Thread: Bad Ast Astro Van Build

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I have been picking away at the details during the week. I get home from Warren around 4pm so I have some time to spend in the shop in the evenings. Last night and tonight I worked on painting the 3rd member and UCA cross shafts and drilling and tapping the suspension bushings (8 of them) for grease zerks.
Here is the 3rd member before paint. I used the same Rustoleum Black "Hammered" that is on the housing.
http://images16.fotki.com/v258/photo...MVC002F-vi.jpg
and after
http://images20.fotki.com/v533/photo...MVC013F-vi.jpg
Drilling and tapping the bushing sleeves in the upper control arms.
http://images16.fotki.com/v363/photo...MVC005F-vi.jpg
After tapping
http://images112.fotki.com/v386/phot...MVC006F-vi.jpg
and with a zerk installed.
http://images56.fotki.com/v1298/phot...MVC007F-vi.jpg
Same process on the rear link bars.
http://images112.fotki.com/v386/phot...MVC015F-vi.jpg
here are the cross shafts in R.B.H.
http://images112.fotki.com/v386/phot...MVC004F-vi.jpg
Tomorrow night I will drag out the blasting cabinet and blast the rack and lower rear shock brackets. They will get the same black paint.
Thanks for looking
Mark

How about an update from the past couple of weeks? Spent a lot of time cleaning up and rearranging the shop so I could get all of my "summer" cars put to bed for the winter. Also got the van set-up and bolted to the frame and moved into the heated "working" side of the shop.
Got a little bit done (and "undone") this past weekend. I worked a bit of O.T. during the week so I didn't get much done other then Wednesday afternoon which I spent stripping parts off the donor van. Thursday was spent doing the Turkey Day stuff and I worked Friday so, out of a "four day" weekend, I had Saturday and Sunday to work in the shop. Saturday Mel came out and he worked on stripping the rest of the interior out of Bad Ast and I stripped the dash, wiring harness, interior door trim, brake pedal and bracket and a bunch of little things off the donor van. We have quite a pile of parts for me to organize. I need to buy some more storage tubs.
Some of the stuff off the donor van.
http://images51.fotki.com/v303/photo...MVC007F-vi.jpg
http://images53.fotki.com/v249/photo...MVC008F-vi.jpg

Bad Ast is pretty well gutted right now. Once the seats were out we got the rubber floor mat and all of the interior door trim removed.
http://images9.fotki.com/v248/photos...MVC001F-vi.jpg
http://images53.fotki.com/v249/photo...MVC004F-vi.jpg
All of that was Saturday's work.
Today we worked on a plan for the cage and tin work. we measured the inside of the van for the "C" and "B" pillar hoops. I will model those in UG to get the cage designs going.
I also welded some nuts to the upper front fender bolts as that is the only way to get them off after the torx bolts take a set...
We also dropped the jack stands a bit to make getting in and out a little easier and got the van leveled up side to side and front to rear. We also put another set of stands in the middle of chassis so it is sitting on six stands now instead of just four.
Did some cutting also. We laid out the cut lines to reposition the doghouse for the new motor location. You can see them in black felt pen in this pic.
http://images112.fotki.com/v386/phot...MVC017F-vi.jpg
Aftercutting out the piece we will reuse I cut out the rest of the floor as it will be when we start to rebuild it.
http://images16.fotki.com/v363/photo...MVC019F-vi.jpg
Here you can see the new location for the back of the doghouse. I have moved it 18.5 inches rearward and 3 inches to the drivers side. It looks like a lot and it is.
http://images16.fotki.com/v258/photo...MVC020F-vi.jpg
You can see here where I cut the flange up near the throttle pedal. This is about as far forward as it needs to go for rocker cover clearance. I will reshape the throttle lever and brake pedal arms to move them three inches to the left. There is nothing there to get in the way so I should have plenty of foot room after the work is done.
http://images51.fotki.com/v278/photo...MVC021F-vi.jpg
Had a good weekend, I hope everyone had a nice Turkey Day and I thank you for looking.
Mark

You got a lot done! The van sure does have a nice clean floor in it, nice when there isn't any patch work to be done there. Cutout for the new engine looks great, hope to see it in there soon????

Plasma cuter best tool next to sawz all

Looks great! Reminds me of the old 60's vans with the doghouse back between the seats. Great progress; keep 'em comin!

