In the 60s, not only muscle cars appeared in the American automotive industry: vans took to the road for the first time. And the people liked the new four-wheeled beast, as a result of which the American school of custom automotive engineering acquired a new direction – vanning. In the 70s, vans were so popular that they competed directly with muscle cars for the title of the scariest nightmare for young girls’ fathers: sex, drugs and rock’n’roll – all of which fit perfectly into the cargo hold of large, bright cars that literally filled the streets. The decline of vanning occurred in the late 80s, and in the 2000s came that strange period of automotive history when almost the entire custom culture of the last third of the last century began to be considered something shameful and tasteless, which is why they tried to forget it along with vans. Over the past decade, however, many aspects of the 70s and 80s have regained popularity, and Vanning has become one of them.
What does a custom van consist of? First of all, it is worth noting that vanning is a field for which productivity is not in the first place. The main thing in these cars is the exterior and interior. Moreover, in terms of appearance, it is the pattern on the body that is meant: like lowriders, vans can do almost without exterior modifications. Although there is an unofficial minimum program, which includes a small spoiler, discs and exhaust pipes, which are positioned to the side, perhaps no car from the world of vanning can do without this set. However, the basis of a van is usually what it’s painted in: whether it’s just a few bright lines or a full-fledged painting from bumper to bumper. Interior remodeling can also be very diverse: the most radical options from the 70s included artificial fireplaces and Pong consoles. Plus, in many serious projects, the exterior of the car and its interior are often connected by the same theme. In addition, a custom van can include anything: many people like, for example, to slightly chop off the roof, and no one is against the engine becoming a little more productive than the factory one. There are many very diverse examples, up to six-wheeled asphalt liners, but since this is our first article about a custom van, I decided to focus on a kind of classic of the genre.
Vans produced after the first half of the 90s are very rare guests on the vanning stage. Dragon Lord is not only one of the most modern representatives of this field, but also executed at a level that would be the envy of many much more classic projects.
So, now that everyone knows exactly what we’re dealing with, let me introduce you: Comrade Ed Beard, Jr. Now fans of Magic The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons and other board games are more likely to recognize this name, rather than fans of rock’n’roll and custom cars, but long before illustrations for fantasy games, Ed had been painting cars for a long time. Having been kicked out of the art program of a higher school for wanting to draw something of his own, and not what the teachers ordered, Byrd Jr. lost all chances of entering an art college, as a result of which, from the late seventies to the early 90s, he painted where he could earn money. The owners of hot rods and Harley-Davidsons were not the last customers: at that time, many had a custom car in need of painting. Overall, everything was fine, but two things happened. Firstly, the chemicals used in car batteries at that time were very actively killing the lungs, which almost caused Ed to develop asthma. And secondly, progress continued to move forward, and vinyl, which became more and more affordable, pushed artists out of the market. Therefore, in the late 80s, Comrade Beard Jr. decided to try again to fulfill his long-held dream and make a name for himself among illustrators.
The return to the culture of custom cars happened only twenty years later: one of Ed Beard’s friends once mentioned in a conversation that almost all car paints are now water-based. And Ed had a van in his garage a little over a decade ago: it was already almost 400,000 kilometers on the odometer, and Byrd Jr. was thinking about buying a new car. But water-based paints have opened up a new, very tempting way: to make a full-fledged custom, sort out the car and repaint it. And, fortunately, that’s exactly what Ed did as a result.
Even factory cars look different at different times of the day. And when there is so much play of light and shadow in a wide variety of colors on the car, a lot depends on the lighting.
The result was beyond praise: being an artist with many years of experience, Byrd Jr. did not skimp and painted every visible centimeter of the case. Moreover, all this splendor is not just a beautiful picture, but a real story that Ed loves to tell in every interview. It all starts on the visor, which depicts the Dragon Lord himself, a kind of elemental, spirit, or deity who created the first fire dragons at the beginning of time. The moment of the birth of the first fire dragon is captured on the hood of the car. After the earth cooled down, an ice age set in, during which ice dragons appeared – one of them is painted on the passenger door. Further to the starboard side, a water dragon is depicted: the ice began to melt, seas and oceans formed, and nature finally found a balance between fire and ice. After that, the age of man begins: in particular, magicians learn how to bend a dragon to their will. The stern of the car depicts the fall of dragons: in the style of three monkeys, Byrd Jr. depicted three dragons who had lost their nobility and grandeur. Almost the entire left side of the car depicts the apocalypse, the last battle between good and evil, and on the driver’s door you can see the narrator of the whole story, an ancient dragon, reading a book called “The Dragon Lord”.
The quality of the drawing can be seen in the example of really miniature details, which sometimes you just don't notice until Byrd Jr. personally points his finger at them. Unfortunately, not every camera is able to clearly convey such tiny moments.
In terms of performance, the van is equipped with a 5.2-liter Magnum engine, which produced approximately 230 horsepower as standard. Ed changed the camshaft, did some work on the valves and gear ratios in the gearbox, and also installed new ignition coils and made a working air intake on the hood (oxygen starvation is a very well-known problem of Magnum engines). As a result, this engine consumes a little more than 11 liters per hundred kilometers and has quite a decent temper. Nevertheless, Ed mentioned that he has a desire to put something more powerful in the car – you can read about this, as well as details about the interior of the car, in an interview with Ed Beard Jr. specifically for RockThisTown.ru .
Sources:
https://www.airbrushbybeard.com/ https://www.facebook.com/Fantasy.Artist.Ed.Beard.Jr/
