When a plan – that wasn’t the plan – becomes the plan

The best part of the story of me buying a beater van off Craigslist was I made the deal sight unseen.

The van was delivered at 11 PM at night. I went outside to meet him and then I put the van in the driveway. That’s when my wife found out I bought another van. She wasn’t super happy about it.

The DiscoVan was never supposed to happen. Originally, my plan was to have an old van that was fun to drive that I could keep outside on the curb and not worry about too much. But my first project, VANSLAM, which I intended to use as a beater van turned out so nice I couldn’t leave it outside. I keep VANSLAM in the garage. That’s when the idea of making a beater disco van came to me.

That was the plan.

I found this old Chevy van on Craigslist. It was an old survivor boogie van. It still had the original headliner and all the original paneling from the 70s including the wraparound bench seat. I added a new carpet because my wife wouldn’t ride in it with the old original shag – it was pretty disgusting.

My plan was to get the van home and go through it to make it roadworthy. I had a friend help me fix the fiberglass and do a quickie blend paint job on it to make it all blue. It was fun and it was perfect for what I wanted – leaving outside and not worrying too much.

That was the plan.

Then a conversation came up with my buddy, Tyler who painted VANSLAM. I told him “I think it would be cool if I towed the green one (VANSLAM) down to Pomona for the Grand Nationals. He jokingly said, “I have to do a paint job for you”.

Next thing you know, he has the blue van all taken apart and he got to work making it how you see it today. Now I have a beautiful, period-correct DiscoVan. And I also have to keep this one in the garage. So I never got my “outside beater van” that I was after… I have two show-quality vans in the garage.

That wasn’t the plan.   

He jokingly said, “I have to do a paint job for you”.

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