6/24/2011

Wow. Now I know why that van was so cheap. It was CRAP. OK, it looked acceptable, the body was in decent enough shape and the paint was OK except for the front of the roof where the clear coat was peeling, the tires looked in good shape, and the glass was good. The interior was dirty, like old dust which had gotten wet dirty. It didn't smell too bad. So cosmetically it would have been fine. We go the keys and I fired it up. Hoo boy! The zorst sounded awesome! Nice and rumbly. However it did lope like it had a cam. “That ain’t ten cylinders firing,” I thought and may have said to John. But it did sound tough. I revved it a few times and it really sounded good. The air conditioning was turned on MAX and the fan was on full blast but there was little to no air coming out of the dash vents. It was stuck on defrost somehow. It was blowing cold air out of the defrost vents, I will give it that. I decided to take it around the block anyway, even though I'd pretty much decided against it already. It dropped into gear and pulled away from the parking spot. The steering and brakes felt good. I pulled out onto the road and easy gas application felt pretty good. The transmission wanted to hold first, or maybe second, a little longer than I thought it should but they were very short streets. I got to the light at FM 78 and had to wait to turn right. I watched the temp gauge and it stayed pretty steady. The air kept blowing cold-ish out of the defrost but it was still hot in there. Eventually the light changed and I turned right. Yeah, that weren’t no 440 foot/pounds. Fifi... hell, Lil' Wiggly with the worn out A-14 could have out accelerated this thing. I had to let off the gas to get the transmission to upshift and when it hit about 30 miles per hour there was a weird “DRDRDRDRDR” sound/vibration somewhere. It also seemed somewhat independent of engine/road speed. The lot entrance came up pretty soon so I just turned in rather than going further. I parked it and gave my assessment. “T’ain’t good,” I said, or at least that was the gist of what I said. John and I discussed it and I said, “Even if I got this for $500.00, I still couldn't get it home.” I gave the keys back and we left. I do not regret going to look at it, in fact I'd be kicking myself forever had we not gone, but it was a monstrous waste of time. Many thanks to John for going with me on that wild goose chase. We headed back and John's wife and kids joined us at Don Pulido’s for dinner. I made it home at about 2045 h and had just enough time to get into comfy clothes before Futurama started. So, I didn't buy a van. On the trip home, John and I discussed what I'd really like and I think I might start seriously shopping for a cab-over van. My first choice would be a Dodge A-100 because they were available with a 318 and three-speed manual transmission. Since that is not going to be a likely find, a Ford E-100 would be my second choice. Wait, that’s not quite right. If we’re talking straight-six to straight-six, I'd probably choose... no, it would be a tossup actually. I like the Slant Six in the Dodge, but the Ford six is available in much bigger displacements. I know John, I'm getting to Chevy. I'd “settle” for a Chevy cab-over with the big “Stove Bolt” six as long as we’re talking manual transmissions. Once I have to settle for a slush-box, hmm, probably Ford, Dodge, Chevy, in that order of preference and only with V8 conversions. Now, having said all of that, I got a call from Kevin this morning to say that the LaGrange swap meet is this weekend. We’ve seen a cab-over Ford at those events in the past. I hope it is in my price range. Well, assuming it is drivable. Lack of air won't be a deal breaker just yet because I wouldn't have a problem adding a roof top unit to a cab-over... as long as it is a V8. We even discussed doing a V8 four-speed swap into one. It shouldn't be too tough but I don't need another project. Sure, adding A/C could be considered a project but... shut up. So’s your face. So, the plan right now is to go to the shop early tomorrow, try and get Barbecue Bob up and running, cut out around noon, eat lunch probably, and then go to the swap meet to look for my new van. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, a Dodge A-100 would be Agnes, a Ford E-100 would be Edna, and a Chevy G-10 would be Gladys. Yeah, I like those options. Well, I'll let y'all know what happens when we talk again on Monday.