Time flies when your health sucks to high heaven.

I own the "Tradewinds" since 2005 and drove maybe 300 miles in it. It's gathering dust in an old barn and that doesn't do the legend any good. Have struggled since nov.2005, 5 months after buying this nice Van-trailer/combo, with one major and a few minor strokes. Promised everybody to restore the Van but that story had to end in the fridge for a long time. Considered selling it a few times, but when I came at the barn and saw and hear the Van running, it was a serious NO! I can never buy them back!

You've never seen many pics of the Van so I have to do some maintenance/tune up to take them out again. The brakes need bleeding and the oil and filters are more than 15 years old. My carlift broke down so I put the Van on jackstands to start with the brakes.

I'll keep you guys/girls posted in this thread what I'm doing and when The combo is ready to see the sunlight, were gonna clean it, and I'll post a bunch of pics here.

I'll hope you will enjoy it.
Thanks for looking!




The driversside is not running free so I'll have to take the pistons out and clean the whole stuff. Ofcourse I'll do both sides. The discs look like new. The pads are good too.



I had my youngest daughter with me but she was not a great help laughing at me. She could't reach the brakepedal



Last trip I did was two years ago when my son had a birthdayparty from a schoolfriend in pirates-style. He stole the show, because whe came in style;





See ya next time.

One more thing.....

If anybody reading this, has old pictures of the "Tradewinds", please contact me.

Thanks

I will also launch a site in a few weeks.
It will be:

www.tradewinds-customvan.com

Very cool van! I love the trailer too! I've always thought about making a matching trailer like that for camping. It's cool to see one. Can't wait to see what all you do with this.

Glad to see you are back at it again. Hope you continue to feel better.
That is a amazing van you have. I know I have seen pictures before but don't remember where. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing your updates.

Great to have ya back and getting it fixed up.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/38/42/69/38426911502009be8f441b452088e472.jpg

i think i found one, try it n let me know if it worked

Yes, the link works, but this is a picture I've put on the net myself. I mean old meeting pictures from the NATS or the "Tradewinds" in it's glory days.

I think I have somewhere one pictures where the "Tradewinds" and "Lions Den" are together in one photo. There must be some vanners here who have taken pictures in those days.

Thanks for sharing @Erik43

So, I pulled the pistons out and saw what the problem was. The drivers-side was not turning free when I spinned the tire. There's a FORD-piston in the brake caliper.

I measured them both and they match perfectly. Same size and same hight. The ford piston has a welded bottum and the other is out of one piece.

Nothing is corroded, so I have to clean everything and put it all together again. A costless repair









The "Tradewinds" has also won some prizes back in those days and a few were still in/on the Van.
Here they are;

This one is on the inside of the front windshield;



This one is on the dash above the glovebox;



These two were in the Van;



Back site of one of those;



See ya next time.

Thanks for the updates, the Tradewinds van-trailer combo is one of my favorites. How has the paint held up over the years?

I think that 90% of the paint is ok. There are some rust-issues, the lower sidepanels and side-doors on the van and a few little surface-rust spots. The trailer is worse. I'm told that in Germany the owner had the trailer parked outside and the van in the garage. That's why there is a lot of difference in which condition they occur.

When the maintenance is done, the van/trailer is gonna make two trips. One to the metalshop/restaurator and the other to the special painter. The painter has the same style as H.Harnish and is in business since 1979 when he started his paintshop and airbrushstore. His experience goes further back.

I'm gonna make a bunch of pics when the van goes out of the barn.



All thanks of the reply's.
Ask me anything...

Busy with all kinds of things.

I took the rear brakes apart and they were very clean and in very good shape. Just clean everything and put it back together. Everything is working like it should be.





I also had to take my project-van from the metal-shop. I must put another rear-axle under the van and fit some things before I can bring him back for the rest of the metal-work. Must look for some extreme wheels

Not for this tread, but a sneak previeuw







Next time I have to check a leaking powersteering and fix that. After that a few small things and an oilchange, and then he can get cleaned for a photo-shoot.

Nice stable of vehicles you got in the garage. Definitely going to keep you busy with all the projects.

Looking forward to seeing more of both of your vans.

