Do you know your way around a GMC Vandura?

[quincy]

Hey guys, long time no see... Life has been keeping me pretty busy of late and I haven't been logging on much. The new job takes 100% of my time and when I get home I got too much to do... so sitting at my computer and surfing the internet has taken a distant place in my priorities!!

Anyway... I've recently been handed a neat new project that I may call on your help if any of you can help?

I've recently become the 'keeper' of an old coachmen camper. 1980 GMC vandura G3500 cab/chassis. It belonged to my folks who have not used it in years and recently they asked if I'd be interested in fixing it up. They thought of scrapping it, but the accomodation unit is near perfect and it'd be a shame to see it destroyed. They have passed the title over to me, so I plan to fix it up and use it some while my family is still young.

My problem is I'm not too familiar with american vehicles. This GMC has a 5.7L V8 engine which I'm working on at the moment.
Once I get it running, I gotta go through the rest of the mechanical & electrical systems to make sure everything is functional & safe.
Once I got all that nailed down... I have a heap of cosmetic work to do, replacing doors and a few other parts of the cab that have rusted badly. And finally, giving it a lick of paint...

So my question to you, do any of you guys know your way round these old GMC 5.7 V8 engines? Or better still, know your way around old GMC van's in general?
This GM engine is not fuel injected nor is it over run with electronic gizmos, so I'm looking forward to wrenching on an "old school" engine that I can work on without hooking my laptop to it...

Kevin

 

[quincy]

Some pics

 

[Doc]

The 5.7 is also commonly called a 350 over here. A very common V8 engine. Probably more of these engines built than any other from the 70's right up to 2000 or so. A good engine overall and you should have no problem at all finding parts for it.

Great to see you back posting again Quincy.
Good luck with this project.

 

[TexasAirCooler]

Nice looking rig!

This GM engine is not fuel injected nor is it over run with electronic gizmos, so I'm looking forward to wrenching on an "old school" engine that I can work on without hooking my laptop to it...

Kevin

That part right there makes it a good keeper! I've built a few 5.7 / 350's in my day, my daughter want's me to replace the v6 in her truck with one now.
Docs right, there are a ton of these motors and parts around.
Are you able to get general parts local, or will you have to order them in?
If you have to order in, summitracing(dot)com is a good place to visit.

 

[Art454]

The only bad thing with these old carb engines they don't like to run to good with the crap gas we have today.
You may get a lot of vapor lock when she is warmed up.......then at idle it will die or miss on take off or even just driving it down the road.
The only other option is to find reg. gas .....which someone here had sites were to buy it.
Anyway gl with it......you just hate to throw good things away....but it seems here in the U.S. they want you to junk anything over 15 years old today.

Art

 

[quincy]

It's the same mind set over here Art. Its the disposable society we live in...

Anyhoo... I got the ol guzzler running earlier this week! The carburettor was gummed up with gel and rust and the petrol that was in the fuel tank had gone bad after sitting there since 2006. Such a shame to have to drain off 30 gallons of fuel, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with that yet. The vandura sure didn't like it, maybe I can run it through my lawnmower...

Anyway I'm having a lot of fun getting this thing up and running, I enjoy the mechanical ingenuity that goes into this stuff...

So the V8 is not tuned up yet, it sounds pretty rough with several pipes & brackets dangling about, and it appears to be running only on 7 cylinders, but its running and making noise... and when i shift it into "Drive" it moves forward... so I'm happy so far.

I need to look at the spark plugs & HT leads next and see if I can get all 8 sparks firing..

My neighbour bet me €20 I couldn't get it running.... so I need to go and collect that bill later this week...



[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QCW7FF1OHQ&feature=g-upl[/ame]

 

[urednecku]

CONGRATULATIONS!
Getting them things running again from the dead can be a real thrill. Getting them running right is a bigger thrill.
And you are right, those 350's are known to enjoy sucking down some gasoline. But they are also a work-horse!

 

[quincy]

And you are right, those 350's are known to enjoy sucking down some gasoline.

And with the price of petrol recently exceeding $8 per US gallon over here (and climbing), I won't be using it for my daily driver...

But I will be using it once in a while to move it 50 miles from point A-B... (B = Beach) leave it at B for a couple of weeks and then bring it back home to A.

Its the only way I can justify running & using this wagon...

Unless I convert it to LPG which would ease the pain... But this is a ways down the road in my planning just yet...

