1994 Ford E150 Econoline XL Conversion Van

The consummate "shagging wagon" - this van is a typical example of a plain ordinary van that was handed over to a conversion company straight from the Ford assembly line and converted in a bordello on wheels.

These were fairly common vans throughout the late 1970s and into the 1980s and were quite luxurious when they were new, often sporting custom captain chairs for all passengers and custom carpeting throughout. 

I particularly remember the van that my uncle and aunt had when they visited us one summer. I remember marvelling at the custom wood trim around the doors and playing with the swivelling reading lamps in the ceiling. 

In fact, during this time Starcraft had a plant in my town that pumped a lot of these vans out in the world.  Needless to say, these vans were a fairly common side in my part of the world. 

Unfortunately, custom vans don't really age very well and as they got older, they developed more of a shady reputation. The interiors certainly started to look more and more like a basement rumpus room from 1979. 

This particular van started life as an incomplete van, sporting a 5.8L V8, with the conversion being done by Glaval 

Glaval began making custom vans California during the 1970s. 

Glaval continued to convert vans into the 1990s and typically outfitted their vans with captain’s chairs, TVs and VCRs

As the market for conversion vans petered out, Glaval left the conversion van business and started making shuttle buses starting in 1999, which they are still manufacturing today.

This particular van certainly displays those features with leather captains chairs throughout and even included an onboard vacuum cleaner. 

This particular van also had a very interesting life, starting life on a dealer's lot in Oregon but was shipped to Alaska where it spent the first 9 years of its life, with a small pit stop in Arizona in 2001. 

In 2004 it crossed the border into Canada and spent the next 10 years tooling around about an hour's drive from the junkyard that it sits now - some 4000 miles from where it began. 

Oh, the stories this van could tell!