As it was in 1976
And in the beginning GM created the VAN , and GM said it was good and named it Chevrolet.......
I ordered my van back in the middle of 75 and picked it up from the dealer in Oct. of 75, it started out like any other van coming of the GM assembly line in Lordstown Ohio back in late 1975 For a while it remained stock and empty. Then I decided it was time to do to the van what had been intended since I ordered it "CUSTOMIZE IT"
Plastics Phase,
OK so I fell into the same trap so many other van owners did back then, I bought all of the quickie bolt on fiberglass accessories So in the midst of the Van Conversion craze circa 1976 came the usual store bought add-on's I could find. Wheel well flares, front spoiler, scooped hood, sun visor, Chevy emblem windows, Chevy emblem roof rack and a roof spoiler, running boards, fog lights...... and all those CB antennas 10-4 Good Buddy well it was the 70's and with songs like Convoy and the movie as well there was a truckin and CB Radio craze in the US. Anybody remember those days? So after the outside modifications came the interior, in the front an imitation brick wall with a rosewood door to the bedroom and a home stereo system with a record player an oak parquet floor, wet bar with a sink and fridge and the entire front was covered in brown teddy bear fur! in the back no windows and a side to side 6' long bed with the walls and ceiling covered in gold velour, oh boy today we would look at that and think what the hell was he thinking but back then it was a lady catcher. The back actually was very simple compared to the front. And I thought it was good, but not good enough as time will tell. By chance I joined a local van club which if any of you are old enough to remember there were at least 3 or 4 in every town that had a van. One day the club went to a custom car show at the LA Convention Center and lo and behold Custom Vans were everywhere. One in particular caught my attention "Rainbow Rider" and I said to my fellow van club members "Hey I could build something that good" of course everyone in the club said "yeah right you".... Well that's all I had to hear, and since I had just been promoted to shop manager at a custom van shop that was a dangerous thing to say. That is such can be dangerous if custom vans are your true interest AND LOVE. Dangerous to your pocket book. And dangerous to your van.
So out with the old interior and start all over again except this time no limit on expense so anything was possible. Like a tornado hitting it there was nothing left of it inside or out, "TOTO I DON'T THINK WE ARE IN KANSAS ANYMORE", nothing of the old interior was saved this was going to be a completely different beast, this time it was going to resemble an aircraft interior complete with two brushed aluminum bulkhead walls with elliptical passage ways to separate the cockpit from the middle section which would be the entertainment and passenger section and would have a built in home stereo center complete with quadraphonic reel to reel and a turntable and a tv built in to the wall, the other wall would separate the bedroom from the middle and each section had a door that would slide on a tract built into the wall and be powered by an electric motor so the doors would operate similar to the doors on the old TV Show "Star Trek". Ok but before all of that could be attempted the outside had to be done. This involved steel fabrication of a front spoiler that blended into wheel well flares that blended into running boards that blended into rear wheel well flares then tapered back into the body pic 80, next came the steel sun visor, then the modification of all the doors. This included a gull wing side door instead of the factory slider, splitting the rear door into a 'T" section similar to today's Chevy Astro Van but this was done back in 81 before Chevy even thought of it, then the front doors were split in to two pieces so the bottom section would open normally and the top would open as a gull wing.
I entrusted my van to a friend of mine Dave and said "GO WILD", the result was a show winner where ever it went.
Then came the 90's and its time for a change, so off with the old paint and interior and start all over again....... Then a drunk driver runs a red light in San Bernardino CA and here I go again and so with a new exterior I decided it was time to take it to England again in 1996.
OK it's the 21st (2000) century now and I'M looking at a van I have owned for over 25 years, it's time for a change! (Oh boy here I go again) So I bought a 1984 Chevy Van this was the source for all the new sheet metal, engine, transmission, rear end and everything else I could strip off of it. First step was out with the interior then off with all of the out side modifications including the entire front clip and rear end. Then convert a 1976 Chevy to accept the front end of a 1984 Chevy, they may look the same but underneath they are very different. Then start the skeletal structure for the sheet metal on the new front end, then cut off the rear end of the 84 and weld it into the side section of the 76, now install a new roof create a new rear end look build my new front end and side door.
