1963 GMC Step-Van 7

[Aberdare]

Monday Continued... I did alot of button welds with the mig to fasten everything together, and it was all straight and square when I was done.

Check it out!

[Aberdare]

Well, another Monday and another week with time for projects. Today I fabricated the left side step and got it tack welded into place. I also folded over the left side of the floor over the top edge of the step. I had some time left over in the afternoon, with the assistance of the lads in the workshop, to hoist the original roof panel back on top. Two dozen bolts holding it on, and 1st time's the charm... it went on straight with no adjustments required. The next step will be to prepare the rear door header section. It will require some extensive fabrication before it will fit back into place and weld it to the new rear floor.

... Check it out!

[Aberdare]

Toady was another light day for retail in the workshop... so as I had previously planned, I began preparation to re-fit the rear door header section onto the rear of the chassis. My first order of business was to remove everything I had stored on the bed floor and square everything up so that I could take all the measurements I needed to prepare the bed floor.

The next order of business was to remove all of the rusted and twisted metal from the lower portion of the rear door header section. I ended up with a sizable pile of scrap metal after and I cut the rear panel away so that a new lower door striker panel can be fabricated to weld the floor to the rear panels. It is going to need several more hours of labour to fabricate the new lower door striker panel.

But enough of all that for now, it's been a long day and that rear door header is HEAVY. It took three of us to hoist it into place and get the first four bolts (ten in total) so that the rear door header section was properly mounted to the roof panel.

Check out today's progress...

[preciador6]

Cool project just bought one i think 1965 mine has the vin Plate on steering column..need help decoating please PB1001NC2

[Aberdare]

Originally Posted by preciador6

Cool project just bought one i think 1965 mine has the vin Plate on steering column..need help decoding please PB1001NC2

This is a model number, not a VIN, sorry... but all my information is for Canadian Built Trucks... Can anyone else chime in to Help out?

[Aberdare]

Today was a Light afternoon, so I managed another 4 hours on the step van. Once they were removed from the remnants of the old floor, I spent close to 2 hours with a grinder removing all the rusted metal until all I had left was good steel to work with.

I will be installing some used rear wheel tubs and bed sides from a donor truck, then hopefully, welding everything back together. I estimate at least another 20-30 hours of labour fabricating all the structural pieces I will be needing. On the plus side, I managed to salvage more than 75% of the original body to work with.

Enjoy the pictures!

[Aberdare]

Another Monday, another light day in the workshop... so it was project time once again. Took a trip to my steel supplier after about an hour with a measuring tape and a sketchpad. $370.00 later, I was back at the workshop and jumped right into removing what was left of the forward door frame uprights. It was slow going, but eventually the 50 year old steel was tossed in the scrap bin and the space was ready for a brand new piece of 2 x 1 HSS to be welded into place.

Check out today's work.

[Aberdare]

Well, it has been a year since I purchased the step van... and it is time to put it away until the slow time in the Workshop after Christmas Break... so until January peeps!

[VWNate1]

Oh, no ~ you're busy in the Winter ? .

That was always my slow time when I had my shop .

Don't give up and don't forget to keep us posted .

[72 tigger]

Nice progress!

[Aberdare]

Just a quick update... bit of a slow down time for me, but a couple of big jobs coming into the workshop real soon. The Van has been sitting on my trailer since the snow began and it appears my attention will be diverted to renovations on the country acreage I have recently purchased.

The possession date has been set for 21 December 2018... so it appears I will have an unwrapped christmas gift for myself this year. It is a nice 5 acre parcel out in the country. The House is a bit of a fixer-upper, but is structurally sound. Enjoy the photo's!

[VWNate1]

Looks bucolic to me .

? Are those asbestos shingles ? . if so, don't be in any rush to replace them, they're forever, just don't chafe them .

I hope the prevailing wind isn't from that pond,other wise it looks like you're in the clover now .

[Aberdare]

Season's Greetings as New Years approaches!

The acreage I purchased is snowed in for the winter, yet there is so much to get done with January's slow time in the workshop. More to follow, but the Step Van Project will be moving ahead once two big jobs in the workshop get finished off.

Happy New Year to Everyone!

[VWNate1]

Looking forward to seeing progress .

[renegade6]

Great build!

I like the house, reminds me of something Farley Mowat wrote about.

[Aberdare]

Just a quick update... been busy with two big jobs in the workshop, so there has been no time to work on the Van or any other projects. I did a complete R&R of the power pack from a 2004 Volvo XC90. The transmission final drive dynamited and spread shards of metal from the planetary gear set into the transmission pan, but thankfully, the filter kept the valve body clean. We had another 2004 XC90 with the same power pack, so it was decided to use that as a donor for internal parts as well as a replacement casing to do a proper rebuild. The original engine also got a servicing with replacement of the Variable Valve Timing actuators (both intake & exhaust) along with new seals to fix an oil leak that has been getting worse over the last year, in addition to finding an almost elusive coolant leak. It has been a slow process with every internal component of the transmission disassembled, cleaned, then reassembled with clean semi synthetic transmission oil and new seals. Doing the rebuild in house saved $3500, but it has yet to be fired up and given a good test drive... another 7-9 hours assembly to get everything ready for that, but it gave me some labour on my time card versus sitting around all day with nothing to do.

