01/10/2026
Repost • As you’d figure, America’s 200th birthday was a big deal. President Gerald Ford gave speeches. The American Freedom Train chugged through all 48 contiguous states. “Tall ships” sailed from all over the world to New York City, then to Boston. All manner of collectible bicentennial knick-knacks have since trickled onto eBay—commemorative quarters, jasperware buttons, U.S. Postal Service enamel pins, special license plates, even a brandy-filled Liberty Bell. You might even find one of the 200 Bicentennial Edition Cadillac Eldorados.
Or, if that’s too buttoned-up, you can seek out the grooviest way we celebrated America’s 200th birthday: a Denimachine.
Twenty-five of these custom “boogie vans” were built as part of a giveaway hosted by Hot Rod magazine in the late ’70s and sponsored by Ford, Coca-Cola, and Levi’s. (Coke later built 89 more vans as a promotional project for its bottlers.) The builds were executed by Van Goodies, based in Chicago. Hot Rod documented the entire project, announcing the giveaway in its September ‘76 issue. Hot Rod said that one of these vans was worth “more than $18,000” then, equivalent to over $100,000 today.
Boogie vans get a lot wilder than a Denimachine. It is almost restrained, lacking any airbrushed paintings of wizards, or a set of lava lamps, some crushed velvet upholstery, or a waterbed. (It doesn’t even have a suggestive name!) Even so, it’s representative of the breed: Souped-up drivetrain, interior converted to lounge area, powerful stereo, CB radio, eye-grabbing paint job, and a modest “stage name” of sorts.
With America’s 250th just months away, Ford is reconnecting with the project. The company’s archivist, Ted Ryan, who previously spent 21 years working for Coca-Cola, added this example to Ford’s U.S.-based heritage fleet. He invited us to check out the van in Ford’s photography studio at the Glass House in Dearborn, Michigan.
Tap the link in bio to learn and see more of the Denimachine.
✒️ & 📸: Grace Jarvis
