore! I have no plan at this point. I cant decided whether to just yank it out and put something in the roof, or take it and have it re done, which would prob cost a ton.

The plan for this van right now is to RENT it out to incoming tourists here on the big island, and use it when its not being rented. That in mind I dont think im going to go too crazy with making it as nice as possible, so ill keep it cheap-ish with some good quality parts where it matters.

 

[Pangle]

Well today i kept plugging along and it was a doozy of a day. If you have never replaced shocks on an e350 it sucks. Sucks much more when rust is an issue! But after some cussing and use of persuasion devices i was able to get it done. Brand new BIlsteins 5100s on all four corners! Pretty stoked about that.

 

[Pangle]

Today painted the van in DESERT SAND Monstaliner. I have used this color before, and I think it came pretty good. The van had some dings and dents that I was not concerned about fixing but all in all i think it came out well!

 

[Pangle]

Today: took out the front seats and floor mat to clean underneath. The pic that is attached is AFTER I cleaned it! it was horribly dirty. After cleaning I sanded with some 60 grit and painted it with rustoleum professional. Had some extra kill mat hanging around so I put that in some spots to help with sound. Also took a few pics while out at the gym.

 

[Pangle]

Today I installed Solar on the hood which is tied into the starter batt. I mounted it on the hood as when I get my roof rack back I will be installing more solar which will feed the house batts. Plus i have never mounted one the hood and wanted to see how it works out.

I plugged in the fridge and reinstalled the front rubber mat and seat. i will be getting a swivel seat for the pass front so I did not put it back in.

I also installed the floating bed platform in the rear total about 65x 69". Im gonna cut the platform out of 3/4 ply and one side will be smaller with hinges so I can flip it up. I liked the floating Idea as it maximizes the storage potential underneath.

 

[Pangle]

Today I monstalined the roof to complete the paint job... I also installed a shore power plug which will have a powerstrip inside just in case I somewhere with power..

 

[Pangle]

Little more work today: Installed a front bug deflector, and side window vents. finished the bed platform...

 

[Pangle]

Today I started the main portion of the ceiling. Used some poly bead board and I think its gonna work out well!
Waiting on the Maxxair fan to get here so I can install that and finish the ceiling.

 

[Pangle]

Today was a pretty big day.. I installed the Maxxair Fan and finished the ceiling. also added some trim to the bed and rear entry floor to make it look more finished.