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I recently purchased this Express van to use for Scouts. This is the fourth Express I've owned. This van has 173k miles and so far appears to be in reasonable mechanical condition with some front end issues. The past owner had small children who've trashed the interior. The front interior door panels are broken and barely attach to the doors. It looks like they fell victim to somebody who didn't know how to remove them. The cloth seats are trashed. The first and second rows look like they had child seats attached to them. The third row has what appears to be pink nail polish on it. The fourth row has some interesting stains on it. It could be urine, I'm really not sure. The carpet has candy, pop, food, ice cream, nuts and french fries ground into it. The interior handle for the side door is missing and the door panel has been removed and is broken. The windows and interior side panels have stickers, sidewalk chalk, magic marker, crayon and various food and other sticky matter all over them. The threshold step to the front and side doors are caked with mud, candy, chewing gum and other gooey unidentified substances. They were asking $3500 for it. I offered them $2500. The owner tried to negotiate with me, but I sincerely didn't care if I bought it or not. When I told him to think about it and get back with me, I figured that was it, I wasn't buying this van. As I was walking to my car, he accepted my offer. If I had realized that it was as dirty as it is, I would have offered him less. For better or worse, I own it now. I've had some experience with detailing cars, but I'm always open to new ideas and methods of how to clean. I peeked behind the right rear interior panel and found garbage and french fries behind it, so I plan on removing all the seats and all the side panels. I've never really cared for the system that GM uses to attach panels because it's so easy to break off the clips as you remove them. In the past I've used epoxy to glue the clips back on I had some success with that. I've noticed that the panels are made out of ABS plastic, I think I'll try ABS glue that's used for ABS pipe to see if it bonds the plastic. Any experience or ideas that anybody else has and is willing to share would be most appreciated. I'll let you know how it goes.

canucklehead

2 part epoxy like jb weld works good on the panels, but when they are off, glue some splints in behind to support the breaks. I used a paint stick at one point and what a difference....Too bad about the idiots who lets the kids chew gum on a work van.....
Try an auto wrecker for parts.....you should be able to scrounge. As for the carpet and seats. Seat covers go on sale, and the carpet can be overlayed with something new. Just cut around things cleanly, and it will stay in place for the most part.
Unless you can get a carpet out of a wrecked van.....or try JC whitney for a replacement.

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I hadn't thought of the idea of splinting the breaks in the plastic. I'm going to give that a try. Paint stir sticks would be an ideal size. One thing I did try is bonding some of the plastic hooks back on to the door panel using ABS glue. It works really well. I know with ABS pipe the glue actually chemically welds the joint together. It's done the same to the door panel. The retaining hooks are as strong or stronger than the ones that were still intact on the panel. I've used other JB Weld products and like them. I'll have to give their epoxy a try. Thanks.

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The seats came out easily enough, although I have a bit of a back ache now. One of the retaining / locking pins for the fourth row seat was missing, so I'll be scrounging for a replacement. I literally turned the hose on the seats once they were out in the driveway. I used Lysol all purpose cleaner and a soft brush. I've used Lysol cleaner in the past because it cleans pretty well, has a disinfectant in it and doesn't leave a heave residue. I used a shop vac to extract the water out of the seat and the fourth row looks like new (after a lot of scrubbing and extracting). The third row did have nail polish stains on it. I'm afraid that if I use nail polish remover or acetone that I'll dissolve the synthetic fabric. I might try a hidden test spot to see if it damages the fabric. I like canucklehead's suggestion of getting seat covers, I will probably do that, but either way I'd like to get the seats as clean as I can before I cover them to get rid of the odor and yuck. Rows one and two came out pretty good, but have some stains that just won't come out. On the front seats I used an upholstery cleaning tool with a hand held attachment. I used lysol and the upholstery shampoo. The front seats weren't nearly as nasty as the back ones. They both look like brand new. The fabric that GM used on these seats is amazingly durable. I was pleasantly surprised at how clean it came out. Next up is tackling the front door panels. I've scrubbed the yuck off them, but they're broken and will need some creative engineering to re-attach them properly and repair them. I replaced the stock speakers in the doors with some decent aftermarket ones. I'll let you know how it goes.

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The front door panels both had most of their retaining hooks broken off. Both arm rests were off and the left one was missing. The right arm rest was broken where the screws attached to the door bracket that holds it in place as well as the three plastic retaining nubs that protrude through the door panel. The vinyl covering was peeling off of the foam as well. I used Gorilla glue (a urethane glue) to glue the vinyl back and used tape to hold it in place while it cured. I found the ABS plastic pieces that broke out of the center still attached to the arm rest bracket. I took those pieces and used ABS pipe cement to glue them back in place. After the glue cured, I was impressed with how strong it was. I modified some fender washers on the bench grinder and used them to reinforce the area where the screws passed through to the bracket underneath. I drilled through the back of the armrest and used a #10-24 stainless screw with a counter-sink washer to secure the center of the arm rest to the door panel. Where the other two nubs were I drilled pilot holes and put in some #6 self tapping screws through the back of the door panel into the arm rest. I put some epoxy on those screws to help secure them. I found a new arm rest for the left side on ebay, it was the exact fit and color of my upholstery, so I couldn't resist buying it for $110. The arm rests are discontinued and aren't manufactured anymore. The one I bought was an original OEM, the bonus was that they didn't have the right side, but I only needed the left (lucky).

