For $5,500, Drive The Bell Jar

Today's Nice Price or Crack Pipe GMC van is said to be a former Southwestern Bell service truck. It rocks a V8, and that fact might just help you decide if its price is worth accepting the charges.

The general consensus surrounding yesterday's no wing and a prayer Windmiller Gyrocopter was that it would be a great way to find out all there is to know about this death thing all the kids are talking about. Regardless of its potential for ending ones life, fully 55% of you approved of its price and said live and let fly.

Sometimes you don't feel like flying. In fact sometimes, staying earthbound is far more desirable. One of those times is today because we have a rockin' 1970 GMC Handi-Van that sports one of the optional V8s.

For $5,500, Drive The Bell Jar

This GMC represents the second generation of the Chevy/GMC Van, which looked similar to the first but did in fact sport significant changes. One of those was the move of the headlights from above the grille, where they aligned perfectly with the rear-view mirrors of most cars, to down in the grille. It also has a slightly wider doghouse to accommodate the V8 engine, the first generation having been designed exclusively around the straight four and six.

This one is a short wheelbase edition (90-inches) which features a small vestigial window behind the front passenger door. The other side is all panel with the exception of a small slider punched through high up in the middle. The ad says that this is a former Southwestern Bell truck and the faded paint bears that out.

For $5,500, Drive The Bell Jar

That paint is pretty rough - like Mustang Ranch mattress rough - but the steel underneath seems to be pretty solid. The only major booger is a hole in the horizontally slatted grille which gives the van kind of a toothless joe appearance. The seller might call it character.

That V8 is wedged in the doghouse pretty tightly and while it looks as road-worn as the rest of the truck it does seem to sport a coil-on distributor which we all know ain't original. Owing to the 2bbl carb on its top it's probably the 307 (200-bhp) which had been introduced in '68 in replacement of the 283, instead of the expected 350. Here it's backed up by a three-on-the-tree manual which must have one of history's longest and most convoluted shift mechanisms.

For $5,500, Drive The Bell Jar

There's only a single shot of the interior so it's hard to say just how creepy it might be, but hey, you're looking at an old telephone service van so of course it's going to be creepy. On the outside, new steelies and clean meats make it look like the patina is intentional and not driven by poverty.

The funny thing is these kind of trucks balance on a precipice - being just a rattle canned FREE CANDY and I♥︎DAHMR license plate away from being a horror movie set piece.

For $5,500, Drive The Bell Jar

I think you'll be pretty hard pressed in this day and age to find another GM van of this era and spec and after all, they are pretty cool. The seller of this one thinks so and is asking $5,500 for a new owner to raise their coolness factor by buying it.

What's your take on this V8 Telephone van for $5,500? Does that ring your chimes, or does it make you think anyone paying that much is a ding-a-ling?

You decide!

Dallas Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
