pics of my $500 GMC Safari van

tuscarora dave

tuscarora dave

"Luck" Residue of design
I just picked this van up so I don't have to work out of my buick anymore. Though it did'nt run. I spent a couple hundred and all day working on it today putting fuel pump, new strainer and a fuel filter in it and now it purrs like a kitten. Seems to be a good running van with no oil dripping from the bottom of it ecxept a very slight bit it the tranny output shaft. It is in pretty good shape inside too. I will past pics here once I get it cleaned up.

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Looks good TD. Glad you got the van running! One thing these vans are notorious for are idler arms going bad and rear end noise. I wish my '95 had the composite headlights instead of the sealed beams. (and the color matched bumpers at that)

The paint on the hoods like to peel as well, but hey, they're older vehicles. I ended up replacing my white hood for another from a wrecking yard. ($45)
 
TexasTB said:
Looks good TD. Glad you got the van running! One thing these vans are notorious for are idler arms going bad and rear end noise. I wish my '95 had the composite headlights instead of the sealed beams. (and the color matched bumpers at that)

The paint on the hoods like to peel as well, but hey, they're older vehicles. I ended up replacing my white hood for another from a wrecking yard. ($45)
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The idler arms tend to show some wear pretty quickly, but as far as wearing out, I still had the original idler arms on my 1988 Astro after 14 years. A tire shop told me they were bad at about 30k and wanted to replace them. I had my mechanic check them and he said to not worry about them. New ones develop the same sloppiness in a short time and they don't seem to get much worse. Like I said, 14 years and 165,000 miles and the originals were about the same as they were at 30,000 miles.
The hoods are aluminum and are notorious for peeling paint in some colors. My maroon Astro didn't have a peeling hood, but I did need to have the black window surround repainted. Your Safari doesn't appear to have the black window surround so it isn't going to be a problem for you.
 
TexasTB said:
Looks good TD. Glad you got the van running! One thing these vans are notorious for are idler arms going bad and rear end noise. I wish my '95 had the composite headlights instead of the sealed beams. (and the color matched bumpers at that)

The paint on the hoods like to peel as well, but hey, they're older vehicles. I ended up replacing my white hood for another from a wrecking yard. ($45)
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hey TexasTB thanks a lot for linking me to that site, That is a terriffic site to have use of as an owner of one of these vans. Charles thanks for the info there, That is good stuff to know.
 
My idlers are pretty much shot and the van likes to wander around the road a bit. I'm replacing them with "MOOG" brand, which are labeled "problem solvers". I'm actually rebuilding the entire front end. Rotors, calipers, brake lines, pads, inner/outer tie rods, tie rod sleeves, idlers, upper/lower ball joints, center link bar, sway bar bushings (poly), and sway bar end links (poly). Replaced the whole rear end and replaced the mono leaf spring (fiberglass) with steel leaf springs last month. The fiberglass springs had a hard time holding the weight I carried, even with the air shocks. Rides much better with the steels.

TD, does your van have the single fiberglass leaf springs under it?

Charles, I don't think the hood are aluminum. Magnets stick to them.

tuscarora dave said:
hey TexasTB thanks a lot for linking me to that site, That is a terriffic site to have use of as an owner of one of these vans.
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You're welcome. It is a very informative site indeed. Saved my hide a few times. Still learning things after a year of having the van.
 
TexasTB said:
Charles, I don't think the hood are aluminum. Magnets stick to them.
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Definitely not aluminum if a magnet sticks. :D
I was once told that the hood was aluminum and that was the reason for the poor paint adhesion.
Evidently I was given bad information.
Sorry for passing that bad information on.
I guess the paint peeling is just one of the GM paint problems they have had over the years.
Actually, I think all manufacturers have had paint problems. :wall
 
DAVE THATS GREAT NEWS ON THE VAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am sure the pictures to come will be much different, good deal...:yay:yay:yay:yay
 
Just to confuse the issue.
You might want to consider selling the van and using the money to purchase and equip something not quite so fancy.
If the interior is good, an old conversion van will bring quite a lot more money than what you should end up investing in it.
 
CharlesW said:
Just to confuse the issue.
You might want to consider selling the van and using the money to purchase and equip something not quite so fancy.
If the interior is good, an old conversion van will bring quite a lot more money than what you should end up investing in it.
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Thanks for the advice/suggestion but I really like fancy. after going on astrosafari.com and looking around a bit I think this van is a keeper.
 
tuscarora dave said:
Thanks for the advice/suggestion but I really like fancy. after going on astrosafari.com and looking around a bit I think this van is a keeper.
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My intent was to suggest that making over the interior of a conversion van to a detailing van is kind of a waste of what you have.
If you are comfortable hauling your detailing equipment around in that nice of a vehicle, then by all means do so.
I just thought a bare bones cargo van would be more practical for a work truck to haul stuff in.
 
