1976 GMC Step Van camper conversion... The unfinished dream

[mertzman]

Thanks for all the replies, it means alot to have the approval of RR!  There is one huge suprise at the end but that will come in due course. 
Onwards with the retrospective look at the build!

First things first, get the ICE sorted, right?! 




It still works and I plan on keeping it.  Maybe I'll put a more modern head unit in it sometime but 'hidden' this one will stay. 

Say what you will about speed, or a lack of it in this thing, but this is my favourite speedo EVER! I'm just dying to keep it and get it working with a cummins...



So there it was sitting in the drive way...  It's body is all solid as it is 100% alu.  Only things of concern are a tree branch that dropped on the roof in the previous owners time with the van and a crater of body filler on a dented rear door.


You all know that pain of having a new project rock up and having to leave it to go to work... That was the longest shift of my life! Here it was in a previous life...



Split rim death anyone?

[mertzman]

The wheels are going to be interesting. The best thing to find is a donor pick up and transplant this body onto the frame, thus giving modern parts availability, decent brakes and a solid chassis. A 3500 dodge ram was the candidate, despite not being GM like the body, I love the 6BT growl in a 4*4 rig. This line of enquiry was quickly confirmed with a look under the body...




The skylight had been left open for 20 years whilst it was parked up and the carpets absolutely stank. We all know that rotten retro carpet smell right?! The smell and damp had rotted out much of the lower 6 inches of the interior camper conversion so that had to go. Even if it was solid, it was not designed to my taste and featured a ridiculously small 5 by 5 foot bed suspended from the roof. All this went out on day two, leaving a VW camper night heater, a cooker, crapper, some seats and other assorted goodies to hook back into my reworked interior down the line...

[mertzman]

and a little while later, out comes one seized 350 small block...

[Paul Y]

The speedo is from a Chevy 55-59 pickup.

Love this project lots.

P.

[brc76]

OK, I'm impressed!

[Deleted]

Unbelievably cool! Going to be watching this

[grizz]

This will be good.

Love the extra Chevy grille

[bazzateer]

More!

[grifterkid]

Keep it coming...!!!!!!!!!

[generallee]

I was about to start banging on about how split rims weren't all that dangerous. Lots of the commercial preservation scene lads still run them over here with not too many deaths of kittens etc (I think they might be banned in the US though, dunno about Canada).

Then I saw this

Jan 9, 2015 21:35:12 GMT mertzman said:

Split rim death anyone?

As you were, that looks nasty!

Love the van though.

[mylittletony]

I am absurdly jealous of you for finding this and your plan, I can't wait to see how it turns out

New favourite build

[madwelshman]

Me likey much!! :-)

[dikkehemaworst]

Like he's going to drive anywere... :-) bookmarked

[banterchicken]

this thing is brilliant! can't wait for the updates

[mertzman]

From what I'm told on the grape vine split rims are a no no in Canada but regardless, I'd essentially be putting this body on a 90's frame and running gear anyway.  It's a miracle those rims even supported the weight and held air! It's on wheels at this stage simply to roll it around the drive and eventually so it can have the frame unbolted and rolled out from underneath it and cut up for scrap. The rear axle was a 5.7:1 or something similar. The muncie gearbox had a ridiculously low first gear and we calculated a top speed at something in the single mph bracket for 1st...  at highway speeds it was going to be revving pretty stupidly high too with that 350 small block. God only knows how the previous owner could afford to drive it even with 80's North AMerican petrol prices, let alone the racket it would have made!  At the time I had worked out all the stats and figures out of interest but this was purely academic anyway given that it was to be junked anyway. 

So on with the 'update' and slowly moving towards the big ending in a day or two's time. I won't spoil it but it's pretty bad and heartbreaking...


Here is another with the engine being taken out:



Once that was done, it was time to pull the gearbox out and stick it inside until it was sold. Some guys travelled all the way from Montreal to get it, they wanted it for a super low range crawler for driving crazy jeeps over boulders.



Looking a little empty in here: 

[mertzman]

This thing had a single silencer on each exhaust... this must have been a deafening ride back in the day...




Next up was stripping the paint... by hand.... This took me 2 weeks of 8-10 hour beautiful spring days to achieve. Oh and 7 gallons of stripper and some rather tired hands from the scraping and chemical curse word in the stripper. Pro tip, use gloves next time!





Once it was stripped back, polished and buffed, it took a real shine. So bright I'd actually not bother with it. I was thinking about a British Racing Green type shade for the van perhaps... Either way, I don't like the mirror finish:

[mertzman]

This was me getting it done. Slow, slow work...


Time for a break. I took the bumper off, painted it and realised I'd forgotten to straighten out a minor prang from the previous owner. My finest shade tree blacksmithing ensued: 

[mertzman]

A quick speedy photoshop of how it should have looked:

[mertzman]

And that's how it ended up.
No drive train was ever sourced.
No further progress was ever made.
My visa ran out and I returned to the UK.
I've never been back since and it was sold last year to help finish off my education here in the UK.
Some of the pics are in the wrong order but you get the idea of what I did to it in my short time with it. 

In the slight miracle anyone here knows how XAN 256 turned out. Drop me a pic, even if it is now on the slowboat to china as scrap. LOL!

[duncanmartin]

That's such a sad ending to a really interesting project.
Thanks for posting it though.