1966 g van has a new home

New member to this site..however have been scanning the g van for sale forum for some time.
I purchased Stevek's surf wagon back in march. I have many plans and will post photos as progress is made.

Welcome!!!! Good to have you here

THANKS FOR THE WELCOME...THE SITE IS GREAT AS WELL AS ALL THE MEMBERS...

very cool first gen!!!!

Congrats & Welcome to the site Whopman.Great lookin van ya got.I like the looks of that lower valance.

Rear disc brakes installed

front disc next waiting on parts

The disc set ups look cool , wondering what you have decided on for a M/C ?

Your rear disc set-up looks great Whopman.
What you got hidin behind that flowerdy lookin material with coilovers and rack & pinion sportin a small block?

That is my 1954 Chevy Pickup...bought it in 1999 from the original owner and drove it for 2 years till the tranny crapped out then started a frame off in my garage. I have done all the work myself including the motor build. Just got it started for the first time in 9 years...Not a body man so I am at the mercy of a local custom body guys schedule to get the cab back on the frame. It has a four link rear with a 76 camaro 10 bolt in it. a 350 4 bolt mostly stock from a 83 truck the front end is a total cost invovled custom coil over with disc and sway with a thunderbird power rack. The serpentine system on the front of the block is from vinatge air products..This is one of the projects that keeps growing and growing with no end..I have finally started to stay on course and stick to my game plan without getting sidelined into the bigger better parts...building it to be a daily driver....hate show cars that cost 100k and never hit the road and the owner never got his hands dirty or never busted the skin on his knuckle or spent 6 hours grinding 46 years of dirt and grease from a bolt to make it look nice under his vehicle. If you look close at the frame you will see grade 8 bolts all over the frame..those were steel rivets drilled out so i could lay the frames out and sand blast the before priming and painting them...Hey theres another tool to buy,,,sandblaster...got it,,,to small of a compressor to run it so save some more money buy an 80 gallon....easy...not so...got wire it in per instruction dual 20 amp glass fuses in a cut off box..while saving for tools i am not spending money on my truck,,,,it goes on and on.
I WOULD NOT TRADE ANY OF MY EXPERIENCE WHILE BUILDING THE TRUCK OR MODIFYING THE 66 VAN,,,,WELL MAYBE ONE I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE THE SKIN BACK ON MY LEFT EAR THE THE STEERING ARM WAS SO KIND TO RELIEVE ME OF MONDAY MORNING....

i AM USING A DISC BRAKE SETUP FROM MASTER POWER BRAKES ON THE REAR END IT IS A CHEVY 8.2 10 BOLT REAR WITH C CLIP AXLES. DID A LOT OF ON LINE SEARCHING HERE AND THEN THE NET..WANTED TO GET ALL THE INFO BEFORE I STARTED TEARING INTO THE PROJECT...THOUGHT I HAD ALL OF IT...TURNS OUT I MISSED THE MASTER CYLINDER BY A FEW INCHES...I WAS INSTALLING A CORVETTE DISC DISC SETUP WITH A COMBO VAN....GOT UNDER THE CAR AND STARTED TRIMMING AWAY AT THE CAGE THAT ENCOMPASSES THE ORIGINAL SINGLE MASTER....TO EASY...BOLTED THE CORVETTE MASTER IN PLACE,,,,,WOW,,,IT FITS ,,,,,WOW,,,NO IT DON'T
THE FIRST AND REVERSE LEVER WAS SCRUBBING THE TOP OF THE COVER REAL HARD...STARTED LOOKING HOW I GOOD GET ALL THE SLACK OUT OF THE SHIFT RODS....CANT BE DONE...NOT GET GET CAUGHT SNOWBALLING ANOTHER PROJECT......MANY ONLINE HOURS LATER I FOUND A DUAL RESERVOIR WITH REMOTE LOCATION UNIT THAT SHOULD WITHOUT A DOUBT FIT....YEAH RIGHT. NO IT SHOULD CLEAR JUST FINE. THE SAME COMPANY THAT I GOT THE REAR DISC SETUP FROM HAS MY FRONT SPINDLES AND IS CUSTOM MAKING A SET CHEVY TYPE DISC FOR THE FRONT ETA IS LATE THIS WEEK FIRST OF NEXT....1 NOTE I AM NOT RUNNING POWER TO THE MASTER NO ROOM UNDER THERE WITHOUT MAJOR MODS, NOT LOOKING FOR AN EASY PEDAL JUST A SAFE STOPPING VAN THAT DOESN'T DO THE MILITARY BRAKING SEQUENCE....left right left right I HAVE TOLD THE FOLKS AT MASTER POWER THERE ARE MANY OF VANNERS WHO WOULD LOVE A COMPLETE TURN KEY KIT TO DO DISC ON OUR VANS.THEY ARE GOING TO PATTERN THE FRONT SPINDLES I SENT AND SHOULD START OFFERING THEM AS A KIT. HOPE THE HOLD TRUE TO THEIR WORD

Very impressive build so far on the '54 bud.Lotta clean work & detail.
Oh,you left out something on your statement....the part where those guys leave the enlosed trailer at the hotel,tryin to make people think they are drivers.

exactly like the trailer queens at Bike week in Daytona Beach ...park their trailers in St. Augustine and drive to bike week...uh er trailer week for them...bike week for the rest of us.
Thank you for the compliment on the 54 lot of time in that ride...lotta band aids and bumps on the head..
before and after shots

Spent the day under the van fitting the e-brake cables to the Cadillac calipers. They fit well with the exception of length. The inner cable was 2" too long. The front cable had been repaired several times and didn't quite look as if it would hold up. Called inline tube and they will shorten the rears for 10 bucks each and make a new front for 35 bucks..The nylon rollers I searched hi and lo...found some on a corvette site but because they were a corvette part they wanted 18.95 each...ouch...more web surfing found some on Carsinc.com 1958 impala ebrake parts 8.50 for a set of two...waiting on them to arrive to see if they are the same as the van...No front spindles yet...should be friday...

I dont know if they would work , but I was wondering about marine steering cable pulleys?

received pulley wheels this morning...they are an exact match. will post a picture tonight. One more item off my list of to do's....

pulleys needed to be reamed to except bushing..but worked out ...if i need to replace again I will use the ones for the 65 vette. Got the remote fill master cylinder temporarily installed today and bent and flared new lines for front brakes. Still waiting on spindles and calipers.

Got the tag in the mail today only took Georgia 10 weeks....

What are the specs on your M/C ? like the looks of it ! Thats a real nice van!

Digz, its a 1 inch bore manual master with a deep piston hole which is require to keep the pushrod from falling out. It bolt to the existing holes and has clearance for the shift rods not to scrape the top. I did have to shorten the pushrod approx. 1 inch. The combo valve is set up for disc disc. I wont need to run residual valves in any of the lines because the remote reservoir will be mounted above the master. The kit came with a plastic dual chamber reservoir which I have replaced with a cnc billet dual set up. I will make some AN 6 lines to hook up to it instead of the typical clamp on rubber hose set up. The part number for the master is MC1001MZ got it from master power brakes. When all is installed I will post more pics. Gonna do some more on it Sunday.

Hey WM, what is the # for your proportioning valve you are using on this project?

BvrWally the part # from master power brakes is VL3359A. It is a disc disc valve