More interior updating

Okay, so the Hog is still being updated... Today I got a shipment of the skins spare tire cover, flags, steering wheel and of course fuzzy dice. After a week of painting the interior with a Washington Gold Satin paint, Lindsay flat out told me it looked like shit and that I should get the high gloss paint. I didn't believe her. We went to home depot where they had paint samples. I believed the paint samples and got the Washington Gold high gloss. The painted sections were then sanded back down to the wood and repainted in 3+ "coats", not layers, like I like to call them (thanks photoshop). The fresh paint made the paneling "pop", just like Shawn Johnson's Ortega taco.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms5d9RN0WzY

Also, the "rape curtains" will be replaced with Skins cotton fabric which will be sewn by miss hughes. The van is coming together and the schedule will be posted soon, first come first serve.

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Future Possibilities

Mifi - Mobile Wifi - Hogvan wireless
http://moremobileinternet.com/verizon-modem-cards/novatel-mifi-2200/

Apparently it's $40 or so a month for this on a 1yr min. subscription to mifi service with verizon. It's not worth the money now, but if the Hogvan becomes a fleet of Hogs, it could be... Just an idea, I'm sure in a couple years this will be standard in all vehicles.

Does anyone know if a digital converter box will actually work to pick up signal at FedEx, I assume it will, but haven't bought a box or done any testing... please comment back on this...

Another thing is, I'll need a generator to power the TV. If you have an extra one/one for rent/borrow let me know or know of a solid cheap one. PS3 and Rockband will be coming to the game too!

Interior Facelift

The Hog Van's interior is undergoing renovations this week, starting with the conversion wood paneling. This has involved removing each piece of paneling from the doors, curtains, and dash, as well the as overhead light and ac unit panels – it’s been a slow process. I have had to sand down each panel to get rid of the glossy stain and then I have painted with each piece with three coats of Washington Gold NFL paint.

It's extra tricky/sketchy to be unscrewing the paneling in the garage of my parking lot, and even worse to be taking a trash bag containing all of the pieces down the garage elevator and then into my apartment elevator. Once in the apartment, I have virtually no room to paint these panels so I've made a sad attempt at a painting station, using every available inch of counter space in the kitchen. Three coats of paint later and I'm still wondering if I need a roller...

The fuses have been replaced and the limo lights are once again operational. I found a matching door handle, however the portion inside of the door has been stripped, so that's the next part to be replaced. Also, the hunt for a replacement G20 grille is still going on... if you have a G20 grille, I'll take it off your hands.

The next interior project for the Hog Van is the sound system. Right now there are stock speakers in the dash, two random center speakers that are dead and two rear Jensen speakers. I hope to replace the four center and front speakers with new ones, add a mediocre head unit with aux in, and hopefully a cheap sub to give the Hog some bass.

Eventual updates might have to include tint or replacement curtains with Skins material... Lindsay, I'm looking at you.

Maiden Voyage - HOGVAN COMETH

Thursday Aug. 13th - Redskins @ Ravens Preseason 7:30pm

Last night, the hog made its maiden voyage up to Baltimore for the Skins first preseason game of the 09-10 season! Pretty ballsy considering this would be its longest trip I've ever taken it in, with the added risk of 6 people on board. I filled up the tank, apparently last time I didn't fill it all the way. The G20 has two models, I assumed I had the 22 gallon standard, nope, the hog has a 33 gallon aquarium of a tank. Fierce. Also, super expensive, $72+ to fill it.

Went to Target to get some pre-game supplies... Bud Light Lime was on sale for $6.05 for a 12 pack... Now I know you're going to say, who the hell drinks bud light lime besides those trendy looking californians in their commercials, well, I'm here to say, don't knock it until you try it... BLL is basically like water with a hint of lime, great for drinking in the sun. Chips, ice and coolers were added to the giant truck space of the hog. The Hog purred with anticipation.

Picked everyone up, and made followed Susan, my GPS, to Ravens stadium, with a slight 20 minute detour down West Virginia Ave. NE, possibly the most ghetto neighborhood I have ever been in, to get to New York Ave. Thanks, Susan, way to think it out! Unscathed, the hog snorted full steam up 95 with 5 skins fanatics and Lindsay, the sole, yet vocal, Ravens fan. Lindsay was decked out in her Ray Lewis jersey and armed with a thick Balmer accent that got worse the closer we got to M&T bank stadium. Thanks BLL!

It was pouring rain on the highway and finally cleared up past Columbia MD. The tunes were blasting out of the old school tape deck and the Hog was happy. We got to Baltimore at 730 on the dot and found parking past Camden Yards at the top of a parking garage with a great view. A bunch of BLLs later and the crowd was ready for the game. Sadly, the Skins decided to go scoreless and embarrass everyone wearing burgundy and gold. The excuse of "it's only preseason" and "it's basically a practice" were heard mumbled by the majority of skins fans, others were too intoxicated to make remarks. Yes, it is preseason, but it still was an embarrassment. The middle school football teams we saw playing at half time score 2 TD's each in less than 10 minutes... I mean WTF?! Not even a field goal?! A safety?! A free throw!?

