Having seen the Thames van here in the UK in the 50's and the car versions (Anglia, Prefect), this is a design long overdue!
Why didn't Ford do this? Well I suppose at that time both cars and vans were built just to get from A to B and be basic workhorses, holidays re: woodies weren't thought about here.
Looks good the 4 pot side valve engine with a 3 speed manual box is just what they had, the suspension and short chassis/body didn't lean towards fast driving, especially on very twisty country roads.
12-15 Horsepower roughly 1 litre engines were common with a top speed (of course nobody spoke about that) of around 45 miles per hour!
I look forward to rest of this build, what a good idea though!