Figured, I'd share a bit of my progress with my 88 G20 van. Back story, my father bought the van in the late 80's, and it was used as the primary family/ travel vehicle for most of my childhood. In approx 2007 the van was put out to pasture so to say, after having a reman engine installed in 06. After his passing, family decided it was destined for the scrap heap, but me being sentimental, and crazy enough to bring it back i acquired it from the estate. Now i'm left with a very rough chevy van not worth the money I'll be spending on it, but I feel the end result cruising an interstate again in this van is priceless, smiles per gallon not miles right?.
These are previous posted pics from photobucket, new pics will be postimage which is preferred by another forum i frequent for my mini's



First step was to verify it was a functioning engine, so after making sure it was not seized, i rigged up a fuel system. Yes that is a 5 gallon home depot pail with a fuel sending unit in it running off the cig lighter from the dash... no it's not safe, yes it did work.

After ensuring the engine was running, and taking it around the block amazing trans shifts well, and brakes were working fine although all of those systems will be checked and gone through before this sees any road use. Next step is making it mechanically sound, and a few small upgrades to go with it. Basic tune up clean the valve covers noticed a small crack on one manifold so that needed fixing.






The long tubes are from headman, the black paint was not a high temp coating just shipping paint so i had to strip them down to metal and used some header paint to try to protect them for as long as possible while i have the van.


Also did the ultimate tbi mods, by grinding down the fins near the ports to the tbi unit and the shaft also added a 1/4 fuel pod spacer. I know that the quest of horse power is lost on an 88 tbi 305, but if i can squeeze a few mpg's I'll give it a try.

This is the only section of actual rot underneath, it happens to be on a section of structure, i'll have it addressed later thinking it would have to be cut out and welded not something i have the equipment or talent to do, but i'll have someone help me with that.

Juntao

Are you related to MacGyver? I have never seen anyone run a fuel pump off of a cigarette lighter.

You are correct the love of vanning is smiles per gallon! With a little labor of love you'll have smiles a mile wide when cruising your van.

Good luck with the repairs/mods/customizing. Love the pics, it always adds to the story...

Lol, no relation unfortunately i feel like i'd have a much more adventurous life if i were. I think if falls more to laziness is the mother of invention, i realized that the driveway at my parents house was quite a steep incline and with narrow roads, and no real safe way to remove it from the driveway i had to get it running. also the trailer was not equipped with a winch that is a whole lot of steel to push up that trailer.

Looking Good! Nice Van, good work too. Motor sure cleaning up nice. That's going to be one happy little smallblock Chevy!
Cool story Junato, priceless Van. More than a feeling. Pop's is proud!

Van On!

Thanks Wedgy, progress is going to have a few spurts here and there, then quiet down. This is a more recent sort of "shop truck" project i did for myself. 95 s10 pulled from a salvage yard threw a real terrible Frankenstein 92 corvette LT1, with a carb swap manifold, with a tbi fuel injector adapter to keep it fuel injected and control the 4l60e with the computer.


Motor was laid inside the frame rails when i bought the truck hence why i took it.

cleaned up wiring needs more but this was a "budget build"

this is during testing/tuning making sure everything works Heat and AC included, put another nose on it i had


after a another face lift from the original
Problem is i have one more of these trucks to build, customers truck 98 s10 getting a V8 of some sort and a manual transmission of some sort, but since he has no parts yet i'll take the time to wrench on the van this week.

Nice work on the van for sure.

Both sweet rides. Keep up posted on the progress, it's coming along nicely so far.

Nice Jab! Jim!

Subtle....

adj. So slight as to be difficult to detect or describe; elusive.

Juntao

I am curious. I have not heard of this

"ultimate tbi mods, by grinding down the fins near the ports to the tbi unit and the shaft also added a 1/4 fuel pod spacer"

Do you know has it added any MPG?

Can you enlighten me any more on what it is and how it's done?

Bob

I will 2nd the request on the 1/4 fuel pod spacer information.