Then a new paint scheme with flames and graphics, OK now the outside is done and it's time to start on the interior. 2 new high back pillow seats in the front and if you can believe it I found 2 new brand barrel seats for the back corners, oak cabinets to house the stereo amps and the 6 JBL 6 x 9 three way 2 ohm 100 watts RMS speakers in side and four of the same built into special box's underneath powered by a Sony 6 channel and a Sony 4 channel amps and 2 JL 12" sub woofers powered by a JL amp with a very large digital capacitor. The walls were covered in a light charcoal suede over 4" foam with a 4" hand tufted pattern, the ceiling was done the same but in a dark blue to match the flames and strips outside and two mirror sections 3' x 3 with indirect lighting circling them. A 20" drop down video screen in the center of the van between the two mirrors with wireless headphones in the rear, a 10" video screen built into the dash on the passenger side in front and a 7" above the driver in the overhead console for a back up camera.
It made it's first appearance on the streets after 6 years off the road on 1/24/09 on the Las Vegas Strip and it got so bad we had to leave after only 45 min. we had people coming of the sidewalk to get a picture of them next to the van even though we were in the center lane of the three lane road, people in the double Decker buses taking pics and people hanging out of car and limo windows to get pics the cops on bicycles starting looking at us AS a hazard and suggested we leave..... we have been back many times since and it still causes looks and problems. Vans like this are popping up in the mid west and east coast but out here on the west coast it's all SUV's and sports cars so no one has seen a radical van since the late 80's, in Aug. 09 it made front page and page three with a 3/4 page story in the Las Vegas Sun and a 3/4 page story in the Pahrump Mirror. More to come as I take new pic's.
OK so I have left it alone, I guess after 37 years of grinding and welding she needs a rest and as they say if it aint broken don't fix it! What I am trying to do is start a chapter of "wheels of Confusion" van club in Las Vegas I belong to the club based in Huntington Beach, CA but thats a little far to drive to make the meetings, so if you have a van and are interested get in touch with me. (WHEELS of CONFUSION is a club for van owners and enthusiasts that started in 1969 and never quit vannin')
To be continued
My web site
Middle of 1976
Summer of 1977
Summer of 1977
Time to get serious 1979
The way it looked in 1979 when I thought I was done, Ha Ha.
Some more body changes and a new paint job in 1982
The final touches at my shop "Swinger Vans" in 83 before
the Truckin Magazine shoot
Truckin' Magazine cover and center feature Aug. 1983
First trip To Engalnd summer of 1986
Liverpool England, Beatles Museum
OK it's time to leave, Dec. 1986
Back in a container Spring of 1987 and on it's way to Canada then drive back
to California.
Below a new paint job in 1993
Then a drunk driver hit in 1996, SOB ran a red light and hit me
as he tried to make a right turn. I drove away all others had to be towed. Thats
the bennifit of all steel construction.
New front end under construction in the summer of 1996.
New rear end because a woman hit me in the rear after the drunk hit me, neither of them
had insurance and all were illegal who tried to sue ME!
Sitting in England again summer of 1996
Strawberry Field.
Penny Lane
RAF Spitfire Mural on the back and the Lic Plate says RAF 1940
That was for my Dad who flew one in the RAF during WWII
OK it's now 2000 and it's time to cut it up and start all over......... OMG
The old front end is off and now match a 1984 chevy van to a 1976 chevy van,
they are different under the skin.
Now the custom work begins,
The same VAN! Yes.
Appliance wire mags from the 70's 15 x 8.5 in the front and 15 x 10 in the rear
with 50 series tires.
