Introduce yourself Here!

Hi All,

Anthony here, and this is Harriot:



She's a little rough around the edges, but has been my only car for more than a decade and still puts a smile on my face every time I go for a drive. You all know what I mean, right?
I'm 38, live in Chelsea, Victoria, have no kids, currently seeing someone who wasn't raised in Aus and thus had no idea what the hell she was looking at when she first saw Harriot. She calls it my "perv car" and I'm not quite sure if I should take that as a compliment or not. At least it's better than "is that a hearse?" which is what most Americans say.
My previous car club folded, so I thought I'd touch base and maybe hang with some like minded peeps? Also looking for a new club but not sure how to go about doing it (I don't drive enough to warrant full rego) so any suggestions would be appreciated.

Cheers.

Hi Anthony,



Welcome to the Majestic Vanners Forum, I hope you enjoy your time here!

Thank you for sharing Harriot, and we sure do know what you mean about driving a van putting a smile on your face!

Feel free to start a thread in the 'Your Van' section on here and share some more pics of your ride. Don't worry about it being a bit rough around the edges, we are all friends here and appreciate all vans. It is all about meeting like minded people and celebrating Panel Van culture.

Cheers,
Karl.

Welcome aboard Anthony & Harriet.  

Harriet looks to be quite the Sweetheart and I'm sure that you've enjoyed many a Good Time together.

"Perv Car"!!!!

We have quite a few Members down your way.  Hopefully you'll be able to catch up with them for a Run or two and make it along to this year's Van-In in Albury/Wodonga.  I know that you will be most welcome to join in.

There is a Flyer in our Events Section and a Link to download the Entry Form.

Keep On Vannin'!

Thanks guys. That Van-in sounds good. I've just found out that I need to do a bit of work on the car but it should be done by then. I'll put some more pics in the members ride section for those interested.

Anthony.

You'll certainly have a Good Time at the Van-In and make a few new Friends along the way.

I look forward to checking out more Pics.

Good Luck with the Work you need to do on the Van.

Welcome Anthony & Hariot
After a decade of fun already,sounds like the work on the van is due.
I'm sure she'll look after you for another 10 and what a colour ,YELLOW MY FAVOURITE....

Welcome Anthony.
You couldn’t have joined a better club. Everyone here is friendly and only too willing to help.
I’m an old (ex) Chelsea resident too.

G'day,
Thought I better say hi & give a short introduction...
I'm Darryl & have a WB Panel Van that was chopped up in the early 90's & turned into this......



Since then, "Psycho" had a transformation & is now "The Phantom"



I think it's a lot easier on the eye now.



I must admit, before the purists say "how can you chop up a perfectly good panno", that I've only been the custodian for a few years.
Back then, for those that don't remember, vans were the great option to turn into a ute because the inner trays were almost always tidy & undamaged. (it's hard to throw a ton of bricks in the back of a van.. )

308, T400, & 9" with Caprice front end & interior.

Great fun to drive, a lot of people can't quite work out the 4" chop tho, ya get a lot of double takes, & a lot of the time i'm asked if it's been stretched before they click to why it looks a bit... ummm different.  

It spends most of it's life hidden away in the "cave" but will get some love again soon as we are almost home again (for a few months), my wife & partner in crime Trish live the nomadic life in a caraVAN.....

Luckily all the hard work has been done on it, cause my resto days are over, well maybe,
a Sundowner is awaiting my return too  

Sheesh, so much for the short intro

Hi Darryl,

Sweet ride mate. Looking so much better now than the '90's era or should I say error?
It's a pity it's no longer a Van but it is a very sweet looking Ute.

You could always put the panno roof back on some day!

Regards, Smooth

Cheers Smooth,
Yeah, the 90's........
I think I miss 'em, maybe?
Nah!, My youth!
That's whats missing......

Welcome aboard Darryl!

That is one Sweet looking Ute/Van!

Love the Chop and the Colour!

Great to see another Survivor. I look forward to reading more and seeing more Pics.

