Englander I
Have you ever wondered what happens to all of those great custom cars we see on the covers of Magazines every Month? Month after Month, Magazine after Magazine, one beautiful vehicle after another, only to be never heard of again as if they vanish from the face of this great earth. Well one such vehicle, Englander I, made the cover of Truckin' Magazine back in August of 1984. A beautiful Custom Van and a canvas for one obviously great Artist. Let's take a moment to follow the life of this van.
And in the beginning GM created the VAN, and GM said it was good and named it Chevrolet…….
Like all vehicles someone had to buy her new. Fortunately for Englander I, her owner has remained the same all through her life. She started out like any other van coming of the GM assembly line in Lordstown Ohio back in late 1975 and she was delivered to her owner in October. For a while she remained stock and empty. Then the owner decided it was time to do to the van what had been intended since he ordered it "CUSTOMIZE IT" So in the dawn of Van Conversions (circa 1976) came the usual store bought add-on’s and rolling bed room interior. Hey want to guess the price of this van new back then? with all of its factory installed extra cost items 350 V8 350 Turbo Automatic Trans, Tilt Steering Column, Cruise Control, AC, 8 track Radio,YES I SAID 8 TRACK, and you have to remember back then there were no power windows and door locks available on trucks! Actually this was only the 2nd year that AC in the dash was available on Chevy Vans. Anyway enough of the history lesson the price for a brand new van back in 1975, $5,800.00 that's not even enough for a down payment today.
Plastics Phase
OK so our van owner fell into the same trap so many other van owners did back then, he bought all of the quickie bolt on fiberglass accessories he could find. Wheel well flares, front spoiler, scooped hood, sun visor, Chevy emblem windows, Chevy emblem roof rack and a roof spoiler, running boards, fog lights...... and all those CB antennas 10-4 Good Buddy well it was the 70's and with songs like Convoy and the movie as well there was a truckin and CB Radio craze in the US. Anybody remember those days?