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Re: 1980 Chevy Van 20
vaNsquared #773123 March 18th 2021 11:26 pm
Joined: Dec 2020
Posts: 46
Likes: 9
V
newbie
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V
Joined: Dec 2020
Posts: 46
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Thanks for the kind words everyone! And thanks lukester for offering to look our for seats!

The past month has been nuts. Lots of van progress though. Here are some pictures to tell the story

[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]
Sliding door wasn't shutting right, so I decided to mess around with the adjustment. I tried lifting it up using a trolley jack with a block of wood on it. Surprise! Bottom of door was mostly rust covered in bondo. Lucky for me there was a rust free door on a '93 in the local u-pull. Getting the door off the donor van took less than 20 minutes. Getting the new door mounted and roughly adjusted took almost 4 hours. I've officially got blood, sweat, and tears into the project now haha. Here coated in greasy handprints from the struggle the night before.
Also, we're doing a full driveway repaint color change ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Out comes the interior
[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]
Metal strips holding down the rubber floor mat.

[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]
Now they're out of the way. Seats too.

[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]
Little bit of rust through next to the doghouse.

[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]
[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]
Yep, water's been leaking in, getting stuck under the rubber mat, making a mess.

[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]
A couple of 1 peso coins from 1980 & '81 were hiding under the rubber mat.

Not pictured: wheel arch and floor rust repair using the POR-15 floor pan kit. I found POR-15-soaked fiberglass wider than a few inches in both dimensions did not lay flat as advertised, but cutting the fiberglass into strips 2-3 inches wide made them much more cooperative.

On to door disassembly!
[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]
Passenger vent window out to replace weatherstripping, then this happened. Off to the u-pull...

[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]
The passenger window was pilfered out of the '93 already. There was a passenger vent window an '82 conversion van that looked like it spent the past 20 years in a damp, shady location. The outer frame had rusted through in spots but the window swivel itself looked to be in decent shape. Someone took the chrome latches though frown Pic shows the vent window frame from our '80 in red with the Steele Rubber '71-'79 seal fitted, next to the driver side frame out of the '93. It needed a couple of very careful cuts with an x-acto knife at the ends to fit around the '80-up post design. I bought the seals only, not the felted rubber strip that seals the vertical part of the window to the post so I can't vouch for how well the full vent window kit from Steele will fit. By some miracle the felted seals on ours were still pliable.

[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]
Here is the original seal on the '80. Looks pretty similar to the '71-'79 style.

[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]
The seal out of the junkyard '82 for comparison. Looks the same as the one on the '93.

[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]
Windows are out, minus windshield (we'll get to that in a bit). The rubber strip from the sliding door is gone. That adhesive was a bear to remove. The exterior is pretty much covered in primer now. We had someone asking about buying the van the next day, but we're too attached to the ol' girl to even consider it grin

More to follow soon

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Re: 1980 Chevy Van 20
vaNsquared #773124 March 18th 2021 11:29 pm
Joined: Dec 2020
Posts: 10
Likes: 1
S
stranger
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Looking good! Keep those pics coming

Re: 1980 Chevy Van 20
vaNsquared #773136 March 19th 2021 1:20 am
Joined: Jul 2019
Posts: 11,241
Likes: 412
S
Post Junkie
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Nice progress.

Re: 1980 Chevy Van 20
vaNsquared #773138 March 19th 2021 1:32 am
Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 2,290
Likes: 137
veteran
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Awesome progress man! Way to keep up the motivation. Loving watching this one progress.


