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.

2009 National Truck-In, Summit Station Pa. hosted by Moon Lite and Performance Inc.

What a great time we had at this event. So much to do so little time, photo ops at every turn. Took over 2000 pictures at the event, the best 100 can be seen here: Truckin' Magazine's 2009 National Truck-In Web Exclusive     Hopefully we'll see these hit the magazine at some point. There's also a good chance we'll be seeing the Vanfest coverage in Truckin' and a certain pirate van might be making a major appearance this fall as well. 

Dropjaw Magazine Magazine was at the Nationals as well and they have come across big time for us. They have 1700 pictures from the Nats here: Dropjaw Nats coverage     Their magazine is already out with the coverage in it as well and they even featured Mary a.k.a Miss Nat's on the cover with Metalstorm and Tub Thumpin'.  Can't wait to see this !

Here's a few of my favorite shots of the 2009 National Truck-In : 

Todd and Mary's Vanformer custom Astro van

Boop's Tub Thumpin' Astro passing Jason's chopped Econoline



Don's Pirates of the Caravan, winner of Best of Show



John's Ol' Meat Wagon custom Chevy van, winner of the Flying Eagle award, first time shown at the Nationals.



Color my world ! Junior and Glenda's Looney Tunes, Johnny O's Oasis, Ron and Aixa's Flamed and Todd and Mary's Vanformer custom vans during the Dropjaw photoshoot  


Pirates and Coop's chopped Astro called Epiphany, both amazing vans, both National Truck-In Best of Show winners. 



Showdown at Dodge City, two of the finest chopped radical custom vans ever built by Hooper and Pelc. 

Vanfest 2009 and the upcoming 2009 National Truck-In

Vanfest was another big success. It is hard to keep growing an event each and every year but this is something that Kevin and his crew has managed to do for the past 14 years. Over 300 trucks rolled through the gates and there were over 150 on the show field Saturday. There were attendees from 14 U.S states and 4 Canadian provinces. Full coverage here : http://showtrux.com/events/2009vanfest/index.html

The 2009 National Truck-In will be the largest custom van event anywhere in 2009,we're expecting around 600 vans. This year it is in Summit Station Pennsylvania. The actual event starts Wednesday July 8th, but the grounds open to vanners Saturday July 4th. Drop Jaw Magazine will be there and running coverage down the line and a long awaited return by Truckin' Magazine is hoped but yet to be confirmed. Truckin' has been running features on vans that were shot at the Michigan Nationals, so far we have seen Woody's Smokin' Chop and Alpine Express, coincidentaly 2 past Best of Show winners at Vanfest. For more info on the 2009 Nationals go here: http://37thvannats.com/

Lost Memorial 2009

Back from this great event that surprisingly got a bit bigger this year. Although we were missing a good bunch of regulars we somehow got a good bunch of newcomers to this excellent event with the largest attendance ever at 255 vans and trucks. There were a few vans making their grand reappearances after makeovers or first time out with full wraparound murals. Great to see my many vanner friends from the Northeast once again and fellow blogger Cap'n Scurvy, his wife and son he calls Van.

This is John's Plum Loco, the van was airbrushed over the winter by Mike Lavallee famous for his flames and appearances on Overhaulin'. It just happened that we had the perfect background for it right on the grounds of the event.

Mike is a well known van customizer, his Dodge van called Machina has won most of the top awards all across the Northeast. Just for fun he decided to build a chopped van. He calls it Kool Blue:



Here is Trish's van called Emerald City. In just about the perfect light here Dreamweaver's artistic talents show through in the airbrush work.




These vans will all likely be going to the 2009 Nationals and be back at the Greenwich grounds next July for the 2010 National Truck-In.

Detroit was a blast. Arrived Thursday just in time to see the 5 vanner owned vans setting up. It was a great relief to see them all there safe and sound. The vans were very well received at what is one of the largest and most prestigious indoor custom car/truck shows there is. We had visitors in from all over to support the vanners as well and thanks to Deb and Gills we all went out Saturday night to a neat restaurant in Greektown. Here is a video of the highlight pictures:

Around the time this was all going on Truckin' suddenly had a renewed interst in custom vans. So we will likely see them at the 2009 National Truck-In in Pennsylvania and they have promised to run th e5 features that were shot almost 5 years ago in Michigan on Woody's Smokin Chop, Alpine Express, Californiacation, Sweet Emotion and Battlestar.
We had our Vanfest meeting yesterday and things are looking great for that event. We will be adding a cruise into St Thomas on Friday evening which will surely be a big hit.

The vans are back in town. 6 custom vans headed to Cobo Hall for the 2009 Detroit Autorama

We are going to Detroit March 6-8 ! We got confirmation yesterday that we are going to the big show with all the vans we registered. Unfortunately Nautilus had to drop out due to a work commitment. The vans will be on the main floor of Cobo Hall. If your there come by and see us. Good chance we will be doing something online from there. Will post more info, pictures on the all vans entered as well as daily coverage on : http://www.showvans.com