As I approached this AM General delivery van at a light, I it was all-too obvious from the rumble of its big side exhaust that that its original AMC six was no longer in duty. Well, the flames and mag wheels did rather reinforce that too, as if it needed to. A hot rod postal van.
The ‘5.0’ and ‘V8’ badges on the side of its hood were a bit superfluous. I wonder how this handles at speed, given its very short wheelbase and boxy shape?
I managed to get ahead of it enough at the light to get a shot of its front end. It sports a red ‘AMGeneral’ badge on its hood. It did occur to me that this should really have an AMC V8 in there, but those aren’t exactly laying around as readily as a Ford 5.0, which is what I’m guessing is in there. And did AMC ever badge the 304 V8 as a 5.0?
My box managed to keep up with it in traffic, and I peeled off one more shot, which not surprisingly has soft focus. Did someone watch their mailman drive on of these as a kid, and get the idea to turn one into a hot box?
Wow, I’m having trouble remembering these. The black paint doesn’t help to jog my memory, either. I have wondered if postal vehicles varied in use from region to region. I remember lots of Jeep Dispatchers, but not these so much. But then I lived in a suburban environment and not where I might have seen what USPS used for industrial or commercial routes.
You have to love someone who will hop up an old mail truck.
I’ve seen thousands of tarted-up Mustangs. I so rarely get to see a flaming hot rod toaster.
Hey Paul, when your xB goes all pear-shaped, what engine are you going to stuff into the back, hooked up to a solid rear axle?
A perfect vehicle for popping a wheelie
Here’s an earlier hopped-up mail truck with a Ford engine. This one carried passengers in an era of looser laws.
F. J. Henderson had the contract to carry mail from Syracuse to Elkhart in SW Kansas. (about 150 miles round trip). He made extra money by carrying passengers.
I tried to identify the parts, but the body doesn’t match any Ford of that era. I suspect Henderson may have reused the stagecoach that had been running the route before he took it over (Also carrying both passengers and mail)
A custom body on a vehicle delivered as a bare cowl/chassis would not have been unusual back then. The body looks broadly similar to a typical sedan body of the time, at the back at least. The front is more commercial in appearance – flat and wider than the engine hood, different to factory bodies on cars.
A mail plus passenger service was not unusual in many more remote areas. An interesting look at a bygone time, thanks for posting the photo occam24!
A Hot Rod postal van? Super cool!!! I love when people think “out side of the BOX”.
I’d like mine in Borat trim.
Maybe if my mailman had this truck the mail would be delivered before 5:00 PM.
Just think of it as tomorrow’s mail really early.
Sort of pointless unless you’re working out of it. Still, ya just gotta love it.
Don’t suppose it matters if AMC called the 304 a 5.0 or not. Do the math and it is one and I expect it was made to conform to the same racing series as the Ford 302.
AMC did indeed badge the 304 as a 5 litre V/8. We had a ’75 Gremlin X in the family back in the day; black with gold stripes… The 5 litre logo was placed to the left of the passenger side tail light.
Who calls these things V-slash-8s?
A fairly arbitrary place for the flames!
In that color all I can think of is a Scion xB. 🙂
I would say that this guy may have been enjoying a left handed cigarette in the confines of a small space when he dreamed this up…
i gotta applaud the guy for not doing a belly button build but that’s gotta be a handful under any spirited acceleration or cornering even if the suspension is tweaked also. i’ve known of a few V8 festiva transplants too but wouldn’t want to drive one. i wonder what Oregon requires inspection-wise to plate motorized moonshine like this?
It’s my son’s van.
FJ8A mail van – spent many years as a flower delivery van before we bought it.
We converted it to left hand drive (it was originally right hand drive – a *mail van*.)
Added sway bars front and back just to make it basically driveable.
Added seats and seat belts.
Ford 5.0L put in. Badging just random emblems added for fun – 5.0 badge from Mustang.
Doesn’t make any source of sense, but we’ve had fun.
Hello Michael nice looking rig. I just bought a 73 AM general FJ8A. Trying to find a wheel size that will fit over the back wheel hub The wheel bearing cover .Any idea where a guy might find parts for this.
ThanksFor the great pictures