I put the brakes back on the van. I was bleeding the brakes and everything went well, except for the one on the driversside. It hadn't a full flow, so i took the brakefluid out and there was the problem. A lot of sludge and rust/metal-flakes. They block the flow to the brakes. I took the main cylinder from the van and took it appart. He is to worn to restore this part. He was leaking at the front and there was the rust to bad. I have to order a new one. I will blow the lines clean with high airpressure and have to wait for my order.











He can't sail out of the barn jet. The sail stay dusty a little longer.



See ya next time.

That picture is from a meeting back in the days when the "tradewinds" was there together with "lions den". Must have a picture somewhere of those 2 together.

That master cylinder looks NASTY! Good thing you caught that problem.

Hello.

I took a piece of waterproof sandpaper and rubbed the inside of the mastercylinder. It looked better than what i would expect so i decided to make this part like new again.

Before:



after:



before:



after:



before:



after:



before:



after:



Painted:









Now mount everything back on the van and bleed the brakes.
Hope we can get him out soon for the photoshoot.

The outside looks nice, but how did you clean the piston and bore area? To do it right you need a master cylinder rebuild kit and a master cylinder hone to truly machine and clean the piston bore and reseal it.

Yes, you're richt Reed. It's for us a normal thing to do, because i am a mechanic for 20+ years. Didn't take pictures of the tools i used. He's not mounted yet, so i'll take care of that soon.

Thanks for your comment.

Found a cool blog about your van. Best of luck fixin her up!

http://capnscurvystreasurechest.blogspot.com/2007/01/van-of-week-tradewinds-and-matching.html

OK- just so long as you honed it out and cleaned up the bore. As my great grandfather used to say, "It ain't cute if it don't work!" Meaning, if it looks hsiny but doesn't work, it isn't worth anything.

Keep up the good work!

PonyPete, thanks for posting the old blog about Tradewinds. I had read it years ago, but always nice to read through again. I had the great pleasure of seeing two of the other vans Harold painted, Stallion and Lion's Den, both beautiful works of art.

Reed, I always say:,,Do it 100% perfect, or don't even start with it!".

PonyPete, it is now already almost 10 years ago when he posted that thread on his blog. Nice guy. We've send several emails to eachother talking about the Tradewinds before he posted that story. He was very interested. Even Bob himself posted a reply in his blog.

Thanks.

I took some pics but forgot to take one of the hone-tool.

After the first hone-session it looked like this;



I use 2 different kinds of "grind"-paste. First one hones more and the second one for the fine-hone to get it like a mirror again.









When you clean it with water you get a clean finish and also a protectionlayer in the cylinder against corrosion.
After i cleaned everything I'll put a rubberpaste on the rubbers to slice perfectly tight. Use as little you can. Then i move the plunjer against the springpressure by hand a few times. The little holes in the mastercylinder will throw the last rubberpaste out and I clean it for the last time with high pressed air.





Now I build the mastercylinder back on the van and forgot to take the last picture of the smooth inside of the mastercylinder.



I've bleed the brakes and put the wheels on. He brakes like new again. I had some problems with the powersteering and that was quickly solved by putting more tension on the V-belt. He was completely loose.



Now next week the van will be took outside for a big clean-up. Than the pics will be shown here.

Keep in touch.

Nice work on the master cylinder, looking forward to the clean-up pics. Awesome van and great to see it being restored.

nice work! wil hem wel in het echt zien deze zomer!

Very, very cool! Sounds like the Tradewinds is in capable hands!

Thank you all for the support.

I've been very busy with some other things, but next week the tradewinds will get an oilchange and will be cleaned. Stay in touch.....the pictures of the van/trailer and the inside will be shown for the first time on the www. I'm exited. I hope you will be to.

See ya

Look forward to seeing the pics !

Perfecly nice weather in the Netherlands, so when there was some time left in this evening, and i just got home. (it's here now past 22:00) i could do some cleaning with my daughter. I have to clean the outside for a second time, but here is a sneak previeuw.

Enjoy.

Here he saw the sunshine first time this year. Still dusty. The piece out of the back fenderflare is in the van. It will be put back when we start the restoration.











Cleaned!

