I also have an almost new 4.5L 6 cylinder VM turbodiesel engine with only 40 odd hours on it sitting in a wooden cradle in my workshop... That could be a future project..... I had been saving it for a fishing boat, but it might fit the vandura with a few mods... The possibilities....

I prefer the sounds & smell of the "350" though.....

 

[quincy]

Are you able to get general parts local, or will you have to order them in?
If you have to order in, summitracing(dot)com is a good place to visit.

I'm going to have to order in.. I started looking for a new mechanical fuel pump recently but the costs to ship it from the US to here is more than the cost of the parts in most cases!

I think I'll have to bundle my orders to try to cut down on the shipping costs... I may need a little help from someone over there in that respect.

Today a guy was telling me about some online store in the UK that sells american car parts, so I'll give those guys a shout over the next few days and see what they can do fo me.

Regarding my fuel pump - Somewhere along the line, somebody fitted a 12v diaphragm pump in-line between the tank & engine and the 12v pump has gone bad... I'd prefer to revert back to the mechanical pump if I can.

 

[TexasAirCooler]

Doesn't sound too bad.
I agree about mechanical pumps. As for your fuel, try to get you some Star Tron to Remove Ethanol. Look in the lawn & garden section.

 

[quincy]

The "Specialist" american car parts guys in the UK were looking for crazy money for the parts too so I did my own searching on the internet.

I found a new mechanical pump in Florida for $15 plus $16 shipping so I was happy enough with that... It has arrived since. I ordered it last Thursday and it showed up at my door yesterday am. Not bad service from the USPS to deliver to Ireland in 5 days...

The brakes were worse than I thought. It took most of last weekend to clean up the front suspension assembly and strip & clean the front brake calipers. Rust had welded the calipers together so it took a lot of time to carefully tease the parts apart... If I break something over here, I can't run over to my local napa to get a replacement part...

Getting there slowly but surely...

Rear brakes next weekend... I sure wish I had a few days worth of holidays left that I could get stuck in on this. Only having time to go down to the camper on the weekends is burning up my weekend time and good husband credits with the wife...

The camper is an hours drive from home right now which is a pain. Once I get it road worthy and move it back to my workshop, it'll be a lot easier...

 

[quincy]

Hey, I forgot that I had put this thread on here!

I know it's not tractor related, but some of y'all might be interested in what I've been doing these last couple of years!!!

I'm still working on my mom & dad's old camper! Its turned into a hefty project but it's a fun way to spend my spare time in bringing this old girl back to life. I'm enjoying every second of it. I guess I'm almost 20 months into it now, probably another year or so to go at the rate I'm going. But when it's done, it'll be good as new.

Anyway, here's a few photos. -

Built a canopy over cab to keep weather off the work area:

Severe rust issues:

Bulkhead should look like this -

Pulling out the engine & trans:

Stripping front suspension assy:

Cab gone:

Sandblasted & Repainted chassis rails:

Stripping down donor van for parts (needing the cab only)

I was thinking about making it into a convertible:

Got me a new roof for the wood pile:

Working on cab:

Mounting donor cab to chassis:

Painting engine:

Getting to know the transmission:

It's been quite the adventure so far, but its all good (well mostly).

Right now I'm overhauling all of the component parts before I put them back on. Stripping, repainting, replacing any worn parts.

 

[bczoom]

WOW! That looks like a lot of work. Must be a true labor of love.

Making great progress and it's looking really good.

 

[quincy]

I even managed to use the tractor -

 

[Kanook]

Quincy....nice work...your work looks like a bunch of experience in resto...What else have you restored?

 

[quincy]

Quincy....nice work...your work looks like a bunch of experience in resto...What else have you restored?

This is actually my first venture into this kind of restoration! I've restored a few tractors, farm implements and motorcycles over the years, and I have a lot of experience in welding & fabrication, but I've never restored a vehicle that was this badly messed up before. Its actually the worst kind of project in that I have a lot of sentimental attachment to this vehicle. I'm sure if I bought this rv as a flipper, I'd have sent it to the crusher a long time ago. But my family and I are attached to it and I am determined to bring it back to life and start using it, so I'm going to keep going. I'm over the worst of it now and I'm on the home stretch.

From a logical point of view, I guess I would have been better off buying an old mustang or chevy and restoring it!

I was looking for a project and this one landed in my lap, so it fits the bill nicely!

Who knows, my next project may be a collectible car.

 

[Doc]

Awesome work Quincy. Thanks for sharing.