The only positive that came out of the game was that the HOGVAN COMETH!

We drove back to DC in radio silence. Stunned by the game, but proud to be in the comfortable embrace of the hog.

HOGVAN COMETH.

HogVan Day 2

HOGVAN - Day 2

(Also, day 1, I took the van out with my girlfriend, Lindsay, the battery crapped out because I left the lights on in a parking lot, luckily across from Sears Auto. We got a new battery and fluids, coolant was totally gone. Lindsay installed the battery like a badass. The van was revived.)

It was time to see exactly what this beast needed to keep running and pass safety and emissions to get titled/plated in VA. I also, insured the vehicle, figured that was a good idea.

First stop was Jiffy Lube for a routine oil change... Since this 94 Chevy G20 is a custom conversion van, the air filter was too far back in the engine block to remove without a large fee... I settled on just getting fresh oil.

Next stop was emissions/safety... Went to a local exxon and was subjected to August heat with no AC for a couple hours. Finally the van got inspected, took over an hour. Fingers crossed, somehow the van passed emissions on the second try but the safety came back with some minor fixes, such as burnt out side marker lights and front headlight and the front driver side door handle which was broken when I got it, needs to be replaced. After the replacements, the door handle still didn't get fixed because the threading was stripped on the inside of the handle, but the guy passed me for safety with a warning saying to pick up an extra handle at a junk yard asap! I'm still opening the door from the outside with the window down... If you have a G20 van and have an extra handle as well as center grill let me know!

Next stop, DMV. Went to the express DMV and signed over the old title, got a VA title, plates, stickers and registration. The Hogvan was a dream no more... She was proud to be legal and a Virginia resident.

Craiglist Pics of the Hogvan

The search for HOGVAN

Well, first off, welcome to the Hog Blog... I'm doing a retrograde blog starting from the beginning. I've always wanted to have a school bus to transport people to and from the Skins game, camping, bars, bbqs, whatever the case is, there never seemed to be enough space and way too many cars going to the same place with no parking or expensive parking. Getting a bus, while individually more environmentally-unfriendly, bulky and sketchy, if you add up the emissions from the 5+ cars we used to take to games, the amount saved in parking passes and a little paint job, you've got yourself a pretty damn efficient transport vehicle.

With that thought in mind, I started trying to rally the troops and get dedicated skins fans to throw in some money for said bus. Varying amounts and logistical problems ensued. First, the driver of any passenger vehicle over 14 people needs a commercial drivers license. This would be a pain for multiple drivers to get as well as the insurance for a bus was astronomically higher than a regular street legal van/truck. There was no way to evenly break up the pot and make sure each investor could get a "return" on his investment... This being control over the bus for a certain time period based on monetary input. Also, insurance played a big role in the decision to have one person take sole custody of what was to become the HogVan.

That said, I started to hunt for vans and trucks that could hold a fair amount of people, actually ran, was in my budget (under 2k) and if possible, had a burgundy/gold paint job which would save costs on the backend.

After about a month of combing craigslist (DC, Baltimore, Philly, NYC, Pittsburgh, Raleigh), finally a promising conversion van popped up in Sykesville MD. Two weeks of back and forth negotiating down from 1700, the seller and I settled on $1350. Originially, I was to go up to Sykesville with Todd, a friend of mine who's a mechanic extrodinaire, to check out the van and help me bring it back, however, the sellers availability was before 11am on Sunday morning in Sykesville which is over an hour and half away. 8am Sunday morning I woke up groggy and called Todd, no answer. Called again, silence. Finally, I thought, who would be awake at this hour? Hey, Mom.

So my mother and I rode up to Sykesville in search of HOGVAN. The GPS gave up on us at a mailbox leading down a long farm road... We went down the road for about a mile where the forrest canopy opened up to a clearing in a large farm. Atop a hill, as if it had decended from the heavens, sat the potential HOGVAN. She was glorious. It looked like a match from the craigslist pictures, always a plus, and looked in overall good condition. After calling, Rick (the seller), we finally got to see inside the beast... The interior was in great shape for a 94 Chevy G20. A huge dog (named Ben for Ben Rothlesbuger) hopped in the van, along with a 7 year old girl who then started to tell me about the van. My fears of being murdered on a back country road with my mother present, took a backseat along with Ben and the 7 year old.

It started raining. The engine didn't turn over. Rick looked shocked. He then pulled his truck over and we started to charge the battery while the 7 year old climbed around the van, seemingly inspecting it and giving it a long good bye. Finally, after about 20-30 minutes, we got it running like CP. After a quick spin around the farm, we made the title for cash exchange and we were out of there... On the way home I learned that the windshield wipers actually did work, a huge plus, but the AC didn't pump out of the upper vents, no bueno. Plateless and achy, the van made it back to Arlington, its new home.

The next day was designated to inspecting/fixing the vans unidentified problems...