For more than 50 years, the Ford Econoline was a staple in the full-size van market. From 1961-2014, it served business fleets, tradesmen, organizations, and families with a straight-forward product. The second generation ran from 1969-74, which includes the seller’s 1972 Econoline Club Wagon, a nice example that worked for the U.S. Air Force and is available through a dealer in Springtown, Texas and here on eBay where a no reserve auction has reached $5,375.
The Ford E-Series (aka Ford Econoline and Ford Club Wagon) was a range of full-size vans produced for 53 years before being replaced by the Transit. For much of that time, it was the best-selling full-size van in the U.S. at almost 80% of the market. The E-Series is second to the F-Series in longevity of models produced by Ford. The second generation began to move away from its car-based roots to be more like Ford’s trucks. They now placed the engine at the front of the vehicle, resulting in a prominent doghouse protruding from under the dashboard. This enabled most repair and maintenance work on the motor to be done inside the van with the engine cover removed. Thanks, Truck Trend, for the Econoline history lesson.
The seller/dealer tells us this van was originally owned by the U.S. Air Force and assigned to McCord Field Air Force Base as a transport. It did its job for nearly 80,000 miles and was then stored and lost inside a military facility until a couple of years ago. In order to get it going again, the motor was recently serviced in order to get it moving, including a new water pump, fuel pump and starter. This van came with the 302 cubic inch Windsor V-8, which was relatively new to the E-Series at the time. This one also has an automatic transmission which is said to go through the gears properly.
Body-wise, this Econoline is straight and rust-free, with just a few scratches here and there. The chrome, especially in the front, looks new. How the original paint held up this well given that it was probably operated by a large number of people is amazing. The interior is not quite as nice, especially in the rear cargo area. Lots of scratches and scrapes there along with worn-out carpeting. The driver’s seat has some tears to attend to, but the others look fine. The passenger’s side door panel has more scrapes than the rest, so it depends on how picky you are as to whether you would refresh those. The glass is original and looks pretty good. This is a regular Club Wagon; if it was the Chateau version, it would have a lot more goodies and creature comforts.
This looks like a great van to make some small corrections to on the insides and then start using. Most of these vans have been all used up by now and are out in junkyards somewhere. The few I’ve seen online that rival this one seem to be going for $20,000 or more. So if the bidding doesn’t go too high, someone might end up with a great transport at a nice price!
Let’s say you have the occasional need to transport a group of people (soccer team, church group, etc.), but not often enough to justify a new van. Plus let’s say you like to frequent Cars & Coffee, enjoying the now-uncommon vehicles which sometimes appear. Well here’s your chance to do both, for not much money. Plus you get period-correct colors inside and out !!
Now that’s a beast! I can remember a long-standing German Catholic family at home showing up for church in one of these back in the day. The van would stop, the doors would open and people didn’t stop coming out. Twelve kids. They could’ve started their own zip code. These actually worked out very well. One would’ve thought they would severely be lacking in power with that minuscule 302 when in reality they went just fine. A lot of them in the country eventially.
Ford really turned a corner in vans with these, compared to the old “Falcon” Econolines, but make no mistake, these were still miserable vehicles. While they had a special purpose, like geomechs sez, church groups, boy scouts, city delivery and such, they are hard to work on, funky front seating, hot/cold, handle like a box, useless in the snow and still have that “cabover” feel, which I can take or leave. The next gen Econolines were much better, and I was glad to see these fade from the scene.
I find it strange that it was supposedly a USAF vehicle, yet it isn’t blue. I was active duty from 76-97, and NEVER saw a USAF vehicle that wasn’t blue. Additionally, military vehicles were pretty sparse in the amenities. Also, they generally had a metal placard on the dash stating what the vehicle is, including a NSN (national stock number). Also, at the beginning of my career, this age of vehicle, 4 years, would STILL have been in service, for those folks saying color doesn’t matter.
Not sure what added value the seller gets by saying it’s a USAF vehicle but yes, I think you raise some good points. I wonder what the proof is?
Also, military vehicles are usually sold at a government auction. Not stored.
