Custom Vans - what happened?

[Dgorila1]

As a kid in the 70's I was obsessed with custom vans. Constantly saw cooler and badder customization every time you looked in the magazines. Whatever happened to that (the custom van scene)? Every van you see nowadays is a plain factory ride. Even with cars, there seems to be no real interest in real customization like it was when we were younger, other than store bought add-on's. Maybe it's today's disposable society, the decline of craftsmen that work with their hands, and the instant gratification culture that wants quick "custom" instead of the true art that the customizers of the past did. I would love to do a van full custom like the original vanners did. Thoughts?

 

[Almost There]

I recognize some of those vans....

It still exists but in a much smaller way!

I look at my old van clubs current membership list and see the grandchildren of my friends are still at it. What got in the way...age, gas prices, responsibilities, health problems etc. etc...basically just life got in the way.

Back in the late 70s and early 80s the National Van Meet would attract in excess of 4,000 vans, today I think attendance averages maybe 400 to 500 vans.

Here's a Facebook link

https://www.facebook.com/vanningdotcom

A friend in Florida has the museum up and running

https://www.facebook.com/museumofvanning/

And of course there's https://www.vanning.com/

If you're interested in a particular area of the country, let me know and I'll find out from friends what's going on in that area...not everything, sadly, gets listed on vanning.com

 

[GotSmart]

1973, 1979, 1990, 2003, 2008.  

When prices go up, and wages do not keep up, toys are the first thing to go.  The custom builders changed over to Class B production.  Originality was not as valued. Vehicles became disposable.  Take your pick. 

Tight pants, big hair, wild murals and flames.  Those were the days.  

 

[LeeRevell]

Custom parts and labor cost a lot more today. And tastes change. I utterly abhor the current huge 22"+ wheels/ultralow-profile tires look, the hydraulic lift nonsense and more DBs than HP thing with todays "custom cars".
Vans lost their alure, being considered much like stationwagons.
We van folks are a dying breed, like true musclecar folks.

 

[ZoNiE]

I like the flip up cargo doors...
Those with Tandem Axles are more than likely sportin' waterbeds...

 

[hepcat]

What happened to custom vans? The same thing that happened to NHRA funny cars and front-engine dragsters all built and driven by independents. The world got too formal, and big money got involved.

 

[decodancer]

I would have killed for one of those airbrushed custom vans when I was young. My first car was a van at age 16. My father took me to get insurance and the salesperson commented that girls should not be driving trucks. It just wasn't ladylike. I guess I wasn't too feminine, I painted the van orange (spray can paint job) and painted animal murals all over it. What year did "Chevy Van" come out? One of my favorite songs though I prefer Fords.

 

[Txjaybird]

:huh:  Somewhere in the last several months on youtube there was a I think a 1969 or 79 blue van with gull wing doors. The couple had a shop and has built several national and international best of show vans,  If I remember correctly.  I've looked just now and can't find them.  Anyone here know who I'm speaking of?

Jewellann

 

[Txjaybird]

 AHA......... I FOUND "EM  Utopia Customs   Back Roads Vanner is a friend of theirs and is doing whatever the h..um you call these mini shows on YT

Jewellann............Gonna Watch'em Again     I still like Hopper Cars  

 

[SternWake]

And thats all right with me


[video=youtube]

 

[highdesertranger]

when dinosaurs roomed the earth(70's) I did custom van work for a living. in the 80's I did custom 4x4 work. this was in between working on farms and ranches. the custom vans has morphed into using vans to live in. the custom 4x4's have morphed into expedition vehicles. what I am trying to say is there are plenty of customized vehicles out there, they have just changed from what you remember. highdesertranger

 

[thehellend]

And thats all right with me


[video=youtube]

The Autozone guy played this to me on his phone as he rang me up. 

 

[LeeRevell]

A Navy buddy on my ship had a "Factory Custom" van, and we used it as our "party wagon" when in homeport at NorVa. Once a couple shipmates drank too much, had to barf. They rolled the side door open while still rolling and let it fly.
That van was quickly Christened "The Chunk Wagon"!

 

[DannyB1954]

I think the age group that worked on vans went on to hot rod small Japanese cars.

 

[jonsun]

Johnny Gosch happened

 

[decodancer]

Loved seeing the video again, gone are the days when every song had one. And cameras with film, what a novelty. Strange that there is no van in the video though.

 

[jimindenver]

When did the car companies start doing conversion vans? They may not have been the same but the fact that anyone could buy one instead of needing to have it created had a impact on the custom side of it.

The other side of it is the expense. It is one thing to do it for yourself in a labor of love thing and know you will never see what you have into a project back out of it. It's another thing to find people that can afford to really pay what it takes start to finish and of them, even fewer are willing to pay it.

 

[Bud Smiley]

I want a ridiculous mural on the side of one of my vans. Something from a mid-80s heavy metal album cover. I'm not even kidding.

 

[LeeRevell]

Somewhere along the line vans changed from basic utility/work vehicles to being luxury vehicles, at least for private owners. Prices skyrocketed. Same as with pickup trucks.
If vans were priced according to what they are physically, they'd be a lot cheaper, and we'd see more in private use, and customised. Used to be too, you could find a good "starving artist" and pay him a case of good beer to do some great artwork. But they all think they are Rembrandt reborn now.

 

[Almost There]

When did the car companies start doing conversion vans? They may not have been the same but the fact that anyone could buy one instead of needing to have it created had a impact on the custom side of it.

The car companies never did start doing conversion vans.

Back in the 70's when the market first started heating up for 'conversion' vans there were literally thousands of mom and pop shops around the US that did the conversions. A dealer would order the van off the production line as an incomplete vehicle and have it shipped directly to the M&P shop for the interior.

The M&P shops were used because the cost of using unionized labor in the manufacturers facility (read Detroit) was so costly that the product couldn't be brought to market at a price the consumer was willing to pay.

Over the years only a few of those conversion companies have survived - Starcraft is one that comes to mind.