Here’s my 1983 Econoline.
I’ve been lurking on here a while, and haven’t seen anything quite like it, so it thought I would join and share it with everyone.
My uncle (who got me into vans and cars in the first place), ordered this through a dealer, and picked it up a few months later as it was coming off the assembly line in Lorain, OH. That was only two weeks after I was born (2/5/1983). This was actually his second or third Econoline, and he wanted a cool cruiser to replace his ailing 1973, that he used for work and play.
He ordered this with all the necessary factory options, air, 351W/C6 auto tranny, cruise control, all heavy duty suspension (for an E150), heavy duty cooling, and so on. But he ordered it with seat, radio, and wheel deletes. He drove it straight from Lorain to Star Truck in Pa to have the conversion done. They put the high top on, put a bed in the back, wired it for lights and sound, put in custom cabinets, and put cut pile carpet on the walls and floor, with a velour headliner & accents. He then took it to Akron for the flares, visor, and Enkie wheels.
He used it for camping until the early ‘90’s, and then he built a house and basically put it into storage. Through the decade, we took it out to Norwalk a few times (camping only, not down the track), and took it to Cedar Point a few times.
Unfortunately, he passed away a few years ago.
My mother (uncle Billy’s sister) was kind enough to buy it off the estate, and she gave it to me as a gift (she & dad kept the GTO & El Camino, though…).
I have since been tinkering on it and using it for camping, and going to races. I replaced the two barrel with a summit carb (works great, and would recommend it to anyone), and an Edelbrock Performer intake, and added an MSD ignition. I also just got done rebuilding the rear end, and upgrading to 3.70 gears, and put a shift kit in it, so I can pull my race car trailer with it.
Let me know what you folks think, and I’ll post more pics.
Thanks,
Big Ricky
PS, if anyone has ANY info on star truck, I would like to hear it.