Vans continue to have a recent retro-resurgence. While VW’s seem to get the most attention, vans from the big-three automakers are popular as well and can make really cool projects. This one is a 1965 Chevrolet G10 and can be found here on eBay with a current bid of $7,600! The seller makes a point to say this is not a ’66, so I’m guessing it gets confused for the later year? Located in Clark Lake, Michigan, it looks like a fun project. Check it out!
The cargo area is a blank slate for the new owner. You could leave it as-is, do a camper conversion, or add another row of seats and upholster the rest. The van also features barn doors on the side and in the rear, which is a neat feature. The passenger compartment is pretty standard and just needs a little TLC to make it nice.
The engine is a 230 cubic inch straight-six with a rebuilt 350 automatic transmission. The engine has the following new parts: gaskets throughout, oil pump, fuel pump, carb, and ignition parts. The seller says the exhaust is quiet and based on the information in the ad, it sounds like it runs well.
The wheelbase is 92 inches and the seller says the body is very straight. The paint is original but the seller says the lower body has been “touched up.” The floors are completely rust-free and the glass is in nice condition. The brakes have been done and overall, this looks like a fun ride. What direction would you take to finish this one?
I get annoyed sometimes when people get downright nasty about some of the vehicles on the site but “mostly original paint”?
Not in this lifetime or any other!
original paint inside.. I dont understand why there in the Us never is a wall between cabin and box.. If you have to step hard on the brake, your whole load, will end up in cabin.. You dont need to drive to inspection, where i live, without such a wall.. that would be a waste of time, and so heater also dont need to heat up the whole box. Nicee little box wagon, realy like it, but isnt it a bit high price, when you have paint, and unoriginal transmission in mind??
Exactly, I used to build walls like you’re talking about in my vans. Would also be used to hold notebooks, flashlights etc.
Don’t know if you could find one now but vehicle equipment suppliers still sell “cages” for cargo vans. They are common on service vans.
Vans in these days were still relatively new to the market. They were sold “stripped” so they could be adapted for whatever use you intended it to fill. The aftermarket soon picked up and sold storage solutions, some including a wall or divider between the cargo area and the passenger compartment. I would probably opt to restore this, maybe a color change, a complete color change (inside and out), and keep it stock appearing. You would likely be the only one at a cruise night with one! Imagine the doors open and the sea of matching interior/exterior paint. I dig it, but then again, I liked the Corvair Greenbriar’s also.
To me, “mostly original paint” means that the paint was touched up in spots [minor damange repair, or behind the wheels where stones chipped off the top coat]. That isn’t so much a big issue for me so long as I know what was done, and why.
Nice little van for the weekend trips to the home inprovement stores. I’m partial to the Econolines of the same era, preferably the extended lenght variant.
Not sure what’s going on with this nice old Chevy Van. Looks like it was originally a 3-speed manual three-on-the-tree converted to a rebuilt automatic. One of the photos in the eBay ad shows that the clutch pedal appears to be sitting on the floor. Seems to be begging to be changed back to a manual transmission?
When I’m in Pacific Beach or Point Loma, I see Dodge A100s and Corvair Greenbriers all the time. I haven’t seen one of these in many a decade though. I’d pretty much forgotten that there was a front-mid engine GM van with forward controls.
Beautiful design. “Simply” beautiful lines. Great example of less is more.
I started my plumbing and heating career in the same type van. Lol
My ex-brother -in-law worked at A.O. Smith in Milwaukee in the maintenance dept. They had a van just like this for running around the plant( the plant covered like 10 city blocks) That’s all they used it for, and it had like 3,000 miles on it. When the plant went belly up, he got to buy the van. I remember, it, like most of these “cabover” vans, was a miserable ride. Sitting next to the motor was hot, funky handling, just a poor vehicle, loaded full of stuff, even worse. Empty, they could do good “stoppies”.
I’d leave the paint as is, throw on a set of white steelies, put a mattress in the back, and turn this ole girl into a mobile Love Machine…..
It’s pretty cool, but if the Nixon-Agnew sticker isn’t original, I’m gonna have to pass.
Nobody wants to make a Mystery Machine repop?
Off-topic, a guy I used to work with told me that he had to visit a shrink as part of obtaining his nuclear power plant worker clearance.
When the shrink asked him “Ginger or Mary Ann?”, he replied “Mrs. Howell”.
Surprised, the shrink asked him why.
“She’s rich”, he replied.
He got the clearance.
I can’t believe no one has had the originality of thought to make a cartoon van out of it, either. What a shame and total waste of such a fantastic opportunity.
A good friend of mine and I rescued a 66 GMC van from a field a few years ago. They handle very poorly, too top heavy. Fun for cruising around town though, everybody loves it, i cant tell you how many people ask for a ride. The one we save is a Handi-Bus, which mean full windows all the way around. It did have the original bench seats, but we removed them in favor of shag carpet and a couch (we still have them). The 230 with a powerglide and a 3.36 gear is not good for highway cruising, but it still manages to get 15 mpg!
Interesting how GM used the glovebox door and instrument cluster out of the first-gen Corvairs on this. I guess you could put in the Spyder version if you wanted more instrumentation.
These vans were the successor of the corvair vans, so it actually makes sense that they would do that. There is a lot of other stuff that was carry over.
