Thread: Bad Ast Astro Van Build

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Originally Posted by 1gary

So Mark short of a different cut-out for the flooring and dog house for the on center drive train,are you retaining the stock flooring and not tinning it??.BTW looks really good bud.

The only stock floor I will be keeping is the areas outside of the existing frame rails. most of the tin in between will see some massaging in one way or the other.

Originally Posted by RadRidesByDan

Nice work on the chassis and rear suspension. Lookin good.......Im watching this build with a close eye....Im also learnin a few things from watching you too.

Thanks Dan, it is Dan, right? I appreciate the kudos very much!. It is funny you say that about learning a few things. I don't think a day goes by when either Mel or myself says that little phrase. I am glad you appreciate the work we are doing.
Thanks

Well, today was another good day. We got a crap load of "little bits" done. Capping off and reinforcing the upper shock crossmember, capping off the body mount brackets and getting the support tubes made for the lower shock mounts and panhard bar mount on the rear end. I also did a LOT of welding today. The housing has some to do yet and the chassis is probably about half way there.
One of the caps... Man, these little bits take a lot of time.
http://images15.fotki.com/v2/photos/...MVC002F-vi.jpg
You can see the some of the other pieces we made today already welded in.
http://images51.fotki.com/v94/photos...MVC003F-vi.jpg
The passenger side.
http://images109.fotki.com/v146/phot...MVC010F-vi.jpg
I will be using these areas to carry the roll cage down bars so we plated it in with a flat area for the tube to sit on and weld too.
Fitting the lower shock mount support bars.
http://images53.fotki.com/v249/photo...MVC011F-vi.jpg
http://images56.fotki.com/v1298/phot...MVC012F-vi.jpg
The panhard bar support.
http://images51.fotki.com/v628/photo...MVC014F-vi.jpg
I tied the lower shock and panhard bar supports into a small plate welded to the housing.
It's hard to see here but the plate welds in over the lower shock tube and bottom edge of the housing and the panhard bar tube sits on it. It also very effectively spreads the load over a larger area.
http://images51.fotki.com/v94/photos...MVC016F-vi.jpg
One of my welds. I am getting better.
http://images44.fotki.com/v301/photo...MVC018F-vi.jpg
Body mount weld.
http://images51.fotki.com/v628/photo...MVC019F-vi.jpg
We got a ton of work done this weekend.
I will be plugging away at the finish welding this week. I have a few early welds I need to grind out and re-weld so that is what I will be working on.
Thanks for looking
Mark

Nice work Mark, the van is really starting to take shape and lookin' good!!!! Thanks for the pics, lots of incentive there!

Originally Posted by astroracer

The only stock floor I will be keeping is the areas outside of the existing frame rails. most of the tin in between will see some massaging in one way or the other.

My thought Mark is the Astro's are pretty heavy.In the range of 4,000lbs +.So my thought is you trying to save wt anywhere you can.That does take a fair amount of a engine to get it to move. have you given any thought for a projected wt??. Just my two cents worth.

Hey Gary, I am not concerning myself with the weight. There is really nothing I can do about it. Granted it will be heavier with the full frame and all of the cage work but I think the 509 will be up to the task of moving the van down the road. My main focus has been in getting the CG lower. That and moving the engine rearward and down will definetly help in the handling department.
Things have been going slow although I have not been slacking!!! Got all of the chassis welds completed over this past weekend along with the rearend housing. I added some triangulation bars to the back side of the lower suspension cradle. Fabbed them up out of 1 5/8 DOM and fit them to the bottom of the side rails.
This is the passenger side (upside down on the rotisserie)
http://images51.fotki.com/v628/photo...MVC001F-vi.jpg
Looking at the rail fitup. This was a head scratcher... Took some thinking and mocking up to get the cuts right...
http://images56.fotki.com/v1298/phot...MVC003F-vi.jpg
I got the shock towers mocked up and welded tonight. That means the welding is about 99.9% complete. I have LOT of clean up to do to get it ready for paint but that will happen this weekend.
http://images56.fotki.com/v1298/phot...MVC019F-vi.jpg
After the welding.
http://images57.fotki.com/v1354/phot...MVC002F-vi.jpg
http://images43.fotki.com/v1505/phot...MVC005F-vi.jpg
This what I've been up to.
Thanks for looking
Mark