Most of the information for TBI mods i got from several camaro and off road forums, https://www.thirdgen.org/ultimatetbi2/ this is a quick read into it. http://tbichips.com/?page_id=217 this is some pics and info for what needs to be ground down. It supposedly adds 50cfm of air flow or so, is there any benefit i couldn't tell you. Van is sadly 3months to a year from being on the road depends on how much work i have comming and money i have to burn. My tbi swapped LT1 s10 only has a fuel spacer in it. that being a 350 and it can idle all day through town it gets 16-17mpg city which for a Lt1 v8 in an s10 with a/c on thats good enough for me. Harris performance has a lot of info for tuning tbi engines most of it applies to 350's as everyone seems to think 305's are junk, but im looking for an interstate cruiser i want to touch every last bit of the lower 48 and maybe one day hit alaska in the van too, so my main focus is fuel economy. I know 5.3 and a 4l80e would do it justice in that dept and power, but it wouldnt be my dad's van anymore call me sentimental.
https://www.amazon.com/Throttle-Bod...qid=1566313886&s=gateway&sr=8-16
this is the spacer i bought beings all it does it lift the fuel pod over the throttle body, i used the least expensive one i couldnt justify spending over 30 bucks on something unproven to me.

Interesting!

I guess I am more familiar with the Tune Port Injection / TPI than I am to the TBI motors. My 1988 Iroc was a TPI and I did what I could to increase all the ponies without getting into the motor.

I am going to guess that since you did the mods, that you may be running a K&N filter at some point in time to help with more air?

tbi's are a lost cause for efficiency and power in most cases, but reliability and torque they do very well with. Exhaust is a big gain for power and torque on these motors the factory y pipes are typically a huge choke point. Not sure on an air cleaner yet, contemplating swapping to an electric fan and maybe making a cold air some how, maybe adding a duct behind the headlight and route the intake into that area, headers are going to add alot of heat in the engine compartment so i'll have to do something or it'll heat soak.

I have thought about the route you're taking. Thought and have come to a decision, that I am going to ride my 1991 TBI 350 out until something big happens and then do an LS Swap like JAGI410 did on his 1984. BUUU-TEEEE-FULL.....

I have wanted to add headers to the van, but not sure they would work on the LS swap (guessing they will, from a 5.7 to a 5.3)
I will have them "ceramic coated" inside and out to help with cutting down on the heat...

i'm pretty sure that the patterns for bolting the headers to the block are different on the older non ls based motors, if you're fully intending to do an ls swap i say go for it awesome reliability for cheap by todays standards. for the 350 do a 2.5" y pipe it'll wake it up enough that you could probably bypass spending coin on headers. Shop truck was a cheap parts runner that i threw together and the van is sentimental so it's going to stay a 305 for until that dies. This is the ypipe on my shop truck, the van will probably get true duals out before the rear wheels on both sides.

Not a lot of work done last night installed locking header bolts finished up routing the driver side wires put some heat socks on the ends and tightening the spark plugs, didnt have a socket that would fit under the runners on the passenger side to tighten them. So i stopped for the night.


edit: ordered my bullet converters for the exhaust as well as some get loud goodies. Still not sure what mufflers i want to run something quiet i plan to do a lot of cruising in this, but not oem want it to be stainless so it'll last a long time.

Nice work man.

Lookin good.

Had a bit of time last night between tearing down a customers truck and waiting on parts, so this week i should have some decent progress being made, if the weather holds out van is outside unfortunately but i cant fit it in my garage space i'm renting.
finished routing the bank 2 wires

mocked up the one side of the true dual exhaust, up on the fence if i want true duals or if i should add an x pipe in the system. It should pick up more midrange torque with an x pipe, but thats another 180 in pipes and it'll move the positioning of the mufflers further back which may make it harder to route out before the rear tires. Although this should be easy to remove and modify if i change my mind later down the road. It's a bullet converter with an electronic cut out to a thrush turbo muffler.


also painted a few brackets and the oil fill tube quicly in the bed of the shop truck....end of the night after clean up figured why not, not like i care about the finish all that much its a shop truck

this is where i left off on the customers truck, it was suppose to be a simple motor replacement, which is why i left the harness and fuel lines in place, but now it's getting an ls1 t56 supposedly... i'll see what he drops off for me at the shop saturday.

Juntao

You have gone from MacGyver to MacWrench! Looking good. Are you installing cutouts in the exhaust?

