Here comes the real nitty gritty, the first auxiliary AGM battery. but you can see some of the real oak woodwork it came with. Interior shot, sorry about the bikes in the way but this shows the interior better than any of the others and I would have to unload a ton of stuff to get anything better now. here is a shot with the footers on but without the racks: the glass was factory bronze reflective except for the front windows so I tinted those to match and added a wider windshield sun strip.Īlso removed the aftermarket tiny roof rack and put yakima racks on it but these vans do not have a drip rail to mount them on so I got the optional yakima footers which I had to drill and bolt through the roof but other than having to remove the complete velour headliner, it wasnt too big of a deal. surprisingly, for such a nice van, it didnt come equipped with power windows or a tilt steering wheel so I upgraded both. its a bolt in deal on these and many have done it, the ones who keep it low key report they get better gas mileage with the V8 than the V6 too! I think I will use a 307CID or maybe a 327.Įarly on, I removed the nice fiberglass running boards that came with it, put some GMC Truck factory alloy rims on, removed the rear folding benchseat/bed (it was pretty small for a bed) and the middle captains chairs. Still runs great but I can tell its starting to get tired now when I tow a car trailer so I plan to convert it over to a small block V8 before long. thats it! its the original engine and the air conditioner system is also all original except for the freon and oils changed every five years aprox. The only engine mods Ive done are a performance hypertech ECU chip and removed the cat converter. I pull car trailers and other stuff fairly regularly so the original trans went out around 220,000 miles, I had Amco transmissions rebuild it and it went out again just out of warranty so since it was a popular transmission that was also used in corvettes and other stuff I was able to get plenty of extra heavy duty parts and rebuilt it myself this time adding all the good stuff including a trans cooler with electric fan and a deeper alloy sump, also put an external filter adaptor and temperature gauge to go with it so I can keep a close look on how much heat its making when Im towing now (thats what kills them) The drivers seat foam started crumbling and falling out from underneath a few years back so I just swapped it out with one of the extras I had removed and kept. it came with a folding rear bed and two more matching captains chairs. Ive kept the carpet and seats covered since Ive had it so it still looks almost new. It is a conversion van that was done by Explorer, the wood work is done by the Amish for them, its nice. it has served me very well over the years and now has over 300,000 miles, it still runs good but it puffs out some blue smoke for a minute after it sits over a few days. it was my daily driver up till then also. I kept it in the garage until around 2006 so after that the paint started fading pretty bad and now it really could use a paint job but no rust anywhere on it. ![]() Ive taken exceptional care of it, continued to use Mobil-1 oil, use mobil-1 ATF in the transmission and M1 in the differential aswell as the same brand for grease on everything routinely. he had taken good care of it, always used Mobil-1 oil and garage kept. It had 127,000 miles on it when I got it. ![]() With both, I’m confident that you too can tackle a similar van build project.This is a 1987 GMC Safari with 4.3 litre V6 and 700R4 automatic trans.that a lifelong friend of my Dad bought new and I bought it from him in '92 The videos are an excellent supplement to the written information provided here. This video series details each step along the way for converting my cargo van into a camper van. If you’d rather watch this van come together on your TV screen, check out my Chevy Astro Camper Van Build series on youtube. You can also download your own copy of my spreadsheet to work with here: Chevy Astro Camper Van Build Part & Materials List by Seeking Lost DIY Astro/Safari Stealth Camper Van Build Video Series The total parts and materials for my camper van conversion was roughly $7500, not including tools and vehicle maintenance. All of the parts and materials used in my stealth camper van build are listed in this spreadsheetĪbove is my master parts & materials spreadsheet for my DIY Chevy Astro stealth camper van build.
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