{"id":48116,"date":"2023-04-25T00:03:12","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T04:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=48116"},"modified":"2023-04-25T00:03:12","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T04:03:12","slug":"junkyard-gem-1978-chevrolet-chevy-van","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=48116","title":{"rendered":"Junkyard Gem: 1978 Chevrolet Chevy Van"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once the 1970s really took effect, custom vans became all the rage<\/a>. Bubble windows<\/a>, deep shag carpeting speckled with wacky-tabacky seeds, wood-burning stoves, 8-track players, lava lamps, black-light art on velvet, and wild exterior murals all became\u00a0de rigeur\u00a0<\/em>in the vanning world.<\/a> It wasn’t long before a slightly less red-eyed and more family-oriented variation on the custom van<\/a> theme hit the mainstream: the conversion van<\/a>. Shops would start with the cargo version of a factory-fresh Detroit van and outfit it with big windows and accessories to make long road trips<\/a> and camping stops more comfortable. Naturally, the early conversion vans still had something of a disreputable air about them, and that whiff of degeneracy still hovers about this 1978 3\/4-ton Chevy Van<\/a> that I spotted in a Denver-area self-service car graveyard<\/a> recently.<\/p>\n

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This generation<\/a> of full-sized G-Series van<\/a> was built by General Motors<\/a> from the 1971 through 1996 model years, going through some name changes in the process. In 1978, the GMC-badged versions of the G-Series were known as the Vandura (cargo)<\/a> and Rally (passenger)<\/a>, while the Chevrolet-badged vans were the Chevy Van (cargo)<\/a> and Sportvan (passenger)<\/a>. Ford<\/a> used a similar naming system, with passenger vans called Club Wagons<\/a> and cargo vans called Econolines<\/a>; Chrysler<\/a> offered the Dodge Tradesman cargo van<\/a>, the Dodge Sportsman passenger van<\/a>, plus Plymouth Voyager-badged counterparts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Such vans catch my eye when I spy them in junkyards, because much of my 1970s childhood<\/a> was spent riding in a red-and-white 1973 Chevrolet Beauville Sportvan<\/a> (which my parents bought new at Suburban Chevrolet in Minnesota<\/a> and which stayed in the family long enough for me to crash it as a teenager<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This van appears to be a proper non-backyard conversion, but the interior still seems a perfect environment for the scent of Acapulco Gold<\/a> and the strains of Nazareth<\/a> blasting from the Realistic quadrophonic audio system<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Is there shag carpeting? You know it! If this van could talk, it would have some good stories to tell.<\/p>\n

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Naturally, the velour-upholstered captain’s chairs in front are on swivel mounts.<\/p>\n

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For the passengers in back, these cozy swivel buckets were available.<\/p>\n

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The microphone clip tells us that this van<\/a> was equipped with a CB radio, as was correct.<\/p>\n

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Sunroofs and map lights? Check!<\/p>\n

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The velour upholstery covering the sliding-door hardware is a nice touch.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It appears that this van was owned by an employee of Sandia National Laboratories<\/a>, located inside Kirtland Air Force Base<\/a> in New Mexico. That’s about a seven-hour Chevy<\/a> Van trip from its current, final parking spot.<\/p>\n

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The base powertrain in the G20<\/a> Chevy Van for ’78 was a 292-cubic-inch (4.8-liter) straight-six, coupled to a column-shifted three-speed manual transmission. I’ve found a van with that setup<\/a> during my junkyard travels<\/a>, but nearly all conversion vans got a V8 with automatic transmission. That’s what we’ve got here. The engine lived under a doghouse that protruded fairly deep into the passenger compartment, making this a semi-mid-engined vehicle.<\/p>\n

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The equipment sticker under the hood tells us that the original engine was a 400-cubic-inch (6.6-liter) small-block, rated at 175 horsepower and 290 pound-feet. It’s possible that that very engine still lives in this van, but swaps are common in trucks<\/a> like this. It’s simple to build a 400 to make serious power with off-the-shelf-speed parts, as I learned when I built a not-very-wild 400<\/a> for a 1965 Impala sedan<\/a> and knocked off mid-13-second quarter-miles with it<\/a> at the dragstrip. 400 blocks used to be worth decent money, so perhaps someone will rescue this one before the crusher<\/a> eats it.<\/p>\n

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Conversion vans are still being made, and I’ve documented some of the newer ones (including a couple<\/a> based on the Toyota LiteAce<\/a>). There’s something special about a Malaise Era<\/a> time capsule like this one, though.<\/p>\n\n

Chevy Van beats Ford and Dodge<\/a> on value<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once the 1970s really took effect, custom vans became all the rage. Bubble windows, deep shag carpeting speckled with wacky-tabacky seeds, wood-burning stoves, 8-track players, lava lamps, black-light art on velvet, and wild exterior murals all became\u00a0de rigeur\u00a0in the vanning world. It wasn’t long before a slightly less red-eyed and more family-oriented variation on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48117,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}