Good news is it will be a functional tow vehicle and should have decent resale value if I decide to do something different in the future.Its an '87 G30 Vandura box van, with a 350 TBI and a 3 speed auto. I think its a 3L80? Anyway, engine seems to run well enough. Tranny shifts nicely, fluid looked great. My master technician (formerly owned the shop) bought it some 5 years back as a scrap hauling van from a defunct plumbing company. It sat for the last 2 years before I bought it last month.
For starters, the fuel pump in it was dead, this is in-tank. Ethanol rotted out the rubber pickup. Made a slimy licorice mess when I removed it. Got that running, fresh fuel. Ended up redoing all the brakes with the exception of the hydroboost unit. Its leak-free as of now. The rear wheel cylinder blew out promptly, so it got new wheel cylinders and wheel seals, not to mention brake shoes. Turned the drums since they're massive and expensive. I even replaced the front calipers because I figured sitting for 2 years and not driven in 5, it was a sure bet they'd screw up sooner than later. Got the diff oil replaced too since the rear end was leaking. Big full floater dually.
P/S pump seems to be leaking a bit, but I'll address that later. Got the air cleaner re-attached after making a offset hold down tbi stud for it to attach to, the original was missing. Finally got the doghouse on yesterday, but needs some threads dug out of the floor to attach the rear. Also had to do nearly a full exhaust. Tires are 16 years old, and they're 16.5" wheels, bah! I was going to find some 16" duallies for easier tire choice but found cheap enough tires that it wasn't worth getting another set of wheels.
The rear door has some sections needing replacement, but it would be better off to replace the whole door. That's another $900. Still need 2 tires for the front, my tire supplier only had 4 in stock, ordered the other 2 from Walmart surprisingly the cheapest with free shipping to the supercenter in Post Falls.
Got some new sun visors from pull and save, two different colors, but they work! The AMFM stereo works, speakers are horrible. Windshield is cracked and the windshield rubber is terrible, fortunately those are easy to find and inexpensive. Looks like they used the same windshield and rubber up until 1996 or somewhere thereabouts.
The center console/glovebox is held in with super cheap plastic clips, and this one is broken. Not sure I'm going to fix it, may just custom make something else. Or try and find a good one in pull and save.
Banged out a dented door a bit, need to get some new rivets in the side in a few spots and yank out the disgusting carpet in the box. Not mildewy but just dirty from car parts and whatnot.
Either way, it's getting close to be able to put some miles on, and then I can do a second oil change and check for any more shavings in the engine. There was a little bit of stuff on the magnetic drain plug. I'm hoping it's residual. Engine sounds good, no rod knocks. Only driven it maybe 2 miles so far, just around the block, but I figured if it was going to spin a bearing it would have done it fairly soon after the resurrection. So that's it for now. As long as I get some miles on him (the only guy in my fleet, and Moby Dick seemed appropriate, but since it was moving Datsuns, Mobi-Datsun was even better) and all goes well, eventually I'm going to project a Datsun logo on the side of the box and paint that on, maybe attempt to make it look like a factory Datsun race team van. We shall see!
Oh, and another interesting fact: Most 16.5" tires for delivery trucks are bias-ply! Who knew! They make radials, but they're super expensive.
