Vanning


Vanning is a compulsion, an obsession, an occupation, an affliction, a fascination, a fate. It is not a hobby. Those who do it, must. Those who don't, think it's a waste of time. For me it is a calling.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008









One thing I want to post here are are photos of the projects I'm working on in my garage. Being a van freak since the early 70's, I've amassed a fair pile of them over the years. my most recent acquisition has been a custom van built in 1976 called the Flying Eagle 2. the van has quite a history and was owned and built by a painter by the name of Greg of Akron . He had a big influence on me as an artist. I really like his graphic style and use of colors. He was credited with painting the first murals on vans, way back when, and was quite famous in the vanning and drag racing circles. To acquire this van was quite exciting for me. It was in nearly every publication of the day.and traveled the U.S. to many shows. Then it was sold in 1978 and we never heard from it again. In 2002 it showed up on ebay as a salvage from a fire. A friend of mine , Blaino from Oregon ,bought it and he later offered it to me. Well to say the least I really wanted to restore the van and jumped at the chance. It had caught fire under the hood and the front was gone. the fire was caused by a fuel line failure. Nearly everything from the seats forward was replaced or repaired. I've posted some pictures of the van when i first got it. and i will post more of the resto.as i go along. I want to thank fellow club member Mike Nemic for all his help on the early part of this project. I wouldnt have done it without his help.







The Eagle was one of the first custom vans to have major body modifications including shaving off the drip rail. It won best of show at the 4th van nationals in Bowling Green Kentucky.July 1976. the van was repainted in 1978 , sold, then painted again in 2000 by Greg. which is the paint job on it now. I have plans to restore portions of the origional paint job before the van nats this summer. stay tuned to see if I make it.

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