hi my name is tom. here are som pics of my father's 1974 chevy window van. he owned it in high school.
When my dad was 15, he began to help his next store nieghbor customize his van by working on the interior. After this, he realized what he wanted: a van of his own. At the time, he could not afford one so at age 16, he bought his father's 68' ford wagon which had a 302 V8. he painted it the same orange that was featured on the camaro Z28's. He also removed the rear seats and carpeted it just like a van. It was a nice looking car, but it still wasn't a van.
this is my dad and his friend standing next to his 1974 chevy window van. he bought it from his dad, just like the wagon. The van had been a daily driver to my grandfather and a back up delivery van to the family butcher shop which has been in our family in RVC, NY since 1930. He replaced the back windows with a peice of sheet metal. the customizing process had begun. His friend in the picture also owned a van. It was a 1967 chevy van which he had painted brown and put on forged Cragar rims. They were both in a club named Nowhere Vans, LI. (My dad was the co-founder)
this is the finished product of my dad's van. my dad had it painted gloss black, and had it pin striped gold and brown to match the interior. he then named it "Black Magic"
the interior of this van was imaculate. all of the work was done by my dad himself. the interior included shag carpeting, black button tuft, a bed, bar, and a couch. and many more accessories that i probably dont have enough room to list. When my dad began customizing the van, he had carpeted the entire roof white. After he worked so hard on it, he decided to rip it out because he wasn't happy with the way it looked. He then came up withe idea of the gold shag carpet. Like all vanners, my dad was never content with the way his van looked. There was always something more to be done or something to change.
this is a picture of my dads van and his friends van. it was taken at a van show in the late 70's.
My dad recieved many trophys at van shows such as 2nd place home built chevy window van at Englishtown NJ 1978, 3rd place at the L.I. custom van and 4 wheel drive show at the nassau coliseum in 1980, Ist place chevy window van at the 1978 vantastic voyage in NJ, and 1st place chevy window at Indian Summer Van Jam '78.
This is a magazine my dad's van was featured in. 1001 Truck and Van Ideas, November 1978
these are some pics of my dads friend's 1964 ford econoline. all the work was done by valley vans and so was the display at a car show. My dads friend had been customizing vans long before he was. He first opened the van shop as Van Oasis. but the name was changed when the shop moved to valley stream, LI.
One of my favorite vans: BF Goodrich Future Shock
