Junkyard Find: 1969 Chevrolet ChevyVan 108
For most of the 1960s, the forward-control, mid-engined small van, with the driver sitting atop the front axle and crowded against the door by an engine-containing box known as the “doghouse,” was quite popular in the United States. These things were bouncy, ill-handling, dangerous steel boxes, but they could haul absurd loads with their 1904-technology solid axles and leaf springs all the way around and were easy to maneuver in tight spaces.
Nearly all these vans were used up or crashed decades ago, but xillion-mile survivors still trickle into wrecking yards to this day. Here’s a rare long-wheelbase late-’60s ChevyVan that I spotted in Denver last week.
The first of this generation of US-Market FC vans was (arguably, depending on how strict you want to be about production figures and military-versus-civilian hair-splitting) the Jeep FC, though the 1961 Ford Econoline was the first to sell in large numbers (yeah, yeah, Thames Freighter and other edge-case imports of the era, nit-pick away). Chrysler and General Motors followed in 1964 with the Dodge A100 and Chevrolet ChevyVan/GMC Handivan, respectively.
The GM forward-control vans never sold as well as their Ford and Dodge competitors, and they never inspired quite the cult following enjoyed by the Econoline and A100 (my ’66 A100 gets “PLEASE SELL ME YOUR VAN” notes every couple of months). This is the first one I have seen in a pull-a-part junkyard in at least five years.
It’s a straight-six, either the standard 230 or the optional 250 (or whatever random Chevy straight-six was swapped in by the 11th owner). A 307-cubic-inch V8 was also available in 1969, for those who needed to haul that extra ton of pig brains or lead pipe.
There’s no easy way to rig up a gearshift lever on the floor when the transmission is located about four feet behind the driver, so the column-shift rig was the only way to run a manual transmission in these trucks. A four-speed Borg-Warner T10 was available, so ChevyVan buyers could have the very rare four-on-the-tree option.
At some point, this van’s owner installed a 1964 or older Pontiac radio with CONELRAD station indicators. It appears to have been an easy bolt-in.
This van was full of old receipts from a parking lot in what’s now Denver’s Theater District.
Ben left his personalized padlock on the steering wheel.
In the 1989 film 龍在天涯, a young Jet Li mashes some baddies against a San Francisco bus stop with his ChevyVan, and somehow avoids losing his legs in the process. This would have been much safer with a 1971 or later front-engine Chevrolet van.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
More by Murilee Martin
Comments
Join the conversation
I love vans from the 60's! This one is unusual, since I've never seen a long wheel base one. Here's one I found, its as Corvair van :) http://phxjunkyarding.blogspot.com/search/label/1960's
@Murilee Martin - could you send me the info on the location of this van when you found it? I'm looking for a 4 speed column shifter!! Best regards!