So the story goes...
I've been looking and dreaming about classic bread vans for a long time and never bought one till I saw this Fire truck on CL, but it was 12hrs round trip from me. Luckily I travel across Canada for work, I'm a Fire Investigator, so I had a job near the Fire truck and stopped in to see it. Fell in love with it and it's Canadian history, which was long forgotten. I told the guy I'd take it and I'll be back. Came back a week or two later with my buddy and his tow truck. We made the trip there and back with no issues, which was the first in a long time as I have bad luck and we do lots of trips for vehicles. I found out from the PO that the van was used by his Search & Rescue Unit for a few years and prior to that it was the North Vancouver Fire Depts command centre back in the day.
Prior to this. I had my '72 K5 which was my daily. I sold it to a Prevention Officer from the North Vancouver Fire Dept. I contact my buddy who has my K5 now after I get the van home and he sends me a photo of him standing with the van when he was around 8 years old. It was nice and shiny and parked in the fire hall. Now the chance of the person buying my K5, working at the same FD and having recalled this bread van and having a picture of it is 1 in 3 million lol Blew my mind at the time! Now the only reason I sold my K5 was to pay off my dogs surgery after getting ran over. Not a good way to start the story, but his accident was the start of these events which in the end turned out good. My buddy now has a '72 K5 driver which he's put a 454 in and enjoys and I have this old bread van siting here waiting for it's resto/mod.
Specs:
Chassis built in 1963 and VIN code indicates a '63 Chevy but titled as a '64.
Built locally here in BC at Vancouver International Truck builders.
283 V8 which runs and sounds good
4spd tranny which works but is a bit stiff
2wd but it has a HUGE PTO driven winch in the rear on the van under the floor.
Dash gauges are from an AD truck which is odd as most '60s vans I've seen used TF gauges.
Had a desk and fold down seating inside for crew transport which I've taken out.
The plan is to use this as a mobile food truck, but keep the exterior all original. The interior will be heavily customized for a mobile mini-donut factory. Will replace the 20" rims with milled down 24.5" alcoas on low pros and have the van either air bagged or static lowered. It needs a little bit of metal work and fiberglass work, but it's in pretty good shape and fun to drive as is.
I've had it for two years now and life is finally settling down to the point I can work on it. I haven't decided yet if I keep the stock axles/suspension or swap in a '90s frontend and rear so I have more accessible parts and cheaper. Fab work isn't a concern, but finding time and space is as it's a huge bread van.
I'll link some pics when I get to a computer.
Nate
