Wild Cherry 1975 Chevy Van. Rescued. The Story. 

70's vans are the coolest!!!!!!!

I grew up in the 60's and 70's as a kid and can remember the van craze like it was yesterday. Great times in America!

Great job brother .... seeing those vans takes me back to a much much simpler time . Thanks for the memories ...

Now we need the Re-rescue video

I have had many "hotel on wheels". We had some very nice party vans. Amazing memories. This van is awesome.

Amazing heartwarming story! Thanks for the hit of nostalgia!

We need more feel good stories like this. Class of 1976.

I was born in Van Nuys and cruised the boulevard thru the 70's until it was shut down and I absolutely remember this van. We used to park at a Bank of America parking lot and hang out close to Van Nuys Bl and Chandler. Good times and thx for making an old man relive his youth in memory. PS Im looking for something to get back into the Van life, wish me luck!

Very cool. I bought a new '75 van and customized it back in the day. Those were good times.

that is kool brother I'm 62 you know we had fun back in the day s

Ahh to go back and relive my vanning days. A 1976 B150 Dodge Tradesman, Green and all decked out. A member of the Tricky Truckers Bridgewater, NJ Van club.

A real piece of American muscle when a van was a van all steel no plastic half of cars today are made of plastic give me a classic any day

Beautiful...great job.

Hello Chris, thank you for introducing your lovely, LOVELY Van. It inspired me to choose the only right size rims and tires for my own G20 Chevy Van. So thank you for that. Keep on truckin'!

Those doors are works of art. They had me fooled.

It was so cool doing the lettering and pinstriping on this van. Watching Chris resurrect it step by step was absolutely inspiring.

Tenacity and hard work payed off.

That’s a sweet Chevy!

He ended up going to jail because the actual owners who abandoned it in the desert said he stole it and wanted the van back after he restored it. Pretty sad

Just saw you in Cottage Hills . ✌️🇺🇸

Wild Cherry was also a band back in the 70s. Thier big hit was "Play That Funky Music"

Man, That brings back lot's of memories, of cruising in my "77 Ford Van. First new car i ever bought. I was 18 drove it home and my parents were MAD ! I bought a "Sin Bin". LOL

I grew up in st louis mo. Back in the 70s and 80s my folks used be members of St louis Trucking Association, I remember going to a lot of weekend van party's. I always had a blast!

Thank you for doing the video. the van will be rebuilt again. And cruised everywhere. Long live wild cherry

I have to give you props brother for saving that van that was the year I was born 1975 I love it

We were members of (Brotherhood of Vans) from Fairfield California. Boy this brings back very good Memories.

Awesome van and history.

A true gem! Glad you saved this classic piece of history! The van clubs meets back in the late 70's were huge and owners were so creative with interiors it was amazing!

That is awesome. I love that you didn't paint the fenders.

What a great restoration of an icon. My uncle drove a '32 5 window in that movie cruise. Very cool brother.

Great story, well done Chris and good luck

I grew up in Van Nuys, I live two blocks from the mid point and hung out at Bobs Big Boy and i sat as a kid every Wednesday night glazing at all the rides, dreaming of one day cruising myself!! This is great stuff

It’s wild!

Love ut bri! LONG live Retro mad flame baby makers and occasional stone and beers around the ole days

Very cool. Hope I get to see it sometime. I’m south of you down in Collinsville / Caseyville area.

I've seen you Driving around wood river ,up and down 255. Love to have a van like this. 🤟🤟👍. I grew up in Bethalto.

AWESOME STORY !!

I had a 65 Ford Econoline Van in High School. It wasn't tricked out or anything but sure as hell made me popular with the chicks at the beach or drive in !!!

Wow what a great story of this van .. super dope

Hey Chris! Aaron again! Haha! Great meeting you!!!

I Love my 1994 Chevy Van G10 5.0 . Good video. Mine is back in the making a new engine is going in and then body work and paint.

Great job on the restoration, I hope it works out for you. It's pretty obvious if he thought he stole it he wouldn't be posting videos on RU-vid and advertising it. I bought a new 1980 Dodge van for my new business and converted it and drove it from Chicago to Ft. Lauderdale for spring break in 1981. This van brought back some nice memories of my youth. Good luck Chris!

