During the 1960s and well into the 1980s, plenty of vehicle manufacturers decided that passenger trucks and vans could be called wagons (I disagree with that idea), and so you got the Volkswagen Transporter, Toyota Land Cruiser, Corvair Greenbriar, Dodge A100, and many other trucks marketed as wagons. That was confusing enough, but then Ford took it one step further by taking the passenger version of the Econoline forward-control van and badging it as a Falcon Club Wagon. Here’s one of those vans wagons, found in a Denver-area yard last month.

As was the case with some other discarded vehicles I’ve documented recently, this van wagon was one of more than 250 vintage vehicles auctioned off near Denver last fall, and so we can see how much it sold for: 500 bucks.

It appears that some local Econoline owner with a rust problem sliced off a big chunk of the left-side body, once this Club Wagon made it into El Pulpo‘s regular inventory.

According to Wikipedia, the first-generation Econoline was based on the Falcon chassis, but there can’t be much Falcon left when you move the engine back a few feet and then swap out the independent front suspension for a solid kingpin front axle. In any case, 1962-1967 Econoline passenger vans were sold as Falcon Club Wagons and Falcon Station Buses (alongside regular Falcon wagons).

The warranty data plate on this one tells us that it was built at the Lorain, Ohio plant in May of 1966 and was painted in Arcadian Blue with Medium Blue crush vinyl interior.

The original engine— which might even be this one— was a 170-cube straight-six rated at 105 horsepower. Remember the HSC four-cylinder engines in the Ford Tempo and super-cheapo early Tauruses? That was two-thirds of the early-1960s Ford six.

Further evidence of the thin wallet of this van’s wagon’s original purchaser can be seen in the type of transmission: the good old three-on-the-tree column-shift manual. I’ve heard legends of four-on-the-tree Econolines, but have yet to see one in person.

Is there rust? Sure is!

At some point, a junkyard bench seat out of who-knows-what truck made it into this Econoline Falcon.

I’ve spent a fair amount of time in these things, both behind the wheel and as a passenger, and they were bouncy, noisy, oil-canning, ill-handling beasts… but they could haul plenty of cargo for their size.

If you like simple instruments, you’ll love the panel here.

Towing must have been exciting with the 170 providing power.

This commercial is for the stretched-wheelbase cargo version, but it’s worth watching it just to see 70-year-old Buster Keaton doing his thing.

You’ll feel like you’ve ingested some Vitamin L when you watch these Falcon Wagon ads… which don’t even mention the Falconized Econoline.

To see more than 2,200 additional Junkyard Finds, be sure to visit the Junkyard Home of the Murilee Martin Lifestyle Brand™.

[Images courtesy of the author]

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Is that a rodent that got stuck in that “Is there rust?” pic?

Looks like an old towel to me.

Was gonna say “but it’s got a tail!”, but I think you’re right…

Was someone testing out his new Sawzall?

Makes me think of vehicles used in movie shoots, where they cut out sheetmetal to make room for a camera.

Now that GM can guarantee Zero Crashes, I welcome the return to the U.S. market of cabover light-duty trucks.

(Said by me, and I am never wrong about cars — or women.)

My high school had one of these in the 70s. We had a TV studio and this was our mobile production van, in beautiful not-quite-lime green. Cheap, no-frills hauler of stuff.

I have fond memories of getting driven to summer camp in a Falcon Club Wagon. The budding car geek in me figured out that Ford attached the Falcon name to the upper trim version of the cargo van since I had neighbors who owned the sedans and wagons. Sears and the various Ma Bells had the cargo version with the cargo door put on the drivers side for convenience.

In the Forward Control (FC) Corvair world (Corvans and Greenbriers), they’re known as “eight doors”.

That Alice in Wonderland ad is gonna give me nightmares.

It is a creepy ad. Of the other ads that 1960 Ford Galaxie was a beautiful car. I know it was not as popular as the other years but I find it a beautiful car. The the short lived 1960 Edsel Ranger shared the same body and it is my favorite of all Edsels.

I have not seen one of these Ford Falcon vans in person since the early 70s. This is a rare find.

Chevrolet produced a dealer training film comparing the Corvair 95 Rampside pickup with the Econoline pickup, including such things as an unladen Econoline lifting its rear wheels off the ground in hard braking, and a guy in a firesuit removing the cap from a hot radiator in an Econoline with the doghouse removed (why anyone would do that, I have no idea – maybe something about the simplicity of Corvair’s rear-mounted, air-cooled flat six?), spraying hot coolant all over the inside of the cab.

@dukeisduke–Jay Leno owns a full restored Covair Rampside pickup and has a review of it on Jay Leno’s Garage. It is definitely worth the time to watch that video.

My next door neighbor as a kid had one, though I’m pretty sure it was an Econoline with a 2nd row, not one of these since I don’t recall side glass. It also had the 3-on-the-tree, and I remember it having the worst NVH of anything I’d ever ridden in, even by early 1980s standards.

My Dad told us stories of how some of his friends in school had one of these. He described it as “pre-rusted” and only got worse with age with all of the snow removal in East Lansing. We’re talking about wood planks covering the holes in the floor, lawn chairs taped down – you know, all of the stuff that will likely get you charged with numerous crimes today!

I’m amazed this van has still held together. What a find. I’m going to have to forward this to my dad just to jog more memories.

I had one of these; Probably a ’62 or ’63. In the earlier ones like mine, each side of the engine was supported by a separate arm anchored at the rocker and the frame rail, passing under the rear of each front seat. Mine eventually got so rusty and loose that under acceleration one front seat would tip towards the center and the other would tip away, and the reverse under engine braking. A year or two later (64? 66?) they improved it so that the engine was supported on a tubular crossmember that went from rocker to rocker, passing under the engine. I had it for many years, always on the lookout for one of those Dagenham 4-speed boxes, but never ever saw one in person.

Being one with the crush zone…the 1st Gen. Ford Econoliner

I clicked on the link to the Dodge A100. Did Murilee ever finish his A100 and if so that would make a good article as well.

The Wooden Shoe School in Denver Colorado used those vans to pick us up for Kindergarten. Miss Mary was our driver. I think the passenger seat was removed and the door could be opened by the driver like a large school bus. The bench seats were running lengthwise on each side of the isle if memory serves.

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