Anyone on here with any year vans, I'd like to get some pics posted of what you have for an overhead console.


I'm still looking for ideas on how to build it, and what to use to do so.


My '85 E350 cargo van has it's original AM only radio in the dash, and for the shake of originality, I wanna leave it there.... but it gets boring on trips listening to news.


So I want to make an overhead console, to have an OEM Ford radio with tape player up in the console, and a CB right beside it, and maybe some small storage pockets.



I was thinking of just making a wooden box, and covering it up with **** carpet, or wood paneling, but not sure yet.

 

**** carpet would be a perfect 70s or early 80s look. When my buddies and I were still in high school (1974), we bought a 1963 Econoline and made a party van out of it (complete with a walnut front bumper with the "Pabst" logo carved into it) We made an overhead console for an 8-track and CB, which was made from wood and covered with **** carpet.

If I was building one now, I'd still use wood, but would wrap it with the thin carpet material that car speaker makers use. I'd definitely have spaces for cell phone and gps (along with power for those). Most radios now have MP3 player inputs, so I'd have a space for that also. (can you tell that I love gadgets)?

Jack

 

I'm not gonna have any modern technology in this van. Just a nice old tape player will be plenty.

 

Well, your timing is good, I just built one. Keep in mind it is NOT carpeted yet, I'm waiting on a box of carpet to finish it as we speak, but I finally got mine built and mounted. It's in an 02, but you can probably still steal an idea or two from it.
I started with a cardboard template and eventually came up with this

Then I worked out how to mount my visors in it, which are pretty important to me. They will only lay flat and fold down in ONE position, which you have to find carefully. As you may know, they are mounted to the factory roof at an angle and it takes some patience to get them to cooperate on a flat surface.


Then I added some edges and a center seperation to keep things organized up there.

Then I carefully screwed it to the inner sheetmetal of the roof, expirementing with different lengths of screws to bite through the inner sheet metal and not through the roof.

And there you have it

Mine will be carpeted, and for now I skipped adding any powered things like CB, powerpoint, etc. But I may someday. I just love that I finally got this project done after thinking about it for years.

 

Looks good. You might want to think about padding it though. One quick stop or minor front end collision and you could bang your head pretty hard on that console.

 

Unless ur short! Lol

 

Yep true, it will be carpeted and padded, it's not finished.
I'm 6'2" though and my head is nowhere near it with regular climbing in and out.
It's a collision risk yes, but so is the rest of the interior.

 

Your 6'2" and no where near your roof?


I guess the seats changed abit over the years, cause i'm 5'11" and my head is about 4" from the roof in my '85 van. It does have those old style low backrest base model seats, and you do sit up high in them.

 

Would it be possible to notch the front corners to fit around the visor mounts? I kind of remember doing one that way years ago, leaving the visors to swing as designed.

 

Hmmm. Probably but I'm done with mine after carpet, Too little time and too many projects.
I'd like to see someone work that out though.

 

I might try it. I have alot of waste wood to use anyways, so if I screw up, no big deal.



Mines gonna be abit tricky as I want to put a tape playing radio in it, and a CB, but the CB will be facing the back of the van, while the CB beside it will be at an angle towards the driver, and i'm going to make a few little pockets for my maps and nick nacks.

 

Sounds nice! Be sure to post some pics.

 

You'll have to go to vannin.com for more, I have one, work in progress, and another that was from a 70's van, it's wood, no carpet, not sure what I'll do with it, I put imitation suede on my other, this is tough as leather, gotta have a razor to cut it.