Im not quite sure when I
first got hooked on vans, but my parents tell me that
everthing I built from my lego at age 5 was van shaped.
My first van was a Morris marina van, at age 16.
This very basic van was given mark 2 marina grill
with built-in spotlights as well as the later type doors and dash, and
16 speakers in the rear, connected to an 8 track in the dash. this poor
van didnt last long as i was intent on doing all the work myself and in
the process of learning to arc weld, i did more damage than good.
My second van was an ex BT morris ital, the 1300
engine was totaly wreaked so i fitted a 1700 ohc engine and gearbox
from an ital saloon, But never got to drive it on the road as
i found no insurance company would touch a 17 year old in a 1700 ital
van.
At 18 i decided to try somthing bigger and bought
the local youth clubs old minibus, a 1983 2.0 petrol transit lwb
crewbus, the engine was damaged due to standing over winter with no
anti freeze, so i fitted a capri 2.0 stage 2 engine out of a car my
brother was pulling apart, after spending an extorsionate amount of
money on insurance, with out mentioning the stage 2 conversion, i
finally had a van i could drive. (Why dont insurance companies like 18
year olds driving large vans as first cars ? ;-) ).
I set about the windows with dark tinting film,
made a roof consol to fit the cb, stereo and speakers, ditched the rear
seats in favour of a matress and shag pile carpet, and tied a leather
jacketed teddybear with chain earing to the front of the grill, this
van earned my nickname of Madvanman as i went 'boy racing' at the local
town centre and was often seen doing silly things like hand brake skids
( or rather skips as it was a twin wheel).
After the boy racer phase wore off, me and my mates found a good use
for the CB - the coffee crawl - which basically meant seeing how many
female CBers we could 'Eyeball' and get to make us a coffee. During one
of these 'crawls' i met my now ex-wife.
During our time together i taught her to drive in
'OGGY' as the van was affetionatly known, and created another custom
van fan.
To be continued.... (when I get time)