If you were cruising American roads during the late 1960s through middle 1980s, you saw them everywhere: Bell System vans in their unmistakable white/green livery. Those trucks are nearly extinct today, so I was pleased to find this ex-phone-company Vandura at a self-service car graveyard near the Tesla Factory in Northern California.
The Bell System subsidiaries all over the country ran cargo and passenger vans made by Ford, Chrysler and GM, so there were Econolines, Club Wagons, Tradesmen, Sportsmen, Voyagers, Sportvans, Chevy Vans, Rallies and Vanduras working for Southern Bell, New Jersey Bell, Illinois Bell and so on.
The giveaway of a van’s ex-phone company provenance was the remnants of the blue and ocher reflective paint, which was difficult to cover up completely.
I came of driving age in Pacific Telephone territory, and this van would have been a decade old when I first braved the Nimitz Freeway (State Route 17 then, now Interstate 880).
The General built these G-Series vans in essentially the same form from the 1971 through 1996 model years. GMC badged the passenger version as the Rally, while the cargo version was the Vandura. Differences between same-year GMC and Chevrolet G-vans are minimal.
Some junkyard shopper has extracted the engine, which probably wasn’t original equipment anyway. The build sticker says the contented workers at Lordstown Assembly bolted in a 250-cube straight-six in the beginning.
The transmission was a three-speed manual, because Ma Bell wasn’t inclined to waste money on frivolity such as automatic transmissions. If you were able to climb a telephone pole during an earthquake, you had to be able to work a clutch as well.
The shift lever is missing, but this was a good old three-on-the-tree rig.
There’s no air conditioning, of course. If you like simple vehicle climate controls, this is your van.
After its phone company career ended, it got some cheap “wood” paneling inside.
When vehicles rust in this part of the world, they tend to do so from the top down. Northern California has rainy winters and dry, smoggy summers, so weatherstripping tends to fail and then water seeps in and does its work.
The area around the sliding door upper track is especially rotten. I think this van sat immobile for decades in a yard or driveway, slowly decaying around the roof.
Somebody tried to patch one of the more annoying leaks with… linoleum adhesive? Plumbing putty? It didn’t work.
The remnants of its Pacific Telephone career can be found here and there. PASSENGERS EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN, so there was (supposed to be) no picking up of comely hitchhikers on Blacow Road in 1974.
Wire blocks were kept by the rear doors.
1972 GMC Vandura Pacific Telephone van in East Bay junkyard.
1972 GMC Vandura Pacific Telephone van in East Bay junkyard.
1972 GMC Vandura Pacific Telephone van in East Bay junkyard.
1972 GMC Vandura Pacific Telephone van in East Bay junkyard.
1972 GMC Vandura Pacific Telephone van in East Bay junkyard.
1972 GMC Vandura Pacific Telephone van in East Bay junkyard.
1972 GMC Vandura Pacific Telephone van in East Bay junkyard.
1972 GMC Vandura Pacific Telephone van in East Bay junkyard.
1972 GMC Vandura Pacific Telephone van in East Bay junkyard.
1972 GMC Vandura Pacific Telephone van in East Bay junkyard.
1972 GMC Vandura Pacific Telephone van in East Bay junkyard.
1972 GMC Vandura Pacific Telephone van in East Bay junkyard.
1972 GMC Vandura Pacific Telephone van in East Bay junkyard.
1972 GMC Vandura Pacific Telephone van in East Bay junkyard.
1972 GMC Vandura Pacific Telephone van in East Bay junkyard.
1972 GMC Vandura Pacific Telephone van in East Bay junkyard.
1972 GMC Vandura Pacific Telephone van in East Bay junkyard.
1972 GMC Vandura Pacific Telephone van in East Bay junkyard.
1972 GMC Vandura Pacific Telephone van in East Bay junkyard.
1972 GMC Vandura Pacific Telephone van in East Bay junkyard.
1972 GMC Vandura Pacific Telephone van in East Bay junkyard.
1972 GMC Vandura Pacific Telephone van in East Bay junkyard.
1972 GMC Vandura Pacific Telephone van in East Bay junkyard.
[Images: The Author]
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