Thaks alot guys! I hope I can keep it going. There is a lot to do and here it is December already! I am back working some O.T. at the real job so I don't get home at night until after 6. I will try to avoid working (read that "making money") the weekends so I can get some work done on the van.
I did my cyber shopping part today. With the start of the floor work I decided to look into getting a pair of seats to build around. I had been looking ,and knew what I was going to get, so I was surprised to see Summit had the seats on sale for 156 and change down from 189.99! I pulled the trigger on them during lunch. Scat ProCars in black. THEN... I thought I would check Jegs.... Criminy! Jegs had the same seats on sale for 141.99!!!! Crap. I called Summit to see if they would match Jegs price and the salesman said he couldn't match the price BUT! He would let me have them for 140.99. WOW! I was happy. And with free shipping other then having to pay an oversize fee I think I got a pretty nice deal. I also ordered two sets of seat mounting brackets that will probably end up in pieces, but they are a start anyway.
Here are the seats I got. One driver & one Passenger. I know they are pretty basic but they will do the job for now.
http://images57.fotki.com/v1354/phot...661L_MH-vi.jpg
http://images53.fotki.com/v249/photo...661L_BP-vi.jpg
Thanks for looking
Mark

Haven't updated the build in a while.
Been busy at work during the week so I only get the weekends to get anything done.
Last weekend Mel and I built a K member to support the floor under the new doghouse location and to carry the repositioned front inner seat bolts.
We also set the mock up motor and trans in place. We will be building the new floor and doghouse around it.
Bolted the heads and headers on so we know exactly what we need for clearances.
http://images51.fotki.com/v278/photo...MVC017F-vi.jpg
Here is the K member. It is built from 1 x 2 x .083 Rect tube with angle on each end to attach to the rail.
http://images51.fotki.com/v628/photo...MVC002F-vi.jpg
Yesterday I layed out the bolt pattern on the floor and drilled the holes out with a step drill. With the brace clamped under the floor in the correct location the drilled holes marked where all of the AVK's will go.
http://images56.fotki.com/v362/photo...MVC002F-vi.jpg
I drilled the tubing out to .391 for the AVK's.
This is the installation tool. Thread the insert onto the mandrel, put the insert in the hole and tighten the setting tool with two 3/4" wrenches. Setting 14 inserts took about 1/2 an hour.
http://images9.fotki.com/v248/photos...MVC012F-vi.jpg
I also made a tapping plate to carry the load at the middle of the floor. 1/2" plate with 3 1/4-20 tapped holes for each side of the brace.
http://images54.fotki.com/v104/photo...MVC008F-vi.jpg
It took about an hour to tap all six holes. It fit very well and adds a LOT of support at the middle of the floor
Here you can see it being bolted in. It slides into place between the tubes and clamps everything together.
http://images60.fotki.com/v661/photo...MVC014F-vi.jpg
All bolted in making for a VERY stout floor...
http://images53.fotki.com/v249/photo...MVC001F-vi.jpg

I also trimmed down the doghouse from the donor van. Cut it off about in the middle. I will use this half to rebuild the center once all of the floor work is done.
http://www.pro-touring.com/attachmen...2&d=1323652836
After the sawsall had its way with it...
http://www.pro-touring.com/attachmen...3&d=1323652986
Today we got a lot of "stuff" done. Stripped out the column, dash, wiring harness, brake booster, HVAC stuff, doors... basically there is nothing left that will bolt on...
http://www.pro-touring.com/attachmen...4&d=1323653053
Mocking up the doghouse with the rocker covers in place. There is a lot more room than I had anticipated. I will need to move the throttle and brake pedals a bit but that is easy.
http://www.pro-touring.com/attachmen...5&d=1323653226
With a seat in place.
http://www.pro-touring.com/attachmen...6&d=1323653276
Also got the 3 in 1 machine working today. Bent up a piece of 18ga to use to stretch the seal flange for the doghouse. I will be using this and some separate pieces to smooth the transitions.
[imghttp://www.pro-touring.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=52397&d=1323653467]http://[/img]
A close up of the bends. I had to sweeten these up a bit with a hammer but they turned out pretty good.
http://www.pro-touring.com/attachmen...0&d=1323653665
I started working on the transition in front of the drivers cylinder head. I cut the pieces with a cutoff wheel in a die grinder so I could do a little bending. This will be reworked to smooth out the bends.
http://www.pro-touring.com/attachmen...1&d=1323653821
Well, that's about it for the last two weekends. I hope to have a lot of the tinwork well on it's way next weekend.
Thanks for looking.
Mark

