Prospective Housetruck project advice needed!

[fiddlercrabus]

Hey everyone,
I was wondering if anyone had any info/advice they could give me. I am planning on building a housetruck from the ground up, but am having a hard time finding the right vehicle. I have found a '77 Ford motorhome(E-350 van front end) that I was thinking about stripping down, keeping a few of the interior fixtures, scrapping the aluminum body for whatever it's worth, and starting over from the frame up with wood. Has anyone ever tried this? Any related info would be greatly apreciated!
P.S.: I was also thinking about getting rid of the van front end and replacing it with a pickup cab.

[dadeo]

or maybe you could stretch a pick-up chassis? You could use a dually rear for a little more weight capacity. I dont know, but that might be easier then changing cabs.

[Phil Feinstein]

And here I am, looking for an old cube van to make into a pick up!

The frames are nearly identical, the only differences being where the brackets are riveted and what shape the brackets are. Keep in mind that the van cab has the engine going THRU the firewall and the pickup cab has all of the engine IN FRONT of the fire wall. That means the pickup cab would sit further back than the van cab and you'd lose room on the frame.

Take a look at the U-Haul website for used trucks; they rent a cube truck with the same length cargo cube, but with the pickup truck cab instead of the van cab.

[Mark R. Obtinario]

That vintage I say do what you want.

Newer vintage had the infamous E4OD transmission.

In comparison it makes the GM 5.7L diesel seem like a great idea.

Mark O.
Castle Rock, WA