My custom van project

shagman

I fitted my new steering wheel this weekend. See photo 3 below.
I had a touch of surface rust on the fender too. See photo 4 below.
I had filled it and it but I found a set of fenders on ebay so gonna replace both fenders with new instead.

riggsi

looks cool,what is it?

trevorbrady

great wheel Shaggy, and I love the shift knob

shame about that little blemish on the panel though

shagman

It's my 79 Chevy G30 van that I'm customising.
see http://www.geocities.com/irishskateparkforum/chevy

Trev>>>
Not to worry it'll be replaced by this soon...

Sids Not

Nice to see theres another Chevy van owner in the country.;)..heres mine..

trevorbrady

love the van sid snot.

shagman

Nice Astro Sid where are you based? Smooth lookin grille. I met a polish and a German bloke at Kilbegan that are into there custom vans too.

Sids Not

Thanx Trev..;)...
I'm based on the German /Polish border......:D:D:D:D

I'm i Wicklah....The keen eyed amongst you might notice the RHD conversion.....been working on it for a while doing the steering, new shox, new wheels (merc) ,whole new dash.....stripping her out as its gonna be a commercial work van....should be on the road in a couple of weeks...:rolleyes:

shagman

Sid you have a PM.

S.I.R

Sids Not wrote: »

Nice to see theres another Chevy van owner in the country.;)..heres mine..

is that a rx-7 in the background too ?? :cool:

shagman

And whats the red car Mk11 Consul ? Tri Chevy?

Sids Not

Yep thats my Consul with the ripped side (some might remember my incident with a runaway omege..still not sorted out..:mad:..)...that was a rx7 in for a rebuild...do you want to buy it..its for sale..fully loaded, single turbo...400hp...:eek:..love to put the engine in the consul...:cool:

Max_Damage

Sids Not wrote: »

Nice to see theres another Chevy van owner in the country.;)..heres mine..

Aswell as the American embassy, who have a '01 Chevrolet Express van in RHD. I saw it yesterday in Stillorgan.

shagman

There's a good few american vans in the country but they're mainly stock dayvans, It's unusual to see one that been customised. I only know of 5.

shagman

"Future shock" the BF Goodrich 70's show van

thebarbarian

heres my recent mad purchase, was wondering if the unit on top of your chevy was available to order, or would you know where i might go about sourcing one?

Im afraid they are gonna nail me on standing room when it comes to plating my baby with the bitches of eastwick down the local revenue office

shagman

You could try this place... http://www.thevanshop.com/
If I were you I'd try and engineer a way to make the current fibreglass high-top into a pop top. Make up some suitable hinges and add some gas struts.
Nice van bythe way.

shagman

Or you could lower the floor between the chassis rails.

thebarbarian

#Hey, thanks for that shop, might get those god awful soft seats replaced out of it...
as for the roof, perhaps hinging it would be the ticket, i love what you did with the wheel on the gear shift.
Ill look for some conversion places over here ansd see what they can do, i can bring the weight up with some well placed cement bags...dont know about lowering the floor 6 inches though...

shagman

The GVW on my van is 3350kg yours should be similar I would have thought. The VRT bods are wise to the likes of cement bags but motorbike racks and the like are legit.

Sids Not

Got the two back rows of seats from the Astro if anyone wants to make an offer, grey cloth, in good nick too.....seat belts etc...;)

shagman

I thought I'd ressurect this thread as I'll be doing a lot of work on the van over the next two weeks. Yesterday I put the front up on blocks erected a tent around the engine bay and got everything set up ready for the engine removal.
See this thread for more info on that...
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055854924
Today I got the grille radiator carb inlet manifold etc off, tommorrow all going well the old engine comes out. It will be rebuilt at a later stage and probably sold on.


Here's how far I've got with the engine cover I'm awaiting fabric to cover it then the windows go in and it's done.

shagman

Took the engine out today. Gonna clean up the engine bay replace the wings and then put in the new motor.

Max Headroom

Dont know if you've seen this b4..............

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFdfw3hXO_I&feature=related


Or this....:eek::eek::eek::eek:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COxeR3ZNZSA&feature=related

shagman

Yeah that Evant was covered in DropJaw magazine I have a few spare copies of it if you PM me your address I can send you one or if you're going to the Octane meet in Carrickmines this weekend I'll bring one along.
I think you need to get on the www.vannin.com forum, sounds like you're hooked!

