G10 in the U.K. - his name is Archie!

Hi all,  I recently sold my A100 Pup - 'twas a lovely thing, but after my other half dropped her Harley a couple of years back it just wasn't being used.  A van made more sense...

So, after a fair old search I managed to find a first gen' G10.  He's running a 230 six with a 350 three speed.  Very sound, but at some point the whole van seems to have been skimmed with filler which has cracked, sadly, and the custom paint has long seen better days.  Interior is empty, roof vents leak, heater doesn't work, wiper switch falls off dash, doors need rehinging, windows drop out... Plenty to keep me occupied during lockdown...

He came over to the U.K. a few years back, just wondered if anyone on here might know him from his days in Riverside, California.  The wording states "Archie's Auto Detailing" which I guess was tongue in cheek - "Rim polishing and odor removal"!  The no. relates to a supplier of dentistry equipment.

My old A100 - pretty much unique over here.



The "new" van... again, a pretty rare sight this side of the Atlantic.












HOPE YOU DON'T MIND, I reloaded your pic's. If you use the 640 pix option when loading they wont get chopped off.   wideload

Wideload - Not at all. Cheers for that. I was going to resize them, just didn't have time earlier... been a long time since I posted any pic's on here, having to relearn!

I can't C enuff to help U. Even w/enlarging. If U wanna take the info off the side & send it I'll do some research (that U could do from there as well). Bein state side gives no advantage. A different brain might?. Will try if U use chrlsful@aol.com. This site duz not allow its post ina signature.

Both these rigs R rare here. U got a spec importer or some1 cross the pond scoutin 4 U? Here's some production #s:
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/showthread.php?p=6182364

Hi,  Cheers for the response. Wondering if anyone recognised him was just a throwaway really - I thought he might be known to the van community as he's obviously had some time and money spent at some point.  Motor and gearbox have been changed for bigger and later, Cragar SS front and back, a full set of Mooneyes gauges, metalflake steering wheel and matching seats, portholes and vents, and the blue paint would have been a lovely job when it was first done.

Archie's from Riverside, my '72 Pinto is from Downey and the old A100 was an ex P.G.& E truck from Willow, California as well.  The cost of transport and registration etc. means it's generally only worth bringing over "dry state" vehicles - but you pay a premium.  All mine were already over here when I bought them, but I do "know" a few folks who source and import.  The A100 was sent over by Ray's Classics in San Carlos, the other two were private imports.

Took a scrubbing brush and some bath cleaner to the interior - progress can be seen...

I'm sure you seasoned vanners know this, but... The steering column on my van was well wobbly. Fore and aft, side to side and the indicator switch (flasher/blinker) was a bit hit and miss. After Googling various horror stories, it turned out to be an easy fix. The aftermarket wheel and new boss were not going far enough down on the splines to pre-load the upper column bearing. Cleaning up the splines and taper had no effect, so I made up a thin spacer, from the top of an old ice cream tub, that I set between the underside of the boss and the plastic/nylon moulding that pre-loads the bearing. Job done - so much better, even fixed the indicators..
Hope that makes sense.
Also an ideal time to clean and lube the top bearing.

Archie came "fitted" with a 1970's Venturi Vent.  It's a lovely bit of period van kit, but leaked like a sieve... and had lost some of its good looks over the years.
I pulled it off the roof and made a few repairs.  It was held on with silicon sealant and industrial roof fixings, and had cracked and buckled badly due to the roof corrugations and flexing.  Using Tiger seal, I bonded some 8mm thick rubber strip to the mounting flange with a cut out front and back to clear the raised sections of roof.  Repaired and filled all the cracks in the plastic, sprayed the base to hide the repairs and made a wooden frame to give it something rigid to bolt up to.  I've treated it with a modern silicon(?) polish for car detailing, so fingers crossed it should help it to survive a few more years.
Hopefully, when re-fitted with some decent sealant we'll have no more interior tsunamis...

A nice new one, back in the days before the internet...

Latest instalment in "Archie's progress" (I know, it sounds like the work of John Bunyan)...
The bumpers were a bit bent, beat up and tatty, with flaking chrome and plenty of rust.  They've been off, clamped in the vice with a bloody great weight from a sash window and beat with a hammer.  Then acid treated and painted front and back with a tough silver paint - how tough, we will, no doubt, find out.  A couple of the proper domed bolts were missing and most of the others were rusty, so I treated him to some nice new A2 stainless M10s.  I know, I know... s'posed to be imperial, but he's not exactly concours...  Lining up the mounting holes after "tweaking" the brackets back into line was a proper bloody fight - nearly went for the de-bumpered look.
Whilst the bumpers were out of the way the valances got a bit of a spoodle, and a coat of lumpy black paint (or "truck bed liner" as some call it).  All good and solid , and will, hopefully stay that way.
And the "iconic and much sought after" Venturi Vent is back on properly.  Took a lot of jiggery pokery to get it to sit right, a helping hand from Julie, and a good dollop or two of Tiger Seal, but we now think it should be leak free... progress, meaning I can start on the insulation.
And... just before the sun dipped majestically below the horizon, and took with it the last vestiges of anything at all like warmth, I rubbed down some more bodywork... but wimped out and gave up when my fingers started to bleed...







