Newbie with Old Van

[Spire]

Hi, I'm Rachel and this is the Tardis:


It's a 1975 Chevy G20 conversion van. The conversion company was Surveyor. I got it from my best friend's grandfather, who had owned it since 1985. Every inch of the cockpit was covered with pea green shag carpeting.


I'm pretty handy and have a whole lot of plans for it. I compete in various dog sports and need to figure out how best to use the space for sleeping/dog crates/etc. 


So far I've ripped out several pound of disintegrating carpet. I need to fix the waste gate valve, just got the part for that today. Gotta sanitize the tanks and figure out if the shower still works. 


I've been lurking on this forum for a while now, and have finally gotten around to posting. I mostly have questions about removing the gas appliances. I don't think I need the stove, and there's a gas heater under the couch that definitely needs to go. Neither has been used in eons, but I need to figure out how to disconnect them safely. I also need to figure out how to remove the dash so I can paint it. The vintage van forums were full of people that could afford to drop hundreds of dollars on every mod and upgrade, you guys seem to be a better fit for me and my bucket of bolts.

 

[BradKW]

lol...that shag job on entire dash and doors is totally cool, but in a way that's only cool when it's on something you don't own

Few things to consider with the propane system. If you simply remove the hose/pipe at the tank shut off, there's no gas at the appliances and they can be removed delicately of with a sledge hammer and it won't matter.

If it's a body mounted tank and you're not going to want propane, having it removed by someone would be a nice weight savings. Could always use small, portable tanks if decide later you want a burner of heater.

You might think about re-carpeting the dash...in Florida that's not uncommon as a way to protect against the sun. It'd probably be easier and end up looking nicer than attempting to get it cleaned off and painted.

 

[WriterMs]

Welcome, Rachel!

The space your treasure offers looks great, but my-oh-my I envy your energy in taking on the remodeling project. About the shower, don't forget if you have the "surround" you can always do something like the pressurized weed sprayer homemade shower inside the wet area.

This should be a fun transformation to watch, so you know we'll want pics of it in progress.

 

[rvpopeye]

Welcome aboard , out of the shadows !

 

[Spire]

lol...that shag job on entire dash and doors is totally cool, but in a way that's only cool when it's on something you don't own  

Few things to consider with the propane system. If you simply remove the hose/pipe at the tank shut off, there's no gas at the appliances and they can be removed delicately of with a sledge hammer and it won't matter.

If it's a body mounted tank and you're not going to want propane, having it removed by someone would be a nice weight savings. Could always use small, portable tanks if decide later you want a burner of heater.

You might think about re-carpeting the dash...in Florida that's not uncommon as a way to protect against the sun. It'd probably be easier and end up looking nicer than attempting to get it cleaned off and painted.

The shag was the very first thing to go. A lot of it was powdered shag by that point. It was pretty cool twenty years ago when I was a kid though!

No idea if the tanks are body mounted or not, I'll have to investigate further. Today I figured out how the couch is bolted down and realized how easy it will be to pull it out to get to the heater and also replace the flooring with something other than (you guessed it!) pea green shag. I'm thinking rubber horse stall mats.

I'm not sure how to go about recarpeting the dash. While pulling it out I realized the original carpeteer had just kinda cut pieces to fit and glued them on. The effect was a bit overwhelming and I'm not sure I want to attempt that myself. Maybe I can reach a nice compromise, carpet on top and something normal on the rest? Is there special automotive carpet for that?

I suppose I do need to think about insulation, too. Living in southern California it's easy to forget that winter exists in some places.

 

[BradKW]

I don't think they're attached to the dash with anything other than some self-stick velcro tabs, and I bet you could find something close enough to fit. Like seat covers, they're made to fit certain models it seems, but the most important part might be that the edges are hemmed to keep from fraying. I think that the more of that old glue and vinyl you can hide with carpet the better...getting it to look even OK with paint won't be easy, but at least limiting the painted parts to smaller areas should help...

[img=300x300]http://g01.a.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1etqM...A-FIT-JAZZ-DASHBOARD-font-b-COVER-b.jpg[/img]


Or go with a theme  

 

[cyndi]

Rachel! Welcome to the CRVL forums! What a great van!Your not in the Buffalo, NY area, are you? I remember space cruises in that van, kind of.

To help you learn the ins and outs of these forums, this "Tips & Tricks" post lists some helpful information to get you started. We look forward to hearing more from you.

 

[ArtW]

Welcome! the Tardis looks pretty cool as a basis for a build

 

[eDJ_]

LOL,   Yet another Tardis !   Welcome to the CRVL Forums  

The Tardis certainly gets around.  I'd say, judging from the vintage, that it carried

this beloved Doctor through time.

Good luck getting it whipped into shape and ready for the road.