Here a picture of the "wheelhouse". It must be cleaned also but on the picture you can't see the dirt on the floor





Here are some pics of the lightning on and in the van. I took him inside so you can see it better.



Side-window lights:



Runningboard lights:



front lights:



Roundseat in the back, indirect lights:



Ceiling lights:



Some shots inside the barn:







More will follow soon. The van wasn't dry because i didn't have the towels with me to dry the van. Better pics will be shown later.

Stay tuned!

Very nice.Looking forward to seeing more

What a bitchin van !

Hello.

The weathergods are going hand in hand with the "Tradewinds". The forcast was not so good but the clouds flew over and the sun took there place.

Also cleaned the trailer. Here a bunch op pics in random order:
Enjoy...

Part two:





































These last two pictures were before the cleaning







Next time the interior of the van and the trailer!!!
Stay tuned

Looking Good!

awesome Van for sure i love the matching trailer !

Awesome trailer. What's the inside inside like ?

This thing is truly stunning! I would love to see some brighter pictures of the inside of the van and trailer!

If the weather is good tomorrow, than the pictures will be put here also tomorrow.

See you in 24 hours.

Hello,

gratulation to buy this Custom-Van.
I own this Car in the 90´s.I ship it from Florida Tampabay Area to Germany. I have many Trophy from any Meetings in Germany.I hope it was in god condition.See the Problem with the Rust at the Rain gutter was still there.I hope you enjoy this awesome painted Van.

best regards
Torsten

Welcome to the site Torsten ...

Nice to hear from you Torsen. I have the usa-papers (title) still with the van (and trailer) and also the German papers (farzeugbrief). Both have adresses on them and my next move was trying to find all the former owners. I need a lot of luck but your post makes that very easy. Thanks. I'll shoot you a mail one of these days. Have some questions to ask and i also speak German

Allright.... here we go...


First the Dodge B100 from 1976;

Now the trailer from the inside;








































The bed...































The best mirror vieuw I can get:

Wow!!!!

Very, Very NICE,

Awesome interiors, some very fine craftsmanship.

Awesome interiors.

Awesome!

Wow!
Really cool!

I would love to own a van and trailer just like this.

What a beautiful rig! You must be very proud.

I love the Cordoba tail lamps on the trailer! I have a '77, so I'm biased.

. You can read my mind. It was yesterday that i said:,,I wonder from what brand/type of car those trailer lights are comming". You helped me out in a blink of an eye .

Yes, that lamp shape was used on '75 - '77 Cordobas. The '77 has a different bar of trim (filigree) running down the center. Thus I think yours are unique to the '75 and '76.

These are the '77s.



And here's a '75.



These would have originally had a "Cordoba" coin in that round center.

Thanks for the info. It's a perfect fit for the year when the Dodge rolled out of the Plant. 1976. I mean that the trailer was build in 1980. I saw some new lights on ebay. They have some small issues, but when the restauration starts on the trailer i know where to find them.

The rear lights of the Dodge are exactly the same as a type3 mustang cobra i also have.

My master-cylinder was not as good as i thought. I threw the brakepedal every time a little bit more to the metal, so i bought a new one. If he doesn't brake perfect i can't hit the road here with all those idiots who can't drive







My extra tools to suck out the fluid and fill it again without spoiling;







This set came complete with extra tools to bleed the air out of the master cylinder and a complete manual. Didn't see that before. Found it when i threw the package away


Not a spectacular post but i have to wait for a new ramp/carlift to start with bigger/larger updates on the van.

Due to my healthproblems, i didn't drive the van a lot. I think maybe 400 miles since 2005 when i purchased this dodge. Over here in the Netherlands all the cars need an vehicle inspection report done by mechanics at local garages/carshops, and that's superviced by the government. If you don't have that report you may not drive on the road. You are also not insured.

My van didn't get that report since 2005 and i only drove it sometimes with green garage/carshop plates. It's just for an inspectiondrive or to and from the garage/carshop.

Finally I,ve got the paper again and cars older that 30 years have to get a new one every 2 years, so i can drive the van until 2018 again.

Here a picture at the garage checked by a mechanic.



