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Posted By: Celestrail 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - July 15th 2018 4:36 pm
Just started a new project, 1972 Chevy Beauville - shorty.

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Posted By: frscke1 Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - July 15th 2018 4:40 pm
Welcome to the site ....love the glass !
Posted By: oldskool73 Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - July 15th 2018 7:15 pm
Welcome.
Posted By: Celestrail Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - July 16th 2018 4:09 am
Removed the industrial grade bumpers and expedition rack. The front bumper was massive and the rack had to be cut up because it was too heavy to remove in one piece. At least the van was equipped with heavy duty springs at the factory, so the she carried the weight well.

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Here she is with stock style bumpers. I'll hope to hunt down a set of chrome replacements.

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Next up, I'll be sealing up the holes left by the rack.

And thanks for all the welcome messages everyone!
Posted By: Celestrail Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - July 16th 2018 4:19 am
Time to seal her up...

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This is what each contact point looked like.

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Quick flap disc prep...

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Extract magnet that broke off...

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Copper pipe backer with magnets slipped in before squishing...

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No slag...

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Grind down...

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Repeat for 40+ holes...sealed up!

BONUS - Mirror delete - gonna go with the smaller early mirrors.

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Ugly

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Better

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Ready for finish work.[img]http://[/img]
Posted By: oldskool73 Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - July 16th 2018 5:17 am
Progress ! Very nice.
Posted By: 1959 Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - July 16th 2018 1:37 pm
Looks like you made quick work of the holes. And yeah I like the window vans too. Good luck!
Posted By: Dyno_Dave Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - July 16th 2018 2:57 pm
Welcome aboard! Nice little van, and off to a fast start.

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Posted By: mrtoni Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - July 16th 2018 6:45 pm
From San Diego, right? Saw it off and on for sale for couple years. I have it’s twin.
Posted By: Celestrail Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - July 17th 2018 2:21 am
Yup, it's from SD. Is yours sunflower yellow? Pic?
Posted By: mrtoni Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - July 18th 2018 8:53 pm
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=687594&page=4&highlight=Beauville


Mines a 73 so nevada gold is color but it’s same as ochre on blazers etc. rock in the plaid interior too



Posted By: newkirkinc1 Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - July 19th 2018 11:55 am
That is sweet.
Posted By: Celestrail Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - July 21st 2018 8:27 pm
Nice van mrtoni, thanks for the link.
Posted By: Celestrail Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - July 21st 2018 8:57 pm
The original 350 V8 ran pretty good after a quick sort. Things happen after sitting for decades, rats ate through vacuum lines and some things weren't connected. I basically topped off the fluids, drained the old fuel, borrowed the battery from my '89 and then it started right up.

I did find a petrified fish trapped between the water pump and the the timing cover. Anyone know what species? I figure the van was in a flood or crossed a river and picked up of a stowaway, screwdriver is for scale.

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But of course, I would like to swap in something a little more interesting. Say, an LQ9, LS3 or maybe an L03 TBI with an overdrive transmission. More on that later.
Posted By: Celestrail Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - July 21st 2018 10:22 pm
Radiator Core Support Mod

As most early G van owners know, the core support is not removable on pre-seventy something models. If you want to swap out or rehab the existing motor, it would have to come out the bottom or side. I don't have a lift and wanted to be able to access to the front anyway, so I decided to replace the spot welds with fasteners. My core support can now be removed and replaced in a few minutes.

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First, the grill and bumpers were removed.

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Purchased a spot weld removal tool from Harbor Freight - GREAT TOOL

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Marked the spot welds with a sharpie and then hit them with a center punch. Drilled out the welds but left a nub on the outermost spot welds for aligning the support. You can see in the pic that the tool cuts around the weld and you can stop before penetrating the second panel.

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The welds were then drilled all the way out, except for the nubs.

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Good times, the support can now be removed (there's a bolt at the bottom of the "T"). Some welds had to be separated with a chisel and the holes were rough so the panels were straightened out and the holes deburred at this point. Note: The welds at the ends (into the fenders) were drilled out before the other spot welds to help with alignment.

