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1965 A-100 Project

S

stappy

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I just picked up a 1965 A-100 Window van that has been parked for 34 years (inside and on cement) and I am wishing to simply make it a daily driver/Home Depot runner/pull a small trailer utility vehicle. It is a /6 with three on the tree with 30+ years of maintenance to catch up on.

The thing I am curious about are...

1: Any good build threads of A-100's I could read through and get ideas from?

2: Any good suppliers that carry an abundance of parts for these or are they going to be scattered like I think they will be?

3: Pop out window surround frames? The metal frames around my pop out windows are rusted out and barely holding the glass in. Has anyone come up with something they made work for these? I am not against making something else work. Glass is great, metal is shot.

4: Good sheet metal source? Front of front wheel rockers, floor boards near wheel houses, left upper shock mount GONE...

5: Dakota independent suspension transplant thread???
I am sure I will have more but this will get me goin.

A100 on trailer.jpg

A100 on trailer.jpg
 
Cannot help you with much but welcome to the board, you certainly have a bit of work ahead and all you need is a dry warm workshop looking at the snow on the ground.
Are you changing out the slant six for the 440 you mentioned in another thread? Would be a wild ride with the right suspension options.
 
Aussie Challenger said:
all you need is a dry warm workshop looking at the snow on the ground.
Click to expand...
That is the story of my LIFE! I have never had a dry warm workshop and it seems most of my work is done in winter. You get used to working with gloves on.
I am hoping the A-100 acts as it's own shed and I plan on working on the engine right in the van. I intend on keeping the /6. I toyed with the notion of putting in a newer 5.7 Hemi, but size restraints and the need to get it running fast have struck that from my mind. I am thinking head resurface, valve grind, new seals, rings and bearings should breathe new life back into the old girl. :biggrin1:
 
DodgeAddict said:
Do a SuperSix intake/carb along with a electronic ignition
Click to expand...
Stappy do above and a set of headers or at least freer flowing exhaust, the slant six responds well, we here in Australia had the "Super Six" option back in '67 & '68. The timing chain set does leave a lot to be desired so upgrade to double roller for reliability, if finances allow a mild cam upgrade also as the "Super Six" or we called the "160 HP" motor had a slightly revised camshaft than the one that would be in your motor.
 
Set the head up for unleaded fuel with hardened seats
Super Six came out here in 1978 I think Do a Denso alternator from a newer Mopar & bypass that Ammeter

There's parts out there you just have to hunt the net
 
The later years, '66-'70, pop out windows work. They don't have a metal frame around the glass and have a bottom latch that mounts through the glass. The newer latches don't quite line up with the inside (they don't rest pointing down when closed) but will work. Also, as I'm going to try to do with my '65, the bottom pieces of the latches from the '64-'65 windows can be combined with the earlier top piece of the latch that goes through the later model glass. Just the pins have to be removed and replaced to mate the old inner and newer outer pieces. At least that's what I plan to try and do. I just have to find the right pins or some type of rivits.
 
As you expected, there is not one-stop-shop for A100 parts.

As for your motor needs, read up over on slantsix.org/forum There is a wealth of information there, the search button will prove quite useful. You can shave a ton off the head/block to bring the compression up. The head is the choke point, so some port work/bigger valves can help a lot. Just depends what your goal is for the engine. Erson makes a couple nice RV cam grinds. A two barrel intake/carb is a nice swap, for sure. An HEI ignition conversion is quite popular, though I'm running Petronix for simplicity sake (and a 1 wire alternator for the same reason). The ammeter conversion gets discussed a lot on the net, I leave my ammeter in, personally.
 
Super Six stuff sounds like THE ticket. I am going to pull the engine this winter and probably pop for new pistons/rings/valve job while it is out. Updated cam sounds cool and after 30+ years sitting I am thinking full exhaust will probably be required but hitting the edge of my finances.
Definite needs are full brake system switching to a two line safety system and would love to switch to discs in the front and have some ideas on a backing plate for that purpose.

Any ideas/history with switching to discs?

