I have a similar van, mine is a 1995 Ford E150 conversion van which I paid $3500 with 140,000 miles at the time. Unfortunately, I had to almost immediately put in another few thousand into repairs such as a new radiator which started leaking a year later, then other items like new brakes, etc. I will tell you that the E150 engine is rather weak for accelerating uphills, or even to travel to the mountains. How do I know...cuz I have one. On the other hand, an E150 engine gets better gas mileage versus an E250 or E350 engine, so everything is a trade-off. I took out the middle chairs, plus the fold down rear bench seat bed. My bench seat bed was simply uncomfortable, and I don't know how anyhow can sleep on that thing for more than an hour nap. I ended up selling those 3 seat items for under $200 through Craiglist. I will tell you that the 1997 model is positively better than my 1995 model due to the major diagnostic tool change that took place after 1995. As an example, even to this day, the Ford dealer cannot diagnose why my ABS brake light comes on constantly because they don't have the old diagnostic tool for the older vehicles anymore. Unbelievable. As others may have also mentioned, for a price range between $4500 to $6500, I'd rather get a fully outfitted camper van that's ready to go without having to spend more on doing more conversions. Doing conversion work gets awfully expensive, I found out the hard way. Good luck.
