06/10/2026
A couple of weeks ago I flew to San Diego to pick up a customers van for restoration. We had talked about their van for a while, I’d seen photos, but when it arrived it was much worse than I was expecting. Chewed up wiring harness, plug wires, crumbled vacuum lines, on and on. I was floored that it started and kind of ran. I even took it for a test drive. It was the first time that I’ve ever called up the customer and told them that I don’t think it was cost effective to restore it. It was a bummer for me because we would be without this scheduled job, and also for the customer, but it was the right call to make. Anything can be saved, but sometimes it’s best to let go and start over with another van. I left and flew home. Fortunately, Amy and John took my advice and with my help we began the search for another van. And we were able to work it out that I’d take this one in trade towards work on that new van… yay haha. I’m always up for a good challenge, and this one will be just that. It was one of the vans I miraculously got across the border yesterday, misfiring and leaking the whole way. I don’t think there’s a straight panel on this thing…but it’s only got 74k miles on it. I’ll see if I can get it running ok with some good used parts I keep around for just this sort of thing. Apparently this van had a tree fall on it or something and sat in a field abandoned for 10 years. There were dead rats inside and everything that comes with that. It was so bad that they had to throw away the rear wardrobe cabinet. What have I gotten myself into?