As for the door panels, most of the retaining hooks were broken off and missing. There was still one, the same one on the right and left panel, hanging on just barely. I used ABS cement to glue those back on and that worked really well. To secure the panels where the hooks were missing I drilled through the door panel into the steel of the door frame. I was very careful to chose locations that didn't hit or interfere with the window or lock mechanisms. I chose 1/4" - 20 stainless recessed with the appropriately sized countersink washers. I used a 1/4" - 20 tap to put threads into the frame. Before I installed the screws I drilled a larger hole through the plastic panel so the screws would slide through easily. I was very pleased with the results. It's not perfect, but functions well and doesn't look too bad. I'm still waiting on parts for my inside side door handle, so when those parts arrive, I plan to tackle those panels in a similar way. I'll let you know how the next stages of my project go.

I wanted to share my project to not only get suggestions from other van guys, but to share with others who might be experiencing the same issues. I've owned a lot of Chevy vans over the years and grew up with a 1974 GMC Rally STX that my Mom drove us around in. That was an awesome van. It had Frigid Air A/C in it with power steering. It was around for a lot of years and gave us great service. We got an '85 Chevy Beauville with the 6.2 diesel when I was a teen. It was sweet. It had front and rear A/C and got good gas mileage. I used to take it to Moab, UT to go biking. We put 18 mountain bikes on the roof with a rack system. My Dad wrecked that van when he was old and crazy. To this day we don't know how he managed to endo and roll it. It had 350K miles on it and still ran great. Dad was wearing his seat belt and through some miracle survived fairly unscathed. He told us some BS story that I still question the truth of it to this day. I love the Chevy vans. Some of my love is sentimental and nostalgic, but I love to drive them and work on them. At work they asked me what kind of service van I wanted, I told them the Chevy Express of course. They got me one with the 6.0 engine. I really like that engine, it works awesome for what I use it for. I often tow big trailers with it and carry a big load of tools and equipment. We have quite a few Chevys in our service fleet and our mechanics prefer to work on them than other brands. I'm a big fan, have been ever since I was little.

greenfire

Yeah you kinda get attached to these things. My first truck at work was an 84 G30. On my own I have been through a few. (see my sig). My grandfather put the down payment on the 99 when I started my business. So when I got the new van I ordered it exactly the same. Favorite was the 6.5 diesel.. ran like a freight train. Have a 6.0 now too and I agree.. it hauls.

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This job has really become a labor of love. I've been scrubbing and cleaning all of the interior panels both the front and back. There's been a few surprises as I disassembled the interior, I didn't know that french fries and crayons could end up where they were. The crayons were melted, it was a chore to clean them up. I used a product called Citrol, it's a concentrated citrus oil in an aerosol can. It works great on removing adhesives and random stains too. I've tried a few different epoxies, all 2 part. They work fairly well, but the best glue is the ABS pipe cement. It bonds the plastic the best. It's perfect for glueing the plastic retainer hooks back on the door panels and glueing broken plastic pieces back on where the metal clips attach. I think a lot of the strength comes from the glue chemically bonding the plastic. The only problem is that it's black. Most of the repairs I've made won't show when the interior is put back together, so the color of the glue won't matter. There were a couple of spots on the front doors where the plastic retainer hooks broke and cracked a hole all the way to the front of the panel, the glue shows a little in those spots, but I don't think it's a big deal. The molding that goes around the windows on the side and back doors is fastened in an odd way. When removing this part of the door panel it's really easy to break the plastic where the metal clips hook on, I found a few broken metal clips as well. What I did to remove the molding around the inside of the back and side doors was to open the swing-out windows and pull the weather stripping off to expose the area where the hooks attach. Then I flexed the plastic in towards the window to pull the metal hook out of a pocket that was made in the frame around the window to free the panel. I got lucky and didn't break any of the molding. I've added some pictures to give you a better idea of what I'm talking about with these metal hooks / clips. In the last picture you can see one of my side doors where the metal hooks were missing and broken. The plastic where the hooks / clips attack was broken and the pieces were missing too. I used some 10-24 stainless screws with some counter-sink washers to attach it. I carefully drilled holes through the molding into the door frame around the window. Then I used a larger bit to make the hole in the plastic molding bigger so I could easily use my tap to make threads in the metal and so the screw could easily slide through. I used some lock-tight on the threads of the screws to help prevent them from coming loose. Now all of my doors have their panels solidly installed and I was able to install the parts I needed to fix my side door. Somehow the stop strap that holds the door open and prevents it from opening up too far was broken. I was able to replace it and the door is much easier to manage. It doesn't swing shut on you anymore. I also had an issue with a control rod that went from the inside door handle to the door latch. There's a groove on the end of the control rod where it attaches to the latch. On the latch were the rod goes is a plastic grommet that snaps into the groove. My plastic grommet was worn out and the rod would fall out of the latch every few times you would operate the inside handle. A long time ago I had bought a c-clip kit from Harbor Freight and I found a tiny c-clip that fit into the groove perfectly. It was very difficult placing that c-clip. It took me a good 30 minutes. I kept dropping the stupid c-clip inside the door. I finally got it on using a pair of needle-nose pliers and I pulled on the inside handle and blocked it from going back with a screw driver. That way the control rod was pulled out of the ridiculously tight spot by the latch. I'm pretty confidant that the c-clip will hold the rod and keep it from dropping out of the latch. So far I'm pleased with how it's going. I'll post some more pictures and updates as I get more done.

