Friday, September 19, 2008

vans of the seventies

Long before SUV's were the thing - even before minivans - people of the seventies drove vans - the full size vans. People would go buy rolls of green, red, or orange shag carpet and tack it to the inside of their vans. Not only would they put it on the floor, but they ran it up their walls and on the ceiling. 8-Tracks and cassettes were installed and speakers were often concealed in the shag as well. Many people made pillows and furniture that would be covered in shag as well. Shag carpet was the thing back in the seventies. Oh - I almost forgot - every custom van had to have a CB radio in it. Too many people were learning the trucker CB jargon back then and boy did life get obnoxious for a spell!

People spent a lot of money on tricking out their van's interior.  Moocho money was also dished out  making the exteriors of these love-chariots as unique as possible as well. You could make a lot of money in the seventies if you knew how to use an airbrush. Sure T-shirts were hip - but if you could paint a wildly futuristic funkadelic landscape on the outside of a vehicle- you were one rich airbrush dude. Today -people are in to tattooing their bodies. Three decades ago people were into tattooing their vans. Everybody had to have their very own fantasy airbrushed on the front, back, and side panels of their ride.

Now, I never had a airbrushed van. I wouldn't know what I would have wanted one painted if I had one. I was an odd sort back then. I think I would have have had a picture of Lee Van Cleef painted along side if perchance I had one. I didn't care for shag carpet back then. I used to wash a lot of cars and shag carpet seemed a might tedious to keep clean even then. Maybe a wood paneled interior - something that might have represented the interior of Captain Nemo's submarine. So maybe it's a good thing that I didn't have a van in the seventies. It would not have been much of a chick-magnet. Everybody that did have an airbrushed van sure was proud of it.
I wonder if airbrushing vans will ever have a comeback? Can you imagine people painting SUV's with futuristic landscapes - or half naked fantasy women? I bet someone in California has already birthed the idea and we'll be seeing a Humvee sporting a purple and pink unicorn in our neck of the woods before you know it.

7 comments:

RODRIGUEZ said...

Those vans ROCK! I would sport one. Maybe I can paint up my work truck......I like your Lee Van Cleef idea. You know....I've seen many trucks around town that have their tailgates airbrushed. Also, I've seen many cars painted up here in town to match Cereal Box characters (Tony the tiger, Lucky Charms, Count Chocula to name a few). I'm sure you've seen them. Most of them are 80's Oldsmobiles or Monte Carlos. Keep your eyes peeled....you'll see one. BTW..didn't Dan Noojin have a van back in the day?

RODRIGUEZ said...

What about the graveyard scene at the end of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly....that would be awesome. Have it wrap around the vehicle....like it did in the movie..give the illusion of spinning.

David Finlayson said...

The show-down at the grave yard wrapped around the van. Lee Van Cleef's eyes squinting from the hood.

Maybe you could get a horn to do the Ennio Morreconne's theme for The Good The Bad The Ugly.

I guess the floors inside would have to be old dried up plank. The drivers and passenger seats could be old beer kegs with ropes for seatbelts.

Greene Street Letters said...

How about a huge "W" Bush on the side....talking about our "strategery".
Nah...
I like Lee Van Cleef ideal.
He scares me with those eyes...
mb

David Schwartz said...

What a great time we lived in during the customized van era. Business was booming and pure creativity was coming out of the woodwork. Just when you thought that the artwork you saw was so colorfully intense, realistic, or even dreamy, then something else would blow all the previous away. The paints available: Eerie Dess, Candy Apple colors, and flip flop, were some of the tools to help make these vans a reality with a head turning phenomenon. Refrigerators, sinks with running water, hide away beds, stained glass windows, and mirrors on the ceiling were some of the things incorporated to stand out in the crowd. These vehicles were made to be a luxurious form of indulgence and efficiency all rolled into one. I would love to see a renaissance of this unique form of customizing to come back. I truly miss those innovative days! Our van, "The Endless Summer" won best of show at the World of Wheels show in several cities and we even had a real playmate (in bathing suit) in the back of our van.... for a television commercial advertising the World of Wheels show in Mobile, Al.

Thiruppathy Raja said...

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Commercial Vans

Anonymous said...

I still have my 73 ford Econoline
got it graduating from High School. I did a self complete over haul looks new. It has been garagde all its life.