suburban regency conversion

[Clyde65]

There was a company called Carriage Conversions back in the mid 80's that made the caddy of conversion vans. They ran like almost $50k retail back then, had color TV VCP ( player only like a VCR), leather everything, very nice!

[Dave C]

i would love to have a conversion van like that at the race track on a hot summer day... instead i sit out side under a tent with a box fan and water haha

[Psycho71]

Regency built some nice stuff. In the mid-80's I worked for Ivory Coach Conversions. We had the top rated conversion van for two years in a row, and were always in the top five. It is amazing, all that goes into building a true conversion van. We had our own wood and fabric shop on site. So changes, custom items, pretty much anything, was able to be realized right there in short order. Kinda funny, the assembly line and QC area was all Texans, the woodshop was all Cajuns, and the fabric shop was all Vietnamese workers. Made for some very interesting confrontations at times! And there was no funner job than pulling a brand new van into my shop and taking an air chisel and nibbler to it, cutting huge holes in it for toppers & windows and such.

Later, after Ivory Coach sold out, I worked for the new owners who got into doing trucks and burbs. I always hated the trucks they built. Just a bunch of bolt-on parts that sucked. The burbs were kind of a cross between getting the full van treatment, and a lot of the bolt-on stuff the trucks got. Some nice burbs came out of the shop though.

I wish I could find a burb being parted out with a nice overhead console like the one pic'd above. I'd scoop it up in a heartbeat. The burbs just have too much ceiling area not to have better use made of it. The consoles built in them in the 80's might not have made the best use of the ocean of ceiling, but they did at least break up the HUGE flat area of nothing overhead. As for all the wood accents on the doors, dash, etc, it's kinda lost on me. Nice looking stuff, no doubt. just not my style.

Having been in the industry, I have a true appreciation for the older conversion vehicles out there. Even the most basic. But some of them had some really awesome stuff in them, awesome for the era anyway.

[motornut]

man that looks real nice inside too
and you got a real third seat mine clipped to eyelets above the floor
and seat belts too......my 2nd and third row didn't get seat belts

[Criscobath]

I have one! Picked it up a couple weekends ago on the cheap. 73k miles. Added the old school Centerline wheels last week.

[Criscobath]

I'm missing the wood from the dash and front passenger door. If anyone knows where I can source those pieces, it would be greatly appreciated. The previous owner (the son of the original owner) tossed them in the trash because he thought it looked gaudy.