The Warlock Van

While the van started out as The Northstar in Lansing, Michigan, she would end up being reworked as The Warlock in Southern California, and end up being featured in the 1979 movie, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School.

The story of The Warlock van starts in 1975 in Lansing, Michigan where a street rodder/custom car painter by trade named Gary Glenn, purchased a brand new 1975 Chevrolet standard wheelbase “display van” from Shaheen Chevrolet, also located in Lansing at that time. From there, he called his good friend Gene Gamet, who, at the time, was working as a tool and die man at the Olds/GM forge plant #2.

He told Gene about the van he had purchased and wanted him to do something with it that no one had ever seen before. Gene agreed to take on this task and went to pick up the 75 Chevy at Shaheen with only 10 miles on the odometer. Gene drove the van back to his house, where no one, not even Gary Glenn, knew what was about to happen to his brand-new van.

Custom vans had just started becoming very popular in 1975, and Gene wanted to deliver something to Gary totally radical and unique. He even told Gary to not come by the house, he wanted this to be a total surprise. He proceeded to give the van a “haircut”, removing a whopping 7 inches from the top of the van. He also managed to do this without compromising the roof skin, laying the windshield, sides, and rear doors in to meet the skin… read more >