TWELVE QUESTIONS WITH STEVE LUCKETT

EDITOR'S NOTE: With the launch of our website last week, we're going to get busier with our web blog by reaching out to fellow vanners who are either in the throes of building the next generation of early custom vans or have just finished creating a vintage van worth talking about. To that end, it's time to dust of the Vinvanco's "Twelve Questions" format, which we began with the Shiner Beer van, and continued with Coby Gewertz and his incredible Van Go. We recently reached out to Steve Luckett who has been sharing pics of the early Econoline panel van he's been building with his own two hands. Still in its build phase, Steve was good enough to let us in on some of the things he's learned as his van approaches ever closer to the road. We can't wait. 

ACE KUSTOM VAN BUILDER STEVE LUCKETT ANSWERS 12 QUESTIONS:

1. WHAT'S THE BACKGROUND STORY OF YOUR VAN. HOW DID YOU FIND IT AND ARRIVE AT YOUR BUILD PLAN? 

Well, I had always been into vans since before I was driving and my first vehicle was a '79 Chevy van. I did its body work and paint. I always wanted a vintage flat- faced van but never thought I would find one. Years later and along came the internet. I found out they really are out there, and that sometimes you have to drive pretty far to get them. 

Back in 2006, I saw the yellow bagged Econoline that had popped up online, and it was downhill for me after that. I knew I had to build my own Econoline.  One that would lay rocker and sit on the ground just like the yellow one did. I scoured  the Internet for pictures of that van and saved every one of it that I could find. I discovered there were two bagged Econolines that were able to lay frame. I actually scored my van relatively near me, from a guy on the H.A.M.B. for $650 and it was a driver. I drove it for a couple of years before I dove in. 

2. DID YOU TALK TO OTHERS WHO HAD DONE IT BEFORE YOU STARTED. IF SO, WHAT DID YOU LEARN? 

Not at first. I studied those two vans and noticed that they were both unfinished trailer queens built by mini truckers and never finished. I studied them both and to figure out what i would do differently when i did mine. I was full-on committed to doing my van and was pretty far into doing all the body work, custom sheet metal work and had my floor cut out with just the cross members showing. 

Then I discovered Coby Gewertz on the H.A.M.B. and his Van Go project, which was way further along than mine. I started pestering him and he was helpful from the very beginning, telling me about all the issues that were going to come about. There had been other vintage vans that had Air-Ride suspension, either just in the rear, or front and rear, but Coby’s Van Go was the first bagged Econoline to lay rocker and most importantly to drive. A lot of people truly don't get that and unfortunately end up bailing out of their project when the going got too tough.

3. WHAT HAS BEEN OR IS THE HARDEST PART OF THE BUILD?

Pretty much Everything. Haha. There isn't a forum you can turn to with tons of knowledge or direction to send you down the right path of building something like this. There aren’t a ton of people who've already done it that you can consult with. It's just not out there. Everything had to be figured out on my own because I did the entire van myself. The hardest fabrication aspect of the van was the front end and the path I chose. 

(Steve: If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.)

I opted to keep my stock motor and tranny with the 3 on the tree and that opened up another can of worms with the shift linkage and getting it around the new front crossmember. I chose to convert to cable and it worked out good.

4. WHO HAS BEEN THE MOST HELPFUL TO YOU ALONG THE WAY? ANY MENTORS?

Coby Gewertz and Tim Conders. Their Van Go project really paved the way for me and showed that it's possible to do this and make a slammed Econoline totally drivable. Brian Morris talked me through a lot of my hardships, too, with doing the front brakes and filled me in on doing the affordable Isuzu steering gearbox.