I like it. It looks like if it was washed good. It would look better. I,d check out everything on it.Fix what needed. Throw in a matterass .A few pillows and blankets Go WHITE TAIL HUNTING The two legged kind.
Get that pelt!
I had a 64 GMC Handi-Van. I bought it from a teenager in 2010, and I sold it in 2012 locally in Colorado to a guy who lives in one of the smaller cities West of Denver off of I-70 going into the Rockies. Mine was a flat red color like this one, 230ci, 3 speed column, silver inside, old shag carpet in the rear, rear spoiler, and high back seats (not original) with a loose bench seat in the rear from the Handi-Bus/Chevy Van. I had old school mag wheels with spinners, and I had the Powerglide transmission rebuilt on it at AAMCO for $1300. I bought it for $1300, and I sold it for $1950.
The new owner painted it a flat like black with lots of pin striping, different mags, bags, new carb, rino lined the inside, retro radio, and put metal looking paneling in it. He listed it on Ebay in 2013/14. I put a bid on it for about $4k, but I’m glad I didn’t win it even though he made it much nicer. I don’t think no one won it at that time.
When I had it, I loaded it with furniture and washer/drier that I bought at a garage sale. I enjoyed it because it was unusual and different.
A guy that I knew had one here in Fountain, CO. It’s not in his yard no more. But I think his was a 65 or 66 Chevy Van. What was unusual about his was it had smaller rear windows on it. I have never seen one like that before. And they looked very original?
Mine had the rectangular side mirrors. I noticed this one has mirrors off of some other vehicle.
I correct myself. Mine had the 194ci straight 6. It’s been awhile.
I gave a girl a ride in my wagon,
she crawled in and took control.
She was tired, and her mind was dragging.
And I said get some sleep,
we’ll get on down that road.
Like a picture, she was laying there,
moonlight dancing off her hair.
She woke up and took me by the hand.
She’s gonna love me in my Chevy Van,
and that’s alright with me.
Nice Chevy van, great song, but you may want to check the lyrics.
I worked on a few of them years ago. Of this style the Chevy/GMC was my preference over the Ford or Dodge. There was one ordered into our local Chevy dealer back in ’67. It was a passenger unit and was used to ferry a farmer’s family around and also bus the kids to school. It was powered by a 283/Powerglide. I worked on it and always liked that van, and hoped that I would be in the market when it came up for sale. But another local mechanic was at the right place at the right time and bought it instead; he still has it.
I have a soft spot in my head for these. My first (income tax subtracted) job was at a Napa store and they had one of these as a delivery van. It was a 230 6 cyl. with a Powerglide. It would do a decent job spinning the one rear tire when accelerating while turning.
Howard, I had never heard the term “stop(p?)ies” before. But I knew exactly what you meant. I was headed back to the store after a delivery, when I was being passed by a mother and her car load of children. It was summer, all the windows were open and one child almost fell out of the right rear door window in front of me. I nailed the brakes so hard and fast that I could tell that the rear wheels came off the ground. (steering wheel gets heavy and light at the same time and you can feel the rear suspension go into full droop and the back end of the van gets really unstable and elevated.
It is the same feeling while trying to stop a pick-up truck with a very heavy snow plow on the front. (however you hear the snow plow bang on the street to stop the rear upward motion) Which is why Dodge used to recommend an 800 lb. weight be bolted to the tailgate when using a snow plow on the diesel trucks!
When I first bought my 64 GMC Handi-Van, it had a knocking sound that multiplied faster as I increased in speed. I had no idea what it was. I had a friend follow me to a auto shop to get it inspected. Low and behold, I almost got to the shop when all of a sudden the left front tire flew off, and hit the church on the left side of the street. LOL. I had to get it towed about 1/2 mile up the street to the shop. The bearings were shot I found out, and they had to put new studs to replace the ones that broke off. I thank God that nobody was on the side of the road when that tire came flinging off!
Vans from the 60-70’s were cool!! It was almost cult like following with them!! The custom van scene in the 70′ s was over the top with interior and paint job’s!! Almost like one shop always trying to outdo the other!! I’ve had quite a few vans in my life time and still have a 69 Ford van now!! These just don’t compare to the oversized boxy ugly stuff of today!!!
Nice of the seller to mention that the floors are completely rust free, yet fails to say anything about the rust in other areas. Which there is.
had the same vehicle (in “workman blue”) as a teen. It was my work and home as I traveled about. Wished it wuz the 8 dor and not the stove bolt motor. I hada ‘short wheel base’ (of 108 inches) I think. Were there 3 lengths? nah! Mine wuz a ’68 I think. I’ll haveta go ck lengths…
EDIT:
no, just 2 (in mine, the nxt gen) 108, 90 inches….
now not sure, may B I hada LWB…
ck out the ol skol van site, purdy neyiiiiice !
http://www.vintage-vans.com
you’ll enjoy its vantastic!
My buddy had a 64 Econoline in High school during the van craze of the late 70s . I always liked the mid engine vans and really wanted one until I saw his totalled one day – it looked like he hit a tree ,the headlights were actually facing each other ! When I saw him later that day he told me a motorcycle veered into his lane and hit him dead center head on. The biker was killed and my buddy was cut up from the windshield shards , but ok. I never wanted one after that but did buy a 72 Tradesman with the engine in front of me.