1968 Chevrolet G20 Van

Minivan/Van

8 - Cyl.

Manual

Gasoline

About 2 months ago, my then-fiance and I were out for a walk with the dog. It was the Saturday before our wedding. As we passed a farmer's field that we'd walked past dozens of times before, we noticed a guy with a backhoe clearing out a field overgrown with trees and brush. And I happened to spot a large gray van, previously hidden by the aforementioned foliage, parked underneath a tree. I hailed the backhoe driver, and found that the van had been owned by his now-deceased brother-in-law, and had been parked there for about 27 years. I asked him what his plans were for it, and he told me he was in the process of gathering a load of scrap metal to take to the recyclers- and the van was going with that load. I quickly made a deal to come and haul the van off myself, and saved it from being ground up and smelted into refrigerators. Unfortunately, after dragging the forlorn Chevy Van back to my house, my soon-to-be-better-half got a better glimpse of it and declared it, "Ugly". She named it "The Slug Van" and while she was glad it didn't get crushed, she had no desire for it to become a long-term member of our household. Honestly, I kinda have to agree with her. Its a cool old piece of American Iron, but it's not really my style. Which brings us to this auction. The Slug Van is still sitting on my trailer, and my now-wife and I have other projects we need to get moving on. So today I went out and vacuumed 27-odd years of small creature detritus out of the van. On a lark, I put a breaker bar on the crankshaft pulley of the 307 V8 (I'm assuming it's a 307, that was the only V8 engine offered in 1968, though of course any of a variety of small-block Chevies could have been swapped in over the course of the van's life) and the engine turned freely. Since I don't have a key, I crawled underneath and attached a wire to the starter solenoid, ran it to the battery box, and put a fresh battery in. The starter cranked, and the engine turned over. While cleaning out the engine of critter nestings, I noticed that it had been fitted with an electronic distributor- not offered in 1968, but a popular upgrade in the 70's after GM came out with HEI ignition. I hooked up a wire to the battery terminal of the distributor, and ran it over to the battery box. I drained out what passed for "oil" from the crankcase, replaced the filter and oil, put some water in the radiator, hooked up a small gas tank to the fuel pump inlet, and, with great anticipation, connected the ignition with and touched the starter wire. It cranked, it fired, and it ran. It actually ran. I'd say it runs pretty well for a van that's been parked in a field under a tree for the better part of 3 decades, but honestly, I've driven cars that ran worse. The engine sounded really healthy, and is probably a tune-up and a carb rebuild away from being usable. Obviously, that's not all the van needs. The previous owner installed what must have been super-awesome Road Hugger bias-ply tires on some Western mag wheels, which were probably the hot ticket in the late 70's, but the tires won't even hold air now. I'm sure the brakes will need attention, too. The body's got its share of dents, dings, and other character. There's not much rust though- a hole in front of the right rear wheel and rocker, at the bottom of the front passenger door, and the passenger front floor are the worst areas. The frame is solid, and the floor, roof, and sides are all there and solid. There's evidence of some body work, though it seems to have been done to fix dents, not corrosion. The paint on The Slug is pretty unique. Some people might call it "patina", and its definitely 3-dimensional. There's layers of factory paint, gray primer, brown primer, dirt, and moss. I'm not going to lie, its kinda gross and kinda awesome at the same time. I cleaned off the glass and found only one broken pane- the driver's side vent wing window. The roof rack is there and pretty nice, though how anyone could be expected to actually get anything up there is beyond me. I'm not 100% on all the particulars of The Slug. Apparently 2nd generation Chevy Vans came in 90" and 108" wheelbase, and this particular van has a "108" emblem on one side and a "90" emblem on the other side. I measured the wheelbase, and it is 108". So it's the big one- all the better for hauling stuff or living out of. I'm unsure if it's a G10 or a G20 van. G20's came with a 12 bolt rear, which The Slug has, so maybe it's the 3/4 ton van. The driver's door plate lists "6200" as the GVWR, if that's any indication for you. The transmission is definitely a manual, though again, it looks like you could get either 3 or 4 speeds on the column, depending on how often you wanted to play one-armed-bandit on-the-tree. There is NO power steering, air conditioning, power windows, or any of that stuff they put in cars nowadays. There is, however, a very 70's-looking Delco AM-FM radio hanging out of the dash. And that super cool "CHEVY" psychedelic front plate. If the bidding goes high enough, I'll let that plate go with the van. I also have a teal ashtray full of rusty mag wheel lug nuts that goes with The Slug. What more could you ask for? The Slug is currently sitting on my trailer, and four flat tires, but eagerly awaiting it's new home and potentially seeing the open road again for the first time since 1982. I'll throw in FREE delivery within 30 miles of Travelers Rest, SC to the high bidder. If you live further away than that, I can leave it on the trailer and deliver it to you, for $2 per loaded mile over 30 miles. Or we can work something else out. As long as it's paid for, I can hold onto it for a month or so, as long as it's gone by early January. I don't have a title, but since the previous owner is no longer among the living and the van hasn't been registered since the first Reagan administration, any of the usual title service agencies should be able to take care of that. Any questions, feel free to ask. In-person inspections are encouraged- I want you to be comfortable knowing exactly what you're bidding on. I do require full payment within a week of auction end. If you have negative or single-digit feedback, please email me BEFORE bidding to let me know you're sincere, otherwise I may cancel your bid. Good luck, happy bidding, and I hope The Slug finds a good home. On Nov-29-11 at 16:42:39 PST, seller added the following information:I have recently been informed that this van has a fairly rare feature for it's year - Power Brakes. There's a master cylinder (dual chamber) under the driver's area, and then TWO boosters- one for the front brakes and one for the rear, with about 20 feet of vacuum pipes. Pretty cool. The Vintage Chevy Van Club has a website with lots of cool info on these old vans.