Bob

It's an utterly useless modification, but stock is no fun lol. Yea it'll have one on each side remote operated. I got one as a gag for the shop truck most reviews said they were junk, but 3 months later its working just fine.

Got a quarter panel skin in finally, still waiting for my fuel tank. Any advice on replacing this thing? i'm open to opinions if not ill just have at it. need to find a bench seat at some point someone had laid pipe from the bed over the rear seat completely destroyed it, cleaned up the interior a bit removed the bed have plans to rebuild it and make it better.

I got a spare bedroom full of new sheet metal parts for my 73 g20, I am going to start work when it cools off.The last van I put sheet metal in was 10 years ago, now at 52 it is harder to get motivated..Having 6 needy vans don't help. Advice is it is better to cut to little than too much.lol. go to harbor freight and get a flanging tool if it is your first time. Butt welding is an art, so practice,practice,practice.

i've picked up a flange tool a long time ago got to find it, needed it for something stupid way back when. What i'm worried about how bad the remaining metal is, i noticed the rust on the inside traveling upwards. Also behind the rocker there the inner rocker is pretty bad near the pinch weld, can i just use any old steel down there? or is it something special? Looks like its just flat metal from the floor down. I unfortunately will not be welding it, i'm going to have it done by a local welder i figure my chances are better, i have a sneaking suspicion that if i were to do the welding i'd warp the panel burn it through and possible burn the van down. Although, this maybe a good time to learn how to weld.

It is very time consuming to weld in long panels, and you have to stitch weld and keep metal cool,you bought the hard part to fabricate,everything above the style line is usually workable and easier to section and patch. Inner rocker is pretty flat on most vans, so have fun jump in with both feet.😀

When you cut the panel out double check that the Jersey Devil ain't in there.

lol i dont think i'll find the jersey devil, but i've found some old bee hives and the automotive equivalent to the jersey devil... (rust) Honestly if this wasn't my fathers old van, this would've been in a junkyard by now, but against my better judgement financially i'll do what i can to bring it back. The rockers for both front doors are gone ill do those maybe in the spring, the sliding door is rotted out at the bottom, thats going to be a fun repair. My slider is pretty beat as it is, i remember years ago the door split by the latch so its been welded around the latch area, but i've searched for the last year and still do everyday finding a rust free slider is probably not happening.

Brother you haven't seen my 73..lol

Mill supply in Ohio is where I got all my sheet metal, great prices.

i'll probably order the rest of the panels from them, just wanted this one hung before i move the van back to my dads property for the winter. The rocker was half the price from mill supply but shipping cost put it at 3 dollars cheaper than buying locally so i got it from my neighbor hood auto parts store.

Just go to a bone yd and get the whole side of a van as I did to fix big red ...

Holy smokes, must be nice to be out of the rust belt, i wouldn't be able to find a shell that clean anywhere up here.
Do you have more pics of how u fixed your rig? Curious how the inner structure is laid out.

Here's how it started ...



And $3500 later it rolls ....

There are ribs in the walls that you need to separate from the skin ...



As it is today ...

Wow, that’s some incredible surgery. What was the hit from?

https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/lo...s-Radiator-North-Magnolia-330401961.html


SRY for the hijacked but you asked ....

Yeah that’ll do it. If you can fix that, there’s hope for the OP’s van

I was called the next morning ... saw it N fell to the ground, It was there to get a new radiator.

Not at all im glad to see your van up an going, amazing to see what its been through would have never guessed. Gives me hope that i can get my dads van up and going again soon.

edit: got to distracted to post the pics of the rotted out side i took not that its a big deal to look at rust its common up here lol. Also took a small road trip picked up a mint 90 or 93 bench seat guy wasnt sure what van it was from sadly i didnt take pics of it i will later. But the seat is getting ripped apart needed a good seat frame as the rear seat frame was bent near the top. going to try to reuse my original material on it.



now i feel like theres substance to what i posted lol

Wow didn't know it was that bad. Looks great

Yea seeing frscke1's van come back definitely gives me hope that i can get this one done

this is the new old seat i purchased to repair this seat

been playing around with paint and colors trying to settle on something for the main body of the van, this is silver metal flake with candy red on top its my air cleaner, just the snout failed miserably on the lid and body of the air cleaner, but ill see if it looks better after clear and polish. Like everything else practice makes perfect, and if i'm going to attempt this van ill need a lot of practice.