Stappy
 
Just a bit of advice, but you may wish to leave the engine work for last. I've seen other planned restorations where the person first rebuilds the engine and pops for new tires and wheels, but then gets bogged down with the tedious, more expensive, time consuming body work. After finding out how much work and expense is/will be involved in the body restoration, the body gets hauled off for scrap metal and the engine and wheels get sold on craigs list or a yard sale. In short, get the most tedious, difficult, exasperating stuff out of the way first while you're still pumped and excited about the job, then do the easier less expensive stuff later on when you are closer to phhysical, mental and monetary burn out. If you're really burned out by the time you get to the engine stuff, simply buy an intact, servicable engine. They are much easier to find (and install) than a solid body is.

With my D150/4-wheel drive conversion I'm doing, the first thing I did was to repair all of the rust on the cab and front clip and paint it. Doing the work myself, it has been very labor intensive, although not that expensive. Also done was swapping out the crossmembers, time consuming and exacting work, but the only expense was the gas used for the torch and grade 8 bolts. Front drive axle has been replaced, which was more money intensive, but less time consuming. Engine is now disassembled, needed repairs and parts assessed and minor stuff being done in the cab such as swapping out the stereo with a later model Chrysler unit. Most likely it will be spring before the cab will be ready to be set back onto the frame. The engine, tranny and transfer case is such a long off center unit, it's much easier to remove and replace it with the cab off. By spring I will have decided which direction I will go with the engine repairs or replacement. It will still need the badly rotted bed repaired, but I will have all summer to do that or if the price is right, I may simply replace the entire bed. I want to upgrade the old scabby seat and replace the rotted carpet, but it's possible to drive a truck with a crappy seat and temporary floor covering, and stuff like that can be done piecemeal. But to be drivable, the engine, drivetrain and preferably cab/front clip need to be repaired and functional.

Try to formulate a common sense, systematic approach to repairing your vehicle, one that takes into account your physical labor, time and financial constraints. If you're short on money, then do low cost, time intensive stuff. When you have money to work with, try to budget it out to make sure you get the most necessary, essential stuff done first and let the non-essential stuff such as upholstery, chrome, high dollar stereos and glittery wheels and big buck tires wait until later. You certainly don't want that high dollar stereo to fall out onto the highway through the hole in the floorboard and ruin your ultra expensive low profile tire when you run over it.
 
You can contact
The A-100 Van Association
4684 Walters
Harwood, Md 20776

They have a LOT of info on parts availability for our trucks.
I'm doing an A-100 pickup. Their shared info was a BIG help
 
I build/restore classic cars & boats & have done it for a living for almost 35 years now & have never did the paint & bodywork first then all the mechanicals
 
But DodgeAddict, you said it yourself, you do it for a living, which I assume means someone is paying you for your work. It makes a big difference whether you're being paid for the work or you're the one paying for the work. I think you would have to agree that when remodeling a house, there's a big difference between you hiring someone to do a 3-week turn key job or you doing it yourself, paying as you go and while trying to hold down a full time job at the same time. If so, that means you prioritize the work even if it isn't the most logical approach.

In a perfect world, you would strip a vehicle down to the frame and rebuild it as you reassemble it, meaning the drivetrain and frame would be restored first and the replaceing the doors and exterior trim be finished last. As you well know, you don't want to have the doors replaced and aligned and then try to squeeze the recovered seats through the narrow door opening. But as I alluded to, if you are on a fixed budget, get the exterior finished first because you can always ride around on a blanket covered seat, with a tired engine or with pitted chrome trim or dull bumper. Since you do restoration work professionally, you know full well how expensive it is to rechrome pitted pot metal headlight and eggcrate grill trim like that used on my '60 Studebaker Hawk. You also know that if he plans on doing the job thoroughly and do it right, our friend with the van could probably buy a low mileage Escalade for less investment. You also need to have priorities; when I was a kid, we had a very rusted out Studebaker Lark. Although it had high miles, the tough little 6 cylinder engine still ran like a champ (no pun intended as to the Champion designated engine). Of course we had brick bats keeping the seat from falling through the floor, you could see the front wheels turning through the rust holes and when driving through standing water, we had to raise our feet to keep water from splashing through the holes onto our school shoes. No matter how cold it was, we drove around all winter with the windows rolled down because of the profuse exhaust fumes coming through the floor. This is why I say fix the body first, then the engine. Sure, Dad could have overhauled the engine, but after we parked it I found the frame was rusted through in numerous places including the vital area around the spring hangers, floors worse than any Dodge truck could ever be and the body was literally falling apart. . So had dad wanted to fix it and overhauled the engine first, he later would have found the body was shot and that he wasted money rebulding the engine. The result would have been a good engine setting in the junk body, which 35+ years later is still setting behind the barn.
 
