Back in the Fall of '09 Josh decided to take on a project that he knew would NOT be easy, but the end result would be beyond bad ass so he dove in head first. This project involves 2 late '80 VW Vans that were owned by this really rad British dude in Vail. Now each of these vans has its coolness factors and use, but separate they were generally giant piles of crap.

The first van, Turtle as we like to call him, is a 1985 Volkswagen Westfalia Camper van, which means its comes standard with two beds, a pop-up top, a two burner gas stove, a sink, a fridge, and all kinds of nifty storage cabinets. HOWEVER, Turtle's motor was blown, not that the 80- horse power motor was worth a crap to begin with.

Turtle and his Kitchen

Disregard the hideous pic, this was back in the day when I had a life and wasn't obsessed with taking pictures of every detail...

Now the second van had a working motor, but that's not what we were interested in. This van is a 1987 Syncro van, which means its 4WD and an awesome off road vehicle. SO, Josh took all the parts that made the Syncro 4WD and put them into the 2WD. Sounds simple right? WRONG. It was a serious switch that involved cutting, welding, and all sorts of other scary stuff, and after 5 months of battling both vans we now have a 4WD Camper van! That still has no motor...

4WD Turtle!

But we're getting to that part. We decided to do a motor swap, because this project isn't hard enough as it is, and went with a motor from the worlds ugliest car, a Subaru SVX. Long story short it has more power and fits in the tiny hole VW cut in the back. So that's where we are in the whole ordeal. Car is built, now it needs a motor, transmission, and differential installed and we're good to go!! Still a lot of work, but we'll get there.

Monster Truck Turtle

Josh bought new springs and shocks to lift it and make the suspension way less sketchy. Don't worry, bigger tires are coming

We got the Syncro pre-Nadia's photography obsession, so I don't have any pictures of it running. Sometime this week I'll tell you the story of actually getting the two vans home from Vail. Scary.