I had some spare time this week got the radiator, thermostat, water pump swapped out. replaced all the cooling system hoses. I used a radiator from a c series pick up that someone left behind that has been laying in my shop for a year. I assume the guy isn't coming back. Issue i'm having which i clearly fail at measure twice cut once mentality sometimes, the width of the radiators was the same, top to bottom the c series radiator is taller, it fits but interferes with the air intake.


this is a zoomed in section you can see the over hang over the top of the core support, but the hood closes no issues

painted the timing cover, quickly in the van of course.... being lazy


only had white engine enamel on the shelf, after 9pm i wasnt going to stores to try to find silver or black

using this set up to reduce drag on the serpentine system, and i'm hoping the larger radiator with electric fans will be enough to cool the bay, and hopefully it'll help with fuel economy. Obviously power is not something to expect out of a 305
also painted the bow tie for the grill i don't have. Does anyone know if the C/K pick up truck grills are the same as the van i've been having trouble locating a replacement grill




Dropped the bowtie off at my pinstripe guy to add the black border, i'm still trying to learn how to paint metal flake and paint in general, as it seems the only way this van will see paint or body stuff is if i can do it myself. unfortunately i cant afford to have it done professionally.
sorry about the tons of pics, i just assume everyone is like me and enjoys seeing photos.

Truck grills are diff from a van...

i figured as much ill keep trying to find one for a semi reasonable price i'm thinking i may just go with a billet at this point

http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/vn/full.aspx?Page=33

http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/vn/full.aspx?Page=36

Of course the 394113 that i need is not available... i checked them earlier, found a few for over 100 which seemed high to me but it is what it is at this point thanks for looking out for me tho.

the square tube grille I got. On my 90 also fits a bunch of older pickups. JC Whitney if they still sell them. I think they fit 80s Chevy pickups. It came with instructions for both.

https://customvan.com/catalog/index...148&zenid=scoigk4oe04vicn7lj7k2mdgj6

Mine is chrome steel,not billet. It cost about $100.

tried to look it up on jc whitneys sight didnt see anything have any pictures of yours?

I can't find one either. They must have quit selling them. I've had mine since 93. I looked all over the net just now and can't find any.
I don't have a picture. It's square chrome tubes were to two braces in back and plastic caps on the ends. There are two tabs on the top to screw it on.

http://www.customgrills.com/trucks-vans/

These guys still make really nice grills. I think they may make other not listed because I have seen other vans with their grills and they aren’t shown on this page so it could be worth reaching out to them.

I saw Glory Grills. They are nice but expensive. The ones like I have were a little cheaper back in the day. They probably don't make mine anymore. Too bad.

Long time no updates. Due to shut downs, I lost my shop space i was renting, relying on my full time job only meant putting the van on the back burner again. Also had to move it to a storage only facility, but just found outdoor storage where i'm allowed to work on the van. So hopefully more updates soon. Ordered a billet grill for a truck hopefully it'll fit. My headlight doors, grill, and fuel lines should be in Wednesday. Radiator should be in today, decided to go with a stock radiator since i plan to travel with the van parts would be hard to get if i made everything custom. Also, burned some of my paid time off and took an 900 mile road trip in my shop truck to pick up a rust free sliding door near Niagara falls.


Door maybe slightly more damaged than advertised, looks pretty bent near this body line. I figure i can probably straighten it out better than cutting and welding new metal in my old door. Only thing i'm not fond of is the single window, the original had dual pop outs. I may still repair my old door since i can leave this one on the van, and keep it sealed.

Nice door you should be able to fix it.

I don't know how I hadn't seen your thread yet Junato_DW. Good to hear you are getting back to work!

I'm basically building the same van as you, but I'm having a shop drop in a crate motor. Good to see someone else with the hedmans. Had mine coated too. Really stoked seeing yours in there. The first trip we've got planned is Atlanta to Niagara Falls, around lake Erie and back down. Never been up there.

Thanks, I have some body work experience, aka enough to cause problems.