Today, in glorious sunshine, I managed to get out and do some more rubbing down... the excitement in my life never ends...

Very Nice!!! Thanks for the update pics...please keep them coming.

Hey Jayclub

Not been on here for a while but still been 'fettling' my 2nd Gen over lockdown and starting 'improvements to my hasty respray.

Had mine a couple of years now and after an easy life (only in terms of weather) in California, the Kent coast is now testing any vestiges of rust proofing. Apart from that 'Bloogal' is a rolling project. Door hinges was one of my first jobs, I bought a bushing and pin kit but that was only the start as the A posts were a bit rusty and fatigued & the doors had stress cracks so they flopped about!

I think I've only just got my fingerprints back from the last bout of rubbing down (plays havoc with the iPhone) but these vans are so rare and characterfull, its worth it.

Might even see Archie out and about sometime.

Hi, Fcat - nice looking van.  I think my doors are a similar story to yours, for now I shall muddle through with what I can and try and improve things after I've got Archie on the road; or else I'll be in long term project territory (been there before and it's not the plan for this one).  Yep, would be nice to bump into each other out and about.  Don't know if you'd be interested, but you might like to visit the Vanditos page if you're on Facebook.  

Been doing what I can over lockdown... we're hopefully just lifting many restrictions over here and, perhaps, starting to return to normal.  Been unable to travel and buy supplies for certain jobs so the order of things has gone a bit "to cock", and probably looks a bit eccentric.  It's not the order in which I'd normally tackle a project...

Anyway, I started on the interior, as I had various leftovers from d.i.y. jobs around the house.  We now have insulation, some storage cubbies, a bench/bed and interior panels.  Some of it's still awaiting some fixings to come through the post, but it's mostly there.
Insulation was some foil bubble wrap stuff, panels are o.s.b. and the red paint was donated by some friends who thought it a little loud for their genteel country cottage.
Floors and the like were really sound, just a shame that over the decades various stuff has been drilled and fixed, literally hundreds of small bolt holes needed sorting.
I've bought some l.e.d. lights and am waiting on delivery on some electrical kit then it can all be fixed into place properly.
It looks like our van club can have its party later this year, so I'm aiming at that as target date.

When weather allows - we've had gorgeous sunshine through to hail and snow these past couple of weeks - I've made some progress on the exterior...
Ideally, this van could do with being stripped back to bare metal to address some dodgy repairs and a skim of filler that is lifting in places.  However, if I go down that road it'll probably never be finished.  The idea is to get it half handy and drive and enjoy.  I can then continue with repairs as and when I want.
Roof gutters just needed a skim of sealant and a coat of paint.  Job done - I love it when you're expecting the worst and it's all good.
There's some nastiness in one screen pillar, but I've chosen to just seal it for now and will return to it at a later date...
Other than that, it has been back to rubbing down.  The "Archie's Auto Detailing" lettering has all gone, but he will forever be known as Archie.  Lots of flatting still to be done, then it will be a temporary rattle can job in satin black - at least for now.
Also, I removed the fat Cragars.  I know they are the very essence of cool, but over here tyres for them are stupidly expensive... and I have two other sets of suitable wheels with excellent tyres.  For the moment I've fitted the gold chrome Keystones that were on my A100.  My better half cleaned them up and repainted the gold centres and they don't look at all bad, if a little skinny after the SSs.  They are legal tho', good tyres and they don't protrude out from the bodywork, which is a "no, no" in the U.K.
Right, sun's come out so I've work to do...

Been to the Vandito's website, bought my Mystery Machine sticker and sent a join request on FB - how had I not heard of this before!

You are not alone in the UK

We have a 1965 gen 1 sportvan camper, all original,but previous owner removed interior 230 with 3 on the tree,

Runs and drives great but first is so low its useless. Would be happy of any advice on Diff swaps or inline overdrives.

Also looking for new window rubbers and there availability

Ivan

Hi Ivan

Really like those Gen1's and window vans are awesome.

I used Woolies trim (UK) for my rear windows, they have tons of options on classic trims, just check sizes and profile then buy a couple of miles of it in your case

Ian

Love that window van...

