Quercus' SMB --Sportsmobiling on the Cheap

[Quercus]

Meet my 1989 van / 1993 SMB conversion. 83k miles.

I think I'll post pictures of my tinkering here on one thread.

After buying the van (one month ago today) having my mechanic tend to the leaky rear fuel tank, I've begun to tackle the signs of age around the van. I guess this is all about keeping a nice old van on the road and a part of family travel memories more than it is about big bucks restoration.

First Project: rusty spare tire carrier.

[Quercus]

I have a sprained thumb on my dominant hand on Saturday at Tang Soo Do Karate training. I did all the wire brushing and pulling off the plastic coating left handed!

I'm not going to have a weekend to get out the grinder and tend to the rusty bits until the end of summer, so I did a quick scrape/brush/naval jelly/paint treatment to a few spots on the passenger side. I plan on doing a more thorough job before long.





The awning brackets are rusty and pitted, too. I hit these with the brush, but not the Naval Jelly. Pics are before paint--

[Quercus]

Spraybombed the spare, too....





The van came with a good looking chrome ring spare tire cover, but the clamp is rusted and broken. My sprained thumb won't let me wire it back on. The van still looks pretty good without it, though...

[Quercus]

And last night, I did a quick sprucing up of the hood, which was multicolored....





There are a few spots in the center of the hood in the stripe that I still have to do-- and the overspray on the left is from the previous owner, I promise!

Not sure whether I like the black or not. I just want it to be easy to keep clean, so I went for shine -- which certainly doesn't match the rest of the car!

[larrie]

Looks very nice. Have been slowly dealing with PO issues on my 89 as well.

[Quercus]

Originally Posted by larrie

Looks very nice. Have been slowly dealing with PO issues on my 89 as well.

I can't complain about the PO -- he probably did just what this van needed: used it and loved it! He did injectors, general upkeep, and spraybombed that hood to stop the surface rust. One of my favorite things about the van is its nice new windshield, which makes a big difference in the enjoyability of a drive.

Luckily, that Yankees sign was a magnet!