CC reader Matt sent me these shots from a Facebook Marketplace ad for a truly stunning and highly unexpected home built motorhome. Yes, it’s a 2006 Solara, sporting a new appendage in back. And the only description the seller added to the basic vehicle info was the understatement of the millennium: “Slightly modified”. Really?
Let’s take the full tour.
There’s a door back there. Why the builder chose to put it on the driver’s side might be a good question, but then to each their own.
So let’s step in, as long as you can fit. It’s a tad narrow.
It has a decidedly vintage feel, from all the plywood paneling. The plywood looks to be a bit vintage itself, perhaps salvaged from an old trailer?
I’m afraid it looks to be incomplete. Did the owner give up at this stage? That’s a shame, as this had some real potential.
It’s nicely streamlined. I bet it rides along quite decently.
And it’s certainly a pleasant driver’s compartment.
The back end looks a bit jury rigged. Oh; I get it. Those are the original tail lights from the Solara. Maybe just the outer ones might have looked a bit better.
It just needs a bit of finishing up. And the $1500 asking price seems modest enough. The Solara has 214k miles on it, but that’s nothing. Here’s your chance to enjoy van life in a Toyota, which is not easy to come by.
1.why?
2. I’m surprised the rear end is not sagging
They should have used the white Sedona in the third photo instead.
The choice of tail lights intrigues me. Obviously they’re from a Lexus ES 300, but like….why? Wouldn’t it have been so much simpler not to use a set of lights split into 4 sections? It’s comical in the best way. But confusing. I particularly like the trunk lock integrated into the right lamp assembly, just because why not? I guess.
also, what vehicle donated that center mounted 3rd brake light?
So. Many. Questions.
I wonder if this unfinished job ended up costing the same as buying an old motor home to restore.
There has got to be a better way to mount a rear license plate.
Solara project ingredients: One set of tin snips, pop rivet gun, pop rivets, several sheets of old aluminum sheeting, some warped plywood and one Solara with a clean interior. Add a waning amount of determination and you’re good to go.
“This item isn’t available any more. It has been sold.”
I take it this is from a state where marijuana is legal and the use of other mind-altering recreational pharmaceuticals is widespread?
I was thinking mushrooms.
I’m also hoping the car is a salvage through rear end damage.
It was located in Hayward, CA.
The house and the treehouse and the … totem pole??? are also slightly modified in the same energetic way.
UGH, just UGH
They must have been inspired by the Prius Camper, link below
https://rvshare.com/blog/prius-camper/
There was a similar camper for SAAB hatchbacks, as well. And making a camper from a liftback/hatchback makes more sense than a sedan or coupe – the hatch has a unibody designed around the lack of a rear bulkhead, whereas anything with a trunk needs the rear bulkhead cut out, weakening the structure.
I give the builder 100/100 for his vision, and 10/100 for accomplishing it.
I am impressed with the builder’s ingenuity, but I am also concerned the extra weight will cause the rear springs to eventually sag and the transmission to fail early.
A more pressing concern would be the brakes ability to handle the extra mass or the altered weight distribution may make the car handle dangerously.
Given the front and rear wheels don’t match, there may have been some attempt to strengthen the rear end by transplanting something else under it. Still, I would have based something like this on a more suitable vehicle than a Solara.
This reminds me of a low budget recreation of a SAAB Toppola camper.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toppola#/media/File:99CC_toppola_stensson.jpg
Never seen a fifth wheel camper that needed the fifth wheel at the tail end of the rig to keep the car from doing wheelies. Must be disconcerting for FWD when the tail goes down and the nose does up…
Although I can appreciate the Classic Airstream styling this guy we trying to emulate, I think I like Paul’s ProMaster conversion a little better. ;o)
This is the kind of stuff that is done by someone who has no idea what he’s doing.
Agree! Or he’s bored with nothing better to do.
Nothing better to do? And what have you built from scratch lately?
Not only is your comment derogatory, but it’s clearly not the case. There’s a long history of turning cars into mini-motorhomes, and even some of the commercial ones are not that different than this. It’s mostly quite well thought out, but clearly he ran out of energy or money or something before it could be finished properly.
I guess you were never young. Or just born with the ability to create perfect masterpieces.
The beauty of doing something that you have no idea of what you are doing means that you are free from the constraints of doing it how “you are supposed to do it” and in some cases that can be a good thing.