From 2005 the van threw the oil out of the exhaust and it took a gallon oil in 300 miles. Rebuilding the engine is the best thing to do, but i will drive it first for a while. We took 20W50 Kendall oil with a Lucas stabalizer. The oil stays now better in the engine so it works for now



The oilpressure was 65 psi and with a little throttle 75 psi, so that works for me





I took the dash out because i didn't have a working horn, no wiperwasher and some lightning failure in the dash.





That must all work for the inpection so it all works again. The brakes were perfect and exactly the same left and right on the brake-tester, so that worked out perfect!

The wiring of the van is good in the dash but there are many loose wires hanging around. I did rewire the engine compartment a few years ago and i'm going to do the rest also. A lot of the extra electric gatchets on the van don't work eather. That wiring is a mess. Gonna take care of that later.

First i will get a specialist to check out what the value is of the van/trailer combo for the insurance. That will happen on next tuesday.

I will also go to a metalworker and the special painter over here to see if they can take the van in a better shape.

Keep in touch.

Very nice and good luck with it all!

Looking good.Hope it all works out for you.

Awesome Van and trailer. Very nice pictures and hope to meet you and see the Van in real life

I took these pics a long time ago at a Vanmeet in Belgium.

Thanks. There are not much pictures from the tradewinds in the past. Everything is welcome. Didn't know hé also have had Belgium plates.

Thanks

Sorry to correct, but that are not belgium-plates.
That are German red-plates for historic-cars.

This licence is from the county of Ahrweiler (AW) and the plate on the Van starts with 07xx. This means, that it's a permanent plate for test-runs as well to drive the car to shows and meetings.
The other type of plates with red-numbers here are starting with 06xxx and are for dealers. That are temporary plates for testruns as well to drive a car from one spot to the other without extra registration.

Thanks Goose

What i know is that the "tradewinds" had 2 former owners in Germany. Did not know about the van was sold to Belgium, but they looked like Belgium plates at my first sight.

Thanks for correcting me.

I went the last saturday in August to a big local oldtimer-event with the "Tradewinds". The weather was perfect and when i drove through the gate they gave me the best spot at the front with a lot of space around the van and trailer.

Me and my son took some chairs with us to relax that day, but.....it went freakin' bussy
Hundreds of people would see the "tradewinds" in- and outside. and all people gave their thumbs up. A few stayed to listen to the whole story.

One guy I'll never forget.
It was a senior at an older age and when he walked to the "tradewinds" he stopped 50 yards away, raised his hands in the air, and shouted:,,Amazing after all those years to see such a nice custom van and trailer here in the Netherlands, AWESOME". That man was a big fan of customvans, and over here a not a lot special or even radical vans, so he thought he was dreaming. He came a few times and asked all about it. Very nice.









Here it was still early that day but later on the US-cars took every spot around us. I kept a lot of space but was blokked from every angle by the cars. Didn't take pictures of that because we were too busy

Looking good, thanks for the update.

Anyone remember seeing Tradewinds in a book or magazine from the 70s?

Hi everyone.

It's been a while ago, but i am back again.

I talked to a good friend who owns a bodyshop, and asked him when he had some time to look after the tradewinds. He was very busy but had a few days the next week, so that was very quick.
I drove the tradewinds to the shop and they where already waiting for me.

The 76 dodge B100 had some rustspots. 1;A bad done old repair on the drivers side with lots of bondo in the lower side, 2; left corner of the drivers door inside, 3; barn doors on the right side bottum in and outside, 4; a rusthole just back of the right rear fenderflare.

Those were the big spots. There are more tiny ones, but they were to bussy. There are taking care of those in the winter time.

Here are the first pics fro the progress. enjoy.


Here the barn doors on the passenger side.


left barndoor inside;


Right barndoor inside;


Left lower section drivers side, the bad old repair;




Spot behind the right rear fenderflare;


Spot on the inside driversdoor;























And the inside peace;


Next time the repairs.

See ya

Wow, that's a LOT of plastic filler. Glad you're getting it redone, and killing that rust.

Thanks for the update

So...the bad pieces are cut out. Here follows the rest.


First the metal on the inside;






When he was welding this piece in, i had to go, so after a while when i came back, it was like this;





There was also a little hole in the corner and the left piece of the rocker panel below the drivers door.











