The Green Machine Diaries: The Donor Car
/November 13 - December 17, 2022
“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity..”
Last time on the Green Machine Diaries
Last time on the Green Machine Diaries (“Barn Doors!”) I patched and primed the barn doors.
Next up . . . searching for the “perfect” donor van
Five (yes FIVE) years ago we rescued the Green Machine from death-by-slow-rust when we hauled it from a side yard to its comfy resting place in our Arkansas shop. Over the years it has been cleaned up, ground down, welded up, engine revived, and (future diary entry coming) now sits in full epoxy prime. The Tin Man never had it so good! A closer look, however, revealed a few missing amenities (more pop-out windows, glove box door, and AM radio to name a few) . . . and it had a nose that looked like it had been punched by Rocky.
I “needed” a donor van!
After a hair-brained scheme to track one down in a Midwestern field went the way of Shoeless Joe Jackson, I found a 1963 Ford Econoline Travel Wagon just up the road in New Providence, PA. Providence indeed and a happy day! First generation Econolines (1961-1967) are interchangeable and the unique Travel Wagon edition had the pop-out windows I was looking for and a nose that would make any movie star proud.
STEP 1 - BUY IT
The owner and I struck a deal, which included delivery. Sweet! A good scrubbing and it was ready for closer inspection and deconstruction.
My mission: Buy it. Deliver it. Chop it. Pack it. Ship it. Fit it. Weld it. Prime it. You won’t see all that in this diary entry. I want to focus on bringing the older donor van home, cutting it up over a week and half, and then show you what was left when we sent the shell on the way to the crusher.
Tell me one more time . . . WHY are you doing this?
Despite having invested MANY hours attempting to repair the front end (let’s call it an education), the Green Machine had taken a pummeling somewhere in its past. That left it with the kind of damage that would require a team of surgeons to repair. Underneath that green paint was too much body filler.
If the Econo was going to hit the streets with a beautiful nose and winning smile I needed to go all out, and that meant a nose job — removing the front clip from the 1963 Econoline Travel Wagon and transplanting it onto the 1966 Green Machine.
Is there a psychiatrist in the house?
STEP TWO: CONVINCE MYSELF NOT TO RESTORE IT
I love a good project! I share the same sentiment as the physicians that worked on Col. Steve Austin (aka The Six Million Dollar Man), “We can rebuild [it]. We have the technology.” My thinking went like this, “But it’s a 1963 Travel Wagon, one of the earliest conversion vans — and it has a pop up roof! How cool is that!” Check out the images from the early brochure and you’ll understand my enthusiasm!
While Captain Wonderlust and Dr. Seuss were urging me on with “Oh the places you’ll go!” the more sensible me said, “True, but at what cost and what value?” It took me a day or two but I finally convinced myself, “Don’t do it!!!” The picture below gives you a sense of some of the challenges I was facing and provides necessary rationale for my decision to cut it up rather than fix it up.
But it runs and drives!
Captain Wonderlust and Dr. Seuss were not giving up without a fight. “Come on, get it running! Take it for a spin. You’ll change your mind.” And so, enticed by the Sirens of Insensibility, I did just that. I rigged a temporary fuel system, got it running, and took it for a ride around the neighborhood.
Yes, it did run and drive. However, since “Finish it!” is my mantra of the year, knocking out one project (The Green Machine) was more important than giving the Travel Wagon new life. It was time to break out the tools and take care of business.
Break out the tools
As with every phase of this multi-year project, proper tools make the job so much more enjoyable. The bulk of the work on this occasion was cutting metal, drilling out spot welds, and trying to pry seams apart (well, and pulling an engine!) so most of my tools were of the forged metal and power-assisted slicing and dicing type.
STEP THREE: TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS
I think car guys are the only people to take more pictures than new parents. So we don’t go down that rabbit hole, here’s a brief gallery of some of the “Cut up!”
Engine Pull
STEP FOUR: HAPPY TRAILS TO YOU . . .
Like the good friend in Proverbs 17:17, this Travel Wagon was born for adversity. It had seen some good days, but now it was time to send it along. Happy Trials to you!
Having totally disrupted our clean garage space (and created an unsightly mess for our neighbors) for a few weeks, I cleaned up inside and out. I stacked the van doors back in the garage as well as boxes of parts, the engine found a new corner to wait for it's next assignment, and I utilized our great attic space to put some pieces in long-term storage.
Babe, I got your car back inside!
So what’s next?
The Travel Wagon was on its way, but the rest of the parts were carefully boxed and stacked in the garage until we could haul them to Arkansas. That date was a few months away. In the meantime, next up was repairing the rear corners and then . . . Prime Time! Stay tuned!
Lessons Learned (and Re-Learned):
Dads, push your kids. I was going to go more “politically correct” and say, “challenge your kids,” but my dad never really challenged me. He just told me to do it. From a very young age, he pushed me into work that was way over my head. He showed me, he worked with me, and he trusted me. And I’m grateful for an older brother who took me under his mechanical wing.
You don’t know you can, until you do! I have seen cars cut and chopped, but this was the first one I really reduced to pieces. Take your time and figure it out.
Things have to get a little messy sometimes. A few diary entries from now you are going to see the Travel Wagon nose “surgically welded” to the face of the Green Machine. It took 30 days of metal dust, flying sparks, oil and other fluid spills, cleaning up and cleaning up again just to harvest the parts I needed (and a whole bunch I didn’t). It was a mess . . . and worth it!
You’ve got to quote it . . . and do it! Our kids have heard me quote Henry Wadsworth Longfellow for years, “The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.” Forget the “great men” part, but this little effort was the result of a few late nights. Good work takes time — and it’s usually not the 9-to-5 variety.
Brothers are born for adversity. These brothers from the sixties stand as an example of the sacrifices we must make and take to help another brother in need.
