I supose this is a good time for an introduction. I lurked this fine forum obsessively about 15 years ago in order to glean help for a DIY sportsmobile conversion.
I bought a really clean, non rusted 99 E-350, sight unseen from Michigan IIRC. My plan was to ship it to Advanced 4x4 in Utah then from there to my place in Seattle.
Actually, one the employees ended up picking it up and driving it to the shop. Anyhoo,
life got in the way of my plans and I although sold the van, I’ve never let go of the idea that I’d build a 4x4 camper van. I really wanted to do a U-Joint 4x4 E-450 box Ambo conversion but I saw telehead’s SMB on CL and figured I’d just do a body swap, and old Bob’ me uncle.
So, I called him up, we agreed on a number and I put down my deposit.
So far the transaction has been excellent. Super nice guy to deal with.
After securing telehead’s van I started scouring CL for a donor van. I wanted a reg. body cargo with a 7.3 P.S. Otherwise, I’m having to replace all the electrical harnessing behind the dash. And, I figured if I found a decent van I could either keep the Powerstroke as a spare or peddle it to offset costs. Probably the later.
Oh yah, I also wanted a color other than white.
Well, sometimes things just work out. There’s a guy in Puyallup who has a green 2001 that fit the bill. So, I rode my bike out there Tuesday evening, checked it out, haggled for a bit, loaded up the trusty KTM 620 and drove back to Seattle. The body is pretty good, I’ll address a few small spots with a hammer and dolly but, no rust or rot. The tranny seams pretty tired. It shifts late and hard. The motor though seems awesome. Really easy to start, no smoke or blow-by super smooth idle and power delivery. It’s also really clean. The guy had no records on the van at all. He only new it was a one owner company van and has a bit over 200 thou. So I dunno what work has been done???
Love these 7.3 Powerstokes though.
Anyhow, I’m super happy to be here and sure I’ll have some questions for some of you as I dive into my body swap, in fact I’ll start now, anyone know of any threads on adding a innercooler to the 7.3 PS vans ?
I’ll also have allot of nice parts f/s so, don’t hesitate to pm me if you need something. Especially if you’re local
Cheers, Paul
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