Has anyone ever seen a Class B Barth? From what I understand, van conversions were offered but not very popular. I'm not sure how they would have been badged.

There were a few small units made with Iveco chassis, 5.5L diesel, very underpowered. There were brochures from 1979 for Barth vans but I don't know if any typical Class B units were actually made/sold.

http://truckroadservice.com/ba...s/Barth_Iveco_26.pdf

I'd call that Iveco a Class A. A true Class B is a van conversion, I think. There was a Barth brochure or magazine advert somewhere, I think, but after searching this forum no one seems to have seen one on the road. Maybe they never produced any?

Another possibility may be that some were made but due to the fact that the bodies were all factory GM steel they rusted out in a matter of years and couldn't be salvaged. The late sixties and early 70s was not a great era for American auto bodies. I have heard it had to do with experimental [at the time], use of recycled steel that didn't have all the oxidation purified from it causing the body parts to rust from the inside out, so there was no way of preventing it.
A class C such as yours had only the cab part to keep up with and would have been much easier to make repairs as needed.

Danny, you have a very good point. I remember cars of that time with rust perforations in less than three years. 71-71 Ford Mavericks were some of the worst. Poor quality steel was the problem indeed. I used to refer to those cars as "biodegradable."

Just another example of auto companies finding the lowest material costs. For many years, the steel exhaust systems of cars rusted out every 3-4 years. The EPA finally included exhaust systems in their 50,000 mile emissions warranties... the auto companies switched to stainless steel and the exhaust systems last a very long time. I sold my 94 Ranger in 2015 with the original exhaust. My 04 Chevy pickup is falling apart but it has original exhaust too. If the auto companies really cared about quality, they could have used stainless since the 50's.

Steel bodies are still the norm, sadly. I bought my F150 for mostly one reason, aluminum body.

My biggest complaint with the Barths was the square steel tubing used for the basement frames. If they had used aluminum like the upper bodies, our old Barths would last almost forever.