I know the custom van thing was pretty big in the 60s-70s with a lot of manufacturers getting on board with it. I always wondered did any manufacturer/ conversion company have a full factory custom? I ask because my great uncle in the 80s-90s had such a van but he was not the type to go out and customize a van like that; in fact he used it as a daily driver, hauling his little fishing boat or towing equipment for their southern gospel quartet. I'll have to dig up a pic but it was a late 70s Ford bright red, turbine wheels, a bird flying into the sunset decals and a bubble window. The interior was all black with silver piping, with a table and a couch..... real wild considering who drove.
Starcraft did a LOT of conversions, they must have had a pretty large facility to do them. They were sold by lots of car dealers. But there were also a lot of independent conversion shops, and you could get someone to build whatever you wanted to pay for. Pictures will help folks remember what it was like.
A lot of dealerships sent them out to customizer shops to be done and sold them as new with a warranty and all.
The conversion/custom van activity was huge in the 1970-2000 era. There were millions of Chevrolet GMC Ford Dodge vans converted by major conversion companies all over the U.S. Vans would be shipped from the factories with no interiors. The conversion companies would then upfit them with seats.....small sinks....removable tables....overhead consoles etc. When I worked for GM we had small groups in Detroit who interacted with the upfitters on a daily basis. The groups worked to assure that non of the vehicle systems or functions would be compromised by the upfitters. There were lots of rules to follow ......and most did. Many of these major players were located in the Goshen Indiana and surrounding area where there was already an RV industry. There were also lots and lots of small players that would do just about anything based on customers needs or requests. These guys could be kinda sketchy and some of the finished products were really not up to standard with the big players that had alliances with the manufacturers. Before I went to work for GM in 1976, I worked for Kawasaki Corp. My "company car" was a yellow Dodge van that was converted with a raised roof section. It was covered inside with orange shag carpeting. It had larger chrome reversed wheels. Since I was a Parts and Accessories rep for 4 state area, it was designed to display new items that we wanted the dealers to stock and sell. The van was upfitted by a small conversion company in White Bear Lake Minnesota. Those were the days !!
This is the OT section of the HAMB, but there are a number of forums for vans that will have a lot of depth that even the members here won't be able to cover. It also suffers due to fading memories, a lot of stuff lost or forgotten before the internet grabbed every little thing, but there are active historians of the van era. One of my first jobs was washing cars at various dealers. The local Buick dealer had a lot full of conversion vans, almost all with the big windows cut in the side which was just wrong for this kid who knew a panel with a bed was the only way!
My grandparents had a similar van in the late 70s. 76 Ford Shorty, turbine wheels with the reveals painted body color to match. The awesome part was the big wizard mural painted on the side. I wasn't around back then, so all I've seen were old photos. My uncle ended up with it, but he had it painted differently, silver with dark and medium blue stripes. I vividly remember riding with my uncle and cousin to the Autofair in Charlotte in that van. Cruising down the road at 80mph, The Eagles playing through the speakers, 351w breathing through the pipes, surrounded by woodgrain, naugahide, and shag carpet. Memories Man, Memories......
IIRC, VW used Westfalia for a lot of their conversions, & one other I can't remember right now. Ford used Waldoch for a fair amount of theirs, don't remember the others. Wasn't into vans all that much, but did(do) like the van-com->cab-over-pu's from the late 60's-70's. Also, these "name" conversions were pretty much "boiler-plate" deals, not all that much in real choices, made for fast building & faster selling - all covered under factory warranty, financed, of course. ;D . A lot of others were done by some local upholster, & a bodyshop. They sure like the business from the van-craze. Folks got one in '77, only due to my mom & then my little brother becoming quads in '77 & '78. Local upholster did the deed, after the floor was heavily lowered & a lift installed. Had a full sheet of some fake-burled-paneling in the roof, light/dark brown shag carpeting everywhere else. Seats front n rear darkish tan vinyl & the seating surfaces were some sorta-almost-fur(longer nap than mohair, shorter than any other fur I've seen), which wore well. Shag everywhere was *supposed* to quiet the interior, & look better than bare metal, esp since most interior pieces weren't there since it was ordered bare interior. Guess it went w/the brown exterior, sorta. Was good transportation, served its' purpose as a people hauler. Finally taken off road & parted after 2003. Wasn't a source of good memories... Marcus...