Notice that the radiator is leaking, the tool skipped out of a hole and barely touched it. Oh well, it's a great excuse to upgrade to aluminum with electric fans.

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Time to reassemble, happened to have GM body fasteners from a previous K5 project. Also, the affected surfaces were hit with primer before reassembly.

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Here is the area where the first holes that were drilled. There were two spot welds and they separated easily with a few hits with the chisel, no need for the spot weld tool. Space was limited, so only one fastener was used on each side.

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Everything is looking good except the bolts stick out too much. They will be reversed with the nuts on the other side.

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Opening the radiator would be a problem if the bolts were left this way and note that the spot welds are NOT lined up. The holes are kinda floating around but it isn't noticeable looking down and they will be hidden by the grill.

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Finished product, it might have better alignment than the factory.

Now it's time to find a motor to swap!
Posted By: lukester Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - July 21st 2018 10:30 pm
Nice job and cool van.
Posted By: Rusty Pancelode Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - July 23rd 2018 3:13 am
The fish is/was a plecostomus.
Posted By: arod2051 Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - July 23rd 2018 5:37 am
Agree, it looks like a pleco. They are algae eaters so I doubt the van was sitting waist high in water for a pleco to get stuck. They are pretty common aquarium fish and is probably where that came from.
Posted By: Dyno_Dave Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - July 23rd 2018 1:21 pm
Originally Posted by Celestrail
The original 350 V8 ran pretty good after a quick sort. Things happen after sitting for decades, rats ate through vacuum lines and some things weren't connected. I basically topped off the fluids, drained the old fuel, borrowed the battery from my '89 and then it started right up.

I did find a petrified fish trapped between the water pump and the the timing cover. Anyone know what species? I figure the van was in a flood or crossed a river and picked up of a stowaway, screwdriver is for scale.

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But of course, I would like to swap in something a little more interesting. Say, an LQ9, LS3 or maybe an L03 TBI with an overdrive transmission. More on that later.


Looks like a trick from Grumpy Old Men to me.

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Posted By: newkirkinc1 Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - July 24th 2018 2:39 pm
Nice work!
Posted By: tuner4life Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - July 24th 2018 5:25 pm
That fish skeleton is in pretty good shape. you should make a feature out of it in the van. Put it on the dash maybe? Or clear coat it and make it a hood ornament?
Posted By: dragonvanman Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - July 27th 2018 6:29 am
Wow love that ...... nice honest van right there ,would like a window van myself .
Great find ......
Posted By: arod2051 Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - August 07th 2018 5:57 pm
Any cool updates?
Posted By: cornfarmer Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - August 07th 2018 6:50 pm
Looks good, neighbor (I live in the same area)
Posted By: mrtoni Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - August 08th 2018 8:03 pm
Do you have the original seats? Mine are ochre/green plaid. Totally bitchen. I collected a second set of buckets and door panels that may go in a burb build. There’s a bench on eBay matching too but $350 back east
Posted By: FreeBornRambler Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - September 30th 2018 7:43 am
Hey im shelton! I’m new to this not sure how to move around the sight yetzthis may be a old tread but I’m trying to backdate my grill and don’t understand the headlight buckets.. I have a 79 looking to do pre 77 I have almost all the stufff.. front bumper grill/light bezels and Both blinkers housing only one blinker cover still looking for another. Do I need to mount round headlight buckets to hold my light? Also if I need headlight buckets For
Light couldn’t I just use 7 lunch rounds from a Chevy nova those things are remade all over
The internet. Sorry kinda bad at explaining.
Posted By: mrtoni Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - September 30th 2018 11:35 pm
His van is for sale on Craigslist in Florida currently.
Posted By: Celestrail Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - January 01st 2023 6:10 pm
Time for an update, motor swapped. Of course it wasn't this simple.

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Posted By: Celestrail Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - January 01st 2023 6:21 pm
Pro tip, I chose an express van for the donor motor. It had all of the van bits, front dipsticks, cable throttle, accessories and drive belts in the right places, cooler lines to the radiator and other things like a cruise control module and short air filter.

