Unfortunately, that van was found in a Las Vegas storage unit some 3 years ago, and was parted out. I bought every stitch of chrome the guy had taken from the van. I made an offer for the driver's side body panel with the mural that's posted above, but it was too much work for the guy. The mural was still in perfect shape.

The story I was told was that the van's owner and the owner of the storage unit were close friends. The van sat in the storage unit for 18 years, and it's owner had passed away years before the storage unit owner finally broke down and auctioned off the unit.

The guy who parted out the van, as I recall, was a part time model of some sort, lived right in Vegas, and sent the van to a local junkyard. If you happen to find it, I would still pay a handsome amount for the muralled panel.

Johnny, you're thinking of the John Wayne van, "The Legend" which was sold through Barrett-Jackson to the John Wayne museum.

to the forums.
I have quite a few of those magazines. I'll look and see if I can find the feature article. If I do I'll scan it and post it here.

Hey Boot I believe I have a piece that van on my van as well!

To help aid the search, we know on what ever magazine it was, it was between 1984-1986.

also @Boot, do you have any pictures of the van or the mural?

I probably do, but they'd be in a hard drive with some 30,000 van pics. The original pic that sparked my interest was a shot of the front of the van, with the grille, bumper, hood and radiator off, sitting in a storage unit. I don't know how, as it was a bad pic, but it looked to me like the water pump pulley was chrome, so I sent him a message asking if there was more chrome on the van. We started emailing back and forth, and when he sent me the list of chrome parts, I actually didnt believe him. I thought he was a scammer at that point, so I asked for more pics. He laid all the chrome out in the driveway and took pics for me, and took a couple pics of the van itself also. I bought all the chrome stuff he had. The only parts I didn't use on mine was the chrome wiper arms and wiper cowl, which I passed on to another vanner.

It's too bad about the Gambler being parted, but at least I think about it every time I spend hours polishing chrome.

well during a scavenge through a ton of old pictures, we managed to find a old one of the van, its only of the driver side and still wish we could find more showing the interior and passanger side with the vegas land mark mural.

anyways when i get my printer/scanner hooked back up (in the middle of a move) i will post the pic we found here for you guys.

and if you guys look through all your old magazines and find its feature it will have both sides of the van and interior shot. still cant remember the magazine though. thanks again.

The interior was gold crushed velvet. Now you got me looking for the pics the guy sent me.

The chrome wiper arms live on on my van!
i love them.