Now we have all metal and only a few grams bondo to get it all straight like an arrow. Better than the few pounds before. That's wy the dodge was leaning to the left side





Now we go to the right side...the barn doors. They were bad in- and outside at the bottom as you can see in the following pics..
























Now the corner behind the right rear fender flare;








And.... low corner of the drivers door;




After this, everything is sanded and primered....ready for paint.
















Next time the paintjob.
Stay tuned!

Wow! That looks very good! Someone obviously knows what they are doing!

Curious what you are doing to coat/seal the inside of the repair areas to keep them from rusting out again?

Thanks for the replies!

After welding the inside sheetmetal on the left side, he first cleaned it and painted it. Every welded section is treated from the back side with a protection spray through a little hole.

Man, that's fast work! Can't wait to see it in paint.

The whole job is done in 3 days!! They work 14 hours a day. Pics are comming soon.

Thanks.

Looks GREAT!

You're making some progress too, Lee.
Looks awesome.

I drove my van across the city to pay a visit to the paintshop who has a paintreader. They take a spot to put the device on, and there are the right colors to mix, exactly the color on the van at his screen.







Inside the paintshop;


No comment, just look at the pics















Inside of the barn doors;






Look at the paint, on the left side with that rust bubble on it is not threated yet, and has 33 year old paint on it. The right side (left barn door) has fresh paint on. It matches perfectly




Behind the fenderflare; It's the wrong color but the mural painter has to mix the right one at that time. But...it needed some paint right now.



Ofcourse my mural painter has to do his job to make it exactly the same when Harold Harnish put it on. But...that's for later. First we have to do the little issues, but it's to bussy right now in the shop. We do that in the Wintertime. After that we have to redo the trailer. finaly the mural painter and than it's ready to go.

See you later vanners.
Do you like it so far?

Love it so far.

Very nice!

Glad you caught it all now instead of it going to way of Lion's Den.

Yes. Lions Den is my favorite van of all times. I've heard the way it was build and they new before the paint came on, that this would and could happen.

I own the Tradewinds since 2005. It takes me so long due to my health, but i dicided to get this job done. It will never get pristine again, but we will get as close as we can with it's patina.

After this summer we do the rest of the Dodge. Also the engine, front suspension, wheels, exhaust etc. I hope we can do the trailer next year.

Stay tuned.

That's some impressive work!

Thank you guys.

I hope to start in 5-6 months with the rest of the sheetmetal. In the mean time i will do some minor stuff. I'll keep you posted.

See ya

Hi Moparronnie,
I am happy to see my old dream.
I was the second owner in Germany.
And I am also happy to see, that you spent your Love and Money to refit the Van.
By the way, I was the guy, who went to Belgium to a US- Car- Meeting and
this License plate, you can see at the Fotos, was a special plate from my homearea Ahrweiler (AW).

Many Greetins From Remagen.

Bernd

Thanks for your reply.

Yess...talking care of it. Takes some time but it wil be done in a matter of time.

Got any more pictures of it?
Thanks.

Can't wait to see it done!

Yeah can't wait to see it

Hey everybody.

It's been a while, but we started again with the project. Stay tuned. Must upload a bunch of pics to make the story complete.

See ya

Hi moparronnie,
here I am again. :-)
our mutual friend ,Andre, contacted you.
I am realy happy to see the pictures from my old dream and for your energy to restaurate the van.
If you want, I will look for my old pictures from meetings and so on.
my question is: what`s about the trailer?
If you have any questions for my, I will be happy to answer them for you.

Many greetings from Remagen
en tot ziens

Bernd

Hello.

Yess....thanks due to André. No questions yet, but we first focus on the Van. Trailer will be done next year if we stay on schedule.
Oh yes, one question..... were you the second third or 4th owner in Germany?

I have to pay for photobucket to get the pics active again. Then I will update on the restoration.

See ya

I hate how photobucket has ruined millions of once great threads because now you cant see the pics.

yes it sucks!

Hi moparronnie,
realy a big thanks to Andre.
I was the second owner in Germany. And it was my licence plate (AW-...) on the van.
So, good luck for work.


Many greetings from Remagen

Thanks. I'll do my best.
Keep in touch.

