Darla Vanjie the Conversion Van-jie
I’ve been wanting to introduce my new project since August but I got straight bamboozled right out the gate. I wanted to announce it when I wasn’t in the middle of feeling like a damn fool!
The Short Story:
I got a 2007 e250 Econoline with a v8 and I’m going to be converting it into a camper van and work vehicle for doing murals across the U.S. and maybe Canada too! I’m going to be documenting the conversion process here and really hoping it will be done before the new year!
I’m SO EXCITED to start painting the exterior and building out the interior. She will hopefully have a bed, sink, fridge, solar power, backup camera/navigation system and more! I plan to paint over most of the windows so I can have a full mural on the side. We found two awesome websites that have very detailed tutorials on how to convert your cargo van: Far Out Ride and Gnomad Home. I had really wanted an extended length windowless cargo van and that’s what I originally bought but that didn’t go so well…
Darla Vanjie's Before Conversion Pics
The Long Story…
The week before my birthday (Sept. 2nd) I drove two hours down to Toledo, Ohio to buy a 2002 Extended e250 that was already starting to be converted into a camper van. It was inspected and they said it was a solid vehicle other than some things that needed fixing like break lines and a new alternator. It had solar panels and tons of security features, and no windows (a plus for me). It was a big old blank canvas for painting. I named her Drucilla and the name was fitting.
She promptly died on the freeway by the time we got to Ann Arbor. We waited until late at night for a tow to be able to move her since she’s so freaking massive. Finally we were able to get home to East Lansing, Drucilla was still in Ann Arbor, and I was prepared to spend thousands to fix whatever was wrong with her because I knew I would have to do repairs anyways. She bounced around to several mechanics and no one could pinpoint the problem. It was finally diagnosed as a clogged catalytic converter and the shop that inspected actually repaired that for free which was amazing and shocking. They were trying to stand by their word. However, once she was repaired and we got her home we took her to a trusted mechanic who made it sound like the repairs may not have been done properly and also it had a bent frame making it impossible to get an alignment or fix some of the issues I was going to fix.
I thought I did a good and was getting a great deal on a vehicle but really I was a total idiot and ended up having to scrap the vehicle. Hey in case you were wondering U-Pull and Save in Mason, Michigan gave me way more for this vehicle than any other place would! A whole $460 (every other place was trying to give me $240)! Mind you, we were able to pull all the solar equipment off as well as the hasp puck locks and other materials we will use on Darla Vanjie! Anyways, I guess I’m just chalking it up to a tax write off donation to the kid in Toledo who probably need the money more than me 🙄 Not that I have thousands of dollars to throw away like that but what could I do at this point? I can’t imagine selling a vehicle to someone like that and just hoping the inspection didn’t catch everything. Really really really sucks that people are that shitty but ok. Live and learn. It’s 2020, what was I expecting?!
Luckily my dad is great friends with a few people at Spartan Toyota in Lansing and they gave me a killer deal on the new van and since I knew it had been thoroughly inspected I would have been dumb to keep waiting an eternity for another rarity like Drucilla. Drucilla had an extra 2 feet of length inside and those vehicles are just much harder to come by in the area and I wasn’t about to have another traumatic Drucilla experience trying to buy another one out of state. I feel so much safer with Darla Vanjie and I can start on the fun part instead of dealing with repairs!
Drucilla the O.G. - R.I.P.
