I bought my 1990 Chevy van G20 in 2006 at a local dealer. It has a 5.7 Tbi V8. There where 217000 miles on it, but me and my wife just fell in love with it!
This year I am restoring the Van. It’s a lot of work, but I know it will pay off!
Here is the story of the Van as far as I know it:
The Van came out of the factory in september 1989, and was new imported in januari 1990 to the netherlands. It came as a low-top cargo Van with a 5.0 V8 in it.
A few peaople owned it before me and one of them converted it to a high-top, took away the sliding door and put cargo doors in it. He also removed the 5.0 engine and put a 5.7 engine in it.
I have spoken to that owner just a few weeks ago, and he was pleasantly surprised when he heard my plans of restoring his old Van.
The restoring story sofar:
Fist of all I took out all the chairs, that was easy. But then I began removing the carpests… ohh what a hell of a job! I now kno what makes a Van so heavy, it has a lot of stuff init, but you can’t see that.
When I took out the wooden underfloor, I was pleasantly surprissed, almost no rus at all. I removed the bit of rust and primed and painted the whole floor. After that I put back the wooden underfloor again.
Then it was time to take off the roof. After removing all the screws I carefully lifted the roof with a big kind off jack cm by cm. Together wit a strong neighbour we took the roof of an putted it on my trailer.
Now I was able to remove all the rust and sealant and what I saw didn’t scare me. Only just above the passenger door there was rust dammage.
26-06-2010
The Van is now brought to a big shed of a friend of mine, here I can work dry and safe! I brought it myself on a trailer I lended.
I’m gonna take off all the paint, so I have enough to do the next months!
Now I took out the front windshield and it didn’t break! The frame underneath it was pretty bad as I expected.
I also took out the passengerdoor and the dashboard. Now you can see what a mess it is with all those wires!
13-06-2010
Today I removed all the stickers. Pfff, what a hell of a job, my fingers hurt a lot!
I also removed the left big window, but that wasn’t easy! Also removed the grille, headlights etc.
15-06-2010
Today I’ve been talking to a painter, and the prise I have to pa to have the Van painted was less then I expected!!
Bought a big partytent (4 x 8 mtr) for over the Van while I Am working on the Van.
18-06-2010
Today I removed the runningboards. On the left side by the rear tire there was a lot of rust.
20-06-2010
Today I began sanding the roof. I took away all the little holes with filler and the sanding went on and on….
26-06-2010
Today the welder came and we began taking out bad peaces and made it like new!
The welder is very exact and the work doesn’t go fast, but he does it very well!!
03-07-2010
Today it was a welding day. Again we did a lot of work on the right side.
12-07-2010
Welding evening
13-07-2010
Welding again
15-07-2010
Still removing...
What a big job. But I like it!!
Nice work so far! Keep us posted as you go!
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