"It comes in handy and wasn't that hard to do," says Bernard Nelson, Rockport, Maine, who converted a 1993 Plymouth Voyager van into a pickup.

Nelson already had the van, which he had tried to sell with no luck. "That's when I decided I could put it to good use as a pickup to use around my property and for making short trips to town," he says.

He cut off the back part of the van, just behind the front seat, and cut the sides down to form a box. He welded the back end of the van to the front section to form a cab.

He fitted plywood to the floor of the box to raise it up, and he made a tailgate from scrap metal and hinged it to the body. To make the truck a bit more sporty, he purchased chrome safety rails designed for bathrooms and bolted them around the sides of the box. The truck was then finished off with a coat of bright red paint.

"It attracts a lot of attention wherever I go," says Nelson. "The vehicle is registered as a Plymouth Voyager truck."