I went for another Coronastroll in Berkeley a week or so ago in which I wandered through a neighborhood rich in Curbside Classics. First up is this Ford Econoline Van Conversion. Ford offered this option from the factory from approximately 1969-1972, though similar units were also offered by independent conversion outfits. In most of the brochures it was called the “minihome”, with e.e. cummings-style lowercase.
There is an extensive review of the new 1969 minihome in the June 1969 edition of Popular Mechanics (beginning of page 116), where it is called the “MiniHome”. The body was modified by Motor Homes Inc. of Lorain, Ohio, and was offered through Ford Dealers with a base price of $4800. The editors had a good time touring Big Bend National Park in Texas and environs, taking advantage of the standard refrigerator, Coleman stove, and sleeping arrangements, though they dared not experiment with the portable outdoor shower. They did manage to leave a bunch of things on one evening and ran the battery down overnight, but otherwise the trip sounded glorious, something I think a lot of us would like to do once the Coronatime is over. They averaged 11.1 mpg on their trip, with a best showing of 14.6 and a worst of 9.5 mpg – not too bad even now.
This looks to me to be a 1969 Ford Econoline, but the identifying marks are few between 1969 and 1970. This may not exactly be a minihome, either, as the brochure images all suggest the body color was repeated partially on the fiberglass, and the fiberglass seems a bit more rounded than those in the photos. On the other hand, given the condition of this vehicle, it may simply be that the fiberglass has been repainted white and/or smoothed over as part of the ongoing restoration process evidently underway, and the rounded corners of this example may be more of an optical illusion than anything else.
As mentioned, “the minihome” was available directly from the factory in 1969, through a special program.
Seems like a pretty sweet setup even now.
In 1970, it appears that Ford expanded the program (or perhaps lost faith in Motor Homes Incorporated) to offer conversions from number of different outfits.
The minihome remained within this portfolio of options.
In order to compete with the other offerings, it looks like Motor Home, Inc. began to offer a number of different floor plans. Note that between 1969 and 1970 Motor Homes, Inc. became Motor Home, Inc. Somewhere along the way they must have lost the “s”.
For 1971 and 1972 the camper conversion was listed as an option in the catalog (noting that this is a Canadian brochure, the only one I could find), though probably again through various manufacturers.
By 1973 the catalog is back to just offering unspecified camper conversions arranged through the factory.
Moving on from the minihome, I admit to cheating a little bit, as this Mercury Colony Park wagon actually came from a Coronastroll in a slightly different neighborhood a few days before. It seems to fit in nicely right after the minihome, both reverse-chronologically, and as a different interpretation of “luxury people mover” from the same era and manufacturer.
As kids we had a Ford wagon once, and numerous Chryslers. I remember we always asked to have the rear window rolled down, but usually ended up asking that it be rolled back up because the exhaust would circulate back in there.
Seems like pretty luxurious digs for a third seat.
This wagon has all the nice features of the highest-trim Mercury Wagon. A pretty nice ride, and a tad bit more luxurious and exclusive, I think, than the equivalent Ford.
I think of all the late 1960’s Mercury Wagons, the 1968’s have to be best looking.
From the grille design, this is a 1968 Mercury Colony Park.
In the brochures the Colony Park is featured with full woodgrain, the lack of such a feature on this model must have reflected a delete option. Myself, I think I’d rather have the minihome.
Returning to our stroll, just a few blocks away from the minihome we came across this 1963 Dodge Dart, in fine “I’ve owned this a long time and I’m proud of it, and no I’m not going to paint it” shape.
That’s an original black license plate, registered and ready to roll!
There’s some paper towels in the back seat! I’m afraid for this owner, he or she doesn’t realize how desperate people have become in the Coronatime.
The front seat and dashboard are sensible and spartan, just as I imagine the owner to be.
The front end was so close to the garage door I found it impossible to get a picture of the grille.
It’s in pretty good shape!
It’s definitely a 1963.
Given the spartan trim on this example, I believe this to be a 170 series. I have never ridden in a pre-1967 Dart, though the later ones were favorites of various members of my Father’s family, though we never had one ourselves. So I may have ridden in one of the latter ones, I definitely saw a lot of them in our driveway.