It's been a rough year all around was hoping to be cruising in my van by now. Leaves me more time to actually get serious work done i suppose. Niagara Falls is pretty awesome to see took some shots, but definitely better to go during tourist season. All the attractions were closed, so no maid of the mist or cave of the winds. It was my fiance's first time up there, but we're going back with the van when its ready.

My headlight doors came a day early, I'm like a 5 year old on Christmas. Followed Turner4life's thread so i copied removing the silver paint from the door, it should match nicely to the billet grill. Quick in progress picture one's done the other is how they came.

That looks dope AF man

Nice job

Thanks guys! Grill came in, unfortunately it was not what i ordered. The company was out of stock on the billet grill supposedly, and sent the upgraded stainless less bar and cheaper retail priced grill. I emailed them to get no where. Essentially bait and switch, although i can send it back if i'm not satisfied for a restocking fee of 20%. I put a claim in with the website whom i purchased it from since the seller is a 3rd party on there. We'll see what happens, I'd be fine if they refunded the difference, but it doesn't seem like that is going to happen.



Some other vans on here look like they have the 15 bar grill so maybe it's not so bad.

here it is next to my headlight door.

Dispute the credit card charges and let your card company deal with it ... they dont get paid ... and if they want it back they send a shipper ... this happened with a ping pong table from Dicks sporting goods ... I bought 1 kind they brought the box out and put in my van .... get it home wrong one. Called Dicks to ask them to bring the right one ... NO we dont deliver .. called the CC company disputed charges , card gave me my money back. Dicks called and wanted it back .... OK send a truck to pick it up ... The $400 table is still in my garage 5 yrs later.

That's the next step, if i don't get anywhere with anyone now.

Oh and get this I had the roof replaced ... with a ridge vent to let the hot air out ... well they cheaped out and put on short ridge tiles ... it rain a month later, the only place it leaked was the garage .... yep nailed the table it got a couple swell spots but the roofer ins co gave me the $429 it was worth ....lololol I told them the story about Dicks and they still sent me a check lolol


SRY for the hijack ...

No worries on the hijack, man that table was the gift that kept on giving. So pending some negotiations i may get refunded the difference between the grills which is fine by me, but just incase i stopped by a local scrap yard. They don't sell parts essentially strip and crush everything for weight, but my buddy works there they had an 85 conversion van checked it out. No interior parts pretty rusty, but a decent driver quality grill missing one bar and some tabs broken so i snagged it.

edit:
Does anyone know where i can find the hardware to mount the trim strips above and below the grill? the're nylon studs that take a cutting nut? I'm not sure what it's called i took a picture. Also any leads on an extended slider for my sliding door. Or has anyone extended theirs? I can probably take it down to a local bike shop in Paterson and have them extend mine. They fab motor cycle frames so i'm not concerned about the quality of their work, plus they've welded multiple things for me in the past with no issues.

I have looked for those damn nylon studs for hours online with about 0 results. I think they're pretty much fossils now. Maybe some super seasoned chevy tech would know. I just epoxy'd the broken clips on my middle inserts when I switched them over...lol

Edit: If you're talking about the long chrome trims on the top and the bottom of the grille, those clips that slide into them. I bought a piece of trim from LMC on the truck section and cut it to length. It came with those slide in tabs.

Yep, those are the ones i'm talking about. i'm going to check their site see if they have just the slide in studs available.

Definitely dispute the charges but I think the grill looks good

That's where i am charges are being disputed. Shame that a large online retailer doesn't care what third parties are doing on their website. Just be aware who you're ordering from. After looking at customer reviews and images all of them had the cheaper grill installed. Lesson learned.

Well, waiting to see what the next move is on their part. kind of partial on keeping the grill. On a side not i'm hoping to move my van next week so i can get rolling on working on her again. It's going to get cold, but it'll be worth it. If i can sort the mechanical out and start on the body I'll be happy. Also want to strip the interior and start refinishing my headliner. Does anyone have pictures of overhead consoles? Looking for ideas hoping to build one large enough to house a double din radio that the driver can see. Plan is to have one over the driver for GPS and navigation, and one over the passenger to watch dvds and stream music while traveling. Van has a lot of sentimental value so i don't have the heart to remove the original radio i stared at all my life while my dad drove it (probably a sap for not changing it). I'd rather add a secondary sound system into the van and leave the original in place.
Whats a post without pictures? Side markers came in last night. Nothing wrong with the originals, just think that the direction i'm going these older style ones may look better. In the event they don't i have the originals to fall back on.

