Thanks everyone, glad to be here!
Welcome to the site!
Best of luck with the new van. Any future plans right away?
Hey man, thanks for asking!
Right now it's at the bodyshop – they're going to tear everything out, repair all the metal and repaint it white (it's cheaper and I like it). After that I need to get a good mechanic that knows this sort of American engines (definitely not the norm around here to have a V8 diesel) and probably rebuild it as well. I'm pretty sure the trans never switched to 3rd gear when I drove it, so I'll need to get that checked. Ideally I'd like to swap for a 5-speed but that's likely impossible to get here.
The interior wasn't great either as the dashboard was pretty trashed, with custom s**t in it like a BMW button for electric windows, relocated horn and steering lights "buttons" under the cluster, or a cheap temp gauge in Spanish
. Steering column looked pretty bad too – the shift lever got locked in park once and I had to unlock it by pushing some metal spring thingy on a hole in the left side of the steering (not to mention it feels extremely loose). The door panels were also missing as far as I recall. So getting the interior to look good and original will take a lot of time and money for sure.
After I get all of that sorted out I want to add a mattress, little fridge, someplace to cook, some interior lighting and go on a road trip to Brazil. So maybe in a couple of years
Cheers!