Hearses are neat types of vehicles that don’t really get enough praise for how cool they are. They spend much of their lives being the vehicle usually found during one of a family’s worst days. So it’s totally understandable that most people wouldn’t think much about them. However, after these vehicles leave funeral service, they can become cheap utilitarian vehicles that can be overlooked. The possibilities are endless, especially when that van is the extended 1990 Dodge Grand Caravan hearse that David Tracy found.
I mean, just hook your peepers onto that van. It’s so long! The seller retained the bench seats, too, so you could just use it as an extra-long passenger van if you wanted. Given the length, it’s more like a Grander Caravan? Mammoth Caravan?
Since this van was also a hearse, if you were to convert it into a camper and decide to live out your goth vanlifer dreams, shouldn’t there be a term for that? Today’s COTD winner Canopysaurus thinks so:
If you’re traveling and dwelling in a hearse, wouldn’t that be Van Afterlife?
Thank you for the deep laugh Canopysaurus, it was just the thing for a Monday. Sort of related, friends of the show and rally legend Bill Caswell taught me how to weld on Friday. I now feel like I’ve gained a superpower and I can’t stop looking at two metal things and imagining them together. Here’s a picture of a tube I welded after some instruction from Caswell. More practice is needed, obviously, but I expected worse from my first welds:
Now I want to build a diesel-powered motorcycle one day. Have a great evening, everyone!
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Do they even make new limos? Or are they all just stretch SUVs? The hearse game too would be cool if they used some new vehicles.
I missed the original article yesterday, but I just wanted to add that my grandfather’s hearse at his funeral was a modified Ford Windstar. It made us happy because he was always a Ford guy, I don’t think he or my grandmother ever owned another brand in their entire lives.
Arguably, learning to make things is the original superpower.
Better than my first attempt at brazing a 3 inch copper pipe (it resulted in a 1 inch hole in said pipe).
Remember, when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
But when the only tool you have is a welder, every problem looks however you want it to!
Got some good welds and some that didn’t penetrate enough, needs more heat (longer time on location, higher settings, or other). Keep at it! Great start. Practice practice practice.
That’s awesome that you’ve learned how to weld! That’s a skill I’ve always been curious about. I’ve been tempted to pick up some cheap welding equipment and try to figure it out on my own, but considering my track record with such things I’d probably wind up in a burn ward after accidentally starting a medium-sized fire.
Congrats on your first weld Mercedes!
Someday I may learn to weld but worry that will open Pandora’s box on potential projects I’d “think” I could do. But diesel motorcycle sounds cool, just don’t go rollin’ coal on the EV motorcycles.
EV motorcycle is an interesting spelling of mobility scooter.