Hi DCers, So today my plans to work fell apart. The job on the big aluminum truck was postponed, so the next best thing I could do was to pull my Aunt's car that was scheduled for next week into today. Well it turns out that my Aunt calls and says she got a flat tire and the garage came and took the wheel off the car. (after she drove it home on the rim)

I drove the 30 mile trip to Carlisle and didn't have a paying job to do so I decided to do a little work on my van which is also in Carlisle. My intention for this van is to finish getting it road worthy this summer and gear it up for a mobile detailing rig so I can stop working out of my car. I am planning to post updates of my progress into this thread.

I plan to take all the pin striping off of the van and have it lettered up with my business name etc. So I started today by removing the striping from one section and doing a test section using M-105 on an orange PB VC pad on the Flex 3401.

Here was the condition of the paint this morning.

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next I removed the stripes from the test section.

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I then taped off one half of the test area.

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here are the results of just M-105 on orange pad using the Flex. I saw no need to go any further as the clarity was very nice as is.

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out of curiosity I did the other side of the test area with a local product called Fast Cut to see how it compares to M-105. Fast cut is half the price of M-105 but I think (after seeing the results of this test) I would rather pay more and go with the M-105. Here are the results of the fast cut.

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Both sides done with 105.

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I found out today that there is just no easy way to remove these pin stripes, I tried a bunch of different methods and the quickest way I could find is just to use a heat gun and peel the stripes off. It took me hours just to remove the stripes off of one of the rear van sides today.

Here is a pic of the clarity of the camera flash reflecting off of todays finished work. I topped the compounded paint with a generous coating of PB EXP.

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Here is a pic of the total progress I made today. I put 6 hours into this today. At this rate in might be all done by the end of the summer. I will post more progress as I make it. Thanks for looking, TD

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I was wanting one but I had my car surrounded by bags, cords, bottles and polishers so I am going to return with one of those next time I go there. I did however put a hard felt polishing bob in a drill and spun it on the stipe and it made a heck of a mess of things.
 
tuscarora dave said:
I was wanting one but I had my car surrounded by bags, cords, bottles and polishers so I am going to return with one of those next time I go there. I did however put a hard felt polishing bob in a drill and spun it on the stipe and it made a heck of a mess of things.
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Those eraser wheels are a bit messy to work with too, but with as effective as they are I don't mind too much. I just make sure not to be inside the garage/shop when I use it.

Only thing you'll have to watch out for is that they can cause a bit of marring -- easily polished out though.
 
OK so after a year, a month and another $2000 this thing is finally inspected. This van was a mistake for sure but I found myself beyond the point of turning back as I invested 3 times the purchase price into it so I went forward with another $500 or so and finally got this thing on the road and it runs and drives great. Then the muffler fell off tonight. Uggh!! I had replaced the front half of the exhaust with new cat but tried to use the old muffler and tail pipe and when I stepped on the gas hard to go onto the highway tonight the old stuff just popped off and dug into the ground. So tomorrow I'll pick up a muffler and a tail pipe and be done with it.

I replaced the front brakes, front tires, idler arms, 1 tie rod end, exhaust, all new brake lines, all new fuel lines, new fuel pump, winshield washer motor, all 4 shocks, plugs , wires, rotor and cap. The double cardan joint in the front drive shaft is shot so we just pulled the shaft until I can pick up a new one to replace it. Talk about a money pit but it's still better than a $500 a month van payment. Now it's time to gut this thing and start setting up the detail equipment and finish de striping it and get it polished up after doing some light rust repairs to the gas filler cap door and the bottom of the sliding door and painting the hood.
 
If you're still working on the pin-stripping, I've had success with saturating them with a citrus-based adhesive remover (I use Orange Blossom), let it sit for about 5 minutes, then come back with a heat gun and a wax comb for a surfboard. On the sides there are flat edges that are pretty durable. One side is typically slightly curved in which you can find just the perfect angle to go at it with to avoid marring any surrounding areas. I'll need to photograph my next project doing this. I just did a black '99 Jetta and it buffed out perfect; no marring left at all. Good luck with the project!
 
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