Thought I'd give an update on Archie's progress, seeing as how I've run out of fixings and hardware.  Thankfully, a trip to Wickes isn't the major operation that it was recently.  What started as a necessary evil due to the pandemic became a sort of working ethos...  Use whatever I could find in the garage.  Like a lot of us with garages, I'd "collected" all manner of treasures that had somehow avoided being thrown out.  Leftover screws, small brackets, insulation, paint... an old futon that I refused to throw out even tho' guests would rather sleep in the garden than settle for the incessant creaking from the wooden construction... some cheap lights from a caravan salvager on Ebay... etc.
Anyway, here is the interior so far... money will have to be spent soon (I'll need somewhere to keep the beer chilled, for a start!), but I shall cling on to my wallet for as long as poss...

Progress has definitely slowed in some ways... certainly as far as what can be seen in photos.  Been sorting various bitty jobs, but... have driven Archie a couple of times now.  He drives really nicely.  He's a fair bit more responsive than my old A100, which is to be expected, and easier to drive.  Handling feels better too, but as our local roads are all single track lanes it's a bit early to pass judgement.  He's also a lot more civilised than I'd expected, but a lot of that can probably be put down to the work I've done so far.

Interior is nearly there, t'other half got involved and restored a forty year old bean bag into an Archie "strawmato".  She also made up new check straps for the side doors, others to follow once I've bought some more webbing.  New wiring is nearly in, he'll have a couple of 12V power sockets in the dash and the same just inside the side doors - should be plenty for what we're planning on.

Outside, he has changed colour!  Only the lightest rattle can blowover for now - loads of prep still needed.  Just wanted him all one colour so he doesn't attract the wrong attention when we're out and about... which should be in about a week's time as we have our first event planned.  Lockdown restrictions may finally be lifting over here, so fingers crossed we can get out and about and enjoy some van fun...

Finally, for now, I managed after a long search to find some fixings for the belly pan.  all painted and ready to go back on as soon as the weather improves.

I've broken him!

Took Archie out for a good run, took in some dual carriageways (multi-lane highways) and had him rolling along at a comfortable seventyish. I say "ish" as the speedo' was showing eighty five, but was definitely over-reading. All the work and the fine adjustments were well worth it - he drives absolutely lovely... and don't 'arf go for an old van. Surprisingly, on a good flat surface he's a one handed drive, I used to hang on to the A100, but Archie's comfy at speeds twenty miles per hour higher.
He does drink tho'... and seeing as how the price of a litre has just gone up to around £1.30 (that's around $7.5 to a U.S. gallon) that needs investigating. I found the choke was sticking on, so hopefully sorting that will have made a difference. Unfortunately, not been able to take him out again as he's poorly...

Traced a tinny rattle/knock to a failing harmonic balancer/crank pulley - just caught it before it went a.w.o.l. A guy on a Facebook page has helped me decipher the nos. on my block and it looks like we have a '67 Camaro 250 motor. The new part is on its way, but as of writing it's in Memphis... that's a long way away from here... Hopefully, it'll arrive in time to fit it this week (and will cure the problem) as we're booked in for a van meet this coming weekend. Fingers crossed.

Rockauto came through, as usual, and managed to deliver a new harmonic balancer to me in six days.  I was a bit concerned that I wouldn't be able to fit it until I saw a copy of the official factory manual - basically, "hit it with a big hammer".  I heated the pulley in boiling water for a bit first to make life easier.  Job done and no nasty clunks and clonks.

Also leaned off the carb, cleaned and gapped plugs (which were at around 100 thou!), reset the timing and fiddled about with a few other bits and bobs.  And somehow I managed to find the time to wire in some salvaged caravan interior lights and put in some 12volt power sockets so we could run a coolbox and keep our beer cool.  All just in time for our bank holiday weekend van meet.  

Despite horrendous tailbacks/traffic jams (one of our first summer post lockdown holiday weekends), Archie remained calm and collected... if a bit f*ckin' hot in the cabin!  We got to our van meet where it rained...  Couldn't be bothered to put up the tent, so we slept in the van.  Despite not having completed the interior, and not having any window coverings - but we figured nobody would be peeking.  Some of it needs a bit of a re-think, but on the whole it works pretty well.  Had a fantastic time with a small handful of mates from our van club - there are still restrictions on gatherings over here - played shot roulette, had a breakfast of huevos rancheros cooked for me by the daughter of a Mexican cowboy, was fed home made cake by a woman I'd never previously met and watched a mate dislocate his shoulder falling off a mini bike.  For a few days it felt like normality had returned !!!!

Oh yeah, and all my mates thought Archie was cool.

I must admit tho' after a couple of days of trundling about in the van... my old Laverda don't arf feel quick!

Right, on with the next round of improvements (mattress, curtains...).