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KC's 1984 Van LE
Owner KC Garrison
Mileage 204,651
Interior Color Red/Brown
Exterior Color 2-tone Bronze
Transmission 4-speed Auto
Drive Type Rear
Options:

Dual A/C. Seperate climate controls in back seat area. Rear side windows are tinted. Rear seats fold into a bed and can be removed to haul lots of stuff.

http://www.kcg.2ya.com/
Location Skamokawa, Washington
I'm the third owner of this vehicle. My uncle was the second. He gave it to me just to get rid of it when he got a new rig to haul his kites around in. I did not have my license at the time, so, my dad drove it. On our way back home from a trip up to Lynnwood, the waterpump had blown and the repairs turned into a $4000 overhaul. The van sat in the shop for a year until they decided to let us fianance the repairs. Not only was the engine overhauled, but the brakes were shot and the torque convertor had the wrong size bolts and it caused it to warp and leak. Also, the some rewiring had to be done. When it was time to get it out of the shop, my uncle drove my dad up to the shop to go get it, which is like 60-70 miles away in Chehalis, Washington. When my dad got it, he noticed the engine had a lot more torque and could easily keep it at 70 MPH, even up some of the hills.

My dad then dropped it off at my uncle's house so I can pick it up the next day after I pass my driver's test and get my license. Well, unfortunantly, with my dad's car, I failed the test because there was a blind intersection and I cut someone off. My dad decided to just drop his car off at my uncle's house and let me drive the van home anyway, with him riding with me. It did feel a little weird driving it at first. Sometimes, kinda scary. But, I got used to it. It basically felt like driving a bus. Sheesh. How would I know? I've never driven a bus either. A week later after getting used to it, I used it to try my test again. I noticed at the blind intersection that I could see it MUCH better. It was no longer blind. I love the forword control design of this thing. Sitting on the top of the front wheels really improves the manuverability and visibility of this thing, rather sitting low in a car with a nose in front.

Now that the engine is rebuilt, I can start restoring this thing. If you look in my Rust and Dent section, you can see the rust it has. That can gag a maggot! I've GOTTA get that taken care of soon. As that's being taken care of, it's gonna get a new windsheild because the one I got now is pretty well banged up. I also gotta look for some new mudflaps and attach them all with nuts and bolts and get rid of them plastic thingies that are holding them on now. You may see in my Rust and Dent section a big dent behind the right rear tire.

I decided to let my brother drive it to school. He wanted to drive it so badly. He would not shut up about it. "Give me the keys! I wanna drive to school." Next morning, my dad walks in my bedroom around 7 AM. He's asking me if I let my brother take my van to school. I'm all confused and thought about it. I then said "Yes." He says, "Well, he's got the van in a ditch; he slipped on some ice." I'm like, "O..........k." So, my dad and I get in his car and we find him in the ditch facing back towards home on the other side of the road. There was a cop there too with a 4WD Bronco. My brother didn't know I hadda tow cable in the back. So, I hook it up to the Bronco and the cop pulls it out. My brother explained what happened. After he got in the ditch, he was pacing back and forth saying the "F" word over and over and even chewing the cops out. "Now why are you way over in the ditch?" "I LIKE parking in ditches!" After that incident, he didn't want to drive the van ever again. Finally, we got him to drive it again. He still doesn't like it. He's also one of them "Pro-FWD" people and so are his friends. They say, as I'm going up this gravel hill while my rear tires are spinning, "If this was FWD, it'd make it up the hill easily." I'm like, "Yeah, BULL! Going up a hill with a FWD car is worse because all the weight gets transfered to the back. And the reason why my mom and dad's FWD cars are better going up the hill is because the tires are thicker" That's my argument. If my van had the same size tires as those cars, I bet it'd do better going up that hill.

Ok. Now that I explained that dent, I'll now get back to the restoring. As I said, I'm gonna get the rust and dents taken care of and have it repainted. Then I'm gonna strip out the interior and redo it. I plan on having the panels in the back refabricated. I also want to redesign the back area where the rear speakers are. I want to have a more "clean" look there. The panels around those speakers are cracked here and there. I'll probably be refrabricating as I'm installing my new stereo equipment. I'm gonna install some 4x6s in the front doors, some 4 inchers to replace the originals, and some new 5 1/4 inchers in the back. I'm also gonna have a subwoofer system. I'll probably wire everything through the walls. I planned on doing under the carpet. But I found out that the panels are pretty easy to remove. So, I can feed the wire through the side and have a very clean look. The speakers are also going to be rewired. I'm also thinking about having and new ceiling put in. I ripped the back part of it while I was trying to put a washing machine in the back while we were moving. I used some goop to seal it back up. But, I think I'm just have the whole thing replaced. As that's happening, I'll probably have new interior lights put in. There's something about the middle light. It's possessed! It goes through a lot of bulbs! I put a new one in, about a week later, it burns out. I don't know why it's doing that. Probably crappy bulbs. But, as for the lighting, I kinda would like to replace those dull lights with some fancier ones with the spot lights. It's also gonna be recarpeted. But the body work is gonna be first since I have a slight leak in the passenger area. I don't want to ruin my new carpeting. As I'm recarpeting, I'm gonna put some better insulation over the engine "dog house". It's not noisy now, but it could be a little better.

As for the engine. I'm not gonna do a whole lot to it. It's fine the way it is. But I have a couple things that I plan on doing in the near future. First of all, the catalytic convertor. In the past, I have had some misfires and had it run only on 3 cylinders due to a bad plug wire. Well, as old as this is now, I'm thinking that catalytic convertor is getting pretty well clogged. But I don't plan on replacing in. Noooooo. I'm gonna gut it!! After that, I'm gonna replace my muffler. No, not with a fart can. But with a regular nice sounding muffler. I want a nice, calm, 4 cylinder sound and not something that sounds like a hornets nest. I also read in the feedback area of this site of one of the members doing a filter box mod and gaining around 10 HP. I'll have to get in touch with him and ask him about it. If it's something simple, I'll go for it. I also saw a Previa on Car Domain that had this adapter hooked up to the Mass Air Flow sensor that this tube is hooked up to for those cone filter things. I'm thinking about getting one of them adapters, get rid of the filter box entirely, and have the tube lead outside. So, if I have to change the filter, I'd have to get under it to do so. But, I'm hoping a mod like that can increase my power just a bit. It's nothing major and shouldn't cost me a million bucks. I'm thinking the catalytic convertor mod might do me some good. But if the air intake mod doesn't do much, than that's fine. I think I'd rather go under and replace the filter than get to the filter box. Plus, getting rid of the filter box would allow me better access to some other parts of the engine. And some "non performance" mods I'll do is replace my vacuum hoses with the pretty colored ones. I also need to steam clean my engine and make it shiny. I also plan on taking the valve cover off, flake off the rest of the paint, and repaint it with some engine paint. I can't decide what color now. The reason why I want to dress it up like that is so I can get a good reaction from people who want to see the engine. The way it looks now, they just look at it and think "Oh what a piece of #@$!."

Well, that's all I gotta say about my van for now. Hope ya enjoyed reading it.
Click on Pictures to Enlarge:
Rust/Dent Pics: