# 1970's Custom Vans!!! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 11, 2019, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1970s-custom-vans/827623 "2019-01-11T22:57:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1970s-custom-vans/827623/61 "2019-01-17T21:45:25Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > I think you would have to buy a commercial van and modify it. That’s what they did in the 70s. In those “pre-van conversion” days, you bought a utility van, most likely with no interior at all, maybe even just one seat, and fixed it up. They still make commercial vans, of course, so the opportunity is still there. They’re just ugly now. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1970s-custom-vans/827623/62 "2019-01-17T23:06:29Z")
Yeah, the Dodge my parents tricked out originally came with the bare metal walls and floor–it was orange from the factory (WTF? 😉 ) but the yellow stripe was custom added. Everything was fabbed mostly by my dad with a few items professionally built and installed. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2019, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1970s-custom-vans/827623/63 "2019-01-18T22:36:49Z")
There was one in one of the 1970s Popular Hot Rodding magazine that was done up inside like a New Orleans bordello. It had a landau top (!) and an aquarium with live fish. I have always wondered if the owner went out to the garage every day to feed the fish, or kept them in the house, except for shows. Wow! It can be [found](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6a/58/8d/6a588dd32af5305e5f455afec48d96a4.jpg) [online](http://vandolerosvanclub.blogspot.com/2012/04/massage-parlor.html)! That’s the fish tank with the red leaves above the refrig. I assume the original fish are long dead. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2019, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1970s-custom-vans/827623/64 "2019-01-18T23:02:17Z")
Thing about vehicles from the 70’s is they rusted out bad so you have to carefully clean them or garage them. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2019, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1970s-custom-vans/827623/65 "2019-01-19T03:47:37Z")
Not in California they didn’t! ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1970s-custom-vans/827623/66 "2019-01-23T01:57:16Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > My mom had one–Dodge Tradesman 200, bright orange with a yellow stripe around the middle, tasteful (!) landscape mural on the side, porthole windows in the back and roof scoops for ventilation. Carpeted, pull out bed, minimal kitchen built in with cabinets all in that awesome wood veneer. Had a CB radio (Mother Trucker, come back!) that also had a loudspeaker mounted in the front grill so she could let other drivers know what she thought of their driving skills. They’d take that thing down to Baja every year in January and spend a month on the beach, come back all tanned and us kids would be SO envious. We’d go on racing weekends (dad raced SCCA C Sports Racing) and I’d sleep in the van while the 'rents stayed in a hotel and didn’t I just roll a shitload of joints back there and host some parties? Say what you will about the garishness of it all, it was a fun time and a fun hobby. OMG! I was active in SCCA back then (and continue today, lord have mercy). Always loved those sports racers most of all, member of my family ran an Abarth for a while too. So you got to tell me more about your Dad – if y’all ever went to the Runoffs we were in proximity. Jenny your humble TubaDiva PS We didn’t have a van but my folks had something even cooler – the family hauler was an early 60s Cadillac hearse. (Our next door neighbor was a hearse dealer named, I kid you not, Mr. Gastley.) Biggest gas guzzler you ever saw but gas was pennies back then. Looked weird as hell with all of us in it towing that camper to races. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1970s-custom-vans/827623/67 "2019-01-23T03:29:18Z")
Haha, dad was Walt Maas’ teammate, driving the blue and white version of the FAR Performance Datsun Z car with the higher number. If I hadn’t had a pair of kids before I was old enough for a racing license I’d have been the regional driver when I turned eighteen. Oops! ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1970s-custom-vans/827623/68 "2019-01-23T03:51:25Z")
I remember Walt Maas – CanAM driver too, no? I loved CanAM as much as I loved sports racers, I guess I’m just a sucker for the monocoque. 😃 And I vaguely recall FAR Performance – was Bob Sharp in there somewhere too? (Longtime Group 44 fan.) I was a worker at a lot of those SCCA events mostly up and down the east coast back in those glory days. If I ever get back out to your part of the world for a SCCA event I’ll let you know, you can use my guest pass and come hang. Or if you ever want to come out to Road Atlanta, that’s where I work most often, I’m the longtime chief of timing and scoring for the Atlanta Region. SCCA rolls on. It’s different but it’s still the same. Sorry to hijack, back to those custom vans! Down here mostly you saw wizards and variations on ‘Keep On’ Truckin … " And of course, “If the van is rocking / don’t come knocking.” [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/qaQ8r-SwR2c/maxresdefault.jpg "Grateful Dead Truckin' Live 1972") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaQ8r-SwR2c) Jenny your humble TubaDiva ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1970s-custom-vans/827623/69 "2019-01-23T04:12:18Z")
Bob Sharp sounds familiar–George Kord was the main mechanic and I’m FB friends with him to this day, he was like an older brother to me back in the day. Time does roll on, don’t it? Dad’s 85 this year and has gone a bit dotty–I don’t think my stepmother lets him drive any more. [Here’s](https://www.sfrscca.org/news/z-cars-1824/) a bit of ancient history re the CSR 240Z cars–while Walt might have been the first one to drive a 240Z in the US, my dad was racing one in Japan under Nissan sponsorship before that. He bought one of the first ones exported to America, which got dinged during transport to the docks at Yokohama by a driver unfamiliar with left hand drive cars. My dad bought it for a song, drove it on the street for a while then had it race prepared, still with the steering wheel on the wrong side. I was part of the pit crew back then–in Japan you could race a production car with fiberglass panels replacing the metal ones and I was the only one small enough to be tossed onto the hood to clean the windshield during a pitstop without damaging the car. Somewhere around here is about a millon hours of Super 8 film of the trickiest corners at Fuji speedway with my dad doing laps through them (mom was filming) so he could watch the films to see how to improve his line. Not so many hours of footage of us kids or anything, just lots of car film. Thanks, dad! ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1970s-custom-vans/827623/70 "2019-01-23T15:23:39Z")
Like all “race brats” (which I was too to some extent) you got lots of memories. Mostly good ones, I’m sure. Love hearing your stories and thank you for sharing them. Have you seen that documentary on Paul Newman and his racing career? It’ll make you all nostalgic if you haven’t. For the rest of you, this is a great little snapshot of what we grew up with around the time when all those custom vans were running around. 😃 ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Szj0gCkFuk Jenny your humble TubaDiva ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1970s-custom-vans/827623/71 "2019-01-23T19:44:07Z")
Dad raced against Paul Newman a few times but of course Newman could afford a much better car–think he was running a Porsche at the time. I also spotted George Harrison at a few races too. Not getting my chance to race is one of my few regrets in life, sigh. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1970s-custom-vans/827623.md?page=3)