Ol’Son

BIG PLANS!
Ol’Son arrived at the Gallerage at the end of May 2018. My vision of to have it become a mobile art studio, with the eventual goal… of driving across Canada and recording images and events for future paintings.

IT’S JUST MONEY!
The original motor in van only had 150,000 km on it, but I quickly realized that I wasn’t going to get this running by simply adding gas and a battery. There were some serious unknown issues and
it was going to take a new engine to satisfy my needs for this van.
I had budgeted $10,000 to have the van up and driving, so I was pretty confident that anything that could go wrong would be covered by that amount.

I was wrong!

I underestimated by @ $4,000, but to be fair, $14,000 did get me a completed van… except for tires and paint.

The list of parts I needed made counter people at the auto parts store… giggle with anticipation.
So far I have replaced or repaired everything on or under the van… except the exhaust system and that’s on the list for 2022.

“Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.”

-Oscar Wilde

FIRST WILD RIDE!
I needed to move Ol’Son over to Campbell River at the end of 2018 and close the chapter on Deer Lake.
Ol’Son was drivable… just.
I had the interior packed to the ceiling with things which I needed moved over to the island… and I had yet to take it on a fully operational road test.

The trip that morning to catch the ferry was to be the first of several “shake or break tours” and it was one of the windiest, wildest ferry ride that I have encountered in many years.

Ol’Son handled himself well. Like a drunken sailer sailing a brick into a hurricane.
I counted off the kms until I arrived at the ferry terminal.
That was the first stage. The second step was getting it off the ferry, and so it went… all the way up the island. The heater worked, the lights worked, the wipers worked… that’s all I needed to get me there.
I had no idea how much gas I needed, since the speedo and the rest of the dash gauges didn’t work.
We arrived in CR later that night, exhausted and shaken but not stirred.
Ol’Son was home again.

INTERIOR BUILD DETAILS
https://drigler.com/interior-details-that-are-a-cut-above/