Hi all, I have a couple FC windowless vans that i will enjoy getting out and cruising around Melbourne in, looking firward to meeting other members and getting to know more of the van community

FC P/Van

Welcome Aboard!

We have a Great Bunch of Vanners down your way. Enjoy!

Hello to every Majestic Vanner.
I would like to introduce my wife and myself. We are Grahame & Amanda Schipplock, and although we are not members of your grate group of vanner's. I have been a van mad guy from the late 70's and early 80's. Amanda and myself have built many cars over the years. But it seems my roots are calling me back. Or, as my wife calls it. "A mid life crises". In the last 12 months we have been lucky, and purchased a Ford XB van and a Holden HX van. We are planning on two long builds. I would think around 3 to 4 years on the Ford van and 2 or 3 years on the Holden. The Holden in much better condition compared to the Ford.
For the older guys and girls, the name John Skilbeck and his Ford van "Hallucination" will bring back some found memory's. The Ford van will be based around John's van. No, it's not a replica. As cool as that would be. There is many ideas I'm still harboring from 1982. And with time, so many new products and trends have seen Fords like X-Boss and Adam LeBrese's Ford XC Coupe come out. Big dollar builds yes, but with a lot of new ideas. Tubs over flares, Injection and turbo's over tunnel rams and blowers, air bags over pump up shocks and so on.
But unlike Alley Cat, Checkmate, Mr Damaged, Street Legal, Misty Blue's, Inervisions, just to name a few of the awesome vans of there time. Hallucination, seemed to be limited with its photos. So we are asking, is there anyone out there with photos or info of John's van? It seems the photo of it on the cover of Custom Vans and Trucks #17 is the most popular. So, any help with our search for info on this van would be of greatly appreciated.
Thank you all for your time and assistance. Grahame and Amanda.

Welcome to the Forum Grahame and Amanda.

Great to read that you have both a Ford and a Holden in the Build. I look forward to watching their progress.

Please follow this Link to see pics and info on Hallucination: Hallucination

I posted some additional Photos up tonight. I hope that it all helps.

Keep your Dream Alive!

Well that has blown me away Rusty. Here I am thinking, I might get one or two more photos. But you gave me the vans life story with many pictures along the way. Sad to hear of its final moments. But like so many vans of the day, they ended life at a wrecking yard somewhere. I remember as a kid seeing them rock into my small country town of Roma. All shiny and beautiful. I would ride around them on my BMX, dreaming of the day I would own a master piece like that. Custom work performed in Brisbane or else where most of the time. Only to see them deteriorate over a 12 or 24 month period. There was one van in Roma in particular owned by a guy called Tony Anderson. HX HZ Holden. Red in color, in the early 80's. I remember seeing it in a mag years ago at a show in Brisbane or Toowoomba. I think it went by the name "Neat and Tidy". It was a very nice van for its day. I guess as Tony put it, Neat and Tidy. I also meet Simon Major with the Val van once. Great man, a true ambassador for our sport. Purchased a trans-am type nose cone off him for a valiant. Still have that nose cone to this day for that matter. I'm off work until Monday, so i'll see if I can get some pictures to you. I did some renderings of my Ford van back in 1986. I called it "Against all Odds". I guess, I knew back then. It was going to be a long shot that it would ever happen.
It would be great to get some feed back on them drawings from everyone. It was 34 years ago now. I might draw it again with a more modern twist and a little more knowledge. Flip fronts and jaguar rear ends don't work that well in Ford vans..... A Ford van, on a Holden chassis, with a Hemi Viper motor? Mmmmmm. Might give Alley Cat a run for its money!!!! Thanks again Rusty. You have filled my head full of new ideas and made the beginning of 2020 very inspirational. I'll see if I can post a pic or two tomorrow.

Thanks, Amanda and Grahame.

Great to read your reply.  That's what our Forum is about: sharing information and keeping the Dream Alive!

