Back to......VANagains NEWest 65 Chevy SportVan Deluxe

,,,,,,,looks like the Ivory/Turquoise 1965 Chevy SportVan Deluxe just had another  birthday,,,,,,,

OMG, has it been that long?!  Thanks for keeping track, Don! The van has come a long way since then, thanks to you and Vintage-Vans.

There is a universal sending unit. Don suggested buying that and just using the plastic rheostat part and adjustable bracket to mount it to our stock parts. Photos here:

https://vintage-vans.forumotion.com/t51458-first-gen-gas-tank-and-sending-unit#234475



That would be a lot easier than adapting an entire unit that's made for a different car. It's nice to have the whole thing be new but that stainless steel tubing was hard to bend without kinking it.

Want to hear something funny? That was years ago and I still don't know if my sending unit works -- I haven't put the instrument panel back in my dash yet!!  And as Don can attest, I've run out of gas more than a few times!  Hmm, it occurs to me now, I could at least bring my gas gauge out and plug it in to check the gas level before I go somewhere!!

Now that I have my kick panel done, I can finally start putting the whole dash together.

Sounds like a Great Idea! Or...maybe you could have Don install a small 5gal "reserve" gas tank that you could switch over to for the next time you run out of gas...

Back during the oil embargo in the 70's,,,,,,,I surely put an extra 10 gallon VW tank in my van to hold  any gas you could find ,,,,,,,,,

,,,,,,to update Richs'  work on his van,,,,I went and seen him today,,,,,he showed me the body plugs that he installed  for the access holes to the door hinge bolts,,,,,,,

donivan65 wrote:FINALLY,,,,,,,,,1158 days after I tow this van to VanAgains house,,,,,,it goes into the body shop.   And he provides a manual of  what he wants done and how it should look when they are done,,,,,,,

Boy, i'd sure like a copy of that manual going into my project of the same van.

That,,,,,,MANUAL,,,,,,was him telling the body shop,,,,EXACTLY,,,,,how he wanted them to do their job,,,,,,and keep doing it until he decided that they did it right,,,,,,

He knows what he wants and is not shy about letting them know his expectations!

oh yes. i can tell the manual is an extensive checklist for the body shop...that's exactly why i would love a copy of it...for ideas and to give to my body shop guy too!

There was no manual,,,,,it was just him going over to the shop and making them doing it over and over again until it was done the way HE wanted it,,,,,,,, I guess we can hear from Rich how he started off the process at the shop,,,,,

donivan65 wrote:FINALLY,,,,,,,,,1158 days after I tow this van to VanAgains house,,,,,,it goes into the body shop.   And he provides a manual of  what he wants done and how it should look when they are done,,,,,,,

There absolutely was a manual. With his handwritten instructions on pictures.

I see what you mean,,,,,,the work he wanted done,,,,,,do you need, want or can afford all that work?

Yes. I'm doing a full restoration. Almost TV show worthy. I've got six months to research and gather any parts until I drop it off. I'm thinking I'm going to spend between $30K-50K....hoping much more towards the lower side of that obviously.

I had asked a question about the gauge cluster on VCVC and have started learning a lot already. I have a bunch of old Chevys already but never had a van. That's what the wife wanted and we found a 66 Sportvan Deluxe in these same colors that is fairly rust free but hidden in a barn since probably 94 (last year it was inspected and tagged).

Well,,,,if you are planning to build up a turquoise and ivory 1965 Chevy SportVan Deluxe,,,EXACTLY as VanAgains,,,,,you might ask him to sell it to you to save time and money and you will definitely know exactly what you are getting,,,,,,he was an illustrator for Sonys video games,,,,one pixel at a time,,,,,so great detail went into his van,,,,,,and me,,,I like to get stuff done, not spend an hour planning a 1 minute repair,,,,,,but you see how it turned out......

donivan65 wrote:Well,,,,if you are planning to build up a  turquoise and ivory  1965 Chevy SportVan Deluxe,,,EXACTLY as VanAgains,,,,,you might ask him to sell it to you to save time and money and you will definitely know exactly what you are getting,,,,. 

maybe i should.

ours is a 66.

Hey everybody, I’m back!! It’s been way too long since I’ve posted here. I have been doing work on my van, albeit sporadically (as is my way!).

In December of 2019 I removed the intake and exhaust manifolds from my 250 to fix an annoying exhaust manifold leak. It could have been a quick fix but 10 years had passed since the rebuilt engine went in so there were a lot of things I wanted to clean up while I had access on that side of the doghouse. Later I’ll list all the things I ultimately got into. For now, here’s the culmination of many weekends’ work:

Engine_Starts_2021.mp4