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Posted By: Celestrail Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - January 01st 2023 6:34 pm
The LS/4L80 swap into a first gen g20 required cutting into the crossmember above the transmission and sourcing a slightly longer driveshaft. I was able to use the stock motor mounts with conversion plates and fabbed a new transmission crossmember using the TH350 center and the ends from the express van to bolt it to the chassis.

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Posted By: Celestrail Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - January 01st 2023 6:44 pm
It's a tight fit, but it cleared the body with stock headers. I made notches in the frame rail on the passenger side to clear the header bolts and the a/c fittings.

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Posted By: Celestrail Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - January 01st 2023 6:58 pm
With the engine/trans fitment sorted, I went on to other systems. I found that Astro vans are a good source for parts. The radiators have fittings for the stock transmission color lines, but I had to add a fitting to the top radiator hose for the LS steam vent. This setup also keeps the stock overflow tank, cooling fan and cooling shroud.

The Astro van hydroboost allowed me to delete the vacuum brake booster and keep the stock master cylinder and brake lines. I did weld the stock brake pedal connector to the hydroboost shaft.

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Posted By: Celestrail Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - January 01st 2023 7:33 pm
A lot of time was spent stripping down and cleaning up the underside of the van.

Up next was the fuel/exhaust systems. I wanted to keep the stock tank so I went with Holley's EFI in tank module, part number 12-373. It uses the sender hole and doesn't requires a return line from the intake. This also allowed me to keep the stock fuel lines too.

I swapped in a LS/4l80 for better gas mileage and improved emissions, so I ended up using the four catalytic converters and the EVAP system from the donor. I had some leftover steel braided hose, so that was nice.

The exhaust was routed to the driver's side away from any of the doors. With the flowmasters and all of the catalytic converters, I couldn't find a good spot for a crossover pipe. I used smaller diameter tubing on the drivers side right after the header (before the cats) to balance out the longer run on the passenger side.

Sounds good and I like how they peaked out just under the body.

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Posted By: Celestrail Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - January 01st 2023 8:03 pm
Ok, so I spent a whole winter figuring out the electric system. In keeping with my philosophy of using as many stock parts as possible, I took a deep dive into the LS writing harness. I think most everyone knows that Brendan at LT1swap.com has put together a ton of great information.

The LS writing isn't too complicated for running the engine. It's everything else that's tricky, gauges, neutral safety switch, A/C, cruise control, the list goes on. I think figuring out the stock express van harness was worth the time. It had all the systems and most of the work was deleting stuff. I'm not going to bore anyone with the details, but here are the key things for a first gen g20 swap.

After going through the harness, I was able to keep a lot of the wiring going through the firewall. I did have to make another pass through for the additional wires. The LS fuse block and PCM/ECU fit nicely in the engine bay, tucked under the drivers side fender and the cruise control module fit nicely under the brake booster.

The electric gauges from an early 90's GM truck/van worked out great for building a stock-looking instrument panel!

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Posted By: frscke1 Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - January 01st 2023 8:27 pm
Looks like your having tooo much fun ! Keep posting your progress .... love it
Posted By: cornfarmer Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - January 01st 2023 8:29 pm
great stuff!
Posted By: Celestrail Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - January 01st 2023 8:29 pm
The dash was another interesting period. I wanted to run A/C and keep a stock first gen dash.

I installed an A/C evaporator/heater combo in the stock heater box built into the firewall. I had to cut the bottom a bit and raise the battery tray. This kept the stock climate controls in place, but I did have to add a switches to turn on the A/C compressor using the the PCM and another to open the stock express van vacuum actuated valve to allow hot water to flow to the heater core. Technically, I could run both at the same time or get stupid and add a thermister to set cabin temps. I did have to cut two holes for vents, it was not fun cutting into the unmolested dash.

The radio was another challenge. I ended up modifying the stock AM radio faceplate to fit a Retrosound Motor 2A radio with all the bells and whistles. What's cool is the AM numbers are still there, when you turn it on you can see the digital display. Of course I replaced the single dash speaker with two Bose 4 inch speakers for stereo sound and hid a small Kenwood amp at the rear corner of the van with more speakers and a sub under the rear bench seat-gotta have tunes.

