[Matt Monson]

My brother-in-law runs a little shop in Boulder called Wild Westy. His specialty is putting Subaru engines into Synchros and other Westfalias. He's done some pretty serious restoration work on some of these vehicles. One of his clients is one of the major dealers in the country. This guy will bring a van into the shop and have Lucas do $20,000 worth of work on them, including paint and body, lift kits, cattle bumpers, fog lights, Yakima racks, additional power sources, new fridge and interiors, Audi S4 brake conversions, special ratio gearboxes with LSDs, etc., etc. The dealer then turns around and sells them for $35,000-45,000. One of the ones Lucas did sold last year for more than $50,000. So, yes the value of these old "vans" has gone up in recent years.

Lucas also has other customers who are willing to put $30,000 into them and leave the van with him for months on end. He's had vans delivered from as far as Florida and Washington with the owner flying in to pick them up and drive them home when they are done. These are recreational vehicles for these people and the owners tend to drive Audi S4s, Carreras, or things like BMW 5 series cars as a daily driver and are not hurting for money. It's an interesting little niche market and has guys as serious about their vans as we are about our P-Cars.