2010 vannin' season kicking into high gear

Less than a week away from Vanfest now. This will be the official start of my vanning season although it seems like there is always something going on. I came another step closer to getting Showvans.com back on track but then had other stuff to get onto like Vanfest, the 2010 Nationals and talking to Glenn from Dropjaw and Bob from Truckin'. I'll be collaborating with both of them in 2010 and into 2011.
There's plenty to keep the media happy these days and thanks to the effort of many vanners and custom hot rod builders doing vans this will be happening well into 2011. One of the more interesting events this year will be the rollout of the 50th Anniversary of the Econoline at the Ford plant near Cleveland. One of the gurus of Econolines has been contacted by a Ford executive who is inviting vanners to this grand event with their Econolines of all eras. Hopefully we will get that date in July soon so we can plan on having a respectable showing. We'll see if we can keep the whole 50th Anniversary thing rolling into 2011 with the CofC, the Nationals  and other events. We're going to have an Econo guru summit of sorts this Tuesday in Toronto to discuss this.
Battlestar is featured in the latest issue of Truckin'. Bob also introduces us to a long term feature Mid Dodge van.  I spoke to Coop this week as well and the work on the Battlestar/Deathstar is proceeding slowly but surely, it might not be ready for the 2010 Nationals. Perfection unfortunately does take time and from the sounds of it Coop has taken this van to the next level. 

Keep on Vannin' by any and all means !

Rebuilding Showvans.com

Tearing the site down and rebuilding it from scratch. Instead of blowing money on hosting I approached Astro over at Vannin.com and asked if we could have Showvans over on the vannin.com server again. We had it there originally but it grew  too fast at a time when bandwith was charged at a major premium.

It's a bunch of work to have the site but it is a tremendous showcase for custom vans at a time where we have the opportunity to shine with a bunch of big events in 2010 and even more so in 2011 with the 2011 CofC in California.  It's also at a time where our media connections are ata n all time high with the magazines both national and regional.  Glenn from Drop Jaw is planning on being at Vanfest and will be at the Nationals. Last year we managed to get web exclusive coverage on Truckinweb.com for both of those events. I'll be submitting coverage again this year and hope to do even better things with them next year on their own turf and at the 2011 Nationals.

I wish I could show the pictures of the 3 vans I am following that are currently being built and or totally rebuilt. 2 will be finished this summer, one hopefully next. These 3 vans are incredible and will show everyone that custom vans are extremely cool and worth a look. Also been told we'll have another newly built van making it's debut at Vanfest.

Although my main interest is in vans I also have a very strong interest in all cars and trucks.  It expands my horizons and opens me up to different ideas and helps expose people who would not usually be interested in vans to take a look at the other things I do. For the Detroit Autorama I collaborated with Myrideisme.com and helped them achieve their highest single day hit count with exclusive coverage of the Great 8 Ridler contenders. This little adventure pushed my photo abilities to the max and I'm happy to say that these were the best indoor pictures I've ever taken.  Last week the Gumball3000 Rally roared through town and I did another story for them on this event.  

   

I mentioned to Randy that I really think this $1.5 million Bugatti Veyron looks like Heavy Metal, :).

So plenty going on and it seems more crazy ideas floating through my head than ever. 

Detroit, Vanfest, Nationals and beyond

Detroit was a great time once again. In the end we managed to get 3 vanner vans in Autorama. It was very disappointing not having all 5 vans there especially Coop's Flying Eagle II as he was there anyway for the pinstriper's jam.  Before the event I mentioned that I would be going to Autorama on the myrideisme.com forum.  Craig got in touch with me about taking pictures for them, the end result was helping that website achieve their biggest day ever with exclusive Great 8 shots. At the time only Street Rodder Magazine had anything on the net from Autorama. A bunch of my Detroit pictures are headed to Drop Jaw Magazine for their website. 

Woody's Smokin Chop custom van at the 2010 Detroit Autorama

Karson's custom drag van at the 2010 Detroit Autorama

Ken's Shelby E-100 custom van at the 2010 Detroit Autorama


2010 will be another great year in vanning. My travels will be limited unfortunately, not sure if I will make any van events before Vanfest in June.  Vanfest 15 is going to be Kevin's last at the helm. So if ever I have been motivated to do something special it will be for this one. Have some ideas in mind. 
The Nationals will kind of be in my backyard, 6 hours away. I'm doing the website for this event and will be fairly involved with the Vannin.com Auction from there and likely take a couple of pictures for Truckin'. Not likely to see them at this one. 
Onward to 2011 and the Council of Councils in Buena Park California. This will be one heck of an opportunity to showcase vans in the mecca of car/truck culture. I've already been scheming on this one since I heard of the bid back in early 2009. Thanks to a bit of help from my friends, we also managed to convince everyone at this year's CofC in Wisconsin to do the van show on the Saturday afternoon of the event. This opens the doors very wide to get the non vanners and the media more involved in the show.  Plenty more info on this will be coming.

