00:00A lot of people who first see the van say it looks like something from a horror movie.
00:22The centric car customiser Paul Bacon has created this weird yet wonderful vehicle
00:28to act as brand ambassador for his car customising business, Cyclone Works.
00:35So the inspiration for this project was just to build something really quick.
00:40I needed a van, wanted that retro sort of cool look.
00:43Initially I was looking at taxis just to use the chassis on a different project
00:48but then it occurred to me, you know, I could convert this into a van.
00:53So then the taxi van, even though it looks like it's been quite heavily lowered,
00:56it's not lowered at all, suspension is totally standard.
01:01What I've done, I've lowered the wheel arch from about just here down to there.
01:06I've really liked cars all of my life, particularly sort of custom cars, hot rods, that sort of thing.
01:12We've got the truck style wing mirrors and we've also got the swamp box at Econ there as well.
01:19It's made out of the back box just from a scrap yard.
01:25I started off in my back garden.
01:28I basically cut the back of the old taxi off, built a timber frame and then started to construct
01:33the new shape of the van around that timber frame using dye bond and expanding foam
01:40that was finally covered in fibreglass.
01:44Built the taxi van in seven days.
01:46The reason it was done in seven days, I had seven days free.
01:48I needed a van.
01:49That was all the time I had, so it had to be done.
01:53So inside the van, first off we've got the seats.
01:57It's the rear seat out of a 1974 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow.
02:04And, you know, that just went in really easily, just fitted like it was meant to be.
02:10Under the bonnet of the van, it's a really big, heavy bonnet.
02:142.7 Nissan engine that loads of London taxis had.
02:21So the paintwork on the van is, it's sort of a fake rust paint and then it's got some white
02:28and then that was all tinted over with 2K matte lacquer.
02:34At the moment, I've only ever really been up to about 64, 65, but I'm hoping to break
02:39that magical 65 barrier over the next couple of weeks.
02:42You know, probably on a nice downhill stretch of road.
02:46Whole process start to finish, came in at just over a thousand pounds.
02:52The taxi, I got the taxi for about 450 pounds.
02:56It's probably the most usable vehicle I've built.
02:59A lot of people smile, people wave.
03:02People come up, ask a lot of questions about the van.
03:05You know, but it always starts every morning.
03:07It always works and carry loads of junk in the back.
03:11And, you know, that's probably all you need from a van really.
03:26You know, I look back at the different places where...
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