The second big job has been an entire top end rebuild of a 5.3L V-12 fitted to a 1998 Jaguar XJS Coupe. The Customer's wife simply loves the car, so no expense is being spared. The head gaskets on both banks were blown, allowing combustion gases to migrate into the coolant jackets. The 21 hours of book time didn't even come close to covering all the excessive repair time, which included a complete cylinder head rebuild with valve clearance and guide checks and valve spring tension measurements. Only two valve springs needed replacement as they fell under spring tension specifications. The Customer was really quite impressed with the attention to detail and the additional 14 hours of labour it took to bring the engine back to life.

I took the opportunity to check on my parts trucks and other projects in the barn, and found someone had left the barn door ajar sometime before the snow began... I had a four legged vermin take up residence in the cab for the 1966 fleet side. Considering there is not much that can be damaged, I decided to leave momma Fox alone with the den she'd made... and her presence will keep the rodent population under control, which also includes the two legged variety that seem to come and go as they please. Just to make sure she sticks around until spring time, I set out a 60kg bag of feed for her and her litter. She should make a good security system to keep the two legged rodents out of where they don't belong.

If there aren't any other big jobs coming into the workshop before the end of the month, there should be time for me to get the Step Van down off the trailer and get some more fabrication done on the body. More than likely, February should be ok to allocate some time to get things done before sending the Step Van to the body shop. I will probably also have the time to fabricate a transport cart, so that the frame can be stripped down and refurbished, while the body gets new paint.

I will post more photographs once the Van is back in the workshop again.

Cheers!

[Aberdare]

Greetings everyone!

Going to be moving the Van back into the workshop soon, since we've finally hit another slow time. The Van has been sitting on the trailer all winter, so it will be a bit of a job to drag it out of the snow pile it is buried under, but I should manage. I will post some more photo's once I have it moved. This time around will be to finish the forward cab section and door frames with the steel I bought before I had to put it away back in October.

More to follow!

[VWNate1]

Good to hear this .

[Aberdare]

Just a quick update... Going to be having all my projects sit on the back burner for this year so I can focus on building my own workshop at the acreage.

There's a lot of work to be done. Need to clear some bushes and trees so that I can access the road allowance (For a road that was never built). I will be building a 38ft x 26ft Post Barn style workshop with a floating slab.

I will be moving all the trucks out there sometime this summer, and I also bought a 1948 Case-S tractor. Pictures to follow on the workshop, but here's a few of the house after I got started on clean-up.

[VWNate1]

? Is this your first house ? .

Having any sort of shop or pole barn to work in will be great .

[Aberdare]

Originally Posted by VWNate1

? Is this your first house ? .

Having any sort of shop or pole barn to work in will be great .

Not my 1st house, but it is my 1st acreage... it's so far out in the boonies that Jesus lost his sandals a half mile away.

I have a lead on a supplier for some rough cut lumber, and a contractor to drill the post holes for me. It looks like I going to have to mix and pour my own concrete, since there no way even divine intervention will allow a delivery truck up there unless it is 6 wheel drive. My little Ram 50 pick-up is just big enough to maneuver down the trails leading up to the property, and the nearest range road is close to a mile away.

It should be fun getting things into shape.

[VWNate1]

All the better then .

[Aberdare]

Well Folks... it has been a very busy summer with quite a few big jobs requiring my expertise to get completed... The XC90 got finished up only to come back in three weeks later because the valve body started acting erratically. Turns out that a shifting spring broke resulting in a shift valve plunger to become locked... not fun... 14 hours labour later and the XC90 was ready to be reassembled the 2nd time.

The 5.3L Jaguar needed quite alot of extra labour to workout all the bugs, but eventually it was delivered to the owner with wide eye amazement that her baby was ready for driving. On the subject of 5.3L Jaguar, we had a 2nd vehicle dropped in with a bad charging system... eventually the cause was found to be a separated harmonic balancer. Nine hours labour to strip back the front of the motor which included R&R Radiator... and while we were already in there, new water pump, crank shaft seal and one of the idlers for the three accessory belts. All the belt adjusters got reconditioned as well as the radiator got a rebuild. Finally, at the customer's request... the Auxiliary Air Valve was replaced and the engine idle speed was adjusted, before delivery back to the customer.

The Step Van was rolled back off the trailer, (because I really needed the trailer for another task) but unfortunately, there has not been any time for projects. It seems it is just the way it goes. Hopefully, August has a week or two of free time so that all the steel I purchased last year can be welded in, and the body can be made weather tight. On a Positive note, the Van rolled off the trailer with out any problem.

My 1948 Case Tractor still needs new tires, but I did manage some time to fill the cylinders with a mixture of diesel fuel and ATF. That was over a month ago and when I was at the storage compound over this past weekend, when I stood on the crank handle, the engine still didn't budge. I added more ATF and put the plugs back into the engine.

Here's a couple of pictures of the tractor.

[VWNate1]

Thanx for the update .

Most folks use Acetone& ATF to free stuck things, I use "KROIL" from Kano Labs in Tenn.

[Aberdare]

**UPDATE**

Nothing much happened to the Step Van over the summer as we were just way too busy in the Workshop. Now we're coming into our "Winterize" time with our customers lining up and booking ahead to make sure their vehicles are ready for when the snow starts to fly.

Hopefully, there will be some time before December to push the Step Van back into the workshop and get some more welding & fabrication done. Time will tell.

On another note, I did stop out to JML's place to fit 4 tires to the 1966 GMC Long Bed Step Side and give the engine a spin. It actually RUNS!... so thats good news at least.