Hello, your Highness! Now this is a custom van! This 1980 Chevrolet G20 4×4 isn’t for the faint of heart or for wallflowers, you’ll attract more attention driving this than in almost any Ferrari or Lamborghini. This giant jewel is listed on eBay with heavy bidding and a current bid price of $14,000! There are a mere three days left to figure out how to tell your spouse that you found the perfect winter vehicle.
This is one nice van. A Chevy shorty van that’s jacked up like the Rat Pack on a Saturday night and wearing 40-inch wheels. I say, wearing 40-inch wheels! The wheel is almost as tall as a Crosley is wide.
The G20 is a 3/4-ton van and the seller says that it doesn’t ride like a Cadillac, but you’re going to use this as your photography business vehicle with a roof rack and a ladder on the back so you can get up on the roof, it doesn’t matter what it rides like. Wait, that’s what I would use it for, maybe you’d have a different use for it. They say that it’s rust-free but the paint isn’t 100% perfect. I don’t see a flaw in this thing.
The interior is as you would expect, custom and nice. It has “working air conditioning, heat, Very nice stereo with bluetooth, has four subs, one needs replacing but still sounds great as is. Also has LED lights (Top bar not wired yet), Old style fridge in back, folding sofa bed, Purple LED mood lights, Powered ventilation roof fan, rear storage area with LED lights, emergency strobe lights, built in rifle racks, locking pistol vault, amps for stereo located here, dual Flowmaster exhaust ( sounds great, not loud!), dual shocks, hitch, all interior lights work with any door open.”
There are no overall engine photos but they have provided a few close-up images. With all of the great photos included on this auction I expected a shot with the hood open. I guess they would have had to be standing on a ladder to get an overall photo of the engine. It’s a “fresh mild performance 350 engine with a little over 4k miles” and it runs great. It’s “equipped with Quick Fuel Technologies fuel injection system. It can be tuned by the on board handheld tuner or plug in your laptop for finer tuning. I have all paperwork, software and link cable for laptop. The engine runs very smooth and fast starts in cold weather.The trans is also fresh, done same time as engine. It shifts crisp and flawlessly!” Are there any 4×4 van fans out there?
That is bad ass! I’ve always wanted a 4X4 van. To bad it would never fit in my garage.
40″ tires…not 40″ wheels.
I personally define “wheel” as the entire tire/rim assembly, Todd. But, I’m most likely in the minority on that. To me, a “wheel” isn’t a rim like it has evolved into over the last couple of decades.
Having been in and around the tire industry for 65 years…….wheel has always been the rim diameter…….what industry have you been in Scotty?
All good! Most of my work is in the off-road industry where tire diameter is always king – only in the last decade or two have people really started working with a lot of different wheel diameters.
Tire diameter is always an issue but that is very different than wheel diameter.
I don’t know about now, but way back, if our truck had 42″ tires, we’d simply say something like “it’s got 42s” and everyone would know that we were referring to tire size.
Yeah, even on horse drawn wagons the wheel is the spoked part and the “tire” is the metal ring around the outside of the wheel.
Oh for heavens sake, what is this all about now? To me, it can mean both things, wheel, tire, what’s the difference. It’s the thing that connects the suspension to the ground. Complete unit, tire and all. Kind of like the difference between a motor and an engine ( jury still out on that one) And besides, it’s 40″ hWheels, like “Cool hWhip”.
As far as the van, typical American, more must be better,,,no interest.
I had a customer who was the definition of a free spirit. He travelled all over the place and was quite a fan of the ladies; that could be why I seldom saw him with the same one twice. They all could’ve been models (maybe they were hired?). He ordered a G-30 4×4 very similar to this one. We got it in fairly plain but when he brought it in three weeks later for some minor adjustments it was decked out similar to this, minus the purple inside. It wasn’t long before he had as much tied up in the additions and modifications as the original purchase price. Obviously money didn’t matter much to him. Maybe if I was an orthodontist instead of a mechanic, money wouldn’t matter to me either….
Some guys have all the luck!
I must be getting old. All I can think of is how easily I could roll that puppy hanging a freeway offramp to fast
I think your instincts are correct. The USAF bought several of these for use on the Utah firing ranges, they were all rolled within a couple of years. One I remember was simply blown over.
You are sooo right. The center of gravity is in the clouds. It may look cool, but I bet its a bear to drive. Just a show boat. I remember these vans back in the 70s, a Fathers nightmare when a daughters date showed up in one. Pretty handy I guess, for certain things.
