I am determined.

My van is going to turn into a pretty legit mystery machine. It's going to happen. The plans are falling into place, and I'm hoping it will be done by Christmas.

Oh yeah. It's going to happen.

 First things first. The exterior needs to be painted. I only paid $400 for the van, so I'm not really excited about paying a ton of money to have it painted. So, I'm going to use my artsy friends and spraypaint. I know, it doesn't look as good as auto paint, done properly with a sprayer, but...for goodness' sake, it's going to be the Mystery Machine!

I worried at first that the patterns on the side would be difficult to paint, so I decided to make stencils. Our local paper gives away the ends of the newsprint rolls, and I think that I'll use that to stencil the designs. My friend Liz has already offered to help!

Giant paper...for stencils, and random fun activities.

The interior is important too! I'm planning on installing shag carpet. I'm not sure yet whether I'll order carpet by the square yard, or just get a rug and cut it to fit. I need to actually get into the van and take some measurements before I decide which will be cheaper. I don't know if the original Mystery Machine had shag carpet, but it just seems appropriate and awesome. I'm thinking I'll go with green carpet.

Groovy, baby.

I'd really like to change the color of the seats, but I'm not sure whether or not I want to drop the cash on seat covers. I might just start scouring junkyards for seats and door panels. I'd like to go with tan, but we'll see.

Of course, if I'm going to spend so much time and effort on making sure the van looks good, it's going to have to sound good, too. I already have a pretty decent sub, now I just need...umm...everything else. Luckily I work at Radioshack, so I have access to everything I need. The receiver I'm interested in has an input for my Ipod or my phone (yes please!) slots for USB and SD memory, and IT LIGHTS UP IN DIFFERENT COLORS. I think I'm in love.

So, that's the plan. We're going to roll in groovy, teenage-gang style. Rest assured that when this process gets started, there will be TONS of process pictures, and the finished product will grace the pages of my blog often. Who knows, maybe I'll start a Mystery Machine blog.

I'm off for now, to keep Google searching for anything that might possibly relate to my plans. Stay fresh, Internet. I leave you with this:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/75481959/original-scooby-doo-mystery-machine?ref=sr_gallery_40&ga_search_query=mystery+machine&ga_page=1&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_facet=handmade