Yes, photobucket ruined a lot. The pics were visible again for some time but they changed it again unfortunately. I have to make it active again.

Hi Vanners.

It has been a while, but after paying some bucks to photobucket, we can continue with the resto of the Tradewinds.


Last time we did the big problems on the body and replaced some sheetmetal. In the meantime we started with all the minor spots. The underside is 100% solid, so all the spots are on the body. Scratches/chips out of the paint/ cracks/ little rostspots etc.

Okay, no story without pics, so let's start with the drivers door.
That didn't close so good, because there is also some weight from a block solid wood where they carved "Tradewinds" out of, and the door is used for 40+ years. The hinges are good, but behind the lower one, there is a big metal plate to support it. On the upper side there isn't one :(, so i took one out of a parts van and we mounted that behind the hinge on the inside.

Ther were some cracks from hanging, so we took care of it.

Here we took the door out;





Had no help, so i used the crane with good protection foam.

The lowest bolts are done from the inside and the upper 3 bolts are in the same compartment as the wipermoter etc. I took a large extender (3,5 feet) to reach it and that went well.

Here on the right side you see the 3 bolts. They were really tightned so i took an air wrench to get them loose.
Couldn't do it by hand.



Here you see the distance of the wrench







There it was, door is out.





Over here is the problem visable;







Here the welding has started and through the upper hole you can see the steel plate. Its almost 0,5 inch thick and supports as much as possible on the inside, so he will be never ever hanging again











So far.

Next time the other spots.
Share your comment here or if you have any questions.
Thanks.

See you in a couple of days.

Nice repair , she is a beauty.

Looking very nice. always liked it.

Thanks

There were some damages and scratches on the van. i am very lucky that nothing in the murals is damaged, but almost every spot is on an edge or where doors close etc. ofcourse there are some spots that are part of the large murals but the bigest 3 were behind the bumper but thats no problem for my mural restore painter. he started airbrush paint on cars and bikes in the early 70s!

Here are some of the spots;

First i had to take of all the fender flares an bumpers..









All wheelwells were perfect, only one had a few spots;





















There was missing a part of the flag, so that had to be prepared for the painter too





The wingdoor at the rear has some touched spots on the bolts;





Dripping rail corner;







The blue bubble behind the rear bumper;













The fender flares and front spoiler had also some crascks. They are all done too;



















I once hit something





See you next time

Love the back end pic!

This thing is so amazing. I never noticed the spots molded to the rear bumpers until the pic with the bumper removed. Makes me really wish I could just drive over and look at it all in person. Keep up the amazing work and thank you for sharing it all with us.

Thanks @newkirkinc1 and @kursed.

Yes, the bumper pipes molded in look very nice. Also never have seen a second one done like this. They needed some tlc too, but i'm gonna show that next time.

Here we are again. We are making a lot of progress! Thats nice, bacause we have a lot to do. The guys in the bodyshop are very busy and work 14 hours shifts, so its going FAST!!
So...he wrapped the van with paper to protect the paint and have enough space to work on the spots. Lets see....








Here is some work on the fiberglass parts, the fenderflares, spoiler and headlight trim;















Now...LOOK at the HAPPY MOPAR FACE, next to the ghost with the pointed white hat, and on the end that little bear




Now the other spots on the van;

Behind the rear bumper;





Above the rear right light;



Some spots on the driprail;





The rear bumper double pipe inlet moldings;





Little hole at the A-pillar;





And over here the only fenderwell that had some bad spots;





The side doors;



Next time we are going to see the van outside with everything done and primered ready for the mural painter. I hope you vanners enjoy it

Scrolled through looking at the pictures before reading and spotted the happy face too.

Awesome work so far. So nice to see you going to such lengths to preserve the art that was there. Rock it!

I spotted it, better call one of those fake ghost hunters on tv this is a sign.lol

And I salute the person willing to bring this van back up to Glory.

Thanks. You're welcome.
Thanks for the replies.

Hi again.
We have put some primer on all the spots to prepair it for the mural painter. Here are pictures from all the spots we could find sofar. maybe we find some more, but we are gonna take care of that also. Its very hard to find the last ones because of the wrap around mural.

