Greenvanner?...

[Ni10]

After a long talk to a guy at the local junk yard, he agreed that If I sign a waiver, he would send me out in the yard with a chaperone.
Hopefully to get the correct crossmember.
And the correct gas peddle with a kickdown switch.
Mane a few little things.

is that Forest auto parts your going to ? Didn't know they had a waiver. Theirs a person up by Sutton's recyclable that might have a few vans if you can't find what your looking for.

[RedBanner]

Forest, and they just don't let people into the yard. Typically. .
Is this person up by suttons a bisness or just a person with some vans?

[Ni10]

the guy up by Suttons has his own personal stuff. Contact me if your interested to go up their, I'll intro you to him.

not sure if he's got vans , just going to have to go look and see. call me if you want to go.

[RedBanner]

Well, the forest yard was bust. All 88s and 89s they have no idea what they have or dont. Couple of 620s out there. But all the chevy vans are newer ones. I guess 3 years ago they scrapped anything older than 85. When the iron prices spiked.

[Laecaon]

What years work? Local yard has a 86.

[RedBanner]

I'm having a hard time figuring out what years will work, the best I can figure, 71-79 th400 equiped vans would have the crossmember I need,

[RedBanner]

GREENVANNER SHIFTS!
It was 4 quarts low when I got it back together, and got a real (short)tranny dipstick/tube.
I only had 3 quarts so she is still low. But couldn't resist popping in drive, first shift into drive let out a chirp, but then it shifted back into reverse, park and drive again no noises.
A quick low speed lap around the block and the fucker just started shifting away, all automatically! And then back into reverse, and park and the drive again just fine.

[DRIVEN]

Automagical!

[Ni10]

chatted with my chevy guru guy yesterday about your van. I mentioned the codes to him and he said you got a rare van and was very impressed with your find.
Mike said the turbo 400 cross member is different then the 350 trans but didn't have any pic's to compare with. The years to look into are from 71/72 to 81/82.

if all fails with Suttons and the guy around the corner. What about the vans we saw north of Moscow ? Road trip time ?? LMK, I'll go up with you and give you a hand. Just give me aheads up before your ready, got a few priority's happening soon.

Also wanted to mention to everyone that this is a low mileage and still has the original paint. No panels show any repair work done. Adam, didn't you mention that the van was loaded on a trailer to be heading to the scrapper to me ? But the PO saved it ?

[DRIVEN]

[RedBanner]

Hey thanks for looking into that for me!
The story I got goes like this.
The original owner had this van for 40+ years, parked it inside, and had a sedan for daily driving.
He cstom ordered it the way he wanted, with a 400sb/th400 , locker, swaybars, and most of the other hd bits.
When he died, another van owner who knew of this van bought it from the estate, and yanked the th400, and 400sb out for his shorty van.
He also robbed all the chrome bits, and c10 mirrors.
He had it on a trailer ready for scrap but got ill, or something, ended up sitting on the trailer for a few months.
Some kids down the street had a smashed 1989 suburban, and saw the van there for a while, stopped off one day and ended up buying it from the second owner, he included all of his non chrome grill and bumpers., and they started hacking it together using the smashed burb as a donor.
They couldn't get shit to work real well, but good enough to thrash on it some.
Most of the dents and dings are from the last era of its life I imagine.

[RedBanner]

I have a few registrations from the first owner, last one is from 2014, states 55k miles, vs the one from 2001 that says 48k.
The front end is tighter than a mid 90's prom night.
It's a good cruiser for sure.
I wish of course it still had some of the stuff that got yanked. I know the 400sb don't have a great rep, but they are still super sought after.

[RedBanner]

My immediate plans are to just get it going well, everything serviced, brakes done....

Then... i hope to start stacking up some cool old 5x5 wheels.
Maybe grab another sbc core to mess with. Idk what, even some of the 305s would out perorm my current 350 in just about everything.
But I'd also snag up an over drive trans. I've installed a few 700r4, those are easiest to sort out I think, but the 4l80 or 4l60 would work.
Currently my 70mph rpm with an over drive trans would be like, 1200, not great.
But if I had 23" tall wheels instead of my 31"s it would bring my 70mph rpm back up to 2500, which I think is doable.
So a 225/50/15 on a 7 or 8 inch wheel would get me there, and look alot better a think...
Then I would need to address some wheel gap, looks like the early c10 drop spindles will work for me, probably grab the 2" ones, so they fit inside a 15" wheel still.
But I'll have to ream out the tie rod mount to match my hd suspention bits.
I would have to do a small block and shackle swap in the back to keep my current weight capacity. Idk 8f 8 need hd3/4 ton capacity, but it rides nice, so I'd like to try and keep it.

[RedBanner]

For the interior I have gotten some insolation/vapor berrier, and plan to do a matching (saddle) vynil over that, with a piped edged, maybe a pleat. But I'm going to do them as inserts, between the inner support structure. I would like to get another seating option for the back, but want to keep it usable for trucks stuff.
Maybe something that folds up against the wall on one side. Something that I could crash out on.
I'd like something insolated for the floor, that's not bad to kneel around on.
But that I can roll to tye side and secure, for dirty trucks stuff.

[RedBanner]

I could live with this.

[RedBanner]

But my gas tank is the much larger option, might have to look for a 20gallon tank.

[Ni10]

But my gas tank is the much larger option, might have to look for a 20 gallon tank.

why a smaller gas tank ? Whats your reason behind it ?


my priority's got cancelled so if you want to get some chit done, LMK.

[RedBanner]

If I lower it ,my super extra large tank will scrape on alot of the driveways around here. The 20 gallon tank sits well above the body, and bumper. My tank hangs 6 inches below the bumper and body.
If I ended up with the stance of the blue van, I think the 36* gallon tank would be ok.
But it still kinda looks ugly.
I'm over thinking it to soon, as I havnt even got all my gauges working, or mirrors.
These truck tires are still 85% or better, so ihave a long while to think about it.
I do need it a little lower. It's hard for me to get in and out of the drivers door, mostly out.. but I can easily walk in the slider.
I doubt I will be to quick to get wheels or lower it.
But that is the ultimate goal. And if it happens to be so low that my extra 16 gallons don't fit, I'll yank that sucker out.

[DRIVEN]

Drive cross country on a single tank. Awesome.

[RedBanner]

So I got the front half if everything I ordered last week. Can't realy do much without the back half.
But u got a kickdown swith for my new kickdown pedal/bracket.
I got a new headlight switch, mine worked but the knob was busted off.
I got 1 of the rear main seals, I ordered the standard dual lip one, and the offset dual lip seal, so if I get in there and find wear I can still seal it up hopefully.
And I got my permatex high tack, wich is the best gasket glue/sealer I've found.
And I got a stud kit for the valve covers, because if I'm doing vc gaskets under a dashboard, I'm going to need some help.
I am waiting for,
Tranny filter/ pan gasket
Oil pan gasket, and a stud kit,
Temperature sending unit.
The correct upper rad hose.
Double insolated wire, for my kickdown wiring.
Connectors.
C10 mirrors
C10, split/delux side markers.
Upper rad supports isolators