The last car on our stroll is the not quite the oldest, it’s actually 3 years or so newer than the 1963 we just examined. It has probably also led the hardest life, however. Still, it’s the only one that is actually curbside, and hence almost certainly running around town to this day.
It’s a 1966 Dodge Dart wagon, somewhat worse for wear, but still plugging along.
The interior is a little less ragged than the exterior. Not a luxury ride by any means, however, not in 1966 and not now. I think I’d rather have a 1966 Plymouth Valiant, myself.
It’s interesting how the use of script emblems declined in the 1960’s. I remember the later Dodge Dart “Swinger” was one of the few non-luxury-cars to have a script emblem in the 1970’s.
As many people have noted, Chrysler seems to have lost their way stylistically in the early to mid-1960’s, which was really only rectified in my mind in the Darts with the slab-sided 1967’s. I don’t really find any of the Darts before 1967 that appealing, though the 1963 version has a little bit more stylistic cohesion, in my mind.
I tend to like the earlier Dart noses with the round headlamps. The front end on these looks like it’s trying on a buttoned-down look, forgetting that it still has that blow-dried extravaganza going on in back. Reminds me of all those 1970’s and 1980’s yearbook pictures of the young kid wearing an ill-fitting suit and tie, sporting a mullet.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my little Coronastroll – which of these vehicles is most intriguing to you? Given the “stay-at-home” order many of us are still operating under, I think I would choose the minihome – then I could stay-at-home while on-the-road, the best of both worlds. Though, like the editors of Popular Mechanics, I don’t think I would be too enthusiastic about using the shower.
Related CC articles:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/1964-dodge-dart-2-door-sedan/
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cohort-classic-1968-mercury-colony-park-ahoy-there-matey/
Colony Park has a trivia claim to fame. It’s probably the longest continuous and CONSTANT model name. From 1957 to 1991, Mercury’s top wagons were Colony Park. Other names lasted longer, but with a break followed by a retro revival, or gradually Fairlaning down the hierarchy then sliding off.
I’ve always wondered why Dodge (and Plymouth) dropped the wagon during the ’67(?) redesign. Likewise with the Nova. I always thought it was such a “right-sized” wagon.
And of course the Volare and Aspen Wagons sold very well, so it seems they probably lost some sales with the lack of a Valiant and Dart wagon. Ford of course didn’t offer a Maverick wagon in the US but they also brought it back with its successor the Farimont and again the wagon version sold well. Of course it was a different time, post energy crisis so maybe those compact wagons might not have done too well in the late 60’s and early 70’s.
I think you meant “rolling a mullet.”
Exactly:
“The front end on these looks like it’s trying on a buttoned-down look, forgetting that it still has that blow-dried extravaganza going on in back.”
Mullet: business up front, party out back.
That Dart lives on my block most of the time! 🙂
I’ve done a little camping as a kid with Boy Scouts and even a long weekend in Yosemite when my kids were little. I did some tent camping when I traveled by motorcycle. We have not been a camping family, though the idea has started to appeal to me a bit more now. Primarily we are now a vacation condo family, I don’t like walking in dirt. Growing up, my Dad preferred station wagons all through his life, even though he had an early Suburban for a couple of years, and a short bed Chevy truck, which he bought new in ’75 and kept until his passing.
I drove wagons all through my teen age years and I grew to like them. My Wife hates wagons, she liked minivans so I had a couple of those. My favorite was my top of the line Chrysler Town and Country LXI, the name really fit those minivans. It pales in comparison to the suburban bourgeois splendor of the Mercury Colony Park moniker! That even hints at Europe’s imperialistic history.
Seriously I didn’t get another wagon until I got my ’96 Explorer a few years ago, which I’ve really grown to like. I just never refer to it as a wagon.
I wouldn’t be surprised if all of these cars aren’t Berkeley natives. Though Mercuries were less common than their Ford equivalents, I knew people with a Mercury wagon, and a Dart growing up. Our neighbor on Spruce had an Econoline of this vintage, which he converted to a camper by cutting out the floor and lowering it. I still remember him telling me, oxy-acetylene cutting torch in hand, “Most people raise the roof to make a camper; I’m lowering the floor”. He’s the same guy I may have mentioned before, who sold Lloyd’s out of his house, and had one slowly decaying in his equally decayed garage until well after he got the Econoline.
