BURBANK : Van Gets a Touch of Brass

You won’t see Ernest Steingold’s specialized van on the cover of Road & Track. Or on a rotating platform at any auto show. But if you do see it on your street, it is 100% guaranteed to turn your head.

Steingold’s labor of love, this most customized of vans, is a half-ton that GMC engineers wouldn’t even recognize. It could be the 20-pound brass eagle with a 3-foot wingspan on the roof. Or the 100 brass unicorns and winged horses. Or the 30 life-size masks and 300 belt buckles. Or the $14,000 worth of coins. But this brass-covered beauty is one of a kind.

“One woman who had been all over the world told me my van was like the eighth wonder of the world and I should take it all over the world so people could see it,” said Steingold, a 66-year-old Burbank resident. “That would be nice if someone would sponsor me.”

The project, on which Steingold often spends six hours at a stretch, began when he bought just your average used van in 1978. Then he and his wife, Gretchen, bought three brass elephants for hood ornaments.

“Why not put more on it,” Steingold said after gazing at the elephants.

Now, all the ornaments are solid brass--except for the Susan B. Anthony and Eisenhower dollars and Kennedy half dollars and quarters.

Steingold, who owns Dreese Vacuum store in Burbank, uses the van for deliveries and pickups. He also tries to find time to stop at the farmer’s market, Mann’s Chinese theater and Disneyland, where local residents and tourists react with awe, praise and sometimes scorn.

He’s been asked for his autograph. One man walked up to him in a restaurant while he was eating and said: “I love your van out there. It’s great and it would be an honor to buy you dinner.”

When Steingold asked how the man knew it was his, the reply was, “You look like it would be yours.”

“Maybe this van is paying me back indirectly for all the work I’ve done on it,” Steingold said.

The autograph requests and oohs and aahs also help ease the sting when he hears, “It’s a piece of junk.”

“It makes me feel so good that people enjoy it, but a few rotten apples will upset you,” Steingold said. “I’ve learned never to let anybody see I’m upset because you never lower yourself. You’ve got to be a nice guy, because they won’t forget the van and I want them to remember a good guy had the van.”

And, Steingold said, the van is still a work in progress.

“It keeps on growing. It’s a lifetime project,” Steingold said. “I’m proud of it. It gives me a feeling I’ve done something in my life.”