The RC in my pics has everything mechanically restored The paint is last.
It makes sense to paint a vehicle & then lean & get all over it doing the mechanic work But you have to do the interior work first so the paint guy can get overspray all over it
 
Hmm, sounds like you're speaking from experience about the paint overspray. Bet that made you happy... I certainly don't disagree with you about the possibility of barfing up a nice paint job wrenching on the engine. However, I will repeat the point I made several posts back. Several times I've seen people blow their budget fixing up or souping up the engine and mounting cool tires on brand new cast wheels, only to then find out they don't have enough money left to do the most expensive part of the restoration, body repair and paint. And then everything gets sold off for parts and the restoration never gets done.


My town job includes designing planned livestock grazing systems, which involves subdividing large pastures into smaller paddocks with electric fencing and installing underground pipelines. When dealing with large expansive, multi-year projects, I've found it's best to plan the most work being done the first year which usually includes installing a waterpump, pumphouse and electricity, a laborous and expensive part of the whole system. That way the hardest or worst part gets finished first while the guy is still enthused and full of energy. I'm presently working with a buy that installed the pump and 1 mile+ of underground pipeline plus 30,000+ feet of electric fence the first year. After that work, he told me he was glad he had the worst part over with because he didn't think he could handle 2 more years of that.
 
To each his own. friends of mine (& myself) have taken the "Do the mechanical first" approach. We usually ended up with a great running vehicle that looked like crap. I've found that as soon as a project is running correctly, it gets driven, leaving little or no free time for body & paint work. BTW, how do you paint the engine bay? undercarriage? My 2 cents
 
As for painting the engine bay, since I had everything off, after cleaning I brush painted the inner fenders with Rustoleum (the fender that covers the wheel). It seems the inner fenders rusted out where they were not painted, and at the factory the engine bay was spray painted after the front clip was assembled and installed. The part of the exterior fender where the hood hinges bolt on shielded the inner fender from being painted and that's right where the rust through holes were. For that reason, I hand painted both sides of the inner fenders as well as the entire inside of the front exterior fenders with Rustoleum. Since my truck isn't going to be a show truck, I don't care if there are brush streaks on the inner fenders. Since they get all of the moisture, dirt and road salt, I wanted to make sure I don't have to repair new rusted areas in the future. On the radiator-fender-grill support, I replaced badly rusted areas with new sheet metal, gave those areas a heavy coat of Rusteoleum and then spray painted the whole works afterwards. I've spend a tremendous amount of time derusting and painting individual parts, but when I die of old age, I want my boys to inherit a rust free truck.
 
With the many vehicles I have restored over the last 40+ years I have done the mechanicals first, brakes, steering and suspension being the most important. I then do the engine and drive train leaving the body work to last.
I have then been able to drive the vehicle and enjoy it knowing that I and other road users are safe. While the engine is out I have detailed the engine bay as when the rest of the body is being worked on it can be masked off, no over spray.
This has worked out the most cost efficient way for me to restore and enjoy the vehicle, if there was a damaged panel or door I would do something to make it look right even dusting a light color over it until I was ready to attack the outside, don't want to attract unwanted attention from the "all seeing fuzzy boys and girls".
On my LRE I will when ready be removing as many body panels for proper painting which will entail taking the truck off the road for a couple of weeks but with forward planning and budgeting won't take forever.
 
I do mechanicals & detail work as I go usually on a driver/resto project

Aussie you've laid out the way I've done it & the way my family taught me as a child growing up in a Racecar/street rod building family dating back to the end of WWII
 
Sorry "bikinkawboy" , But I'm with "Aussie Challenger" and "DodgeAdddict" on this one . There way has worked for me for 30 plus years . As a matter of fact , that's what I'm planning on my Warlock as we speak .
 
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