Trucks and Vans

I have seen pictures of this VW splitscreen camper van trailer before but now thanks to the brilliant Build Threads site I have now seen just how much work they did to make such a cool little trailer!

It started off as two completely gone VW vans with the front cab cut out of one and the rear cut out of another. The front section was actually taken from a pick up cab and then a normal splitty van rear was grafted onto the back of it to give the illusion of a complete van until you see it from the side and see that it has no middle!

With the basic shell now put together the mad Scandinavians that built it decided they were going to make a new chassis and design it with airbags in mind. A few bits of box section later and they have a pretty beefy looking chassis that wouldn’t look out of place on a race car!

Time to weld a floor in and some inner tubs for the huge American Racing wheels and have a look at how it sits. Obviously getting the whole frame on the floor is to help it stay upright when parked and not just because it looks awesome…

Then its off for paint in the same colour scheme as the Splitty that it will be attached to and then its job done. One perfect trailer!

Next time I’m browsing the local vans for sale sections and I see something that looks absolutely rotten, I’m going to think back to this trailer and try to imagine what else I could make from it. The use of old car bits for anything even if it is not an actual car or van is still way better than them just disappearing altogether!

The original build thread in Swedish is here

Santa Cruz is one of my favourite companies of all time, the screaming hand is possibly the coolest logo of any brand and their skate and bike influences have been everywhere in my life since I’ve been growing up so when I saw A Santa Cruz branded VW Campervan I had to have a look to see if this was an actual special edition or a modded normal van.

It turns out that Santa Cruz teamed up with a VW garage in Cornwall to come up with the special edition Santa Cruz 2.5TDI Campervan that comes with a whole host of cool little Santa Cruz additions. What started off as one of VW’s normal vans with the 128hp 2.5 TDI it has all the usual safety bits you come to expect on new cars with all sorts of letters claiming to do different things and comfort features like Air Con. It also has extra creature comforts for camping such as ambient lighting, DVD player, a fridge, power sockets and even a fold down cabin bed.

It is a sort of half campervan because it has all you would need to go camping in it but because of the relatively small space taken up by the fridge and the fold down bed it almost has the same load capacity as a normal van, so it would prove useful for fitting in big longboards, bikes and various other equipment you might be taking out with you.

As well as assorted interior extras you also get some styling ‘options’ as well with chrome side bars, 18″ Santa Cruz alloys, tinted windows, Santa Cruz graphics and its lowered 40mm. You can also get certain little limited edition extras like seat covers, key rings, towels, jackets and bedding that is all Santa Cruz branded.

So it definitely is quite a cool special edition but it is very hard to find anything about it and the dealer that is making it (Helston VW Garage) has a shocking website that you cannot find anything on. So would it be easier to just look at cheaper used vans from a couple years ago and then just buy some Santa Cruz stickers? I reckon I could build you a much better camper for a lot less…

Looking awesome!

trucks/utes/pick-ups whatever you call them they are awesome when doing the exact opposite of what they were made to do!

Ok so a Bronco may have made its way in there but it was just too awesome not to share. Anyway they are all random pics I saved to my HD ages ago so does anyone know anything more or have links to any of them? I’d like to see more info or pics!

One of my favourite vans of all time, the Citroen H series, has suddenly become a bit common on Ebay! For such a rare van they have not one, not two but three on at the moment and even more amazingly they are all in half decent condition! Not often you find many used vans in a decent condition at all!

First up is a 1967 HY Long Wheel base Pizza Van! It ends on October 6th and is currently at £5,100.00 and the reserve isn’t even met yet!

It is a super rare long wheelbase with side opening doors and the petrol engine, so I have no idea how much it will go for but I reckon quite a bit! It comes with a brick gas pizza oven (which must weigh a ton!) Cupboards and worktops. The guy selling it reckons it will need some attention on the brakes before it can be sent for an MOT but most importantly with these vans the body is good! It is also a fresh import from France so would need registering over here. Ideal to set up a new mobile pizza business with!

Next up is another HY van but this time a 1969 but it is also a catering style conversion that has a fridge and chiller cabinet and was converted when it was new. It is a short wheel base model and needs quite a bit of work by the sounds of it to get it back on the road but this one is currently still on the starting bid of £4,995 and has no reserve. It ends tomorrow so you will have to hurry!

And lastly we have a 1957 model that is currently a complete bargain at £660 and ends on the 6th of October. It needs a lot of work with some small chassis work, engine and wiring repairs and a pretty ratty body but would be an amazing project and if the price stays cheap enough could really be worth a go!

Oh and the A Team Van is for sale…*edit was for sale link is now dead

Got a spare $60,000 and a love for rather large American Trucks? Well why not get yourself over to California and take a look at this Chevy COE that is absolutely stunning.

Based in North Hills California it has a new 454 V8 in the rear of the cab and pretty much everything is brand new. A full nut and bolt restoration has been done on it and it is basically like getting a brand new truck. I have seen one of these trucks in the UK but I think it must be the bigger sister or something because it is used as a race car transporter and is hella cool. If I had the money I would be jumping on a plane tonight and picking up a hire car in California driving to view it and handing over a wad of cash and then driving it back to the nearest shipping docks ready for transportation back to the UK. Not sure how I would get the hire car back to the depo though, maybe I’ll just give them a fake name and then leave it somewhere and not worry about it.

Anyway if your less of a dreamer than me and you actually have a spare 60k hanging around you could do a lot worse than to buy this absolute gem!

So I did a post the other week about the Beatnik Blowout and there was a particularly awesome van in the pictures that clearly deserved a thread of its own, so here it is… The van formerly known as Balls Deep!

That’s all I’m gonna give you for now because I’ll probably be dropping pics of this van randomly over the next gazillion years. The original thread with loads of awesome pics all through the amazing build can be found on Los Boulevardos here and it is definitely worth a read (all 27 pages worth!) I found it particularly interesting to see what its like over the pond in regards to backyard building and doing things on a budget.

Anyway this is easily one of the coolest vans that I know of and I just love everything about it, the look, the build, the spirit and the dedication.