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Posted By: Celestrail Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - January 01st 2023 8:36 pm
Thanks, hoping to get caught up for the communities sake. BTW, nice lifted Beauville.
Posted By: Celestrail Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - January 01st 2023 8:52 pm
Time to move onto the bodywork. After stripping everything down, I went after any rust. Being from SoCal it was in pretty good shape. I could tell the truck was off-road a lot. There were endless little dings to grind and fill. I'm not a that skilled with shaping, so it took along time to get all of the lines right.

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Posted By: Celestrail Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - January 01st 2023 8:55 pm
Laying down the primer was EXTREMELY satisfying. I felt like it was starting to come together.

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Posted By: Celestrail Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - January 01st 2023 9:16 pm
It should be clear in these posts that I tried to do all of the work myself (with a little help from my friends) and paint was no different. I didn't want to use two-part paints in a residential area for obvious reason. Unfortunately, the factory lift put the truck to high to roll into the garage and if I removed the wheels or something, there wouldn't be enough spaces to get around the vehicle.

I've done some marine work and thought maybe a I could tip and roll a two part paint. Then I learned more about urethanes and ended up finding a single part urethane that NASA approved for use on launch pads. It took a long time to fully cure, but it was relatively safe to use in the driveway.

I considered the project a sleeper kustom van, so I wanted a matte finish. The paint was thick and I found that it laid down as a matte when shot from a pot at high pressure. It looks a little glossy in the pics, but it dried with a uniform finish. I was very happy with results. It's easy to touch up and no buffing.

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Posted By: Celestrail Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - January 01st 2023 9:31 pm
The devil is in the details. Reassembly required a lot of creativity. For example, the wing windows separated at the bottom pivot point and weatherstripping wasn't readily available for the first gen g20.

G20 wing windows are universal fit and I did install some from the wrecking yard, but the later wings aren't all chrome, so I went down the wing window rabbit hole and fashioned a new set with various new and used parts. The key was replacing the tack welded pivot bolts with the newer L shaped pivot bolts. It required a complete disassembly and drilling out the channels. I also had to use newer seals and they were a real pain point to install. In the end, couldn't have been happier. The original wings are slick.

The door weatherstripping required a million holes to be drilled, since the newer rubber has those little plastic nubs that keep them place. easy, but took a loooong time.

I have the original stainless trim for the windscreen, but I couldn't find the rubber and went with a regular trimmed gasket. This will be a future upgrade. There is an outfit that can make custom rubber extrusions.

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Posted By: Celestrail Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - January 01st 2023 9:39 pm
Everything came together after I installing the glass, hardware and exterior trim.

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Posted By: Celestrail Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - January 01st 2023 9:43 pm
On to the interior. Check out that dash!

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Posted By: Celestrail Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - January 01st 2023 9:50 pm
I sourced some high-end paneling and used the original stainless countersunk washers and screws.

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Posted By: Celestrail Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - January 01st 2023 9:56 pm
Gotto go for now, Happy New Year!

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Posted By: frscke1 Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - January 01st 2023 10:43 pm
Originally Posted by Celestrail
BTW, nice lifted Beauville.

My red lifted van is a Sportvan EXT... the white van is a Beauville EXT

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Posted By: DaveT Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - January 02nd 2023 4:28 am
Dude, really like your build. I would love to do LS Swap on mine for more power and better gas mileage, but it runs so good, cant figure out a reason to.
Love your build, really nice and clean. Love how you stripped everything and cleaned first.
Good Job, hope to see you at a show someday soon.
Im from Central California, and don't see many vans around here.
Posted By: Celestrail Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - January 02nd 2023 6:05 am
Thanks man, your stubby is amazing! And you're right, my other G20 5.7 TBI with overdrive runs great.
Posted By: SDMickey Re: 1972 Beauville Sportvan 20 - January 02nd 2023 3:51 pm
Celestrail. Amazing intel and build. Nice van chevy
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