Thanks man I am so impressed I like as close to original as possible so cool . Best video ever

This guy is my hero. Amazing job in such a short amount of time. Truly inspiring.

Cool story and Nice Van. Thumbs Up for you also.

Good on you man for bringing this amazing van back to life. 👍🏻

Very cool. Thanks for sharing

Beautifully restored! Chevys are just so groovy.

Nice looking van

This is what it means to be a hot rodder ~ making dreams real through perseverance. Glad that in this case the stories of cruising in this beast didn't die. Hell yeah

That's what the American dream is all about. Thank you for sharing it. Keep up the great restoration work.

This VAN is in the music video Drivers seat filmed on Van Nuys boulevard by Sniff n Tears .

Sweet 🍒👌my dad had a 78 chevy van baby blue color sound system bed in the back i remember sleeping on it on long trips Good memories

Vantastic Keep it Going

I love to hear stories like that how you rescued wild Cherry van, i know it's not easy to fine original parts. Just like my self i rescued my grandparents van that was setting in the back yard untouched for 11 to 12 years and i put all new parts in to it and driving 250 miles just to work on it by the year 2015 i drove it home to Tennessee. It only had 16,000 miles on a 1982 Ford van.

Wild, just saw some clips from the Van Nuys ride, noticed this very van :)

Wow! Brings back memories of my dad and uncles custom tradesman vans. Beautiful restoration 👌

Very cool , love that era

Great story!

Sweet Chevy Shorty Van Man!!! My Dad has a BadAss 77 Chevy Shorty Van!!! So im A Big Van Fan!!!

Great job 👏

The owners of the van claimed it was stolen and sued. Last I heard, the van was stripped and primered before the owners got it back. Wild Cherry Van front 3/4 stripped California police have found the Wild Cherry van-what’s left of it anyway. On October 23, the same day that Hagerty posted an update about the search for the infamous vehicle that appeared in the 1979 movie Van Nuys Blvd., California Department of Transportation employees notified police that they had located the red 1975 Chevrolet custom van that was already at the center of a theft investigation. Now a shell of its former self, the controversial vehicle was parked along a road in Van Nuys, where the movie was filmed and not far from the hotel where Chris Carter stayed in September at the end of his nostalgic “Wild Cherry Van Run.” Carter organized the Illinois-to-California tour to celebrate the restoration of the van. He has since been arrested on felony theft charges and was extradited to California on October 26, accused of taking the van from private property in 2017 without its owners’ permission. Carter, 39, was released on bond and faces arraignment November 29 in Lancaster. Police had been searching for the refurbished van for three weeks, and what they found was barely recognizable. According to the Belleville News-Democrat, the Chevy was “stripped and partially painted black. Gone are the doors, engine, grill, headlights, taillights, mag wheels, porthole windows, rear-view mirrors, fiberglass flares, chin spoiler, dashboard, dog house, bucket seats, paneling, shag carpeting, and stereo. You can still see outlines of fancy gold letters spelling out Wild Cherry on one side, under a layer of black paint.”

Great job with that resto!

Shes beautiful!

Hi Chris Carter. You have a beautiful van. Thank you for putting your heart and soul into this bus. We love to see cherished vehicles like this. That's a really special ride to have. I wish you many many years of fun together. God bless you sir for all those endless hours of hard work you've poured into 'Wild 🍒 Cherry'.

Great van, great resurrection...nice one

I am ta-rippin! First time seeing this video and first time knowing what this van is all about. My cousin always posts photos of this van with Chris Carter and I was thinking, who is this Chris Carter? Is he our cousin?? Did Little Sal redo his van? Did he just buy it from this guy? I was doing a RU-vid search for movies that have the words, Van Nuys in them, because I have a Van Nuys story and that is my van's name... kinda weird.. Awesome job, Chris. What an absolutely great story.

SHWEET. Love the paint. This van is CHERRY inside and out. Well done. T'would be really cool if Chevy went back to the shorter nose design of the 70's and also offered customization options. I had a 68 in 1981 and then a 73 in 1983. Late 60's vans are really cool looking but not nearly as comfortable and practical as 70's vans.

