I met another Vanner,,,,,

Clean looking Van. He drive it much and is it down your, San Diego, way?
Kakster

Looks like that Van is sporting a V8. Did you see any modifications like disc brakes or solar powered battery chargers?
Speaking of the latter add on, have you ever seen something like that on one of these vans? I am thinking of trying some experiments with a solar panel and extra batteries on my van.
Kakster

some have said driving an early is heavenly ,inspirational
even spiritual
my "hippie" uncle would say my van is like him "low down and notorious"
then again he always calls himself that anytime or anyday ya asked em lol
gotta love the long term effects of the 60's
Van oN
oh and cool van lol

In my case, I would use the extra batteries to power my stereo as I sit at the beach. With gas at $4.25/gal here in the South Bay I can't afford to cruse much farther that to the local ocean front. Once there I can relax the rest of the day listening to a solar powered soud system. Being an experimentalist I get these kind of ideas now and then. I ought to not get too far in front of my self since my old 67 diamond in the rough still isn't back on the roads yet, closer every weekend though.
Kakster

very cool vans. great that you guys met up with more vanners. i'm jealous. i gotta round up some denver folks!!!

those are some sweet mods on those vans. very unique.
james

Wow, what a day! Met two early vanners that live just a couple miles from me! Along with Don, we talked for hours about all things van. Lots of show and tell. Both guys were fun van enthusiasts. I'm not sure if they've ever met each other but they live just a few blocks apart! As is usually the case, we saw some modifications we'd never seen before (which is always the cool part of checking out a new van). Both vans have V8 350s with 3 spd automatics. And both had the same cool secret compartment under the floor, made by adding a steel box behind the battery and cutting a hinged hatch in the floor! Both vans have become work vans full of tools in the back. And like many of our vans, they could use some TLC to get them back to their earlier glory. Hopefully this site will help propel them along!

Here's a photo of Don and my vans, parked at the car show at Balboa Park today. There were two early Fords that are at all of the shows around here, but no Chevys. Afterwards we went to meet the two Chevy owners near my house.

Note how Donivan65 bravely heads down this steep hill, confidant that his disc brakes will save him should that stoplight at the bottom turn red.

what a cool van. when i started gettin into early vans, i didnt care for window vans too much but now i am really gettin an appreciation for them. very cool.

you guys could have a get together out there and have a dozen or so earlies within a short drive. keep up the meet and greets!
james

What do you know, another nice Sportvan Deluxe only a few miles from my house! I thought these things were supposed to be rare! Well, Rob's has the rare stock Travel Cruiser pop-top option. It's pretty cool how it works and it is nice to be able to stand up in the van!! The van is in amazing condition. There is virtually no rust. Aside from the front seats and missing front door vinyl, the inside is immaculate.



(You might remember this van from when it was on eBay about 5 months ago. It was up in the Bay area.)



Rob let me take it for a spin. I wanted to see how a Powerglide would be in one of these. I couldn't believe that two speeds would be enough, but man that thing drove nice! A whole different experience than driving my blue one. Just put it in D and off you go. The low gear got you going just fine and once you're in drive, it's the same ratio as a manual 1:1. But the first thing I noticed was how easy it was to steer! I thought the thing had power steering! We decided it is due to his stock tires. My 70s might look nice but I don't think it's worth it. I'm going narrower on my other van!

Don and I looked it over real good. We were hard pressed to find much that needed to be done on it! I took a lot of photos of all the stock details. I'm going to start a photo gallery showing how these vans came stock, and the various options.

We plan to gather the local early Chevys and hit some of the area shows around here. Should make quite an impression!