There were a few very nice Vans from out Roma way.  Neat & Tidy sounds familiar.  I'll have to do some research.  It may well be in the Van Registry/History Section, possibly under a different name.  I may even know who owns it now.

Scott King may own it now.  In it's current guise:


I'll have to dig up some earlier photos.

I remember Cruising around on my Dragster, doing much the same.  There were certainly some Awe Inspiring Creations back then.

Simon is a Top Bloke and has moved mountains to promote Vanning.  You'll even find a Drawing he did as a Kid of his Dream Van.  It may have taken him a few decades, but he made it happen.

I'd love to see your Renderings.  Feel free to post them up in our Art Section.  Link to the Van Art Section where you can post your Drawings etc. Van Art Section

Never stop Dreaming!  Life would be boring and meaningless without them.

I look forward to thew Challenge.

Well I’m new to this. I’ve done home renovations in the Past and can no longer able to do them so the wife said you need to do something so after a long search so I restore a bike so the garden. We decided that doing a van. It should be a fun project and we would able to enjoy it use it in our retirement to get away for the weekend or so I wasted a Ford I really wanted XD van but in realality it was going to bee to much work parts were to hard to find and it would not as reliable as we would like and we would have to do to much work the project was just to big and difficult for me with ny health problems
So we come to the cinclusuob to find soumethungvfor the project we decided that we didn’t want van didn’t want a HBD Sandman we wanted a old shafting wagon. So we started to look around and we started to look at xh one tonne vans. The one end up peuchaseinfcfor a reasonable amount of money was an 99 model last of the fall vans reliable abs airbags 4 speed auto with a decent amount or rego. Also we have started the project we decided to spray in blaze yellow as bit of a trbute to the Xd sundowner caulk Kees you all how we are travelling with project subdowner

Welcome Aboard!

Life takes many Twists and Turns. Some Good and some Not so Good!

Great that you have found your way into a Panel Van and that you like a bit of colour.

I look forward to reading about your Progress and hopefully seeing a few photos along the way.

Keep the Dream Alive!

We are a middle age couple I’ve had to retire from work Welll we have done all the renovations on the house that we wanted to do so the wife said David you need another project as she reckoned that was getting board so what do I do do I build another bike by a classic car and spend a fortune Or she why don’t we by a van and convert it in to a camper. I said let’s go I better let’s find a shaggin wagon and do it up the best of both worlds. I personally had been looking around for a can for a while so I got the green light so after looking for a while and I really wanted a sunddowner falcon couldn’t find anything that was just going me to much to rebuild or was going to to. Much to complete I with my medical condition. So we decided on a 99 longreach falcon van. The one we fouls was in reasonable actually in good condition considering. It 20 years old It was going to easier to get parts so we

And it had ABS Air bags efi and should be pretty reliable. So we have started the project called project sundowna We will keep you posted here progress

Welcome David,
Defently glad you found your way to the van .
It's really amazing because of health problems that started 71/2 years ago for me ,my van was one of the reasons that kept me going ..
I had just finished putting back together and got to drive it once , I still have it at the moment and continue to play with it keeping me sane...
Enjoy your van and welcome

And Blaze Yellow, a classic Ford colour.

Hi, Stu from Hervey Bay, I had a Sandman in the eighties but sold it when no longer using it. Now I have a HJ Belmont to play with.

Welcome aboard Stu!

I look forward to catching up with you in the Bay very soon.  

Are you joining us on Saturday for our Run to Gunalda Pub for Lunch?

Hi Majestic Vanners,

the first van was a Jamacian Lime (Green) HJ Sandman with a 253 V8 and 4 speed manual. We were members of the Ballarat club, Southern Cross Vanners. If anyone knows anything about the Southern Cross Vanners club, I would love to hear from you. Unfortunately, we had to sell that van when the first child came along. In about 1995, we bought another HJ Sandman which was also green but had been repainted and was in terrible condition. In 2006, we bought the current van which is also a HJ (Blue) and was in much better shape. Over time, it needed a freshen up. Now it is currently it is in a state of restoration and hopefully will be ready next year.