5. WHAT PARTS DID YOU USE TO ACHIEVE THE FRONT END DROP? My front end is a universal bagged Mustang II kit that was grafted into my frame, which has a 5" body drop. The biggest obstacle was that the widest mustang clip offered was nowhere near the width between my frame rails and I basically needed to be sub-railed in. You can get a lot of drop with just a clip but you have to revise the frame to get   the body drop to sit all the way on the ground. The steering rack needed to be flipped, since the van’s steering column is in front of the front axle instead of behind the axle like in the Mustang. By doing this, you end up reversing the way the steering works. So you have to reverse it again to make the steering normal. The Isuzu gearbox comes directly off the stock column to make the steering normal again. The biggest nightmare for me on this entire project was overcoming this and making it even worse was the fact that the master cylinder/brake booster, shift linkage, and the gear box are all in the same spot. Trying to make everything clear the others things and work properly was a challenge.

6. WHAT ARE YOU USING FOR A STEERING BOX AND STEERING COLUMN?

I kept my stock steering column but moved it down about 2 inches in the column support. At the end of my column is a steering rag joint that goes directly into the Isuzu steering box, which in turn goes back to the rack. It took quite a bit of thinking to make a mounting bracket to hold the gearbox and it also needed the master cylinder/booster attached to it.

7. TALK TO ME ABOUT THE FABRICATION WORK THAT WAS NEEDED ON THE INNER FRONT DOORS. DO YOUR FRONT WINDOWS ROLL ALL THE WAY DOWN?

Since the frame is 5 inches higher than it was originally, the fender wells had to come up to allow clearance for the tires. I built my front wheel wells so there is only about 1/2 inch of clearance when the van is fully aired out. I did this knowing that if I kept them as tight as possible, it would give me the most headroom clearance since the van’s seat mounts on its wheel wells. Now that the wheel wells were raised the inner front doors needed to be cut out for clearance. My windows don't go the all the way down because of the way my wells were built. The windows stick up about 2 inches.

8. HOW ABOUT THE REAR END, WHAT ARE YOU RUNNING AND HOW ARE YOU SUSPENDING IT? 

I’m running a bagged four-link setup that is tied into my frame’s 5-inch body drop. For me, hanging the rear and making the frame modifications was the easier part of the project.

9. WHERE DID THE IDEA FOR SINKING-IN THE HEADLIGHTS AND TAIL LIGHTS COME FROM?

Well, since Coby and his crew set the bar so high with Van Go, I really wanted to take as much of a different path as I could to make my van different. I figured I could probably achieve this by sheet metal work. My body mods are just a lot of old school kustom tricks that all the big guys used to do to the hot rods I grew up being blown away by. I took a lot of those concepts and tried to add as much of my own flavor as I could to come up with something different. I took a lot of chances with some of the stuff and it seemed to work out OK. 

10. WHAT PARTS COULD THE AFTERMARKET COMMUNITY PROVIDE THAT WOULD MAKE DROPPING A VINTAGE VAN MORE FEASIBLE FOR OTHER ENTHUSIASTS?

That seems like it may be a hard one to answer. Aftermarket bolt-on lowering items are one thing, and there is a lot of universal stuff out there to help you, but there's comes a point where every inch it goes down some crazy new obstacle to tackle rears its ugly head. A lot of people look at a slammed van and think it's no different than doing the same to a truck or car, but they're wrong. The fact of is there are few vehicles as challenging because you are sitting over the axle in a first-generation van. There's a point when you are going to lose an inch of headroom for every additional inch of lowering.There's just no way around it. That and the steering configuration are two of the biggest things to overcome.

11. ANYTHING YOU WOULD HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY?


Yes! When Brian Morris did his wheel wells, he set them in enough to allow his windows to roll all the way down. I was already pretty far into doing mine when I saw what he'd done. I really thought I was going to be able to pull off getting the windows to go all the way down without doing that. I wasn't. But I can live with the compromise in comfort for the end product. Also, my van’s body was fairly riddled with rot. It would have made a lot more sense to start the project with a cleaner donor. I guess you deal with what you have.

12. WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE OTHERS PLANNING TO BUILD A VINTAGE VAN?

I would say just study what all is going on and understand how much metal work is involved in getting these on the ground. It really takes a lot of commitment to the project. Good luck!