Vannin' Home Forums General Discussion Readers Rides Fred's GMC g2500

Hey there,
8 months after I bought and presented my van, I've started working on it.

As I said, there is quite a lot of rust (depending how you're used to it or not ) under the van.
I found a company that goes to people's home to sand their car's frame and everything that needs it and paint all those parts.
I told them to wait a bit as I prefer to remove most of what can be under there so that sanding and painting
will get rid of more rust and protects more parts.
That's also the opportunity to change many parts that are as old as the van and to re-start from scratch.
The few times I drove the van were not so enjoyable with shocks being more than worn out, I was hearing noises here and there, so there should be room for improvement.

I built a storage tunnel to have the van at home, keep it in a dry place and be able to work on it "comfortably".

At the moment, I've removed the biggest parts (bumpers, sway bar, control arms, shocks, leaf springs) . The rear axle and drive
shaft are still in place because I don't have imperial wrenches to remove the break line.

I'd like to remove the crossmember that would need to be sand blasted, but I'm not sure how to properly support the engine.
I saw people here did it, but no photo of the process making me feel confident to try. Any details on this ?

For now, here are some pictures.

Great idea with the shelter. Keep on Truck n'

some others

and the tank, that will look not so bad after being repainted (provided the interior is ok..) .

Great job so far, keep up the hard work and you'll get it worthy in no time.

That's a good looking van you got there and the storage tunnel is really cool too. I could use one of those myself.

Thanks guys, appreciate the encouraging words.
Sadly the lockdown was the unexpected event that let me have time to start that project. Took me 4 days full time so far.

Yeah, the tunnel was the quickest and most affordable mean for me to store the van. I didn't regret the investment.

Work goes slowly but surely.
I finally managed to remove the bushings and splitted all the ball joints (sway bar, upper control arm).
For the pitman arm, I will buy a heavy duty puller, I didn't want to break the one I had and that looked not strong enough.
I also removed the heat shields along the exhaust line and the clip of the electric/fuel/break lines so that the guys can sand blast the frame properly.
The paint was like new under the heat shields. The insulation in one shield has been eaten and probably the same guy
left some nuts here and there ; their preferred dining room seemed to be above the fuel tank . No real damage hopefully.

Nice work and the tunnel is great!