Oops, sloppy double-negative there. I would be surprised if these are NOT Berkeley natives.
The wagon is my pick, I can see the parts that made it down under for the Aussie Valiant wagons of AP6 and VC models, and I can see why other stranger styling pieces were left behind, the conversion vans I read about decades ago in magazines but of course have never seen one in the metal/fibreglass the extremely unattractive fuel consumption at local prices would have kept them away if nothing else.
The Ford Econoline Van Conversion isn’t a minihome, it is missing the propane storage door on the left rear corner. Had one in college, it was the party bus on campus, never left it unlocked in the parking lot, made some interesting friends. Mine had the hide-a-bed option, which was a neat design. No power steering, non-powered drum brakes. Fun times were had driving without the doghouse and tuning the carburetor jets for “optimal” while driving down the road. Cross winds required holding a quarter turn of the steering wheel into the wind to maintain a straight line. Got pretty good at timing going under an overpass, releasing pressure on the steering wheel so we wouldn’t shoot left or right.
Thank you! You just answered a decades old question. Friends of my parents showed up one day with a Econoline camper. I was 9 and was not impressed as they had a super cool “in my opinion” 68 Camaro.
When I asked where “my” Camaro was they said they had traded it in at the dealer and it was sold right way. In later years I wondered if I had misunderstood as I had never seen another camper like it. Now I know it was a factory offering and they were telling the truth. At 9 I’d had the suspicion they were just saying that so I wouldn’t go hunting for the car and bug my parents about it.
This old Ford Econoline was built at Ford’s world famous Lorain Assembly Plant in Lorain, Ohio… This plant built mid size Fords and Mercurys and the Econoline van too. The vans that were converted didn’t have far to go to be converted at the Motor Homes Inc facility. As it was just down the street about 5 or 6 miles from Lorain Assembly. Lorain Assembly was closed in 2006, ending a long run of historical vehicles that were built there… These were good times back when America was great and people had real jobs… Now everybody works at Wal-Mart or serves food… This old Econoline deserves to be restored as a reminder of how it used to be in America.
Hmmm, I had not realized that the Colony Park used a rear facing 3rd seat instead of the dual facing rear seats that were a Ford exclusive. This one either needs for some of that chrome to go away or to have the Di-noc paneling applied. I wonder if it might have been peeled off and painted inside of the trim strips – that stuff could weather badly.
I think the Mercury would be my choice today. And there are a lot of “The Clubs” still in service in your area.
I had never paid attention to the factory camper offerings from Ford. But I did spend a bunch of time in a van of this generation.
Yeah that was a woodgrain car had it removed but the trim was left.
The Econoline reminds me of the one in the TV series ‘ironside’, that replaced his 1940s converted truck after it ran off a cliff and exploded.
I sorely miss station wagons!
Happy Motoring, Mark
What a cool selection of vehicles. The Dart sedan reminds me of a 66 Dart two-door that was in our family when I was learning to drive. It had a 170 engine, 3-on-the-tree, spartan interior. It came from a very frugal aunt who brush-painted it with house paint (MAB Seashore House paint, for greater weather resistance), though that didn’t stop the lower rear fenders from rotting away. The exterior color was an anonymous tan like the one above.
It was a very basic, reliable car, except sometimes when it rained and Dad sprayed the plug wires with some stuff, which from the smell was silicone. That problem, as I recall, went away when the old wires were replaced. Dad was a skin-flint about car repair, so the wire-dryer spray trick went on for a while. Though bereft of any power options, the car braked well, was easy enough to steer, and with a bit of a reach and the smallest risk of loss of control, the passenger side window could be raised without interrupting the ride in the event of rain.
Dad replaced the engine with the bigger one after Mom ran it out of oil, and the car got a little peppier. Its demise, in the early 90s, came when my sister ran it out of coolant far from home and junked it.
I remember well the cool shifter, the sound of the starter, the smooth (for the day) slant 6, the smell of the interior.