Hi Woodie Man, you have no business on a freeway ramp with unit!
“too fast
I personally resisted making that correction. I try hard to avoid being a pedant here.
92 ocane isn’t the only “juice” this van has done. Just say no to steriods!
That’s a beauty, however, I would imagine when turning it into a sharp curve in the rain something besides the driver’s lips would be puckered so tight it would form a suction to the seat.
You are correct. I have puckered many a time on curves, but that is the price you pay for driving a lifted van. You have to use common sense when driving a lifted van and drive it accordingly which means it’s not a sports car, so don’t drive it like one. Ever 4×4 van I have owned has been lifted and some even with tall fiberglass tops which add to the top heavy condition. But I love the look, the ride and the reactions of the public. Many vanners agree with me, those who haven’t experienced this will never know the joy of owning a custom 4×4 van. You can see morre photos of my past 4×4 vans here: http://thundersgarage.weebly.com/my-vans.html
A bit too high, and the wheels and tires both too big, looks comical and loses any hint functionality.
18″ wheel and 35 or 37 inch tires would do wonders here.
IMO that is one of the UGLIEST steering wheels ever designed.
I disagree, have installed and driven that steering wheel on other older vans and love the feel and steering ability. Would install it on my newer Astro van if it weren’t for the air bag.
Does the 9mm pistol in the cubby hole in the centre stack come with the van ?
Looks like a Colt .45 Auto to me.
Police magnet.
You guys are rite .Its to high,its center of gravity makes it prone to a rollover,and its probably way to fast and dangerous for most of YOU GUYS.Give me a break, this thing is a beast .Its 37 yrs old and it hasn’t rolled over yet,and there’s No such thing as to much power in my book.I’m going to the mall tomorrow to finish up my Xmass shopping, while I’m there I’m gonna ask Santa for it.Just the van though I don’t need the gun ,I’ve got my own.
Probably as mentioned, easily a rollover. But…it would be perfect as a Hot Wheels model on the track .
Had one a (Challenge-Cook) conversion out of Ohio. Picked it up at the manufacturer it was an exciting day for sure. Performed pretty well, even took it up the Silver Lake sand dunes in Michigan.
I like all kinds of weird vehicles but this just looks stupid to me. I totally get the “Love machine” van craze and old enough to remember it when it was happening, Still have a few copies of period magazines such as when Hot Rod dedicated a portion of their magazines covering them.
But overly lifted 4×4 have always seemed epic-ally stupid. I live up in the hills and 4x4s that never go off road are very popular with the Low-T crowd, Give me a functional 4×4 any day. My wife and I have adopted the moniker of “Bitch-Getter Trucks” for these. She is a production manager at a machine shop and used to have a young guy (several actually over the years) who obsessed that the taller his 4×4 was, the more attractive women would find him and he actually called his truck his “Bitch-Getter”.
He seemed immune to my wifes and the other womens suggestions that SOME people might assume he might be compensating for certain inadequacies. Some guys wonder why they are still single………..
@Doug Towsley
That’s funny. Yes, I always considered the extreme “lift kit” to be the automotive equivalent of the rock singer’s “rolled up sock stuffed down the front of their spandex pants” !
Thanks ClassicCarFan, I agree. I think the concept has some degree of timeless truth.
The irony of the whole “Bitch-Getter” truck thing from Jeremy (the kid who used to work at my wifes work, although there were many others just like him over the years) was he came up with that on his own. (The BG thing). The irony is I am into vintage motorcycles, stock and custom and have some old Jammer! cycle products catalogs that used to be the industry leading supplier in the 1970s and 1980s. I still have my old copies and sometimes like to show them to people of the way things used to be. In one issue is a profile of “Larry & his Chick-Catcher” some guy showing off the sleazy girls who allegedly found him attractive now that he built a Jammer! cycle products chopper. Some real choice marketing lines of
“I always know I have a good time comin’ when I am riding my Chick-Catcher” and showing Larry sitting on his hog with a floozy standing next to him and he is pulling on her tank top with his teeth. I can pull it out and snap a pix here of this horrendous cheeziness but the point is young Jeremy was not even born yet when the Chick-catcher ads were published and he had zero knowledge of biker culture.
So, sadly, Some trends live on. I also like to use the “Low T” statements in car ads and a while back there was a rat rod ad on eBay where a guy was using it to great effect in a very well written eBay posting selling his rat rod.
I would love to make this jewel look like a van The A-Team would be jealous of as you cruise by.