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 de rigeur in the vanning world. It wasn’t long before a slightly less red-eyed and more family-oriented variation on the custom van theme hit the mainstream: the conversion van
This generation of full-sized G-Series van was built by General Motors 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) and Rally (passenger), while the Chevrolet-badged vans were the Chevy Van (cargo)
Such vans catch my eye when I spy them in junkyards, because much of my 1970s childhood was spent riding in a red-and-white 1973 Chevrolet Beauville Sportvan (which my parents bought new at Suburban Chevrolet in Minnesota
This van appears to be a proper non-backyard conversion, but the interior still seems a perfect environment for the scent of Acapulco Gold and the strains of Nazareth blasting from the Realistic quadrophonic audio system.
Is there shag carpeting? You know it! If this van could talk, it would have some good stories to tell.
Naturally, the velour-upholstered captain’s chairs in front are on swivel mounts.
For the passengers in back, these cozy swivel buckets were available.
The microphone clip tells us that this van was equipped with a CB radio, as was correct.
Sunroofs and map lights? Check!
The velour upholstery covering the sliding-door hardware is a nice touch.
It appears that this van was owned by an employee of Sandia National Laboratories, located inside Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. That’s about a seven-hour Chevy Van trip from its current, final parking spot.
The base powertrain in the G20 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 during my junkyard travels, 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.
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
Conversion vans are still being made, and I’ve documented some of the newer ones (including a couple based on the Toyota LiteAce). There’s something special about a Malaise Era time capsule like this one, though.
Chevy Van beats Ford and Dodge on value.