We Needed A Van...
After graduating high school myself and friends Scott and Jeff decided we needed to see the country. One of them saw a special on Route 66 and we were hooked. We were gonna drive 66 cross country to California. No way were we gonna just hop in a car and hotel hop state to state, it had to be an adventure. Plus we didn't have any money:) So we decided to find an old van, fix it up and drive it seeing we could basically live out of it and save a ton of money. First order of business was to find the van. We agreed on looking for a Dodge since we knew our way around Mopars. Second we agreed that we were going to look for a van with a good body since it would be easier to just fix the mechanicals. Well at least we found a Dodge.
I was out driving around one day when from way out in a farmers field I spotted a raised hood, a van hood, and it sure looked like it might be a Dodge. Turned out sure enough it was a Dodge van. It happened to be on one of our friends fathers farms. He had used it as a farm truck to haul goat cheese in and had parked it out there 7 years ago. We went out to the field and checked it out. Wow, she was sure a bit rough. The van was sunk up past the rims into the ground and was pretty rotten around the edges.
Not that we could really tell though since some trees and shrubs had a good foothold all around the van. In the back was a huge wooden cooler that was used to haul the goat cheese, and of course on the side was painted "Chevre de Goat Folks"(Cheese of the goat people) We left to talk it over and at first weren't real confident that it was the one for us since the body looked pretty rough. I don't know if it was the Goat Folks painted on the side, fate, or the fact that the farmer was willing to sell it for $50 that sold us on "Goat Folks", but anyway the rest is history...
So the first order of business was to get it home, do an initial cleaning and see what we've got to work with. A good scrub down, a lot of the lower body falling off and heres how she looked. Not too bad for a van that has spent its last 7 years in a field. For the record Goat Folks is equipped with a 318 V8, Torqueflite transmission and as a bonus, a posi rear end. Next order of business was to get rid of that huge wooden cooler in back.
Once we ripped out the cooler, we discovered that they had sprayed the whole rear of the bus with insulation. This would not have been too big an issue except for the fact that it was wicking tons of moisture and causing lots of rust, and a colony of ants had found that it also made a great place to live and call home. To the right I am reigning down fire on the poor ants. They never knew what hit them. After a short battle Goat Folks was ours and ours alone. P.S. don't try this at home:)