Man this makes me miss my GoodTimes van,,,,,

Remember when I was little finding stacks of Van life magazines out in the shed they seemed like ancient history even though they were only about 10 years old super cool Vans with mirrors on the ceiling hahaha 😂

Outstanding restore job . It’s sad that there’s no more good looking body styles like that . Your van has got a lot style & class . I’ve Owen two full sized Chevy van s . The first one was a 1985 G 20 / w/ a 305 engine . & I had a 1995 Chevy G 20 /w/ a 350 cu engine . Both where coustomized !

Beauty!!! My question is how would anyone let that Beauty go to shame and abandon it and let it get crushed by a tree!!! Goes to show how long that Beauty had been abandoned and the old tree gave up 1st.

Great job!

KEEP ON KEEPING ON!!!!!

I was too young to drive but had friend who had a van done up it was cool but stank but those were fun days nice job on the rebuild well done sir

That sir, is one beautiful van!

Growing up my mom and dad bought a new 77 or 78 Chevy van. It had a shit ton of windows but man that thing was still cool. In 93 I bought my first and only van, a 1977 Ford Econoline. I wish I still had that sucker some times. LOL. Great job on "Wild Cherry" Chris, she looks awesome.

That’s one sweet piece of machine

WOW! What an Awesome story indeed.. My early adult life consisted of working in a Custom van shop with my brother, the shop name was called Bozo Van's. My brother started there working under a airbrush artist by the name of "Rattler" after he worked there for a couple of years he got me in wet sanding the vans for rub out. Later the owner John Bozo changed the name to Eagle Couch Custom Van's... I tell you those were some of the best years of my life back then.. Thanks for sharing the story of "Wild Cherry" brought back some good memories..

One of my fave vans, thumbs up!

Even has the fuzzy dice valve stem caps. Absolutely amazing.

That's some story, love the resurrection part of it, saving it, awesome, enjoy all the love, cause when I'm at a show w my Grand Prix, the adulation gets me high, love when people love my car, by the way love those deep dish Cragers, they make the Van

I really like the treatment Chris did on the gull wings like adding the grove to give the appearance of two doors and putting the slider part on the side

Love the Chevy vans, looks awesome. Chevys are just so groovy. Great job on "Wild Cherry" , beautifully restored 👍 Gorgeous van! Great story😊 Thank you for sharing with us 👍

I love this van Illinois tags representing 💪🏽

Love it I loved that live my dad had a badge 1974 van 318 3 gears Hurst on the floor we build it from scratch he paid New $7,000. We we're in a van club in New Jersey he had the van until 1995 the for a van his older love the old vans .

I love it ; as a child my dad had a few of them and always liked riding in them ,and tell my kids someday I will have one ;and hats off to you Chris nice job bringing it back to life!!!

Very cool van... in 1983 i was 8 yrs old. My dad bought a brandnew 83 GMC vandura 1500. It was blue with the white center strip 2 tone. He customized the inside. White fold n buttom pillowed ceiling and rotating front chairs. Over head console.. clarion sterio.. 3 inch stainless dual exhaust with cherry bombs. Eng was a 305 4 barrel. It had a deep tone with was cool cuz every one was running the 2 inch pop pop sounding pecker pipes he called them... lol. I miss the old van. Funn times as a kid.

I was following this on NSAbook for some time before i logged off for the last time, glad to see the van got done. A real inspiration to get started on my 77.

great job

Great story love your dedication thumbs up for keeping it original

Good for you. Great to see a classic preserved. Born and raised in Riverview Gardens by the Chain of Rocks. I live in Florida now, but cool to hear someone talk about the area. Best of luck.

I remember seeing it on Abandoned and Neglected vehicles a few years ago.

Wow very nice

I love the interior

Thanks for bringing this piece of history back to life!

Ahh they are a dying breed. They need to be rescued. Back in the late 70s 80s they were a car ahow favorite

cool video...great job on the van Chris Carter...hope all works out for all people involved...interesting story for sure...

Beautiful, amazing work done in such a short time.

Chris Carter, Sir you're the Man. , I take my hat off to you. A job well done