A 1960s Ford Econoline that spent forty-two years around Chuck’s Pit Stop in Boise, then sat in a field until we hauled it out. It’s in the shop now - new chassis, on the ground, name hand-painted on the side. This is the build.
We pulled two Econolines out of a field for $900 - this one and a teal one. The teal one we got running and sold for five grand. That paid for this one, and then some.
Then people started telling us whose it was.
This van belonged to Chuck Neitzel. If you raced anything around here, you knew him. He ran Chuck's Pit Stop in Boise and turned wrenches there for forty-two years. He's a Hall of Famer at Meridian Speedway and still holds a track record. He and his son put their names on two world records at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Before any of it, he joined the Air Force at seventeen and made crew chief on a B-47.
He passed away in 2012.
Since we started showing the build, a guy reached out to tell us Chuck used to load go-karts in the back of this van and haul him and his buddies out to the track. He knew the van on sight, before he knew anything about us.
So we're not turning it into something else. It gets a chassis, a stance, and its name on the side - and it stays the van people remember.
Did you know Chuck? Were you one of the kids in the back of this van on the way to the track? We'd like to hear it. Text us at (208) 789-1218, or email [email protected]. If you have a photo of him with it, we'd be glad to put it on this page.
We could have had vinyl on a late-model van in an afternoon, and nobody would remember it.
We make a living pulling things out of the dump and giving them a second life. It would be a strange way to earn a living and then drive something forgettable. So the shop van is the one that needed saving most - lettered by hand instead of printed, and it'll haul your sign to your garage when it's done.
January 2018 to August 2026. It has taken a while.
When it's done, this is what shows up at your house with your neon in the back.
See the signsFresh finds, new neon, and walls we've lit up - straight from @kingsgarage208.