I just bought this!: http://evansville.craigslist.org/cto/3186315491.html
Even talked him down on the price quite a bit. It's a beater, got some cancer in the wheel wells, and some cosmetic work scars, but motor and tranny seem strong, tires have tread, tracks straight and steering is tight (well, tight for a beater van anyway), brakes are like new, has a tow hitch, a ladder rack, and was close to home.
This will be my parts hauler / race car hauler / track side machine shop / in-a-pinch hotel room multi-purpose race base. How should it be decorated?
Do nothing, and advertise for Tom Miller for free?
Scuff and shoot it white?
Paint it safety blue to match the race car?
Paint a large scale mural, and, if so, on what theme?
Paint it (or a portion of it) in chalkboard paint, and leave chalk in a box tacked to the outside of the van with instructions to 'decorate me'
Other?
The CL ad is down and the pictures are gone.
Some inspiration:
My buddy bought a beater carpenters Chevrolet van and used house paint and a roller. Not bad 25' away.....
Whatever you do, it needs a huge airbrushed mural of something awesome being all awesome on the side.
If I ever get a custom van, it's getting the cover art for the NES classic Castlevania painted on the side.
Wow, it has airbrushing already.
Unless you really have a business to promote, I would remove the current graphics so as not to advertise there could be deck building and barn building tools inside.
Dav
New Reader
8/7/12 9:47 a.m.
If I ever buy a van, it will be painted like the A-team.... .
Luke
UberDork
8/7/12 9:47 a.m.
^Maybe keep the 'since 1968', though.
jrw1621 wrote:
That decor looks...musty. If you concentrate real hard you can almost pick up the scent of sweat and spilt bong water.
sporqster wrote:
For just cover-up, I would maybe leave the roof white and the lower rockers white making the center race car blue. Leaving the rockers white would mean that you do not have to prep/repair the lower and rusty bits (unless you really want to and thereby preserve the rusty bits a little more.)
The white roof should help to keep it cool.
The blue will cover in fewer coats.
Net result, sort of this:
JThw8
UberDork
8/7/12 10:02 a.m.
Rustoleum and a roller.
You could try to lightly wet sand off the airbrushing and then just buff out the white. Some grafitti remover spray might even take that off without sanding (test on an inconspicuous area)
If you have the Lamborghini logo you designed in a vector format I can vinyl cut it for you to put on the sides :)
Jay
UltraDork
8/7/12 10:03 a.m.
I can't believe no one's posted this yet. You guys are off your game!
Jay
UltraDork
8/7/12 10:08 a.m.
Unless race car and spares hauling is intended to be a business that you want to advertise, I would make it as white and generic as possible. As someone already mentioned, There is no reason to reason hint there is anything valuable inside.
if you are going to sleep in it in the summertime occasionally at the track, iIve heard you probably want to keep it a lighter color (my van was white so I cant tell you how bad a dark color would be). but without any insulation, even a white van turns into an oven pretty quickly once the sun starts to rise.
So basically, what JRW said.
^^ as my buddy youngfg noted once "I'm going to put graphics on my (enclosed race car) trailer that say Gene's Septic Cleaning Service".
No one will want to break into that ;-)
Thoroughly inappropriate Pedobear theme. Image not hotlinked because did I mention wholly inappropriate?
http://www.murileemartin.com/UG/LIL11/LIL11-UG-0067.html
More photos before and after in that gallery.
Do some HR Giger:
and no one will try to break in.
Mural if you're going to put a lot of work into it, chalkboard or utlitarian paint (black house paint / bedliner) if you're not.
44Dwarf
SuperDork
8/7/12 12:58 p.m.
not a van but best picture ever for a company truck.
http://www.planetperplex.com/en/item/plumbing-services/
