What a time capsule. Bought new in the San Francisco area by the seller’s parents, the van and family moved to the Pacific Northwest, and both have lived there ever since 1982. It’s easily the best area of the U.S. to find solid, non-sunburnt survivor vehicles, and this 1977 Ford Econoline E-150 van is one of those. It’s posted here on craigslist in Redmond, Washington, and they’re asking just $5,000. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Barney for the tip!
In keeping with Ford’s tradition of being pragmatic with color names, this one is called Dark Brown. Hey, it makes sense, why create some fancy name where nobody has a clue what it means? Burnt Sequoia? No, Dark Brown. I like it. And I sure like this van. I can’t imagine driving one today, but for anyone with a hankerin’ to get out on the open road (two-lanes for me), this one is ready to camp in with a bed in the back.
Ford made the third-generation E-series vans from 1975 through 1991, and as much as I like the second-gen stub-nosed Ford Vans, the sticking-out-nose Ford vans of this era have to be just all-around better vehicles to drive, work on, and live with. Not to mention having more room inside for hauling duties and camping duties. This van is rust-free, according to the seller; that’s fantastic. It sure looks great, doesn’t it? There is a dent by the left tail light as you can see above, and there’s no catalytic converter, and the tires are old, but that’s about it.
The seller says that after his parents bought this van new in the SF Bay area, they got to work fitting out the interior with custom vinyl (as seen on the door photo above, and also a seat that converts to a bed in the back. That wouldn’t work for me, but for any of you under six feet in height, that would probably be a good spot to stay when you’re out in the woods. I had a long, 3-foot-wide padded bench behind the driver’s seat, and it did double duty as a bed with storage under the cover. There was a smaller one (about a foot wide) on the passenger side because of the side doors to use as a seating bench. I camped a lot in that thing back when life was easy. Here’s the rear passenger seat, by the way. Please check out the seller’s listing; they have included a ton of great photos, saying they were thinking of running this van on an auction site. Hey, what about Barn Finds?!
An engine photo in a craigslist ad?! An engine photo of a van engine in a craigslist ad?! Very well done. This is, as you can see, Ford’s 300-cu.in. OHV inline-six with around 120 horsepower, and it’s backed by a three-speed manual with a column shifter (cool!), sending power to the rear wheels. The seller’s dad is no longer driving, so that’s why this van is for sale. They say that after having sat since 2001, they drained the gas, changed the oil, squirted oil in the cylinders, put the plugs back in, and it started right up! The venerable 300-six is such a great engine. At $5,000, this is a steal, even with it needing tires and whatever kind of massaging it’ll take to fix the dent without repainting it. Any thoughts on this ’77 Econoline van?
This has period-correct written all over it, along with a great history, on a very basic E-Series. The homegrown interior mods are fun, it’s brown, it has dog dishes, it has the bulletproof 300 six, and (the topper) a three-on-the-tree. One-family owned. Not perfect, but I doubt there is much seriously wrong with it. And it’s cheap.
Good write-up Scotty.
This takes me back. A good friend of my fathers who passed awayvlast year had a few of these from the later 70’s thru the 80s. This grill looks so familiar. Except his was two tone green. One of his was brown with a 4 speed overdrive too, that was neat. I like the fact it has a known ownership history and the 300 straight six and 3 speed on the column is icing on the cake. The interior is just soooo period correct, that back seat has to be original. Love the plaid !!! Those door panels remind me of JC Whitney catalogs items from the 70’s. I’m hoping it stays as original as possible and gets a good new home, it deserves it. Great write up Scotty. And a great find too Barney.
Always loved these dent side vans. Drove some during my career as an HVAC tech.Amazed any are still around that haven’t been all used and abused plus rusted. Price is definitely fair.
Milk chocolate brown, it was on every other car in those days. I agree, a very good price.
great work van. price seems fair too
I had a business back in the eighties and we used several of these vans. We would put about 150,000 to 200,000 on them, sell them, and buy new ones. They were absolutely reliable: change the oil and filters and replace a set of brakes now and then, and drive them until they started to look ratty.
I do recall the twin beam front suspension without fondness. It was not a great design, but it worked, though late in life the vans would start to eat front tires.
The front ball joints would eventually fail, but that was near the end of the van’s service life, so we would replace them with cheapo nylon ones that lasted 25,000 miles or so. Which, practically speaking, took the van to the end of its days.
Great work vehicles. After a time we started replacing them with Aerostars, poorly designed and built unreliable junkers that sadly, caused me to never buy from Ford again.
If this van was within 750 miles from Cincinnati I’d have already bought it. I’d rather have a v-8 now but i had the same van except blue and auto back in 1980. Loved that straight 6.
Wow, what a great van! If my old 1983 VW Vanagon wasn’t around to make my epic Canada/Alaska trip next summer, this would suit me just fine. I like the simple, bulletproof carb’d, low fuel pressure six and the manual transmission, although I would prefer the floor shifted 3+ovedrive. Love the simple, bare-bones interior. Clever job on the back seat/bed, allows for another sleeper underneath! Kudos to this fellow’s dad for building up a pretty dang good van.
A rust free Ford van? Had to be garage kept. I’ve had Ford vans for 30 years, still have an 07, and the roofs get the rust cancer. Kinda feel like Ford doesn’t address it so you have to get a new van, just like the jankey door cable set-up they refuse to fix for 30 years. Cable set up is a dealer part of course….
When I lived in Colorado, I used to drive over to CT to visit family during the holidays. My sister was the shipping manager at a large specialty liquor store in Manhattan. I was employed to deliver large loads of wines & liquors throughout NJ,upstate NY & CT. Every year they gave me a brand new E250 in brown and the 300 six. Very capable with a ton in it. This is the unit that got me hooked on those 300’s, great engines.
Ohhhhh’OOOOHHHHH’ohhhh, the seller has deleted the listing. That either means that it sold or they’re got approved to sell it on another auction site, as they mentioned in their listing.