FURTHER - Van #4

my hubby loves ebay. he's been a dedicated junkie for years now and i have to give him credit, he never runs out of things to search for. i'm tapped out after 5 minutes, it's just not my thing. he's great at selling things as well. i'm not sure how he comes up with the wording that makes someone buy a 'vintage' (used) toothbrush - but he does! so, he looks - he sells and yes... he buys. id say it kind of all equals out in the end so i don't really care. let me rephrase that... i USUALLY dont care.

last spring, mid-afternoon i jumped on ebay for some reason. in the myEbay summary section of our account is saw the sum of $500 in bold green. (that means you've won/sold something) there was no visible thumbnail of the won item so i clicked on it. id already seen the title... LE TOYOTA VAN 1985 something-or-other... now before i go on i should fill you all in a bit on the present 'LE Toyota van' situation at that time.

WE ALREADY HAD 3 OF THEM.

yes 3. they look like little footballs on wheels as the engine is under the front seats. all made in the 80's, they run forever, super cheap on gas and my husband just has a thing for them. the 1st one was bought over 2 years ago (also on ebay) and its a 4x4. it has some major rust issues we hope to deal with one day, but until then its a storage unit with a flat tire out back. the 2nd van (we call her 'penny' due to her bronze colour, my friend IF calls her 'little miss sunshine' due to her faulty starter and broken gas gauge...) was bought 2 years ago and is my source of transportation (when she works... a WHOLE other post will be dedicated to penny, god love her!). 3rd van was a recent impulse buy. it was a cargo van - good price, knew we could resell it easily... but just hadn't got around to doing that quite yet.

soooo... you can now imagine me shaking my head upon discovering the recent ebay purchase that afternoon. i clicked on the title of the won item to see our new ride and i can definately say i was NOT prepared for what i saw...
in a monitone voice, "oh my f$%#@!ing god. nooooo waaaay." it had a name. 'FURTHER' it was a 'cargo' LE Toyota van and it was completely covered in hmmmmm... shall we say 'artwork'? some sort of strange space scene with an alien in a spaceship holding a flaming planet/moon thing... i was immeadeately trying to visualize myself driving it around town. it just screamed BURNER! and i am about as far away from being a hippy as you can get!!

so after surprising hubby with a phone call and my knowledge of his latest purchase... ("oooohhhh ya - that. i didn't think we'd win it...") we went and picked it up. turns out the exaust system was in need of a replacement so it was super LOUD. acually set off car alarms while driving down the street! but you could drown out the noise inside with the CD PLAYER! our other vans just had crappy tape decks and shitty speakers, but FURTHER was set up with a sweet deck and big speakers drilled into the ceiling! i was starting to fall in love... it also had a comfy pull out bed, every single map you might need to get to 'Burning Man' every tool/fluid to get yourself out of a sticky mechanical situation, hardhat, shovel, insulation - this baby was hooked up. as soon as possible i went to pick up IF at his swanky downtown apartment. he just about pissed himself laughing when he saw it, and almost choked when he heard the horn...

AAAAA-WOOOO-GAAAA--AAAA-A-WOOO-GAAAA!

we espeacially got a kick out of watching peoples reactions when they looked at us through their rearview mirror... yup, she was a real beauty! we only kept her for 3 months and then sold her to her 'soulmate' (imagine what type of personality the van would have if it were human... and a psytrance DJ - thats who we sold it to). good times with FURTHER.
i defineatly recommend this type of paint 'treatment' if you a.) love attention b.) like scaring old people c.) have a problem with people tagging your car. d.) have trouble finding your car in a parking lot.

i don't recommend this look if a.) a perspective client might catch a glimpse of your ride. b.) you get the occasional case of road-rage and like to lay on your horn c.) you want to do any crossborder shopping.
*d