Max Headroom

Been into vans since the 80's.....:eek:...first car was an escort van.....customised of course...;)

shagman

Got any photos? Doesn't seem to have been too many custom vans in Ireland back in vannin's heyday in the late 70s early 80s.

Max Headroom

TBH..there were a lot more back then than i see around nowadays..(sticking on a set of alloys and a bull bar doesnt rate as customising with me..;) )...lots of rwd bedfords and trannies..... not yer fwd muck..:P..had a mate that made a mk3 cortina estate into a van too...

shagman

Was there ever any Custom Van rallies or Van-Ins in Ireland then?
I know there's been VW van gatherings/weekenders put on by T2Ireland but I'd be interested in knowing if there's ever been more Custom van orientated ones. I have stacks of Custom van mags and books from the 70s and 80s that I've been collecting over the last few years (Thank God for Ebay). If you are ever in the greystones region of Wicklow drop by and we can talk sidepipes and moon windows.
I'm hoping to have Helga my chevy ready for what will be the nearest we get to a van-in in Ireland www.vantastival.com

Max Headroom

shagman wrote: »

Was there ever any Custom Van rallies or Van-Ins in Ireland then?

If you are ever in the greystones region of Wicklow drop by and we can talk sidepipes and moon windows.

..van rallies...:rolleyes::rolleyes:...only when you visit the local builders merchants.....:D


I'm only in Bray mate...spend half the week in Greystones on the beach with the dog....Pm me about gettin a lendy of some mags from ya...;)

shagman

The PM option doesn't come up on your profile/dropdown list. PM me and I'll reply.

shagman

Progress so far on the van.
Got the old engine out....

to make way for this baby...

The battery tray was crispy so made up a new one out of a steel wall mounted plastic accessory bucket holder yoke that I had spare.



Ta-Da, free LOUVRED battery tray....wooo!!



I also ground back the front area (headlight support plates etc) back to bare metal and gave them a coat of zinc primer.
Next up is more rust proofing, hopefully get some bits powder coated and fit new wings.

hi5

Looking good,in house fabrication is the business:)

shagman

Last few days have been spent tackling rust and getting it ready to install the new engine and fit new wings.

2.8trooper

coming along well good thinking on battery tray now youve no shelves:)
your plans going accordingly??

Sids Not

Love the perfectly built "ramps"....will you build me a wall.....:D

Whats the story with the w/pump.....looks pre-oven....

shagman

Things are going preety much to plan except have been destracted from actually putting the engine in by getting rid of all rust in the engine bay and repainting. Worth it in the long run.
I have another shelving thing up that was a spare which I'd probably never use and they were free anyway.

The water pump is from the old engine as I need a long pump and the new one is a shortie. Stripped off the rust ant painted it with red VHT. I'll probably paint another coat of gloss red over it to match the engine. The engine mounts are the same.

shagman

Had a bit of a setback in that the lovely chrome headers I bought back in May don't fit as they foul on the chassis rail. I bought another set off ebay today that are a different design (block huggers) so hopefully they'll fit. If they don't I'll get the original ones modified and sell on the other pair. Anyone looking for chevy headers?
I finished grinding back the rust today and gave the engine bay and windscreen surround the first coat of rust bullet .

Painted everything that wasn't nailed down .

Sids Not

Bummer..we had a feeling that the headers wouldnt fit ,didnt we...:(....Were they out much..??? Was it both sides..??...did you try them without all the engine/gearbox supports..jacks etc...ya know they might take a inch that you might need....;)

shagman

Firstly thanks a million SidsNot for your help with getting the engine in.
Now the headers debacle.
The drivers side was tight but I got it on by cutting a bit of the floor back where it meets the engine cover.The problem is that the engine is off-set to the passenger side so that the drivers footwell is big enough to comfortably use the pedals.The passenger side footwell is smaller and the block is nearer the chassis rail, cutting into the floor is one thing but I'm not gonna mess with the chassis rails on a 3.3 tonne vehicle! I ordered another set of "block hugger" headers which should get here on monday, I've since been told they wont work either but we'll see when they get here.
I have a mate who works in an engineering shop dropping in tommorrow to have a look and see if he can come up with a solution.



Anyway I wasn't idle in the meantime.

Prepped the wings to go on today. Painted the inside with rust bullet. I'm not using the original ChevyVanG30 emblems so I've welded plates behind two of the unused holes and drilled new mounting points for the new emblems.

The new emblems turned out well. I was going for a classy, dignified kind of rolls royce look and I think I got it spot on.....