I had a friend at a small leasing company. Mostly equipment but they had a fleet number and connection. Had several vans that shipped to a builder in Denver (I think), for 4 wheel drive conversions, then to Yakima WA (I think the place was called Trail Wagons, gone now) for the interiors. Big windows, all captains chairs, plug in coolers in back, graphics, you name it. One I knew fairly well drove it daily, towed boats for skiing and fishing in the summer and snowmobiles in the winter. 460 Ford, 1 ton chassis. The gas companies sent him Christmas cards. But it worked good.
Starcraft, Coachmen, Ideal, Gulfstream were some of the big ones around Elkhart and Middlebury Indiana. All went tits up in 2010.
Could very well have been a conversion van now that I think of it...I just always thought it was a crazy custom van.
Hello, The world was different in that time period. So, yes, it was the late 60s, early 70s a lot of So Cal companies that popped up to create an interior built in for customers. When the factories realized the same thing, some came with built in stuff in the back of the vans. Hence the new sprinter vans of today. In our small neck of the woods along the coastline in 1960-61, there were several local surfers that started laying plywood floor panels inside of VW factory delivery vans. The inside of these vans were hollow and used for deliveries as the name implies. But, for surfers, sand was a big problem and the plywood smooth one level floor installed on top of the ribbed floor solved that problem and the big motor hump in the rear. In the beginning, mattresses were just place in the far corners of the floor and that was good for a weeks worth of surf explorations. But, every time one came in to shore, drying off and then laying on the mattress still gave us crumbs from sandwiches, chips and other meal items. It was a pain to keep the stuffed in mattresses clean. So, it was a great place to relax and take a nap between surf sessions. Jnaki Then one day another ingenious surfer thought of putting the mattress on top of the rear engine hump and build a flap of plywood that lifted up to give some support to the single mattress. So, that allowed beach chairs to occupy the area behind the driver’s seat to relax in the shaded interior with the doors wide open. Parking on the Malibu PCH highway and at Rincon Beach Point of PCH was perfect for open doors to get the perfect view of the waves as we all were sitting inside shaded area eating our lunches. And the beach chairs were perfect, as they folded and were able to take up less space in the cave area in the back. We still had to have portable coolers to keep our drinks, lunches and snacks edible. So the cooler could get moved to areas of the open floor. This was the mode until one day, the original friend who started this interior upgrade of empty industrial vans was in a building mode. He added a small real trailer refrigerator that could hold larger ice blocks to keep food and drinks colder for longer periods of time. It was placed behind the driver’s seat out of the way. Then he built in a bench seat next to the refrigerator that allowed us to get rid of the beach chairs and sit normally on a comfortable upholstered in vinyl bench seat. He went one step beyond and made the bench seat movable to create a larger two person sleeping area out to the opening side doors. Comfort and room all in one. Note: so, the extra patterns were sold to other surfers for their vans and it started to take off in designs. We saw all kinds of custom interiors with our basic idea plans. Now, the larger more accessible Econolines and later Chevy vans had more room with accessible rear door opening to use the entrance for bikes and other roll in things. In the 70s, the patterns were tossed and folks went to paneling the sides and carpeted the whole interior with a mattress or custom rotating seating. Giant speakers in the walls, and in front, a stereo am/fm cassette player or 8 track for some. YRMV Now, most of the vans had more power than the empty VW vans of the late 1959 to 1961 era. So, there were now the old surf vans and the newer vans with larger 6 cylinder and V8 motors.
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