lunghd

I have personally used the black ABS glue & purple primer to repair many ABS items on my van and other vehicles. I also use fiberglass cloth to reinforce the pieces across the break (behind - out of sight) & have yet to redo a single repair.

GM wanted $100+ for the black plastic trim beneath the wiper blades. Nah... I'll pass. Fixed it at no cost other than 1/2 hour of time and some supplies from the back of the van.

You can also embed flat washers in the glue (again - a little fiberglass cloth will strengthen this) and restore the oem attachment points where something is screwed down.

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For the last week I've had a lot of rain in my area so I haven't been able to work on my van as much as I'd like. I started cleaning the carpet to see what I could do with it. I was pleasantly surprised at how clean I was able to get it. There's a few spots that were heavily worn, but the candy, sticky soda pop and fruit punch that was in the carpet came up when I used a combination of spotting the worse areas with Lysol all purpose cleaner and Resolve carpet cleaner in my carpet cleaning machine. Now I can actually sit on the carpet without fear of catching a disease. One thing I've learned is that a double din radio doesn't fit in the dash of the '97 through '00. I thought about trying to build a custom bracket to house my double din radio, but I decided to go with a single din deck instead, just to avoid the hassle. There was so much sticky mess on the center console that I marred the finish of the cup holders and the surrounding area cleaning it. This piece is actually painted. I found the color of paint I needed and ordered an aftermarket paint product to refinish the part. Since the finish on the lid of the glove compartment is scratched up and is the same color, I figured I'd touch it up while I was at it. This is the first time I've ever tried upholstery paint, so I look forward to trying it. Something else I want to try is touch up paint on the outside. There's a lot of scratches and dings and I don't plan to really worry about fixing them all so much as I want to learn how to touch up scratches and chipped paint and make it look like it never happened. I figure this is the perfect vehicle to experiment and learn on. I've seen a process where the touch up is applied and sanded with very fine wet / dry sandpaper, then buffed with a rubbing compound to restore the damaged paint. The interior smells SO much better. It's amazing how much you can do with Lysol and lemon Pledge.

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I finally finished cleaning the interior of my van. I finished up by cleaning the headliner. I didn't think it was that dirty until I actually cleaned it. I used diluted lysol and a soft cloth to saturate the fabric and gently scrub spots. Then I used my upholstery cleaner to extract the cleaning solution. I was very pleased with the results. It looks and smells great. I found the oddest spots on the headliner, something that looked like milk, ketchup and some were just unidentified. The interior is a dark navy blue so stains don't show up as much. Other than a few nicks and tears in the headliner, it looks like new. Now I'm working on maintenance and repairs on the mechanics of the van. So far I've changed the spark plugs, wires, cap and rotor. The serpentine belt was showing some cracking so I replaced it too. After an oil and filter change, the motor sounds really good and quiet. I lubed the front end components and didn't detect any problems with the tie rod ends, pitman arm or ball joints, so I'm not sure what the free play and odd tire wear is all about. At this point I need to take it to a shop and have it looked at to isolate what the issues are and then attack it myself or have them fix it. The brakes on the front had new pads, but the rotors were really tore up. I bought new rotors for about $90 a piece (I didn't think that price was too bad) and started to take off the old ones. What I found was that the bearings were pretty dry. They looked ok, but I decided to replace them anyway. The rotors came with new races so it made sense to replace the bearings too. After packing the bearings with good grease, I put it all back together. I think the first two owners, who put the majority of the miles on the van, took decent care of it. The last owner neglected it, but mechanically so far it doesn't seem worse for wear. I'm going to check the rear differential and change the gear oil, I'm considering replacing the axil seals at the same time, just because when they do leak it makes a huge mess of the rear brakes. After that I'll see if I still have motivation to bleed the brakes and put fresh fluid in. We'll see how it goes.