Confession time: I am not a fan of the forward-control, flat-faced vans of the 1960s. Not the Dodge A-series, not the first two generations of Chevrolet van, and certainly not the Ford Econoline/Falcon van. I didn’t see one of these in a running state until I was thirteen…prior to, I had seen one that rotted away in the backyard of the neighbor’s house next door to my dad, and at the ‘yard I worked at in Washington, we used one of these as a storage shed for parts. No joke…we just blasted two holes out of the side doors, ran a chain and padlock through, and stacked it floor to ceiling with parts. It isn’t often I see one of these things even move, let along built to a point where I’ll take interest, but here I have to make an exception, because just look at the damn thing. My god…I wouldn’t care if the original six cylinder and three-on-the-tree were still in place, I’d fawn over the build of this 1963 Ford Econoline all day long. The panel paint job with the silver flake trimmings. The chrome reverse steelie wheels. The unbelievably beautiful wood interior and the small custom touches that make this thing awesome instead of just another 1960s breadbox van add up within the first few seconds of walking around, yet you’d need at least an hour to pick up even half of what’s going on here if you didn’t have the owner explaining it all to you. It’s easy to appreciate the paint and the fact that it’s slammed onto it’s nuts…but go find the door hinges and see what’s been done there. Those tiny, almost minute details are what add up to make “Van Go” work as well as it does.
Funny to hear a younger guys comments about past things. If you had been from the era you’d have been out buying the shag carpeting, Muntz 4 track and building your own speaker boxes just like everyone else. The fact that you don’t get it is simply a roll of the dice timing wise. I wouldn’t trade growing up in the 50’s and 60’s for your time.