[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]
Re: 1980 Chevy Van 20
vaNsquared #773163 March 19th 2021 3:47 pm
Joined: Dec 2020
Posts: 46
Likes: 9
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newbie
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Posts: 46
Likes: 9
Thanks all!
On to paint
[Linked Image from paintref.com]
[Linked Image from paintref.com]
Some factory brochures inspired the colors

[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]
Roof painted

[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]
Then the sides. 4 coats of marine enamel. I ended up doing the whole thing with a little harbor freight detail sprayer, and it came out way better than I expected. The dark green really makes that dent on the sliding door pop out lol

Also, that T-handle was almost welded into the latch on the sliding door. I was impatient and got it to move with zealous use of a 3 lb sledge, but this mushroomed the square end of the handle. I ground down the mushroomed part with a dremel and eventually hammered it through to the other side. The old door got a more gentle treatment of pblaster, reasonable hammering, and a little heat every day for a week and never budged.
I eventually would like to get the handle and latch mechanism out of the old door since it has a provision to lock from the inside. Also the handle was in better shape to begin with. Is there a trick to this i'm missing? Otherwise, penetrating oil, light hammering, and weeks of patience is the plan

Last edited by vaNsquared; March 19th 2021 3:49 pm.
Re: 1980 Chevy Van 20
vaNsquared #773167 March 19th 2021 4:09 pm
Joined: Jul 2014
Posts: 4,805
Likes: 123
Uncle Rust N Dents
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Uncle Rust N Dents
Joined: Jul 2014
Posts: 4,805
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My younger brother got me a pair of paint guns from Northern Tool several years ago.
When we opened them up, he was really impressed with how good they were.
He even bought himself a pair to use as backups.
He was a new car dealership paint and body guy for about 20 years.

The van's looking really good.


[Linked Image from farm3.staticflickr.com]
Re: 1980 Chevy Van 20
vaNsquared #773173 March 19th 2021 5:42 pm
Joined: Dec 2020
Posts: 46
Likes: 9
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Joined: Dec 2020
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Thanks Rusty. I think I spent less than $15 on mine, less than a nice paintbrush. Definitely money well-spent haha.

On to the windshield.
I knew there was going to be plenty of rust hiding under there.
[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]
I poked around in the holes where the sun visors mount, and could feel moisture after rain even with the roof sealed up tight.

My POR-15 skills were sharpened and the only excuse I had for putting this job off was the weather. Five days with no rain in the forecast meant time to move.
[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]
The truth comes out. Plenty of crusty, rusty rot in a few places. Fairly solid compared to what I was expecting though
[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]
Here is where moisture was getting in behind the sunvisors.

[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]
Pulled the dash before going to town on rust repair. It's not bad to do with the windshield out lol

Shop vac, wire brush, then vaccumed some more. I carefully used an air chisel to knock down a few rusty bumps on the metal lip to keep it a consistent width. Cleaned, treated it with ospho, then POR-15. I used some thin strips of fiberglass soaked in POR-15 from the floor patch kit to patch any areas where the lip was rusted out.

[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]
Many hours later, its painted and the winshield is in with a new seal.

Re: 1980 Chevy Van 20
vaNsquared #773174 March 19th 2021 6:26 pm
Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 2,290
Likes: 137
veteran
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Looks great man.

As for the cheap spray guns from Harbor Freight, etc. They are fine and if you practice lots with base/clear spraying you can get some high quality paint jobs with them. I've been using them for years. I'm planning on using the profits from my next couple paint jobs to upgrade my clearcoat gun to either an Iwata or something, but only because my clear jobs could be a lot better and would require less wet sanding, cutting, and buffing with a gun that would atomize the clear better.

I would suggest getting a couple or the larger gravity feed guns though.. I have three different guns, each with a different needle size. One for heavy primer and mini flake, another for basecoat, and another for clear. I'll attach a couple pics of stuff I've dome with the cheap guns.

I love the grean you picked. 70s greens are some of my favorite auto colors.

Attached Files
72120201155.jpg (490.33 KB, 112 downloads)
219202118247.jpg (424.77 KB, 111 downloads)

[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]
Re: 1980 Chevy Van 20
vaNsquared #773187 March 19th 2021 8:24 pm
Joined: Jul 2019
Posts: 11,241
Likes: 412
S
Post Junkie
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S
Joined: Jul 2019
Posts: 11,241
Likes: 412
Man I can't wait to get home and access the pics. Those are killer pics of the 1976 ; I've Always loved that green color.

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