Hey Everyone, New here. Just wanted to catalog my build i'm currently working on and see what you guys thought of the project. If this sub is an incorrect place for this just let me know. Ok the plan..
Take a 1950 international step van, remove the questionable chassis and 90 horse inline 6 and replant the body on a 7.3l powerstroke chassis and have the worlds only (to my knowledge) turbo diesel metro van.
seems simple enough.
First step was to find the coveted international harvester (1938-1964) shorty van, because the 7 1/2 ft body style will look all the more awesome on top of a heavy duty chassis with oversized off road tires.
These things are getting much harder to find these days and especially for a decent price. I roamed CL for a few months before one popped up that was in my price range and I drove the 250 miles to pick it up from a fellow that was thinking of turning it into a taco truck, and if I had not showed up, said he was about to trade it for an older teardrop trailer!
Bringing it home. It had 1/2in to spare on each side of the trailer. Sooo glad it fit and we didn't have to make another trip.
Here it is in all its 65 year old glory
The previous owner tried to retrofit it to be a camper and sadly threw the rear doors away to make space for an attached rear camper made of formed shed siding
They also made rear windows from square bathroom sliders, which totally clashed with the round body lines.
First Step. Clear everything out. This thing was gnarly inside. Rat poop littered every crack and they kept the original cancerous insulation within the rusted sheetmetal walls.
I underestimated the amount of junk you could pack into that tiny shell.
After hauling a trailer full of junk to the dump, I powerwashed the inside a few times. Caution, don't wear anything you want to wear again while doing this.
Pulling the body off
In 1950 this bad boy produced 90 hp at 3600 rpm. Dope.
The square windows had to go, I did like the idea of having siding that hinged open but when closed didn't disrupt the natural look of the van. So it was time to fabricate.
Planing out the shape.
Hand shaping the window frame.
Now this needs to be replicated on the opposite side exactly.. somehow.
Not shown: The framing on the window themselves and the hundreds of hours to get the gap a perfect 1/8 in on both sides.
This whole process took a few weeks and then was put on the back burner until i was able to find a donor vehicle in a decent price range.
I managed to score a 95 E350 Powerstroke with 270k miles in good running condition for less than 1K!
The width was 6" wider than my trailer, so it looks like were driving it home on these tires!
The teardown!
It was used to transport crates on a winery and everything was welded together. The only way to get to the body bolts was to cut it out.
As luck would have it the red dirt that built up on the bolts was corrosive enough to make the bolts almost impossible to loosen. Ended up grinding them out anyways. Oh well.
Removing the rest of the interior
Time to pull the body.
The plan was to seperate the cab from the body to make it much more manageable to work with, plus I could use all the stock mounting points for the steering, brake etc!
Wasn't sure if this would work. Turns out its a pretty effective way to remove a body if you have a man lift laying around.
The 1950 international chassis paired next to the new powerplant! Looks like theres some serious cutting that needs to be done.
After dropping the tank, driveshaft, exhaust, and moving the fuel lines out of the way it was time to cut.
The two wheelbases I'm working with are.
Metro shorty: 101.5 in
E350: 137.5 in
36in had to come out of the frame. I'll worry about the gas tank relocation later.
Wooo. Starting to look like a proper swap now. Next up welding the frame together.
That brings us to where i'm currently at now!
Hope this isn't too odd ball for what's appropriate here. Any thoughts, i'd love to hear them.
Take a 1950 international step van, remove the questionable chassis and 90 horse inline 6 and replant the body on a 7.3l powerstroke chassis and have the worlds only (to my knowledge) turbo diesel metro van.
seems simple enough.
First step was to find the coveted international harvester (1938-1964) shorty van, because the 7 1/2 ft body style will look all the more awesome on top of a heavy duty chassis with oversized off road tires.
These things are getting much harder to find these days and especially for a decent price. I roamed CL for a few months before one popped up that was in my price range and I drove the 250 miles to pick it up from a fellow that was thinking of turning it into a taco truck, and if I had not showed up, said he was about to trade it for an older teardrop trailer!
Bringing it home. It had 1/2in to spare on each side of the trailer. Sooo glad it fit and we didn't have to make another trip.
Here it is in all its 65 year old glory
The previous owner tried to retrofit it to be a camper and sadly threw the rear doors away to make space for an attached rear camper made of formed shed siding
They also made rear windows from square bathroom sliders, which totally clashed with the round body lines.
First Step. Clear everything out. This thing was gnarly inside. Rat poop littered every crack and they kept the original cancerous insulation within the rusted sheetmetal walls.
I underestimated the amount of junk you could pack into that tiny shell.
After hauling a trailer full of junk to the dump, I powerwashed the inside a few times. Caution, don't wear anything you want to wear again while doing this.
Pulling the body off
In 1950 this bad boy produced 90 hp at 3600 rpm. Dope.
The square windows had to go, I did like the idea of having siding that hinged open but when closed didn't disrupt the natural look of the van. So it was time to fabricate.
Planing out the shape.
Hand shaping the window frame.
Now this needs to be replicated on the opposite side exactly.. somehow.
Not shown: The framing on the window themselves and the hundreds of hours to get the gap a perfect 1/8 in on both sides.
This whole process took a few weeks and then was put on the back burner until i was able to find a donor vehicle in a decent price range.
I managed to score a 95 E350 Powerstroke with 270k miles in good running condition for less than 1K!
The width was 6" wider than my trailer, so it looks like were driving it home on these tires!
The teardown!
It was used to transport crates on a winery and everything was welded together. The only way to get to the body bolts was to cut it out.
As luck would have it the red dirt that built up on the bolts was corrosive enough to make the bolts almost impossible to loosen. Ended up grinding them out anyways. Oh well.
Removing the rest of the interior
Time to pull the body.
The plan was to seperate the cab from the body to make it much more manageable to work with, plus I could use all the stock mounting points for the steering, brake etc!
Wasn't sure if this would work. Turns out its a pretty effective way to remove a body if you have a man lift laying around.
The 1950 international chassis paired next to the new powerplant! Looks like theres some serious cutting that needs to be done.
After dropping the tank, driveshaft, exhaust, and moving the fuel lines out of the way it was time to cut.
The two wheelbases I'm working with are.
Metro shorty: 101.5 in
E350: 137.5 in
36in had to come out of the frame. I'll worry about the gas tank relocation later.
Wooo. Starting to look like a proper swap now. Next up welding the frame together.
That brings us to where i'm currently at now!
Hope this isn't too odd ball for what's appropriate here. Any thoughts, i'd love to hear them.