I finished renovating the brake booster/mastercylinder, it was thick with rust and was a hell of a job getting it clean and rust free for painting. Turned out well though.





I also did a bit more painting second coat of rust bullet around certain rust prone areas and painted the door hinges, trans cover and the torque-convertor cover.
Gonna get the doors back on in the morning hopefully and get the wings on.

hi5

Great work Shagman.

Headers are nearly always vehicle/engine specific.

block huggers should fit as long as they clear the crossmember/mounts,you can somtimes grind a notch out to make it fit and weld it behind for re-enforcment, you'll need to make an down pipe to connect to your exhaust.

shagman

I welded on one of the fenders today and the driver side headlight plate and started work modifying the headers. I cut off the plates, I'm grinding out the internal weld in the plate then basically push the pipes in further and re-weld.
Just finished one header and it worked great, fits in nicely now. Gonna get it re-welded on monday.Was a hell of a job grinding out the old weld from the holes in the plate. I mainly used a pneumatic die grinder.
Any ideas for a better tool to grind out stainless weld from inside a 1.5 inch hole?
BTW click on any of the photos in this thread for full size shots.

Before,





After



Gonna be welded around inside face.



The battery tray I made came up nice after a coat of paint.It's got powder coat then zinc primer then anti-rust top coat ... should last a while.

Sids Not

You can have one of these i have it its any use to you bud....one's been cleaned up and painted, other one's "eau natural"............:D

shagman

This is long overdue an update so here's what’s been happening.
Got everything finished a day before vantastival. Was on schedule then 5h1t hit the fan. The engine was making a very wrong noise. Thought it was maybe one of the hydraulic tappets hadn't filled with oil so I ran her for a bit but the noise remained and in fact got worse at one point. While it was running I reversed it and as I moved the shifter (3 speed auto on column) the little plastic pointer that shows you what gear you’re in broke off. I put it back in drive and stuck it back where it was and then it wouldn’t go back into park or reverse! I disconnected the linkage and everything moved fine except for the shifter tube on the steering column.
At this point I threw in the towel and borrowed a friends van for Vantastival. Was a great weekend and would recommend it.
So since then I’ve done a lot of investigating and stripping parts back off.
Stripped the steering column down and found that when the pointer broke off it allowed the plastic stub to slide back down it’s mounting slot and foul on the column as it went past the drive portion. That’s now sorted.
The noise seemed to be coming from cylinder 1 area so after checking lot’s of other easier possibilities (fuel pump, alternator, PS pump) I pulled the plugs to make it easier to turn the engine over by hand. I found the plug in cylinder 1 was mashed so I took the left head off. Inside was a small piece of metal looks like a spark plug electrode but the plug that came out still had its electrode intact. So I pulled both heads and it seems like something got dragged in the intake causing damage mainly to cylinder 1 and 7. I have since pulled the pistons and I’m going to get these cylinders rehoned to clean them up. They are not that badly damaged as whatever was in there was fairly soft metal. The piston heads of 1 and 7 look like they’ve been shot-peined but that shouldn’t effect running. I might replace piston 1 though as I suspect there is a bit of the unwanted visitor metal embedded in one spot which could cause a hot spot. New pistons are only $15 or so in the US anyway.
Photos and more are on this thread.
http://www.vannin.com/threads/ubbthreads.php/topics/368489/Any_tips_for_Engine_swap.html#Post368489

hi5

Ahh,the perils of buying on ebay:)

shagman

I can't say for sure that what ever it was in the engine was there when I received it. I had the inlet cradle covered with a cloth while working. It is possible that something fell in when I was putting the inlet manifold or carb on, but I really can't be sure. I figure it's better to try and just get it working again rather than play the blame game and try and get my money back. Not worth the energy I reckon better spent on getting her running.
And the gearchange getting stuck was the icing on the cake (a teatime express one I think) that was just an unfortunate coincidence.

shagman

Edited with photos...

This is long overdue an update so here's what’s been happening.
Got everything finished a day before vantastival. Was on schedule then sh1t hit the fan. The engine was making a very wrong noise. Thought it was maybe one of the hydraulic tappets hadn't filled with oil so I ran her for a bit but the noise remained and in fact got worse at one point. While it was running I reversed it and as I moved the shifter (3 speed auto on column) the little plastic pointer that shows you what gear you’re in broke off. I put it back in drive and stuck it back where it was and then it wouldn’t go back into park or reverse! I disconnected the linkage and everything moved fine except for the shifter tube on the steering column.
At this point I threw in the towel and borrowed a friends van for Vantastival. Was a great weekend and would recommend it.
So since then I’ve done a lot of investigating and stripping parts back off.
Stripped the steering column down and found that when the pointer broke off it allowed the plastic stub to slide back down it’s mounting slot and foul on the column as it went past the drive portion.







