I saw the van "Prince of Arabia" (or something) in a magazine when I was a teen, then Matchbox issued this little stunner in the late 70's. I was sold. My collection now includes two fully functional scale 1:1 vans! Read on...
Matchbox "CHEVROLET VAN" die-cast.
Driving around in the desert about two miles east of the famous "Highway of Death" where the liberating forces wacked Saddam's boys' backsides as they ran back to Mama-land. This place is called Motla Ridge (sounds "MOT-LAH"). Now back to the van itself... no diff locks, no 4WD, but loads of charisma and the long wheelbase gives a lovely smooth ride over the sometimes rough desert dirt. Just keep it moving and your chances of getting stuck diminishes. Had major plans to convert it to a 4x4 but having just missed a Quigly sale I decided to weigh my options. I'm so glad I did for after picking up a Chevy Avalanche, Im thinking about strapping the Van body to an Avalance chassis. Mmmm, sounds good....
With very bad paint on the van as bought, we saw a stunning Aston Martin color called "Oyster Black Pearl". Just had to have it on the van. Problem was the guy who did it made a total mess (after concourse level surface preparation) and it came out "Full Cream Choclate Brown Comes Of When Washed". Approached the Aston Marton shop in town to repaint it, but I was told "we're too busy". Could be true, could be "we don't want a van in this place dude!". Anyhow, I now plan to have it in good old Chevy Silver.
Front suspension was soft, replaced the coils with aftermarket items which gave me a 2inch lift. Also added airbags in the coils which made magic to the ride quality. Rear lifted an inch via reworked leafsprings. Flowmaster muffler made a huge difference on in-town and desert-drive performance.
More info and stories to follow about this and my other rides.