Mr Dave, you are correct. This is no Air Force vehicle. They are radio delete, for starters, they would not pay extra for chrome bumpers and upgraded interior trim level, and yes, they all have nomenclature tags on the dash. Only Air Force connection possible here is that Someone stationed at Mc Chord AFB was PCS ing out, and didn’t sell the vehicle in time thus abandoning it on Base somewhere. At Kadena AB, even the fleet of ’73 AMC Matadors assigned to OSI still had the nomenclature plates on the dash, even though they had standard POV license plates to blend in and not be conspicuous.
I never thought of someone PCSing and leaving the vehicle behind. A stranger thought would be is it stolen? That could be a reason there is no title? Or did I get no title confused with another barn find?
David,
Good points, Considering I work a few miles from Kadena next time I’m looking at old pics here I’ll have to check and see if I can spot one of the Matadors,
The statement of Air Force owned and stored could mean it was abandoned in storage by someone who PCS’d and a lien was put on the title making the air force the owner similar to a mechanics lien (I know they do this in Hawaii with vehicles abandoned on base) then it was sold at NAF property sale
If it was owned bay a NAF entity it could be any color and no nomenclature plates would be there as well
Ooof! The valve guides on those 302’s were bad. Our 74 Econoline’s went out at 32, 000. At this point I bet they’ve already been replaced. If not, buyer beware. It does remind me of my teenage years!
Back around this time I was hiking down the road near a local small private college and this same type of van pulls up and asks directions. It was full of the most beautiful young college aged women I think I have ever seen. Let me tell you, I slept well that night with pleasant dreams. To this day, almost five decades later, I can still describe those women in fairly good detail. I tell you, made my day. Bless the Ford engineers that designed that van!
Also, military vehicles are usually sold at a government auction. Not stored.
I was wondering if anyone would notice, but, I will comment. Not saying this is the ACTUAL van, but, it looks exactly like the one used in the James Bond “Diamonds are Forever” movie.
I was thinking the same thing, but the one in the movie was all metallic green , not two tone .
I recall the cargo version of these quite well. At the time my Dad was a U Haul dealer and they had loads of this that rented well. We came across one we hung onto for a longtime for our own use and renting. This was a short van with a 300 6 and three on the tree. Very quick and with no wieght great at burning rubber.
Sorry Mr. Seller, you need to come up with a better story on this van. This van never was an Air Force van, not blue in color, too many options, no NSN plates. If it had been stored on a Government facility, it would have been cannibalized for parts, till nothing but the body shell remained. I’m throwing the BS flag on this one.
Yup! What ^^^^^ he said!
Wondering now if the van had a Base access decal for McChord on the windshield or bumper. All active duty Air Force and civilian DOD employees had them on their vehicles. I have seen many vehicle sellers mistake these decals for prior Government ownership. Even still, it doesn’t account for the bs story about it being abandoned on Base for decades.
The van is in Texas but has no inspection stickers on it anywhere.
I wonder what the real story is with it.
I was thinking the same thing, but the one in the movie was all metallic green , not two tone .
Looks very similar to the van from Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
The green van featured in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) that was used on screen as the picture van for the original film as it was shot in 1973 in Round Rock (mainly—along with parts of Bastrop, Leander, Hutto, on the outskirts outside of Austin in neighboring Williamson County and Bastrop), was a 1972 Ford Econoline E-series E-100 Chateau Club Wagon.
It was then owned by the sound recordist for the film, Ted Nicolaou, who lent it to the film for production to use as the film van that appears on-screen in the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre from October 1974. But it was shot (and they had access to it) from July 15 to early September 1973. Although really the last time they used it to film anything with the green van was in late August.
Originally they shot it under the title, “Leatherface” —at least that was the shooting title during principal photography). The title it would be released as would come afterwards during the post-production/editing/distribution process.
Ted told me he sold it to a Karate school in Los Angeles, Calif. at some point after moving out to Hollywood in the latter part of the ‘70s a few years after Chain Saw. He said he sold it for really cheap and the person who bought it wasn’t really interested in it for having anything to do with the Texas Chain Saw Massacre…
He had only had it a little while when he decided to lend it to the film production in early summer 1973, which was a big part of why he was hired for the film , in addition to being the sound recordist for the picture. That and the fact that he had been suggested/recommend by his friend Daniel C. Pearl, who was initially hired to shoot the film as the cinematographer, bringing with him his friends and film school buddies Ted Nicolaou and J. Larry Carroll (one of the film’s editors).
