Junkyard Gem: 1990 Ford Econoline 250 Vibe Palace

Art cars are wonderful things, but everyday life on the street tends to be rough on them. During my junkyard travels, I’ve found plenty of art cars that were swept aside by a harsh world that didn’t value them enough, including the Groovalicious Purple Princess of Peace Taurus, a Volvo 240 paying homage to Van Gogh and the Bible, a famous 1969 Ford Mustang, lots of hot-glue masterpieces and some adventures in creative metalwork. Then there are the creatively decorated travel vans; today’s Junkyard Gem combines both types in one glorious Econoline, found in a Denver-area yard last winter.

This van was a serious piece of 21st century Denver art history, but it was fed to the cold steel jaws of the crusher months ago.

It began life at Lorain Assembly in Ohio, as an ordinary ¾-ton cargo van.

Then it became a canvas for Akiala I, a multidisciplinary artist who has worked to fight the gentrification of Denver’s Five Points neighborhood while creating art businesses called Absoulute Vibe and Vibe Palace. From what I can tell, the Vibe Palace van is named after a spaceship from the planet Ultima in a galaxy “somewhat far away,” and it transported Ms. I to New Orleans and back to Denver at least once.

There’s plenty of science-fiction-meets-New-Age-spirituality artwork all over the Vibe Palace Econoline.

The lettering on the right side is nicely three-dimensional, and I’m impressed that it stayed in place through all that cross-country driving.

Good advice!

Inside, there’s plenty of pink, purple and disco-ball fabric.

The engine is a 5.8-liter small-block pushrod V8, formerly known as the 351 Windsor. 1989 was the final year for US-market Econolines with manual transmissions, so this van has an automatic.

This generation of Econoline was built from the 1975 through 1991 model years, so this van is one of the final examples of the angular “long snout” Econoline family.