"DEATHSTAR" 1977 Custom Dodge Van

[Music] hi my name is Tom Chronister I'm from Garden Grove California and I drove all the way here to the 44th Van Nationals in Florida this is my 1977 dodge tradesman 200 van and it's extended to 20 and a half feet six wheel tandem and it's called the Death Star it has a built 360 with the Holley throttle body fuel injection it does about 400 horsepower I can burn the tires for 200 feet if I felt like it okay the van is 20 and a half feet long basically I had the van at the time the artists had the idea in 1978 we did the original Star Wars movies and then the original Battlestar Galactica was on the right-hand side of the van back in your late 70s and it stayed with those murals for 20 years and I was told the van has seen it today as far as the murals but the paint was still good and then coupe talked me into updating and he kept the van for a while and did a fantastic job on the updated murals which have all six Star Wars movies in them at this time and future plans there's going to be a tandem trailer with any additional Star Wars movies to match the van the van has a padded vinyl top the original 1977 vinyl it also has two Sun roofs are also glass edged and Odyssey winged Sun Visor in the front I also have Corvette mirrors yeah pretty much it's a 77 front end it has a glory grille in it when the first eight had like grills that he made the front hood scoop is all hand done it's all steel the flares the front spoiler the running boards and the belly pan in the back or all 16 gauge steel and the only thing fiberglass on the van again is the wing in the visor in back in 1977 I have the cowling done for ten dollars to Chrome it this is how I do it for show um it's got some striping you know coop also did keep the wiring in the battery box all tucked away not seen cleaning for traveling so far oh yeah okay basically this is two captains chairs they're Flexsteel captain's chairs the doghouse has some plexi in it so you can see the engine it's good for show it's and then a unique feature that the snack tray has that I haven't seen on any other van that I've been around has the air conditioning unit come through the snack tray and it keeps your drinks cold so and the stereo has a little six inch screen that pops out so you when you play the TV set in the back it also plays up here in the front it has a cobra CB or D channel it has an outlet up there for a computer you can plug right in as you're traveling down the road and then the toggle switches operate all the lighting on the inside of an and if you notice on both the driver and the passenger front doors it says if you only knew the power of the dark side and then the other side I find your lack of faith disturbing okay the center part of the van has all the cabinet work we have a wet bar we have an overhead lighting which is off right now because we're in the show some display items all chrome tambour doors diamond plate and brushed aluminum and all the cabinet work and then it was also featured a couple of years ago and more Mopar Monthly which is this magazine right here okay the side door is a slider door it was cut down four inches on the bottom to fit in the original barn door area and it's a little thinner than the side doors were originally so it took I was originally about 300 pounds we went through and gutted the door so it's easier to lift up okay and in the back side of the van we have a 32 inch flat-screen TV the rear set of Sun roofs which are also glass edged speakers surround sound and a water bed from 1978 still have the square tubes in there so still comfortable still a lot of fun underneath the bed there's storage in the back side of the van has 1967 cougar taillights and flashing sequence the rear bumper is one of a kind and it's not off any vehicle they are table legs and I have rear fog lights for backup and it pretty much has the stormtrooper helmets throughout the door jambs and on the backside of the Beltline this was taken off the movie of number for showing Anakin Skywalker getting into the Star Wars excuse me number one I got to remember their six movies and they're out of sequence so this one here is also off number two and then this side here was taken off number four which was film back in 77 [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] you

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Views: 1,322,181

Rating: 4.5962238 out of 5

Keywords: deathstar, 1977, dodge, custom, van, vanner, vanners, classic, tom, chronister, coop, john, koterba, lightning, videos, video, myvanonvideo, vansonvideo, vans, star wars, star, wars, murals, mural, luke, skywalker, death star, death, tandom, space, Galaxies edge, galaxie, galaxies, edge, darth, vader, darth vader

Id: Tf_yoRDg-j0

Length: 9min 14sec (554 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 26 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

That is 70's treasure.

[u/Plaghk]

Ant-man upgrades his Time machine.