Ok. Here we go.

Behind the rear bumper;







Bumper molded inlets;





Just on and underneath the driprail at the rear;











The only bad fenderwell left rear side;



little damage spots;





The side doors with the wingdoor where those 3 meet;





Upper hinge of the left door had a to much large gape, solved;







Right side passenger door;





Molded antenna. Looks like its not finished, but its perfectly smooth;



Behind the front bumper;



I think i have to re-chrome some parts too





Drivers side door;





The hole in the A pillar;





Wingdoor corners at the rear;





Here 2 side shots from the sheetmetal we replaced on the drivers side. Didn't post a photo from it, only with the running boards on.;





Don't look at the paint quality. It's gonna be mirror finish quality, but we first put some paint on it



Finaly the photo's from the fiberglass parts. Here we go;


























YEAH!!! Let's PARTYYYY

Free of rost and scratches damages and stuff. One BIG STEP further in the process.

Thanks for watching sofar.

Sweet man, back to it's former glory.. Nice job

Can’t wait to see finished pics. This thing is so cool

Hello there,

Thanks for the replies guys!

I have a little story that only a few know!

Before the Tradewinds dodge van and trailer were build, there was another full muraled dodge van and trailer done by Bobs Vanshop and painted by Harold Harnish!

That was the "Iron Horse".



A beautifull combo . Very very awesome

But..... when i spoke to a guy on Facebook named "Wookie van" i had a lot more questions.
He owned a welding fabricating business near by, and talked to Bob about the Tradewinds. Wookie build his own trailer from a ford and then Bob said that they started on the Tradewinds and they would take the trailer from the Iron Horse to redo it to match behind the Tradewinds .

There was no time left to build a new trailer, so they took the one from the Iron Horse .
Unbelievable .
So... how do you take a complete nice fresh wrap around mural from a great cutomtrailer that belongs to a great customvan, and sand it down to bare metal, put a window in front, put a different high top roof on it, delete the wooden runningboards, changed the rear lights, and paint it again

I first talked to the mural painter Harold Harnish. He even didn't know, because even he said that those were 2 separate trailers. I was mistaking.

Second i send an email to Bob Kashner. And yes....he confirmed the story
The trailer was taken from the Iron Horse to match with the Tradewinds Dodge B100.

If i had to do that i hadn't sleep for a month i think

So, the trailer behind the Tradewinds is the former trailer behind the Iron Horse!! The Iron Horse van was indeed on the next vanmeets without a trailer!! That was confirmed too. The Iron Horse dodge van is with a train aficionado somewhere near or in PA. Nobody has seen it again, but the last person who told me the info says that he was still there 4 years ago, but no pics of that.

Wookie his trailer out of a ford is still around in a heated garage somewhere in NJ.
That's this one;



Looks at the pics that i have.

The trailer was first build to match a grey/black painted dodge van that was build by Bobs Vanshop.
This pic was send to me by Bob himself. He took a picture of a photo but you can see its the same. Look at the roof. Also this rear bumper became the front bumper on the tradewinds dodge. The wooden running boards were also there, same as the trailer had behind the Iron Horse. They had both the stock rear dodge lights.



Look here, same angle;





Another angle;









More shots;







There is also a very nice story about the wrap around murals! That's also a thing that not much people know. I think this custom van is the one with the best story around.

Now.... i am pretty sure you didn't know this.

Please WRIGHT A COMMEND. Who didn't know???

Thanks. See you next time

That is such a cool story! I love seeing the lineage of some of these older builds! So cool!

Great story. Always cool to find the history on a vehicle

Looking good. Nice to see there are still custom vans on our side of the ocean.

Thanks guys.

I contacted my mural painter. He just celebrated his 70 birthday. He didn't paint for a few years now and can't start on my project unfortunately.
He gave me the number of a student painter from him who paints for 20+ years now. First contact has been made so i hope it wil work out.

Thanks.

Sadly the rust shows no mercy for murals but when re painted it going to look awesome
Keep up the work and great story about the trailer

Good luck with the painter. Great story.

These mural painters are a dying breed, I hope they pass knowledge to some youngsters out there. I hope Tradewinds comes out better than before.