As I’ve mentioned before quite a few times, Eugene was a major destination for genuine hippies after their exodus from San Francisco. One of the proofs of that is the significant number of old converted school buses and vans parked in side yards, back yards and driveways after they settled down in a real house. I’ve seen this old Ford Vanette here for just about forever, but finally decided to document it. It more than deserves its 15 minutes of CC fame.
Note the stove pipe in the roof. And it’s sporting duct tape around the windows, whose rubber gaskets are probably dried, cracked and leaking.
The only mystery is the vintage of this van. Its body was made by Vanette and the chassis was supplied by Ford. As always, coachbuilt.com has a detailed history of the Vanette. This style, which was built for some 20 years, started shortly after WW2. Many of these have grille elements that were borrowed from the contemporaneous Ford trucks, making them fairly easy to date within a few years. But some have this more generic three bar grille, and I’ve seen some on Google that were dated from the early ’50s as well as late as 1968.
It looks like it was repainted a darker shade of green at some point, but who knows exactly? I don’t think it’s being lived in, but it seems to be useful as a storage shed for its owner. And it may well continue to do so for a few more decades until the owners die and the house is sold and gentrified.
Related CC step van reading:
Kurbside Classic: Olson Kurb Side – The Official CC Van
CC Outtake: Vintage Chevy Step Van
CC Outtake: Chevrolet Advance Design Step Van – Step Right Into My Living Room
Curbside Classic: 1958 International Metro – The Original And Greatest Step Van
Cohort Outtake: Unidentified Step Van Safeguarding Its Vital Bodily Fluids
Thanks for the memories!
My dad bought a gen-u-wine 1952 Ford P15 (??) van similar to this one in the mid 70’s. The grille was the same as the contemporary Ford pickup, very similar to the pickup seen in the opening credits of Sanford & Son. It was a blue with white roof former Rich Loaf bread truck. A previous owner converted it to a rudimentary RV by installing four fold-up bunks in the back. Dad bought it from Chet, his VW mechanic, in Marietta OH. I think the price was around $400.
He took it from Ohio to Florida and back a couple of times, using a tow bar to haul his Beetle. It had the 215 CID Mileage Maker 6 with three on the tree which got the job done, just slowly. It was pretty dependable. The only major expenses I remember were a set of rear tires and probably a battery.
I was too young to drive it on the highway, but got to move it around the property a few times. The clutch worked well and the manual steering wasn’t to difficult due to the huge steering wheel. The vacuum wipers were pretty lame.
If it had side windows that van would look to be a great potting shed. Or move it closer to the fenceline, add an awning, string a few lights, set up a firepit and there’s your backyard bar. Or just add a bunk and rent it for $50 a night during U of O game weekends…
Nice old P – Van, brings back many memories .
-Nate
Very cool, i love to have on for my auto parts swap meet transport and overnights.
if not for being on the west coast, this van is a dead ringer for a buddy of mine’s Ford camper. That particular vehicle got parked in maybe 1978 and never ran again do this def isnt it but wow, even the stovepipe..
What a cool truck/van/whatever.
If I’m not mistaken, that’s the back of a microwave oven and a refrigerator showing through the window in the right-side door. Someone intended to live in there, use it as maybe some kind of food truck, or something. Also, the potting bench next to it in the last photo, along with what might be a covered portable greenhouse for seed-starting, makes me wonder if this could already be on its way to being a potting shed. And the best photo is the image of it face-on. It looks almost human.
Maybe not so much in town on the side of the driveway, but if this were parked on the property somewhere more rural, it would make a great writer’s shed.
You should make an offer on it and if you get it, drag it up to Port Orford.
“..the best photo is the image of it face-on. It looks almost human”.
Just so. Very Muppet-like. (C’mon, they’re humans!)
A reasonable use for duck tape–aerodynamic smoothing. They must have been in a hurry to permanently park.
It’s no Metro, but plenty of cool in its own right.
I would place a decent amount of money that the hippies who fled San Fran and placed this here in, aww, 1975, have long been rather more gentrified themselves.
A cultural curio of many possible meanings.