Also in the process of moving Showvans.com back over to Vannin.com so it could be a bit wonky for a while.

Headed to Autorama this weekend !

Last year was my first trip to Autorama and we did it up big bringing 5 vanner vans there. It was an amazing show with 800+  cars,trucks, bikes and last year 7 vans. We got there Thursday night and were back daily and then rolled the vans out Sunday night.  This year it seems like there were more entrants than ever and many vehicles were turned away. We're headed there with 3 different vans this year, all of them in a class of their own and totally different than one another. I'll be taking a ton of pictures as usual for Showvans.com, for Drop Jaw Magazine and I also have been asked to take some for an up and coming online automotive community. 
Issue 4 of Truckin' features Pirates of the Caravan. A very nice 4 page spread on Donnie's amazing van. This feature was along time in the planning stages, they used 3 of my pictures in the feature that went uncredited but hey life happens and it looks good to see more of my pictures in there soon.  This feature came out the same week that Donnie had Pirates in the Kansas City World of Wheels with 7 other vans and 2 vanner owned panels.
The 2010 Council of Councils (custom van convention) was held in Wisconsin this past weekend. It was a well attended event and for the first time the meetings were broadcast live on Vannin.com.  I was fortunate to catch both meetings on Saturday and even participated through Howard who was there. It was announced that the 2011 CofC will be in Buena Park California in Feb 2011. I've been following that bid for as long as it has been in play and working my non vanner contacts in California. We had a great time in 2006 the last time it was in nearby Anaheim. The 2011 event is shaping up to be even better. 
That's all the positive news for now, plenty more to come next time. On a sad note Lynn from Bad Girls N.Y passed away after a battle with cancer at the age of 60 years old. Lynn was very active in vanning for the past 30 + years. We started crossing paths back in the 1970s at events like Van Canada and Van America (which her club hosted). Lynn had been keeping busy helping to plan the 2010 National Truck-In.  There will be a Memorial service for her near Rochester N.Y March 20th. It will likely be a very well attended event with vanners from all several states and Canada attending.

2010 another great year of vanning

Wow it's taking a while to get settled in to 2010. As usual have a bunch of stuff on the go. Winter is almost as busy as summer as I seem to get myself involved in more stuff each year. Last week I got the applications sent in to Detroit for 5 vans for Autorama. Also started working on the Moonlitevans.com for my very good friends in Pennsylvania. Ongoing stuff on the 38th Nationals website. Even though I'm not going to the CofC this year I have been scheming some major stuff for the 2011 CofC at an as yet undisclosed location. 
If that's not enough I'm getting together an online charitable fundraiser for a vanner in Pennsylvania who passed away in October from Cancer. 

Time to relax, not quite

Vanning season is done now for me. The next big event will be the Detroit Autorama in February 2010. So once the 2010 calendars are all mailed out time to go whole hog on Detroit. I was asked yesterday for the use of one of my Nationals pictures possibly for the cover of another van calendar, that's a big honor for me which I gave two thumbs for and it's a sign of the mutual help vanners give one another. Although I live in Canada the vanner network I depend on to keep Showvans.com going and the calendar extends to the 4 corners of North America. With the funds from the calendar I've been fortunate to help promote van events in many far off places.  This will take on new proportions in 2011 if all goes well. 

2010 Calendar is a done deal

Put the finishing touches on the calendar composition last week. The artwork will be proofed and pre pressed then off to the printer. Delivery on track for Nov 13 to hit two big hall parties in N.J and Chicago.  Will get a bit of a breather before mailing them out. 

The photo here is actually a mosaic made up of thousands of images of vans. The calendar this year is dedicated to the late John Coldren. That is his van called Plum Loco. John had Mike Lavallee the famous airbrush artist do the amazing artwork on this van. John was able to enjoy the van this summer going to many events in the Northeast. Unfortunately John passed away from cancer in early October.  We will be doing up a poster of this cover image and donating all the proceeds after expenses to the American Cancer Society in John's name.
Plans are underway to have a good showing of vans back in Detroit and things are looking good for Chicago as well.