Aloha all, Well... after looking at this for a long time, I finally pulled the trigger on this 65 Grumman Chevy Step Van. So,now the fun begins! The van isn't real bad,but does have some of that four letter word known as rust. The rear bumper has rusted right off. On the plus side,its just the bumper mounts that have rusted,the frame rails are fine. The diamond plate floor has some rust just inside the drivers slider,but again,nothing real bad. Then there's the front body mount and frame rails. These have me a little concerned. I almost walked away because of the rust in this area. After having a good look,I decided it wasn't as bad as I first thought,but still a concern. The core support is about shot. Rust has eaten away the bottom of the support and is heading up the sides. The brakes need work,but I'm not sure how much. The seller assured me the brakes were fine,and all I needed to do was add fluid.lol (maybe a can of brake system stop leak would help it) Anyway, The old dog is in pretty rough shape,but...the body is really straight for an old delivery truck. The front end is tight,the driveline...well...that remains to be seen. This van has been sitting for many years now and doesn't want to start. Being a Chevy,I'm not real worried about its not starting. Hey its an old straight 6. How much trouble could it really have? There's this huge 4 sp transmission behind the 6 that's tied to a huge rear end. I doubt that anything I'd ever do would ever hurt this drive line. I was thinking of loosing the 17" split rim wheels for a set of 1970's or 80's 3/4 or 1 ton stock wheels with wide,and low profile tires. After getting it cleaned up,maybe a fresh coat of black paint,with gold,or silver trim. The low sinister look. If the engine turns out to be a total waste, my thought was either to find a newer six with EFI,or go all out,and install a Tuned Port Injected 305 or 350. Any thoughts? Thanks for looking at my post.
Well its been awhile and i thought that maybe an update would be in order . After a month of some seriously hard work , the van is running and in primer . Lets just say that this project was way more work than I thought it would be , and isn't close to being what I felt it should be ! The old 2 steps forward forward and 10 steps back is a conservative term on this van . But it is now running , and almost ready for the road . Its headed for the paint shop tomorrow . My biggest concern now is I spotted what looks to be a 54 0r 55 step van in a wrecking yard today . It really looked good from 900 yards away .
Yup , the 6 is still there , however there's doubts about the condition of the 6 . It isn't producing much oil pressure . Maybe 30 psi at 25-2800 rpm . If the idle is set @ 600 rpm the idiot light comes on . That can't be good . And yes it does have a mechanical gauge as well as the light . Any ideas of how hard it'd be to replace the bearings in this 6 ? As for the paint...I can only wish that I had the talent for airbrush work . It is quite the blank canvas . I'm up for suggestions on the colors . Right now its going to be a dark silver . Not charcoal silver, but somewhere between the bright silver and charcoal silver . I was going to do black but the body just isn't straight enough , and I'm just not up for doing the work it needs . I don't know if anyone has ever worked on a van like this , but let me tell you...that aluminum is some tough stuff . I've been beating on the back door with the shortened 10# sledge trying to close a really small gap on the hinge side when its closed . It will not budge . Maybe if I remove the door and run it over . lol Anyway, its still stock except for the missing rear bumper . I still haven't driven this truck except to move it from one end of the yard to the other . Items that need attention are the fuel tank (rusted and crusted) and the king pin bushings are shot . I can't get those pins out of the axle . I'm trying to keep from removing the axle . Being disabled... this might be a little more than I can handle . Anyone ever find away of removing the bushings without extracting the pins ? I know how dumb that sounds , but it sure would make things a whole lot easier. Again thanks for checking out my post and the nice comments . The paint is done!
The Jalopy Journal
