The Showtrux editorial or blog

April 20 2008 Well the hall parties are winding down and everyone is getting ready for the 2008 show and event season. There are a bunch of vans that have undergone some major tramsformations either with body mods, ne paint or full wraparound murals. 2008 should be another great year in vanning. I can't wait to see some of these vans at Lost.

Jan 27 2008 Over the past few years vanners have taken it upon themselves to restore some vans from the early days. Two very notable vans are Nautilus and Flying Eagle II. There are a number of other vans in the long process of being restored one of them being Future Shock. This van was built for BF Goodrich back in 1975-76. This will be an extensive feature with historic info leading up to the finished restoration. Very interesting story behind this van already. The last 50 2008 Vannin' calendars will be sold at the CofC in Florida. They will be $20.00 each regardless of how many you buy. Every penny from the sale of these calendars will be going towards a vanning cause. Details will be available soon on how to buy them. No kidding here, they will go quick, have had 100 to sell the past 2 years at the CofC. Photos of the pages are now posted

Dec 30-Jan 1 2008 It's time to change up the look of the site a bit. Nothing too radical. Always good to keep it fresh.

Dec 16, 2007  Another year winding down and another calendar project finished. This has been another good year for vanning with the two largest events very well attended. Both the CofC in Niagara Falls N.Y in February and the Nationals in July in Cortland Ohio were big successes. I was happy to be involved in some way in both these events as well as in Vanfest 2007 in Aylmer Ontario Canada which saw it's highest numbers of vans and trucks ever. Found out recently that Wacko one of the Nats Board members has been diagnosed with cancer. To cheer him up and get him motivated for the long road to recovery I took a 2008 Vannin' calendar on a Hooters tour. Made it to 4 of them in 2 days.

 

July 15, 2007 The 35th Nationals are just around the corner now. A week and a half til the fun starts and likely the most online coverage ever at a van event. Between this site and the many dedicated vanners who post pictures on various websites and free picture posting websites there will likely well over a thousand picture to chose from. tp://www.35thvannationals.com/

June 30, 2007 Wow a year between updates. Well a lot happens in a year and most of my adventures are documented in the event pictures. In the past year I have been to events in Connecticutt, New York, California, Michigan, Ontario, Quebec. Vanfest 12 is now history and we are headed towards 13 next year. Been involved with it for a few years now and am happy to say that it keeps growing every year thanks to Kevin and his staff's hard work leading up to the event and at the event itself. The next big event that I am involved with will be the 35th Nationals in Ohio in July. Looking forward to that one for sure. All the info can be found here: http://www.35thvannationals.com/

March 4, 2006 A couple of weeks ago I got a chance of a lifetime. To go to California with some very good friends who just happen to love all kinds of custom vehicles from vans to hot rods. I've been down there a few times so I was one of the people who got some of the trips together to places like Foose's, Coddington's and a side trip up to San Bernadino to a small custom shop. We also went by Barris' shop, some of my buddies got a private tour by George himself. We also went by Petersen's Museum. Another bonus was being in the vicinity of Truckin's offices and we got to meet up with Bob Ryder once again. We had met Bob at the Nationals in Michigan. Bob also interested one of his buddies' Rick to come by with his cool 53 panel and both invited us to one of the most amazing cruises I have been to. The Donut Derelict Cruise is like no other. These characters meet between 5:00 and 8:00 am in a mall parking lot in Huntington Beach. The day we went there were about 300 vehicles from rat rods to three 2005 Ford GTs ! It is hard to put into words what we experienced down there. Check out the pictures here: California 2006

January 29, 2006 Not quite sure what is happening to the site but the traffic has almost doubled in the past weeks. Maybe it's the Detroit coverage or maybe people are starting to wonder about all this attention that custom vans are getting in Hot Rod, Truckin', Overhaulin', Honda Commercials etc. Could also be that I have been getting the word out on the upcoming Council of Councils in Anaheim to a variety of forums. This is our 15 minute shot at making custom vans respectable once again and get away from being the laughing stock of custom vehicles. Although the custom van fad or whatever you want to call it seemed to dry up in California overnight back in the early 80's it never really went awy in other parts of the country like the Northeast and Midwest. This site was built to get vans and panels some more attention. I'd like to think it helped, but maybe it is in a 30 year cycle like Rollie says and our time has come back !