Dan Dan the Van Van, the 1987 E-150

OK, rain today (and all the rest of the week) so likely no work will get done until the weekend. I don't have spare time between now and friday afternoon anyway, so i'm glad it's going to rain. It'll help the garden.

Turns out DMC is still in business in Butler, WI, and they do more than just vans. They have a pretty impressive website and it seems much of their staff working now was working back in the day when this van was made! Pretty awesome if you ask me. We'll see if they tell me what paint colors these are, since I struck out searching. I checked paintref.com and expresspaint.com to no avail, I got like white and blue, neither of which is brown/gold. I found a couple paint colors from the same era (1987, the year of the van, and 1986, the year of purchase of the van and conversion work) but it is a guestimate from internet pictures.

I have decided, I will buy a buffer if I can find a decent one for a decent price. I don't want a cheapy garbage one, but i don't need pro-level equipment either. any suggestions?

Also, I want to rust patch and do my best to get the paint colors right. All 4 of them. This will be a little later on, since I want to wash/polish/wax the whole thing first, and the weather has to warm up enough for paint to work. That should keep it from looking like a patchwork van until I can repaint it in the far future. I may not go full-tunatruck on this, but I will probably have to learn to weld before i'm through...

Any advice on the rust patch painting when the time comes? Paint gun? get aerosol? That mastercoat rust primer can be brushed and sanded smooth according to their website and topcoated with any primer/paint, so I won't need to spray that, but i'm assuming hand brushed paint stripes will look almost as bad as wrong color stripes.

again, far future plans here.

The Porter-Cable 7424XP is the buffer everyone seems to recommend, especially for beginners. I just picked one up, I've only used it a little, but it seems like a nice little machine. For heavier-duty use, I have a Makita 9227C, but it can do some damage if you're not careful with it.

thanks! I looked the 7424xp up, it appears to be available everywhere and the price seems fair. I may need heavy duty type buffing for this project, but i'd rather go for the one with less chance of me screwing up something. Heck, after doing stuff by hand so far, i'm sure any buffer would seem heavy duty!

Edit: it appears to be available at many local outlets... online only At least shipping to home depot for store pick up is free.

It also has great reviews, one suggested using only the 3 lowest settings. I'll have to make a case to Mrs. Rufledt for the added expense. It will help if I can justify it to help fix a bit of her car's paint problems

I got mine from Amazon. As cheap as any place else, and you can have it in a couple of days.

Thanks for the tip! and it's prime eligible, so I could have it in 2 days... tomorrow is wednesday... I could potentially have it by friday! Probably won't order it right away. We need a glider for wife and baby, and those expenses come first.

Any other students out there, you can get free prime for 6 months, then half price for the remainder of the time you are a student (must be confirmed with a .edu email address).

I emailed back and forth with Ron (general manager) at DMC, who was working there at the time this van was made. Ron was very helpful. He helped clear up the sticker, turns out I was misinterpreting which code applied to which color, and while he didn't know the exact years/names of the paint colors, I have a plan to find them out. He also told me where I might find some info on fabric colors used on the flexsteel chairs, and gave me some background on the interior work.

He said DMC was the first place to come up with a TV that folds away into the ceiling. This is more impressive to me because it isn't a flat screen, it's an 80's TV. Not only does it and the VCR fold away out of sight, but there is sound wired into the van, so that people in the seats can listen through headphones without the driver having his ears melted off by loud TV speakers. I don't have pics of this at the moment, I'm going to focus on exterior first, but i'll get to it.

He also mentioned the storage cabinets in the back where clothes can be hung. Those are accessible through the rear doors, and back there is also an integrated cooler. The cooler and closet rails can be removed if more space is desired. It's a good set up. Additionally, it's all solid oak. I haven't found any plywood even. The plastic the cooler is made of isn't doing so great anymore, but i'm pretty sure the company that made the cooler didn't anticipate a 30 year use life.

Weather is going to be cold and dreary until maybe wednesday now. I sure wish I had a garage big enough for this...

Ok a random problem has arisen... turns out there are a lot of colors that match each code that look like the colors on my van... The ford color was easy enough, but there are like 20 different GM colors of each code, depending on the year (which again, I don't have, though for one I have a good idea). I suppose I need a book of paint chips for comparison, like I assume paint shops have. For the Chrysler color i'm drawing a blank. I found a 1987 color that looks like what I think the color is (depending on where it is on the sticker) but the code is way not the same. Luckily I have a while to figure this out.

Are you planning to repaint the van in factory colours or is this just for touch up paint??

Touch up where there is currently rust. Eventually I wouldn't mind repainting everything, but if/when that time comes, it will be simplified, and i'll probably use easier to find colors.

