1997 Ford E-Series Van SPORTSMOBILE

[tomsjack]

1997 Ford E-Series Van SPORTSMOBILE On Ebay

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1997-Ford-E-Series-Van-SPORTSMOBILE/13?

[Twoxentrix]

its a Crow build...Curious to know why he only uses one color of paint? his way of signing his work? or just bought a crap load of the same color??? Dont get me wrong, it looks good.

[Offroading_is_Fun]

Originally Posted by Twoxentrix

its a Crow build...Curious to know why he only uses one color of paint? his way of signing his work? or just bought a crap load of the same color??? Dont get me wrong, it looks good.

Crow build?

There's been a guy who's down in SD somewhere who seems to be tearing vans down, repainting them in toyota colors (I've seen at least one, maybe two very similar vans in that toyota "cement" color) and re-building them to "as new" with anywhere between 150-250K miles. A few of them pop up on CL here and there.

Kinda wonder what he ends up being able to sell them for by the time all of his/their labor is accounted for. Figuring tearing down a van, prep, paint, putting it back together, fluid flushes (if things don't need replaced altogether), and adding any "extras"... Probably pretty easy to sink $20K in just parts before factoring any labor or base cost of acquiring the van. Does he actually replace or rebuild any engine/trans components?

Presume he tries to get 50-70K for them?

[Grampswrx]

Originally Posted by Offroading_is_Fun

Crow build?

There's been a guy who's down in SD somewhere who seems to be tearing vans down, repainting them in toyota colors (I've seen at least one, maybe two very similar vans in that toyota "cement" color) and re-building them to "as new" with anywhere between 150-250K miles. A few of them pop up on CL here and there.

Kinda wonder what he ends up being able to sell them for by the time all of his/their labor is accounted for. Figuring tearing down a van, prep, paint, putting it back together, fluid flushes (if things don't need replaced altogether), and adding any "extras"... Probably pretty easy to sink $20K in just parts before factoring any labor or base cost of acquiring the van. Does he actually replace or rebuild any engine/trans components?

Presume he tries to get 50-70K for them?

This is likely the same guy. "Crow" is an outfit in Baja Mexico that does work on the vans pretty cheap, since he is in Mexico. There is a guy in SD that gets a van, has the work done at Crow's shop and then sells them in the SD area. Having the work done in Mexico drastically reduces the cost, so he can sell them for less than they go for normally. Problem is that the work that is done isn't great. You can find UJoint youtube videos of the problems they have encountered on these builds.

[Offroading_is_Fun]

Originally Posted by Grampswrx

This is likely the same guy. "Crow" is an outfit in Baja Mexico that does work on the vans pretty cheap, since he is in Mexico. There is a guy in SD that gets a van, has the work done at Crow's shop and then sells them in the SD area. Having the work done in Mexico drastically reduces the cost, so he can sell them for less than they go for normally. Problem is that the work that is done isn't great. You can find UJoint youtube videos of the problems they have encountered on these builds.

Ah, alright. Makes sense. I had been curious about where all of these Toyota-colored "brand new with 200K miles" vans had been coming from.

Thanks for the info!

[Grampswrx]

That's not to say that the builds are all bad. If you can get one in the $30k range, its still a 4x4 SMB with lots of new parts. You just have to make sure that you change the fluids and get a good baseline on it. It's not necessarily a turn key rig.

[BeastGTRV]

This is definitely a Javier build. He's the one who takes the rigs to Mexico to have them redone. You can always tell by the quick and dirty paint jobs they have...they don't even mask off the door handles, and all the doorjambs are usually still the original color. Once they sold one this color with RED doorjambs!

Don't let the cheap price lure you in...you will have to re-do a lot to make it right...Javier does NOT do quality work. A weld broke on one of his 4x4 conversions awhile back and it flipped the van over on the freeway. Not worth the risk!

What kind of layout is that though? Looks like an SMB stove and fridge, but the sink and its cabinet looks homemade. Funny to have a toilet under your bed in the back! I guess if you need a wee just roll over...LOL!

[MSD]

Well this is getting interesting Halcon racing is the out fit that builds all of Javier/Crows vans down in Mexico, this pas week I saw another van that was built by Halcon but it was for sale by McNeil racing down in San Diego. It was identical to a Javier same bumper, steps, rack ladder & 4x4... so it appears that they are now building for more than one company. Guess this servers as a public service announcement that there is now another company selling Halcon... which has a rep of not being safe so buyer beware...

[MSD]

This is the McNeil racing van I was talking about in the post above - https://sandiego.craigslist.org/csd/...074370875.html identical to a Halcon, crows/Javier built van. But price is a lot less that what Crows would ask for same build. Picture #5 shows how horrible the track bar weld is... sort looks like chicken poop.