Breif History on the Chevy Van

Chevrolet introduced its first van in 1961 based on the Corvair. The Greenbrier van design included a rear engine similar to the Volkswagen bus at the time.
 
In 1971, the Chevy van received a major redesign, moving the engine forward of the driver with a short nose and hood. This major restyle followed the engine-forward design of the competing 1968 Ford Econoline. The van employed stronger, truck style hubs and brakes with A-arm independent front suspension. It's really incredible how Chevrolet constructed the van and how many welds were done to hold the entire thing together and welding to the frame. All the van's suspension / steering parts came from the Chevy C-series pickup trucks. It was obvious that the style was a winner as Chevy continued this basic body style until the end of the 1996 model year. A 25 year model run...quite impressive acheivement for them.

In 1975, Chevrolet offered three full sized vans; the G10, G20 and G30. All three vans were sold to everyday consumers, contractors and business owners. The Chevrolet G-Series vans were sold according to vehicle properties. The G10 was a quarter-ton van, G20 was a half-ton, G30 was a full-ton model. The G-Series vans were available in six- and eight-cylinder engines. The six-cylinder engines were a 4.1-liter (250 cu in) straight six . The second was a 4.8-liter (292 cu in) straight-six engine. The 5.7-liter (350 cu in) V-8 offerings were a two-barrel carb, (what my van originally had), a four-barrel version and a four-barrel HD version all touting progressively higher HP numbers. The largest engine was the 6.6 liter (400 cu in) V-8.

I purchased this 1975 Chevy G-10 in 1978 when I was 16 years old from a repo lot in Standale, Michigan. I was looking at buying either this van or a 1971 Mustang but my father didn't like the Mustang and said he would loan me the $ for the van as it was a more practical vehicle for me (I needed to haul my drum kit around). Being in solid shape and it had only 29k miles on it helped secure the loan. Dad mentioned that the van was going to be something that could get me in trouble, so watch it and stay out of trouble. As you all know vans were the craze back in that time frame. My older brother already was driving his 75 Chevy Van prior to me buying mine and they really were the thing to have back then. I also had 3 buddies who owned and were customizing their vans too.

My van had plenty of the 1970s tricks:  Olds Vista Cruiser roof grafted on top, full front spoiler and fender flares (moulded into the body), jailbars in the back windows (lit up at night) and Munster-styled lanterns (on the upper back 1/4 panels). The photo above was taken in 1979 after I hit a pile of wet leaves and ripped the spoiler up pretty good and I lost the skull head moulded into that. The interior was red carpet, bar with red lights, a comfy bedroom and ceiling full of mirrors with black fun-fur everywhere. I had alot of fun in her back then.

2022 marks my 44th year of ownership. The van went from being my home-away-from-home during the late 1970s - early 80s. The late 80s bought a different interior / more paint jobs. Around the mid 90s, was converted to a camping style of van. After the kids grew up and moved on, it mostly sat in the yard & rotted away. I finished up a bunch of other projects and decided to restore my van around 2006 and finished up in 2012.

I have more time & money in it than I could ever recoup. But have lots of fun still working on it. Hard to put a price tag on that fun.  
Click here if you would like to see / read further as I restored it in it's most recent configuration.  After that, is another webpage showing the van throughout the years. 

©2022 Phil Spruit