If you're a true blue street rodder, the last thing you would probably ever be interested in is a wild 1995 Chevy Astro Van with 20" wheels... right? Wrong! Well at least for Scott Powers of Clarksville, Tennessee this is the case. Scott is no stranger to the custom scene and has been a street rodder for years, even before my years!

So, the big question is how did this peculiar transformation happen? Scott told us that one day he was at a non-street rod event and he realized that everyone was having a really good time, even more so than at the street rod events. Not that street rodders don't have a good time, but face it, the street rod crowd is a very conservative and more refined group that no longer partakes in the fascination of youthful decadence. Scott, unlike his street rod counterparts believes custom rides should be built to be driven... GASP! The hell you say! No, really... Scott drives his customs on a regular basis, which is unique in and of its self. His last build, a 1939 Studebaker pickup that was the July-September 2003 cover feature on ESM, was built not only for show, but for go... as in go get some groceries! Scott's philosophy is that autos were meant to be driven, not simply looked at and he isn't the least bit afraid to pound the pavement in his custom rides. He figures there is no more fun or better way to test the quality and comfort of his rides than to cruise them on a regular basis. If you like his 1939 Studebaker, you will really come to appreciate his 1995 Chevy Astro Van you see pictured here.

The first task at hand was to get the Astro as close to one of Tennessee's paved roads as possible. The massive drop is achieved by first replacing the stock spindles with 2-inch dropped units from Belltech. The springs were pulled to make room for the Firestone 2600lb airbags located on all four corners. The rear of the van first received a super c-notch before the Firestone bags were installed. 3/8-inch lines were run and the up and down motion is provided by nitrogen.

Scott chose 20x8.5-inch Erotica Taboo wheels to fill up the wheel wells and wrapped them with Nitto NT555 tires with 245/35/20 measurements. The engine compartment remains stock so that Scott can make the long treks worry-free, however, a K&N air intake kit was installed to flow more air to the 4.3 liter V-6. A custom engine cover was fabricated and installed to keep the detailing at shows to a minimum.

The next stop for the slammed Astro was Independent Customs, where the crew got busy on Scott's list of body mods. For starters, the front clip was upgraded with a custom front bumper and spoiler, the stock grille was replaced with a billet grille, the rear bumper was ditched for a molded-in roll pan, the stock taillights were swapped out for a set of In-Pro Car Wear euro tails, and a Street Beat Customs sliding rag top was installed. The rest of the body was smoothed to perfection before heading down to J&J Customs, where Jesse Pritchett would lay down one wicked paint scheme that makes this van truly bad-to-the-bone!

The Astro begins with victory red as the primary base paint. A set of tribal flames that dance across the hood and down the sides of the van give an overall lasting impression. A few blades of silver and blue can be seen poking through certain areas of the van and a healthy dose of skulls are embedded throughout the flames. Finally, the entire creation was buried in multiple coats of clear.

With a paint scheme this wild, Scott knew he had to have an interior to match. The Astro's next stop was Tattoo's Upholstery where anything covered in material was stripped to make room for the multicolored leather inserts. The stock seats were refinished in orange and black leather, matching the black carpet. The headliner received an orange tweed treatment. A skull/flamed billet steering wheel from B.A.D. was wrapped in red leather and installed along with a billet column shifter. Various diamond plate accents were also installed throughout the van. The trickest thing about the van's interior is the 3-D skulls that were fabricated for the rear doors and center console by Eric Hanna of Independent Customs. A lot of time was definitely put into such a design!

Scott then turned his attention to the entertainment portion of the interior and brought the now more-colorful-than-ever Astro back to Independent Customs, for the killer audio and video setup. The staff began with a Pioneer AHV-P7300 DVD/CD player that controls all of the inside entertainment. The head unit also controls the four PowerAcoustik monitors mounted in the headrests. The thump is provided by four Audiobahn amps mounted on elevated stands, which produce the much needed power to feed the three 10-inch Audiobahn subwoofers mounted in the custom fiberglass enclosure of the rear cargo area. The amps also provide power to the two 7-inch Audiobahn mids accompanied by a tweeter and a crossover in each of the doors. Finishing off the interior mods and the build, once again Jesse Pritchett was summoned to paint the custom fiberglass dash, front door panels, rear door panels, center console, and speaker enclosure to match the exterior paint scheme of tribal flames and skulls.

Scott has again managed to build a wild and outrageous custom rig that since its completion, has already managed to pick up a handful of trophies. We can't wait to see what "Bad To The Bone" cruiser Scott will cook up next!

Shout Out: "Special thanks for all of the hard work these gentlemen put into the van: fiberglass work by Eric Hanna from Independent Customs, paint by Jesse Pritchett from J&J Customs, upholstery by Tattoo's Upholstery, and tint work by Ritchie Gibson from Tintworks." -Scott