Have we had a thread on conversion vans here yet?
 

Anybody have , or had one? For a good part of my 20's/ early 30's, I was a man with a van, and a plan. My first was a VW, but I quickly moved into full sized vans as I could tow with them, use them for my business to move parts, and for projects around the house. Had a really cool 80 Dodge van,that was a homemade conversion and looked similar to this,
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1409877761.jpg ( always wanted to clone this one)
Wood paneling , shag carpet, lighting , the whole package.
Also had a 1985 ford conversion, 91 dogde conversion, and Had started on a 1979 Chevrolet, factory standard 4 speed floor shift, but sold it when I bought my first house
My buddy todd had a 1974 silver chevy with red shag carpeting, the big chrome visor, wire wheels, and a heart shaped opening leading into the back, it was baw chick a wa wa 70's . That old van saw over 100 grateful dead shows. I think he still has it rotting in his backyard. That old dodge van I had towed more 911's around the country than I can remember, was a great beach road tripper, camp van, and always came in handy for date night....
I,ll have to see if I can dig up some old photos.
I took my kid on a test drive in a customers old ford conversion the other day, and he loved it. " Dad , why don't you have one of these?".
Hmmm.. Possibly a future father son project?
Anybody remember van ins? The dodge street van? This stuff was huge in the 70's..

I'm bored tonight, sorry.
Dodge Other Tradesman | eBay

That is absolutely fantastic! I wonder how I can convince my wife to get one! :D

My friend drove a van during high school. It had a shower/toilet, foldout table and tall enough to stand in. The color was off white and on the side were two tone brown stripes with the word "Swinger" That was party central.

I searched for a picture with the terms 'Swinger vans". No pictures of vans, but the folks in Van Nuys have some very active social groups if interested.

No but used to dream about owning a murals van as a kid. I was 13 years old when the 70's ended and I can still recall dreaming about "going cross-country" in a van or on a HD. Why I thought that was appealing was probably from the likes of Easy Rider, Vanishing Point, Smokey & the Bandit etc romanticing the "freedom of the road". In hindsight- even within their fictional setting- they were all characters on the fringe of society. The van projected a hedonistic attitude that nothing since has been able to come even close to recapturing.

I never owned one, but my friend Gary Lukehart did all the "factory" van conversions for Dodge through the 70s and did a Blazer custom package for Chevy in the late 70s. He also founded the Chinook camper company.

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While cool as a concept I've always found the practical implementation / execution of conversion vans to be rather creepy.

http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14...d67ead7b76.jpg

Always wanted one of those when I was a kid. My friend Joey's parents had a silver Dodge. Was called the "Silver Shark". had murals all over it, blue shag carpet , blue velvet walls archway, mirrors, bar, bed, coach lamps.all the cool stuff. I'd love to do a retro one now if i couold.

Love 'em and leave 'em!



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Largely based on the individuals that drive them.

http://th00.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/...7v-d2z9qc1.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1409925205.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1409925226.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1409925245.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1409925274.jpg

I ran around in this back in the seventies.
Drove it to California, then back to PA.
http://www.dennisarner.com/pics/jaws/jawsatthebeach.jpg

http://www.dennisarner.com/pics/jaws/jawsinterior.jpg

http://www.dennisarner.com/pics/jaws/jawsvan2s.jpg

Dennis, that is the bomb. Sidepipes and all the goodies. Big thumbs up.

dad had one of bill stout's scarabs
he bought it from Henry Ford himself
as the FOMOCO got it to test/evaluate
btw it was a rear engine ford v8 power
dad replaced the motor 3 times
that was the only car he kept more then a year

Stout Scarab - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

was that the first modern van ?

I had a 62 vw van
used as a mobile dockbox when we lived on a 24ft sailboat
slower then a bicycle and often broke

I agree! I think Dennis wins this one! He lived it!

love love love vans!

Sold my Ford this summer. Looking for another.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1409929959.jpg

I've often wanted a larger snow-chaser, but a Syncro is the largest 4WD that will fit in my dinky garage ..
http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/991802.jpg

The Star Chamber - Movie Reviews- Hidden Treasures
Movie Guy 24/7 | Movie Guy 24/7-Movies on the mind all the time !

The Star Chamber is a very good movie that could have been great had the director ... After one of the officers says that he smells marijuana, they search the van ...

And if you saw the movie, its rather creepy... :eek::eek::eek:

Package just released by Scion . Maybe I could see the trend coming back around?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1415288593.jpg

We never had one, but dad did a lot of carpet in them and his buddy at the body shop did a lot of custom work.

The wife and I were just talking about this. We'd love to have a minivan-based basic camper for long road trips. Something like this: jucyrentals.com

I had a VW camper back in high school...closest to a conversion van I ever got:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1415297434.jpg

When I was a young kid, there was a conversion van rolling around my suburban NJ town that had a Star Wars mural on the side. Death Star, Chewbacca, Luke, Han, Leia and Vader. I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen

I helped build the racks and paint this van.

Turbodiesel, kitchen, bed, and a LOUD PA system. It shoots fire as well.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1415299663.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1415299681.jpg

^sorta looks like a "Breaking Bad" mobile desert meth lab:D

I had this conversion van last year to use at the track. Not exactly a '70's shag carpet love shack, but it's a great way to keep the rain off your head. Sold it off at the end of the season, bit too small. Haven't replaced it yet, but am thinking of a c-class RV. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1415322989.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1415323006.jpg

My uncle had a pretty groovy van, quite the road trip machine. If you get one, don't forget the bumper sticker. If this van's a rockin', don't come knockin'

I forgot, one of the other projects dad was involved in was featured in one of the dirt bike magazines. It was a custom limo with a motorcycle rack on top and dad did all the carpet for it, including the roof. Jim Avery had it built.