In reply to Rufledt:

I know a few bodyshops around here have a machine that actually matches your paint using a computer and....uhhh...witchcraft, I dont know how, but maybe try that.

good idea, i'll have to find a place to buy paint anyway. If they can match the paint via cameras and witchcraft, then maybe the new paint will match the 25-30 years of sun fading, too.

Minor update! The weather was great for some of this week, except today. Unfortunately I was too busy until today to do any work, but by the time I was home, the sun was going down. No detailing got done, and now weather. com thinks it's going to rain all weekend. Meh.

Anyway, there's a new problem. It cold starts and runs like garbage until it starts warming up, then it's fine until it is fully warm, then it idles a little poorly. Also, the temperature gauge stopped working. It's stuck saying the engine is slightly warm all the time. I'm thinking coolant temp sensor is bad. Does that sound right?

the manual shows it's location, and it's gonna be really annoying to get to since it's a van and the entire overly elaborate intake is in the way, but while I'm in there (dangerous, right?) I might as well clean out the throttle body again and check a few other things. The spark plugs are fairly new in comparison to the rest of everything i'll find in there (replaced 8 years ago if I remember right, so those are probably at the "replace" level of mileage if I follow the service schedule) but much of the rest is original. I can also get a good look at the rust situation in the engine bay.

Replaced the sensor, and it runs beautifully now. Never better. In fact, it hasn't run this well since, well, since before the sensor stopped working! go figure. I tried taking some pics, but I quickly got too greasy and dirty to touch my camera. Also, the location of the sensor is very difficult to reach, and hoses in the way screwed with the camera trying to focus. I'll describe the situation, then. I first removed the overly complicated labyrinth that is the intake. It seems to me Ford could've used half as many parts and a few less sharp bends, and made an intake that flowed better, while simultaneously not taking up so much room as to require complete removal for literally every task involving engine service. You even have to remove part of it to check the transmission fluid. I think I could hit up home depot and auto zone, and make a better flowing intake for under $50, and I have no fabrication skills. I'm not going to try, though.

after all, like, 6 feet of 90 degree bend plastic, corrugated plastic, and large hoses tied almost like pretzels, I could see the sensor. That doesn't mean I could get my tools in there. no, I had to remove a LOT more. Did you know nearly 30 year old hoses that have never been removed really HATE being removed? I know now. I didn't even have to remove too many, but if I could have it would've made the job a lot easier.

Random fact, inadvertently breaking the old part in half trying to remove it is not part of the preferred method. It did, however, make my short 1" socket much easier to fit over the part. I would've been screwed it that was something expensive that wasn't broken! It was broken, or at least it became broken.

A few questions to any of my readers: If you accidentally get radiator fluid on the serpentine belt, thus unleashing the wail of a million ghosts being skinned simultaneously, how long does it take before the squealing goes away?

And when I do actually need some of those hoses to let go of their death grip, how would I go about removing them?

A cotter key removal tool works great to loosen hoses. Just slip it into the end of the hose and work it around the water pump/radiator outlet whatever.

In reply to Don49:

Thanks for the suggestion, looks like it would work pretty well. I can get most of the larger hoses off like the intake hoses, radiator hoses, etc. but the smaller coolant hoses seem stuck. Would a cotter key tool work for those? They look cheap enough I could get one and try it out next time I need to remove a hose.

There was one right above the coolant temp sensor that I had to yank for quite a while before it finally slipped off. I was afraid i would rip it before it came off, but it slipped off without damage. The temp sensor wasn't so lucky, though. I couldn't get my 1" socket over the end far enough to reach the nut, so I was using a crescent wrench and accidentally ripped the plastic end off the sensor! Then it was easy to get the socket over it and remove it. I'm glad that turned out to be the problem, otherwise I would've had to replace that, AND whatever turned out to be the problem.

Inadvertently ripping the sensor in half to ease removal may not have been a suggested tactic, but it certainly worked!

No more cleaning/polishing done yet. I had only a little time so I waxed my RX8. At one point a couple years ago a shop detailed it and must've screwed up when the buffer because there is a tiny spot on the rear bumper with the paint burned through I didn't notice it until I really closely looked at it, so it's hardly noticeable, but it still really pisses me off. I know I didn't do it, I've never used a buffer on it... I can't exactly blame them for work done years ago, though, and I have moved far away. Oh well. The car isn't perfect, anyway. I am not a happy camper right now.

The belt on the van squealed much less now. at this rate it should be silent by the weekend! Or at least it will be quiet enough I won't hear it over the engine roar and wind noise.

Another mechanical issue has cropped up. The hood release doesn't work so well. It hasn't for a long time, just a slow decline, now it's much worse. I greased it, and i'll see how that works. If not I'll have to adjust it. Hopefully i won't get too greasy to use the camera!