They had recently graduated from the University of Texas film department as masters/graduate students and had decided to go into business together with the film dept. professor Richard Kooris and Courtney Goodin (I think maybe there were some other guys who were part of that collective, but I can’t recall right now), who just as well could have been hired for the job by Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel, but were then unavailable (out on another freelance/commission job for some other local, low budget independent production that was being made in San Antonio, Texas during that same time).
They had all formed this local film production house in Austin around that same time as when the trio were hired as part of the Chain Saw crew, ahead of production which began in July. The local film production house that they had all founded and were partners/owners in with Kooris, Goodin, etc. (who sort of mentored them in a sense) was called “Shootout” — Shootout Productions, I suppose — the office which they operated out of at that time, a little space they rented on the second story right above a local Austin chiropractor’s office 😂, was also (at least initially) used for the early part of the editing process for the film, which Larry Carroll was involved with at the start of editing/post-production.
Eventually Larry quit/left after there were issues with them being able to gather the funds to pay him for what he’d been hired to do and agreed upon, which admittedly probably went on for a lot longer than anyone had thought or expected the editing process would take to complete, which was held back considerable or the process to edit and finish the film for release/distribution was significantly prolonged/stagnated due to an unforseen technical error which required the filmmakers needing to seek out additional funds from local investors to fix the issue, which was a requirement to save the film and produce the finished print for theatrical release/distribution in mid-October 1974, despite the editing process having begun initially in late 1973…
And so the post-production/editing took like almost a year to complete, which is not typical for how long the average film takes to edit and produce the end product for release… the rest of the editing process following Carroll’s departure was finished by Tobe Hooper and Sallye Richardson (who was assistant director and the film’s still photographer, before ending up assisting Hooper as one of the film’s three editors), moving the Steenbeck editing console/spliced and everything out of the location above the little chiropractor’s office the Shootout crew rented out to run their little film production company out of (earlier on in the life/career of that, anyway), and into the living room of the director’s personal house on 2303 W. 12th Avenue in Austin.
Same place where Hooper and Kim Henkel had originally written the screenplay for the film in very early 1973, like winter or January to like March, when they had their final draft (called “Leatherface” although their initial drafts had the title “Headcheese” or “Head Cheese”) and were meeting with potential investors for the startup funds to get their film off the ground and begin filming.
Once they got enough money to start, they hired Daniel Pearl, Ted Nicolaou and them, and by early April 1973, the film’s art director, Robert A. Burns, was given his miniscule budget of $3000 to begin making the props, costumes, and designing the sets ahead of filming during pre-production.
Daniel Pearl actually owned an identical van, a silver colored Ford Econoline, albeit a model with less features/bells/whistles than Nicolaou’s 1972 Chateau model… Pearl’s silver Econoline van was used as the van for the crew to haul their equipment and all of that (the grip truck, essentially).
You can actually see the two vans together in some of the outtake footage on one of the Blu-ray releases…
However it might be in one of the extras on the “4k restoration” blu-ray for the 40th anniversary from 2014, but not on the more recent 4K UHD releases from 2023 and 2024, which is pretty strange but like 25+ min of outtakes are omitted from the recent Ultra HD blu-ray releases of the film. I have no idea why that is, typically that stuff is ported over but it’s missing a number of other extras from the 40th anniversary bonus/extras besides that one, actually (an older still gallery with a variant collection of behind-the-scenes images and press/promo photos etc., and some other material like that. So you need to buy the film twice to get everything, lol.
Beyond the two Econoline vans that Daniel and Ted contributed, their wives (at the time) were also hired as part of the crew to do makeup (Dorothy J. Pearl) and to handle the food/catering (Sally Njcolaou).
Owned one of these from new until 1986. Only had the transmission rebuilt once. Engine was a302. Just got a tune-up a couple times. Used to carry 6 or 8 kids around everywhere. Loved it. Wish we had it now.