That’s now sorted.




I repainted the switch cover section in silver and made a new shift pointer out of the metal insert from a wiper blade and a troll arm.
A troll arm ????






The noise seemed to be coming from cylinder 1 area so after checking lot’s of other easier possibilities (fuel pump, alternator, PS pump) I pulled the plugs to make it easier to turn the engine over by hand. I found the plug in cylinder 1 was mashed so I took the left head off. Inside was a small piece of metal looks like a spark plug electrode but the plug that came out still had its electrode intact.



So I pulled both heads and it seems like something got dragged in the intake causing damage mainly to cylinder 1 and 7. I have since pulled the pistons and I’m going to get these cylinders rehoned to clean them up. They are not that badly damaged as whatever was in there was fairly soft metal. The piston heads of 1 and 7 look like they’ve been shot-peined but that shouldn’t effect running. I might replace piston 1 though as I suspect there is a bit of the unwanted visitor metal embedded in one spot which could cause a hot spot. New pistons are only $15 or so in the US anyway.
Photos and more are on this thread.
http://www.vannin.com/threads/ubbthreads.php/topics/368489/Any_tips_for_Engine_swap.html#Post368489

shagman

I got cylinder 7 honed last week but he couldn't reach cylinder 1 with the block in-situ. So I made up a tool myself, I got a 4" tube of sponge foam and spray glued on emery cloth on the outside then glued a rod down the middle and spun that with a drill / right angle chuck in the cylinder. Cleaned it up nicely.
I'm still waiting on a new piston from the UK, when that arrives (hopefully this week) I'll be re-building.

In the meantime I finished the engine cover.

Some on here have described a nicely dressed V8 with all the chrome shiny bits as "car porn" and I couldn't agree more so with that in mind I present the peepshow special.....



Thats scarlet red wet look pvc with polycarbonate windows. Wipe clean surface. :O :'D :rolleyes:

shagman

I copied this from my post on an american custom van site www.vannin.com .

Well I've just come to a milestone in creating my perfect van. I have a 79 Chevy G30 that was converted from new to a campervan by Cobra industries. I love the comfort and facilities the camper offers plus it saves me thousands of euros in insurance and tax as their is special rates for RVs/Campervans here in Ireland.
I don't like the boring looks/ugly top/ and poor performance, and if I was in the states or canada I'd have a tin top with only portholes in the sides. But ya gotta rod what ya got, and I do love Helga (my vans name) so my project is to make this the ultimate fusion between a campervan and a custom van. I've been adding a few bits and pieces over the years but at easter I bought a rebuilt camaro 350 smallblock and stripped and rebuilt the front end.
It was a bit of a nightmare as I had to rebuild the so called rebuilt engine.
See more here:- Rebuilt engine rebuild
It now has new fenders, new motor , new seat upholstery, new custom windowed engine cover and I stripped everything under the hood back to bare metal and painted with rust bullet.
Still to do.
To make the hi-top look better I fitted wooden slats on the roofrack to give it better lines, they will need to come off and get re-varnished. I'm also gonna mould in a visor to smooth out the look of the overcab section (the gap will be filled and rounded out into the visor).
I'm gonna install chrome tubular running boards, these have no steps just a chrome tube running from tyre to tyre.At the rear of these running boards and under them will be half length side pipes coming from the middle of the van to the rear tyres. A full mud flare kit + chinspoiler will also be moulded in. I'll be cutting holes in these and the tubular running boards will pierce them at their ends. This is because the running boards are just short of touching the tyres on either end, I'll probably mould/radius them into the mud flares. At the rear quarter panel I'm installing teardrop portholes. The paint job will be as below a stripe that turns into a flame and inside the flame will be the teardrop porthole. I also have a few mods in mind for the interior including converting the overcab bed into a drop down one like in A class motorhomes.
Here's some photos click on the small ones to embiggen them.

shagman

Part 2..









V8 peep show.
this is my favourite shot worth clicking on for full size.

shagman

I got one side of the tubular running boards and sidepipes combo on today. I welded up some heavy duty brackets that go to the chassis rails at the front and the spring hanger bracket at the rear.
It looks like it's touching the rear tyre in these photos but don't worry it's not.