This is another thing I have been doing. A friend of mine has a little junkyard just up the road from me. He brouoght this down for me to strip. I pulled off the entire front end, Hydroboost setup, tilt column, overhead console (and bracket), instrument cluster and throttle pedal, the last few nights. I will get the doors for the electric windows and locks and I will strip out all of the light grey interior trim and dash along with all of the wiring. I think the light grey will look better then the beige that is in the van right now...
http://images46.fotki.com/v1506/phot...MVC015F-vi.jpg
This thing is a pile. It had almost 260K on it though so it was rode hard and put away wet...
It had been hit hard in the right front also. You can see some wrinkles in the sub-structure. This is kind of wierd because Bad Ast had been hit hard in the right front also...
http://images57.fotki.com/v1354/phot...MVC016F-vi.jpg
The hood is bent at both corners so that will be used as a donor for hood experimentation.
http://images58.fotki.com/v154/photo...MVC018F-vi.jpg
The roof console and bracket.
http://images9.fotki.com/v248/photos...MVC012F-vi.jpg

Looks great Mark!!!! Really fun when all the pieces start coming together and it finally looks like what you wanted!!!

Thanks alot Dave! Yes it is a lot of fun! I can say I am very proud on how well this frame and both suspensions have come together. I hope the rest of it goes as well as this has.

When are you planning on setting the body in place??? Anxious to see how the whole thing is going to look!

Soon. I am anxious also. I have a bit of work to do to the front lower control arms (finish up the welding) and I want to get everything in primer just for the rust protection, but I am hoping we will be looking at dropping the body on in December. I have a lot of cage and tin work to do and it will be better to do it while the van is "one piece".
I hope to be spraying primer on the chassis this weekend sometime. We'll see, there is a lot of cleanup work to do.

Originally Posted by astroracer

I hope to be spraying primer on the chassis this weekend sometime. We'll see, there is a lot of cleanup work to do.

I know what you mean on the cleanup, put another few hours in on the '57 today just working on the area of the roof above the windows and doors---looks like I got nothing done!!!!

This past weekend was another milestone! WE HAVE PAINT!!! After almost two full days of grinding and cleaning the chassis is primed in black, the upper and lower control arms and panhard bar are in dark gray hammered and the spindles and rear housing are black hammered. I think I will spray the frame with the black also... It comes in a quart can and I think it looks nice.
The chassis as we got parts primed. We started at the back and worked our way forward.
Saturday.
http://images15.fotki.com/v2/photos/...MVC006F-vi.jpg
http://images53.fotki.com/v249/photo...MVC007F-vi.jpg
Sunday.
http://images58.fotki.com/v156/photo...MVC007F-vi.jpg
Didn't wait for the paint to dry for these...
http://images59.fotki.com/v112/photo...MVC017F-vi.jpg
http://images54.fotki.com/v77/photos...MVC018F-vi.jpg
The chassis still has some work yet, front bumper brackets and some roll cage work but at least now it can go thru the winter in one color.
Thanks for looking
Mark

The rear end and spindles got a Rustoleum black hammertone finish. I worked on deburring the housing yesterday and ran the spindles thru the sand blaster and got them primed.
The housing after I had sprayed it with rust converter. It was ready for primer after this stuff dryed.
http://images51.fotki.com/v103/photo...MVC008F-vi.jpg
Another shot.
http://images51.fotki.com/v299/photo...MVC007F-vi.jpg
After a couple of coats of rustoleum grey primer.
http://images9.fotki.com/v248/photos...MVC020F-vi.jpg
http://images58.fotki.com/v279/photo...MVC005F-vi.jpg
I decided to go with a darker color for the housing and spindles. Just to break things up a bit.
http://images53.fotki.com/v249/photo...MVC009F-vi.jpg
http://images51.fotki.com/v303/photo...MVC011F-vi.jpg
The spindles in ALL of their modified glory. I still have to drill and tap for the Corvette brake adapter.
http://images58.fotki.com/v132/photo...MVC003F-vi.jpg
http://images9.fotki.com/v248/photos...MVC005F-vi.jpg
Let me know what you think!
Mark

Last post for today! Can you tell we got a hell ofa lot of work done this weekend?
The upper and lower control arms were run thru the blasting cabinet after I deburred them.
These are the upper arms... The one on the right had just come out of the cabinet. It was the guy on lefts turn next...
http://images57.fotki.com/v300/photo...MVC004F-vi.jpg
As the parts came out of the cabinet I would hang them on my trusty step ladder and prime them.
http://images44.fotki.com/v301/photo...MVC002F-vi.jpg
I got all of the arms primed Saturday afternoon. It sure was a beautiful day for the middle of November!
Here are both lower arms in their Grey coats
http://images53.fotki.com/v249/photo...MVC001F-vi.jpg
Both upper arms.
http://http://images54.fotki.com/v62...MVC002F-vi.jpg
At this point I am ready to start a mock build. This will probably end up with the van on the chassis so I can get tire clearances established and start building the cage...
Thanks for looking, I know this got kind of long.
Mark