Chevy & GMC Vans

Ole Yellar started out like this-yeah a ice cream truck





Well the bell and decals are long gone:





I bought this donor Astro for the V8 TBI 350 and I am going to cutout patch pannels out of the donor for a bubbled paint on the driverside above the rocker pannel:





Hoping to do swap soon,yet I am resisting being tempted to just do the swap without a cam and head swap.






Just did a tilt steering,delay wiper,cruise swap from the donor:




Well I will add pictures as progress in this project occurs.I have swapped alloy wheels from the donor to Ole Yellar too.

I forgot that I also took off the running boards. Got a whole $8.00 bucks for scrap.Woo,Woo!!!!.I have a 2001 no window slider from LiftedAWDastro and I am in the process of getting the parts together to make it work on this older 1985 van.I am still looking for no window rear doors.I also am purchasing patch pannels from a friend who owns a junk yard to use as fillers(hoping to harvest the pannels from the roof line to the top of the rocker pannels) for the windows to turn this into a full cargo.



Thank you SafariRob-I did take a hard look at the frame and the area where the shock mounts connect and found that to be solid.Rob advised me to check that out at NECO.

Wow Pictures ! Did you do this Gary ?

yep

Gary,,you are the man with the cam bud.

I like those wheels on the white van- wonder of they would fit my Corvair ? They are aluminum ?

Refrsh my memory. Where'd you get the donor van from? I ask because I saw "astro 350" on the side window and thought of that guy I had met before leaving Florida back in 05' during the Smurfster tour.

ScottS wrote:I like those wheels on the white van- wonder of they would fit my Corvair ? They are aluminum ?

Scott-I already swapped them onto Ole Yellar.Cobra has a set on his van.Yes they are a alloy wheel which I think I remember them on a Grand AM.If I keep them,I will power coat black with a yellar stripe on the outside rim.

peter wrote:Refrsh my memory. Where'd you get the donor van from? I ask because I saw "astro 350" on the side window and thought of that guy I had met before leaving Florida back in 05' during the Smurfster tour.

This was a old member from the other site who had a user name of Astro350.His name was Casey and was out of Dansville,In.Asked Zam at NECO if he remembered him and Zam told me there where a number of people who had that name at one time or another.

interesting....

Now I don't know how I am going to say this.But here goes nothing.Out front I am tell you all I know better.Ole Yellar project van was based on a "friend" who worked at the tranny shop(he being the guy who worked rebuilding the trannies there) for a guy I have known for over 25yrs.This "friend" then left the tranny shop and partnered up with a repair shop saying go ahead and get Ole Yellar and the V8 donor van-that we could work together in that shop which has all the trimmings lift and all.So not having a work space/shop of my own-I put it all on the line based on this "friend's" word and what he said he would do with me. If you have been wondering why I haven made much progress on this project it has been because this so called "friend" has been putting me off and is about the laziest pc of crap I have ever met.Now he is leaving this shop to go to work at another place where he couldn't work on my project at all.Long time ago-sure enough learned the no one works on projects like the owner of the project.Dammest thing is all along,I have had cash in hand to pay him for his help.To say I am major ticked off is to put it lightly.Another lession learned long ago is you got to have a useable shop to work in.

So come Monday/Tuesday this wk the shop owner where the donor van is, is going to drop the sub-frame-V8 engine and tranny and wiring harness out of the donor for me.He is also going to cut some patch pannels I want for Ole Yellar out of the donor and then send the donor to the crusher for me.So bear with me because I may not be there for the pictures for that part of the project.

I will be looking to rent useable work space to finsh the work myself.Then the work will flow like a mad man looking for a faster van.And the photo's will be all there as well.Once I open my toolbox-the camera speed may not be able to keep up with me.So the next pic will be me standing in front of what I have rented for a temp shop with a big smile.In a way-I am glad this turned out as it did-can't wait to get back to wrenching again.

Well the is my story as it stands right now.Please forgive the rant,but I just couldn't help from venting.

Thank all of you for your time,

Gary

Do what you have to in order to "git 'er dun"!

yup what petey said !!! many of us have had to do this stuff out in the elements . no garage no tarps, duckin rain drops & even snow flakes ,so ......... Get'er Done!!!!!

skippy wrote: no garage no tarps, duckin rain drops & even snow flakes ,so ......... Get'er Done!!!!!

Nope never. You lie. I have never had to dig a trench in 2 feet of snow to get to the bottom of my van to change a starter or to install new shocks or dig my way through a snow pile to find my parts van to gether parts off it. Nope never not once

This post is food for thought for me.Hope you folks can chime in with ideas.The thing I want for Ole Yellar is to convert it into a no window cargo.It has these two windows right now:





The larger one titls out.It looks like this on the inside:



I got these two patch pannels from a J/Y for two reasons.First,I wanted the same round shape as the body and second,I had hoped the j/y would have cut them out in a body line.Well without being there,you can see that didn't happen.Yeah-the only cargo there too.These are ruff over sized cuts anyways.





Question is flange or not??.I want to make these fillers as smooth as I can.I have a flange in the window frames,but the patch pannels are not as thick as the glass.I do want to limit the body filler as much as I can in what would end up to be the seam.Please,if you have any suggections-please post them.

Thanks as all ways,

Gary

I forgot to ask if anyone has seen a battery powered nibbler??