1964 Rand Mailster

The build in detail.

Long before Amazon vans and FedEx trucks, the US Postal Service ran a fleet of oddball three-wheeled Rand Mailsters, and this 1964 example is one of the survivors, a shape most people have never seen up close and would never guess still exists. Instead of a straightforward restoration, the brief here is stranger and more interesting. Pull the original gas engine out entirely and build a real electric drivetrain into a vehicle that was never designed to see a lithium cell.

The teardown came first. The rear doors opened to reveal decades of postal service history inside, and the little truck went up on a lift for a full rolling chassis rebuild before any of the electric hardware could go in. New suspension, new brakes, restored steering, all the unglamorous groundwork that has to happen before a build gets interesting again.

The heart of the conversion is an ME1507 PMAC brushless motor paired with a Netgain SME-X1 controller, feeding power through a custom-fabricated adapter into a rebuilt rear differential. A custom lithium battery pack lives where the mail used to ride, charged through an onboard 3kW J1772 system, the same plug format as a modern EV. No gas tank, no exhaust, no fumes. Just a postal icon that runs clean.

Above the new drivetrain, the finished truck wears hand-fabricated half-doors, fresh flat glass throughout, a reupholstered cab, and a single-color exterior finish that lets that unmistakable silhouette speak for itself. It still looks exactly like the mail truck everyone half-remembers, right up until it pulls away without making a sound.

Under the hood, power comes from an ME1507 PMAC brushless electric motorNetgain SME-X1 motor controller. The motor is paired with a custom-fabricated motor-to-differential adapter, feeding a rebuilt rear differential3kW J1772 onboard charging system.

Fully rebuilt rolling chassis with custom front suspension dampers and rear coil-overs. Stopping power comes from restored steering and new brakes front and rear.

Reupholstered cab with a finished utility deckCustom half-door conversion with hand-fabricated framesNew flat glass throughout with fresh seals.