How did your van start its life?

G'day,

just curious on where some of these vans started off, Bogan Cruiser's was a cop van, probably had more crims in the back than anything else!, the Hellmont was actually a RTA van, still has the holes for the strobe on the roof and I have the 2nd battery tray out of it.

how many NRMA or plumbers vans do we have about this place ? we dont all have Sandman's!!

Mine was saved from getting a ford 6cyl put in it,before that it was used by the RSPCA well thats what the guy told me when i bought it.

Smallvan wrote:Mine was saved from getting a ford 6cyl put in it,before that it was used by the RSPCA well thats what the guy told me when i bought it.

So its had a few bitches in the back then ?

Makes my van look spoilt! I've tracked the full history of my WB as a few of you know, there's some early pics on here. My WB started life as a special order van, built to the original owners wishes and sold through Broadhursts Holden in Adelong. Had heaps of good options ordered from the factory. The hardest it's ever had it was when it's 3rd owner David Tout from Gundagai owned it and used it as a work vehicle. He's a concreter so the van use to tow a trailer full of crap and always had crap in the back of it to. He traded it in where I did my apprenticeship and I grabbed it, than spent a month cleaning the interior! He never really knocked the outside about though and the interior scrubbed up pretty good to.

all i know about ours is it was a plumbers van, all the rust was neatly covered with zincalume metal shaped perfectly and pop riveted in place, the bonus is he had masonite and carpet in the back so it is untouched

Im pretty sure mine was the 'septone body filler' promo vehicle.

Dean wrote:Im pretty sure mine was the 'septone body filler' promo vehicle.

My van was an old builders van, he bought it when it was 12 months old after his old van was stolen or written off. It came complete with big plastic truck mirrors , odd plastic hub caps and liquid nails to seal up all the seams. It was rough but not rusty and you dont see to many WB V8 Vans with rego for $1500.

my van was a buiders van.

My FJ van was originally a tv repair van, still has the original shelves in the cargo area.

Thought I might as well fill you here also -

My van started out as a special order placed through Dustings of Burwood (Melbourne)
(Dustings are no longer trading, as far as I can tell)

At this point in my life (I was 23 and the year was 1974) I was regularly out camping/touring with my girlfriend (wife in 1977) and still heavily in Bushwalking, Rock Climbing and Kayaking with my Rover Scout mates.

The new van was spec'd up to support these activities.

Factory fitted options were:

That fabulous Barbados Green paint!!!
Heavy duty radiator
Disk Brakes
Wide ratio M22 transmission
Limited Slip Diff with 3.9:1 ratio
Bucket Seats.
(I retained the 173 engine for economy reasons, and never found it wanting for power.)

I got quotes from 8 dealers in Melbourne and one in Bendigo (where I was now living) and they were all within $100 dollars of each other, so I decide to give the order to the dealer with the most professional and courteous salesman - Dustings. Their price was $3,600 registered, on road, drive away

The order was placed on 25 Mar 1974 and I took delivery of the van on 2 Sep 1974 - yes, six months later.

(There was nearly tragedy on the delivery day, however.
As I had been used to driving in my previous (EH) van with its side windows, and as the new HQ did not yet have its (after market) side windows fitted, I was nearly cleaned up by a tram as I drove it out of the sales yard, due to the lack of visibility at the sides.

When I got it home, I just sat in it and listened to the crisp "new" sound of the engine and exhaust note, and I breathed in that fabulous new vinyl fragrance !!

As discussed in another topic, I can't tell yet whether the current owner is prepared to part with it -it's currently in daily use as a painters work hack - but I'll have a better idea when I talk face-to-face with him in the next week or two.

Cheers

That's a great story mate, 6 months wait! I really hope the current owner will sell it back to you.(Fingers crossed)

Mine is an ex cop van.It came with the vents on the roof and extra holes that were plugged
up for antennas and lights.It also has a small lockable box behind the drivers seat.I got the
original log books with it that shows the first owner was the WA Commissioner of Police.

mine was a tow vehicle for a drag car team in sydney

good idea for a thread

mine i bought off a trademan, it lived down at victor harbour, was relatively rust free until it went ad lived there. but it also towed a trailer all day (thats how the tailgate is dented, he let the apprentice back it up once) before that im not sure. i think it only had one owner prior to him, but not sure how much truth there is in that statement. was built in pagewood i think? but somwhere in its life it became a v8 with a HZ front. not a big crash related change, as the chassis is in very good condition, a big crash would show up on there. so might have had a roo land on the bonnet or something? hahaha no idea! i do wish who ever put windows in it, didnt put windows in it!!! how would one track the history? ive had the old girl for 9 yrs now

My Mr Juicy Val van was sold new in Northern NSW (have all the paperwork here somewhere) before being sold on to another local before the 3rd owner bought it 6 years ago and took it to Warwick in Q and I bought it from him. It was a factory Tradesman Van but ordered with a 265 instead of a low comp 245 Hemi and the 3rd owner did the V8 conversion which suited me just fine!

Disturbia on the other hand is a different kettle of fish. It'd been ridden hard and put away wet too many times and has tell tale signs from being a showy type refugee (lots of weird holes and cig points in the back, old side pipe mounts and stripes up the sides) but was originally a 318 4 speed Sportspack. I bought it from a guy at the Gold Coast 1 day before he was getting it crushed and he bought it from a Gold Coast caryard about 5 years prior, converted to a 245.

When I started stripping it I found a name and address Dymo taped in the engine bay being David Holmes from Para Hills in Adelaide, so I'd say it started its days close to its factory home.

Simo

Hmmm. Dunno about any of the history of mine, except the original owner lived in Ringwood, Victoria, so it hasn't ended up too far away from where it started.

I started going through all the paperwork I got with my van today (ide forgotten about it) and found the original owners manual and log books. Pretty cool thing to have I reckon



Seems my van was originally bought for the country fire service. Did it's first 2000ks in only 21 days going by the log books. Explains all The extra arial holes n holes drilled in The dash

Thats cool as bro!