normaldave
GON Weatherman
About May of last year, I awoke to discover our 100+ year old Hackberry shed a ~15" diameter limb which crushed the roof, sliding door, and windshield of our 1995 Ford E-150 Club Wagon Chateau van.
No storm, high winds, or even a drop of rain. After a big cleanup and creative jack work to free the van, decisions had to be made.
Liability only insurance by choice, it is a '95 model after all, and a spare vehicle for us. Lot's of consultation and advice led me to try to sell it for parts because it is easily a total loss otherwise.
It's just old metal, and a tool we use. Why are we somewhat heartbroken about getting rid of it? "It's just an old van...what's the big deal anyhow?"
Background:
I guess I've always been a van fan. Our blended family of 6 combined with our array of outdoor adventures for the kids resulted in no other vehicle doing the job as well as a boring old van.
The first one was a 1982 Chevy G20 Beauville package wagon. 8 passenger seating, factory conversion, 305 V8 which I replaced with a 350 crate motor from GM. Tents, canoe, bikes, people, it was old school cool.
It was getting a bit long in the tooth and I weighed a full restoration against replacement. But with what? Another van of course. Ford made an outstanding factory "conversion" sold as the Chateau package. It was top of the line, and above the XLT which was Ford's standard "loaded" package of the day for vans.
A long search with several misses led me to the miraculous "How the mouse got the cheese story" of us finding a one-owner, California based, garage queen 1995 Ford E-150 Club Wagon with the fairly rare factory Chateau package with about 90K original miles that I purchased "sight unseen". This included quad seating, with the removeable third row which folded out into a bed. Front/rear factory air conditioning, factory reflective tinted glass, tow package, upgraded stereo system with separate controls and headsets\ ports for 2nd row seating, 5.8L- (351) Windsor V8, E4OD 3.55 with Trak-Loc.
The owner was meticulous to the point that he had a log of every single tank of gas hand written with mileage and notes of items checked, a stack of all service receipts back to the date of purchase, even the window sticker preserved, and an original showroom brochure for the vehicle. If this had been a musclecar I could have gone straight to Barrett-Jackson premiere car auction with it.
But, "it's just a van".
What an unbelievable blessing it was to our family. Since 2008, it has hauled the family to camping, kayaking, hiking, vacations, car trailers, Christmas lights, dinner out, visitors, building supplies...well you get the picture.
"Experts" advised I should find a donor vehicle, cut the entire roof section off and replace mine. Others said I should find another van, pull my entire interior and transfer it over.
Some friends who know my capabilities thought I should tackle trying to fix it. "Impossible" I thought. After a few days, and recognition of our years of memories and the overall utility of our pickup truck with built in seating and "truck bed cap" to keep the rain off anything I hauled, we decided to give it a try.
"I'll commit 30 days to it, and if I am confident I can get a windshield to fit and get the sliding door to close, we'll put a roof rack on to hide the damage and call it good, besides what have we got to lose?" Each time we considered taking advantage of the ridiculously high van resale market, we always found we needed it for something that none of our other vehicles could do.
Here we go: I devised a plan, measured multiple points on the drivers side, and transferred target measurements to tape marks all over the passenger side. Look at that cave-in above the passenger seat!
Then I pulled the interior seats and panels to gain access to the body itself. Lots of blocks of wood to spread the load and not crush the floor, and I began to jack, and push in key areas. Hey, this might be going somewhere.
Got the sliding door open!
Well it's better than what I started with...
No storm, high winds, or even a drop of rain. After a big cleanup and creative jack work to free the van, decisions had to be made.
Liability only insurance by choice, it is a '95 model after all, and a spare vehicle for us. Lot's of consultation and advice led me to try to sell it for parts because it is easily a total loss otherwise.
It's just old metal, and a tool we use. Why are we somewhat heartbroken about getting rid of it? "It's just an old van...what's the big deal anyhow?"
Background:
I guess I've always been a van fan. Our blended family of 6 combined with our array of outdoor adventures for the kids resulted in no other vehicle doing the job as well as a boring old van.
The first one was a 1982 Chevy G20 Beauville package wagon. 8 passenger seating, factory conversion, 305 V8 which I replaced with a 350 crate motor from GM. Tents, canoe, bikes, people, it was old school cool.
It was getting a bit long in the tooth and I weighed a full restoration against replacement. But with what? Another van of course. Ford made an outstanding factory "conversion" sold as the Chateau package. It was top of the line, and above the XLT which was Ford's standard "loaded" package of the day for vans.
A long search with several misses led me to the miraculous "How the mouse got the cheese story" of us finding a one-owner, California based, garage queen 1995 Ford E-150 Club Wagon with the fairly rare factory Chateau package with about 90K original miles that I purchased "sight unseen". This included quad seating, with the removeable third row which folded out into a bed. Front/rear factory air conditioning, factory reflective tinted glass, tow package, upgraded stereo system with separate controls and headsets\ ports for 2nd row seating, 5.8L- (351) Windsor V8, E4OD 3.55 with Trak-Loc.
The owner was meticulous to the point that he had a log of every single tank of gas hand written with mileage and notes of items checked, a stack of all service receipts back to the date of purchase, even the window sticker preserved, and an original showroom brochure for the vehicle. If this had been a musclecar I could have gone straight to Barrett-Jackson premiere car auction with it.
But, "it's just a van".
What an unbelievable blessing it was to our family. Since 2008, it has hauled the family to camping, kayaking, hiking, vacations, car trailers, Christmas lights, dinner out, visitors, building supplies...well you get the picture.
"Experts" advised I should find a donor vehicle, cut the entire roof section off and replace mine. Others said I should find another van, pull my entire interior and transfer it over.
Some friends who know my capabilities thought I should tackle trying to fix it. "Impossible" I thought. After a few days, and recognition of our years of memories and the overall utility of our pickup truck with built in seating and "truck bed cap" to keep the rain off anything I hauled, we decided to give it a try.
"I'll commit 30 days to it, and if I am confident I can get a windshield to fit and get the sliding door to close, we'll put a roof rack on to hide the damage and call it good, besides what have we got to lose?" Each time we considered taking advantage of the ridiculously high van resale market, we always found we needed it for something that none of our other vehicles could do.
Here we go: I devised a plan, measured multiple points on the drivers side, and transferred target measurements to tape marks all over the passenger side. Look at that cave-in above the passenger seat!
Then I pulled the interior seats and panels to gain access to the body itself. Lots of blocks of wood to spread the load and not crush the floor, and I began to jack, and push in key areas. Hey, this might be going somewhere.
Got the sliding door open!
Well it's better than what I started with...
