Scotty's 1965 Chevy SportVan Deluxe Travel Cruiser

I was thinking the same thing. In fact, I've seen many aftermarket crossmembers that have a flat piece welded to them in the middle that hangs over. Makes it easier to get to the bolts too!

Any more info on how they set up the lock-out circuit on your 200R4?

Haven't had a chance to look at it yet, that's my next project. I've been diving into my brakes this weekend.

I got one side test fit and I'm finding out that the Nova steel rims I got are probably not going to fit. I tried grinding down extra casting on the calipers and in the insides of the rim, but I think it's just too tight. They fit on the car's discs at the junkyard, but I guess this setup is slightly larger.

Gonna look for some good looking rims on CL. I'd like to find some aftermarket 14s that fit seeing as how I just bought brand new tires. But if I can find 15s with decent tires, I might do that.

I also found these, but it says the only accept full wheel hubcaps. Im wondering if I can make up a bracket to mount my dog dish caps.
Rims

Here are photos showing two ways my tranny crossmember could be mounted. Behind the stock crossmember might line up better with the 200R4.

Got all the plumbing mocked up for my disc brakes over the weekend. VanAgain stopped by on Sunday and we came up some ides to design a pretty trick hanger for my new 2004R transmission!

Thought I would post this in my thread to keep a good log of what I got going on with my van.

Good news for people like me who want to keep their stock style 14" rims and install disc brakes. I am using the M1 Brackets using the Nova one piece rotors.

I ordered Wheel Vintiques 62 series 14 x 6 rims from Summit's ebay site with free shipping. I test fit them tonight and they clear with plenty of room to spare and no grinding. My dog dish hubcaps fit right on there too. These have the opened up insides like M1D has talked about in some of the disc brake threads.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/WVI-62-463404

Sorry I missed it...Coulda met my doppleganger…

Good news is I finished my disc brakes and I tell ya, it sure makes a world of difference. Well worth it! From the outside it doesn't look like I even touched the brakes (which is what I had planned!)



Now on to my transmission!

I'm really enjoying this thread and the van's backstory. Those painted wheels kick all kinds of ass.

VanAgain's driveway was feeling a little lonely with his van still in the body shop, so I took its place yesterday and we started fabricating a custom hanger for my 2004R transmission. This design will utilize the same hanger style mount and location as the original powerglide.

We finished the bottom portion that will mount to the tranny, then once we get it in place, we can get the final position of the upper rubber mounted hanger. This will be a strap that goes up and over a cylinder that is rubber mounted to the frame.

I like the mount so far, looks really beefy.

We had a fun day making that tranny hanger! It came together real well. Since the 200R4 doesn't have a bolt-on tailshaft housing, we had to use the other holes that were there. There's a tab with a big hole on the right side of the tranny and a smaller tab on the left that we drilled a hole in. And then of course the two threaded tranny mount holes at the rear.

Here's the complete design that I drew in Google Sketchup:



The strap over the top of the cylinder will be one piece (ignore that line) that we cut to fit when the tranny is jacked up in place. (Or it could be just two straight pieces welded to the sides of the cylinder.)

This kind of hanger takes up so little space. There's no need for the rubber tranny mount on the bottom, it can be just metal to metal because of the rubber in the cylinder at the top. Camaro leaf spring rubber is a good fit.

If anyone else wants to make something like this, I've got a lot more of that steel tube!

Had a bit of a scare with my passenger seat almost catching on fire (the original padding in these seats is made of burlap and wool batting that is just begging to go up in flames) so I decided to put in some Miata seats, at least until I get my old one reupholstered....Although these are so comfy, I might not even bother. Plus, these somehow don't look too out of place in the van.

I got both seats for $30 at the junkyard. They're in decent shape, but I can always just plop a new one in if I find some better one. These have the spots for headrest speakers as well which I might install.

(sorry for the crappy phone pics, will get some better ones up soon, and show my brackets as well)





Looking around the junkyard, I thought these 80's Toyota Tercel 4WD Seats would work well. Kinda funky, but I like the grab handle, and the narrow back portion...cool upholstery too!

Finally put up a makeshift headliner. Had a hard time finding a material that would follow the curve of the original headliner divider. I ended up using this stuff called "Plast-Tex" from Home Depot, that's used for commercial bathroom or kitchen walls. It's flexible, easy to cut and trim, but it's rigid enough to hold it's shape.

Looks pretty good I think!

Looks great!!!

comming along nicley.

Yeah , It looks really good!!

Scotty,I have been keeping up with your progress very nicely done.You will be back cruising around in your very nice ride real soon! Bill

Yeah dude, everything youve done kicks much butt.

So, I decided to experiment with a 2 barrel carb upgrade. I decided to try out the weber 32/36. Since it is a progressive carb it would still function well on a stock motor, possibly give me improved gas mileage and power when needed.

Had a bit of a hard time getting it to idle initially, but after some deep cleaning and tuning, I've been able to get it pretty dialed in. At this point it's a matter of fine tuning to try to improve my results. Very happy with it so far. Pulls strong, and gives some extra power at high speeds. Once I get my 2004R transmission installed, this will be one hell of a setup!

While I was at it I put together a cold air intake and routed a remote airfilter down underneath the van. Here's some photos of the setup. So incase any of you were wondering, the weber WILL fit in our vans...it will even fit rotated 90º with the needed adapter plate if you wanted to.

Very nice work... Love the rims too. Ken

Went out and camped at the Barona Drag Strip again this year for their vintage drag race event. Pretty fun time! Van ran great aside from a couple grades it struggled on mostly because of gearing. It's the kick in the but I need to finally finish my tranny mount and get my 2004R installed!

Way to go Scotty! Gettin lots done and making use of the van! Great camping setup. I see that matching card table! That fresh air intake sure seems like a good idea for our vans. And let us know when you get some MPG numbers with that new carb. What rear end ratio do you have, again? 3.36:1?

Good, affordable solution for the headliner. That's useful stuff. I might use that for a quicky interior in the back of my van. You know, if you had just drilled a few thousand little holes in that stuff it would look like the stock headliner!