Feels Like the First Time
Feels Like the Very First Time

When I was but a wet-eared, rank kid, I bought my first motor vehicle: a 1966 short-bed Dodge van with the slant-six 225 and three on the tree. It would routinely stick between first and second gears if you didn't shift it JUST SO... and when that happened, you had one choice in life: pull over to the side, shut it off, reach through the grille and manipulate the shift linkage at the bottom of the steering column to get it back into first-alone. Then you could restart it and shift from first to second more carefully.

I've wanted to build a model of that van forever.

Today... on my 66th birthday (go figure!), a Jimmy Flintstone Dodge van body will arrive at the same time as the donor pickup model to support it. I found the Touch-Tone-Terror version for a lower price than the Little Red Wagon version, and I care nothing about the color of the sprues when they arrive. Two unfortunate glitches, if you will...

First, the stock engine for the TTT van is a 273 (identical to the 318) V8. I'll keep my eyes open for a 1:25 225 on ebay, and if I ever find the right one, I'll do the transplant. In the interest of accomplishing that goal, I'll use white PVA glue to glue the engine into its mounts on this van project.

Second, the only van body available from Jimmy is a fleetside van, not a window van. Mine was the window van. I'm seriously considering buying a second van body from Jimmy and very carefully laying out the locations of the windows, then cutting them out of the sides and glazing them with cellophane or transparent polystyrene or even polycarbonate sheet. That's a risk, though, and I don't want to screw something up royally and have no van at all... so it has to be on a second body, not the one that arrives today.

Let's see if I can recapture a moment of nostalgia here. 😎

The cover picture is an exact match for my old van, down to the color. Except... the grille needs to be white. Let's see if I can replicate it here.