I agree with keeping the Factory radio and dash stock. You can always do an overhead.

Good for you for keeping the stock radio. On my '88 Rally STX I've tried to keep as much of the stock upholstery and interior as I could (stripped much of the van behind the front seats to build an adventuremobile). I wanted to leave the stock radio but it kept draining the starter batteries (6.2 diesel). Disconnected and terminated the power leads, antenna leads, nothing hooked to the radio at all but the speaker wires. Batteries still ran flat over two weeks or so. Working on the interior one night and the radio lit up and started playing music. Removed radio, had an exorcism, no dead batteries since. I did build an overhead console in my Dodge, it was tough to make it tall and deep enough for a double DIN but since I'm 5'7" I see under it just fine. Helpful hint from a rank amateur, if you build a full width overhead console don't use a level to judge mounting bracket locations unless the van is parked on, you got it, a level surface!

Thanks guys. Also thanks SuperDave, honestly would have never occurred to me about the van being level when trying to level things. I'm not much of a wood worker to being with. I'm more of a measure once cut 32 times and go buy another piece of wood because it's too short kind of guy.

edit: As far as depth, I'll probably end up with two cheaper units without CD players, since most offer usb and aux plus bluetooth, I feel cd's have fallen to the wayside. Not sure when the last time I had a cd in my current radio. My last road trip for the door which ended up being 13 hours total driving used a flash drive and streamed off a phone. Makes me think I can get by without a cd player.

If my stock tape deck worked I probably would have kept mine. I didnt want to hunt up somebody that could repair a Delco tape deck.

If you dig around online I believe I once found a forum post showing there is a way to solder in an aux to the factory board, if you know what you're doing. Then you could connect a BT module to that.

Finally got the van moved. Placed it off to the side of the guys yard, it's was a mud hole. Owner of the is a super awesome dude, told me to use the concrete pad on the other side of the yard for the winter. He wanted to use his loader to drag my van over there and then push it in. I freaked out told him I'd rather get it running where she sat and drive it there. Last 3 days have been a @#$% show going there from 6-8 every night. Getting a crazy winter storm today so moving to the pad before was imperative, or it would have been snowed in for the winter. Installed a stock sized radiator with electric fans, new tstat housing (for a fan switch port), and ptfe steel braided 6an fuel lines.

Blurry picture on my buddy's car trailer towing it with his ram. We had no choice but to load it this way since the brakes were hanging and we couldn't push it to turn it around.


Painted the tank, then coated it with truck bed liner hopefully it'll stay protected.

Shot of the fuel lines over the tank. I still have to bring the tank down and shorten those lines about 3". Didn't measure properly.

And where she is now on the concrete pad. Once the weather clears up i'm going to put it on jack stands so i can start suspension work and brakes and build the exhaust out. Then I'll gut the interior and start doing the body work.

Looking great!

Weather has been super cold, so decided to do some work with the gauge cluster. Had two blanks plus there is a third blank in the cluster. I didn't get the deluxe gauges, I think since i have a 33 foot round fuel gauge and just Oh $@#* lights.

stock bezel

Coolant temp gauge added to factory cluster.

mocked up with VDO volt meter and oil pressure gauge. I'd rather all the gauges matched, but i couldn't find a VDO coolant temp gauge that i liked that read over 220 degrees. hence why that one is hidden in the blank on the cluster it wont be super visible. The vdo's look more oem to me.

One of the coolant temp lit up with a 9v battery to see if it was still readable in there.
I need to polish the factory plastic over the gauges. Any suggestions? some scratches formed on them i guess thru the years.

Very nice. You could try a small amount of toothpaste or a little furniture polish and try to buff them out.

Awesome I'll give that a shot. I tried meguiars plastix it cleaned it but the scratches are still prevalent. Searching ebay hoping to find one in good shape but they all look dusty and scratched up.

Nice work; good job getting over to the pad; I would of Freaked out too concerning the loader as an option ??!!#** ?? I also heard that toothpaste would help with scratches. Let us know how it goes.