I have gotten out to the shop a couple nights this week. Tuesday night I bent up some test pieces to start developing the new flange area by the drivers foot. I need to put an "S" bend into it to walk it around the cylinder head. I kerfed out the piece I made so it could be bent into shape without kinking. I will make a hammerform to bend the real piece to fit.
http://images61.fotki.com/v218/photo...MVC008F-vi.jpg
I also put a nice roll into the new flange section I made Sunday. This will blend down into the floor nicely.
http://images57.fotki.com/v1354/phot...MVC006F-vi.jpg
Tonight I puttered around for an hour or so. I cut the original engine cover in two and bolted the front half in place. This is the gap I have to fill.
http://images54.fotki.com/v627/photo...MVC012F-vi.jpg
It's really not that bad, it will get kinda tricky on the drivers side but once the floor and flange area's are rebuilt, making a new glass cover is pretty simple.
http://images54.fotki.com/v627/photo...MVC014F-vi.jpg
Any design suggestions? I should probably keep it simple but it would be easy to go a little wild here...

Got one of the new seats set into place.
http://images54.fotki.com/v627/photo...MVC018F-vi.jpg
There is a lot more room than I thought there would be.
http://images12.fotki.com/v335/photo...MVC016F-vi.jpg
The bend I am putting in the cover at the firewall actually lets my foot snuggle right down to the throttle pedal. I will still move it outboard an inch or two but even that wouldn't be necessary.
The shifter is going to be a problem though. I ordered a TCI Outlaw shifter today. I hope to have it tomorrow or saturday. Proper placement is getting real close to the back of the cover and routing the cable will be a trick...
I hope to get the hammerform started tomorrow night. I would really like to be welding the floor together Saturday.
Thanks for looking.
Mark

Nice work Mark! The dog house is coming together very nicely, leg and foot room looks super! More room then there is in a lot of 30's Hot Rods with the narrow cowls!

Thanks Dave. There is probably about as much foot room as there would be in a narrow cowl "A", you are right. There is some work to be done with pedal placement but I won't do that until the front wheel wells are rebuilt.
I am forming the blend area out of cut and bent strips and welding them together. I was planning to make a hammerform to do this work but was unable to cut the glued up MDF. The "little" wood bandsaw was not up tot he task and the big saw broke a lower blade guide...
http://images33.fotki.com/v1138/phot...MVC001F-vi.jpg
Back to the drawing board. We basically wasted 3 hours dinking around with saws.
We made some flat paper templates and cut out the steel strips with my beverly shear. After some tacking and bending you wouldn't believe how strong this piece is. And it's not even fully welded.
http://images12.fotki.com/v20/photos...MVC018F-vi.jpg
Added the drop side down to the floor. The floor radius still needs bending but you can see what it will look like.
http://images16.fotki.com/v377/photo...MVC022F-vi.jpg
Here it is with a little more trimming and fitting. I decided to move it down a bit to smooth the transition with the original flange.
http://images12.fotki.com/v335/photo...MVC007F-vi.jpg
Here is a bit of development on the right hand side. This is a little simpler then the drivers side. It's all flat.
http://images58.fotki.com/v279/photo...MVC001F-vi.jpg
That is a "flexible" ruler in the pic. It is bendable and retains it shape. I'll use it to layout the flat stip for the flange.
Check out my shifter "console"
http://images57.fotki.com/v1354/phot...MVC003F-vi.jpg
I will be doing a lot of measuring and mocking up to get a comfortable shifter location AND workable cable route.
http://images54.fotki.com/v627/photo...MVC005F-vi.jpg
Got a lot of stuff coming together. I hope to have most of this doghouse rebuilt this weekend.
Thanks for looking
Mark

These posts are from last month so read them as "past tense". Got some done last night and today. Spent yesterday afternoon and evening making the "S" shaped piece I was developing the other night.
Made a template using the bendy ruler and cut the piece out with the beverly shear.
http://images52.fotki.com/v637/photo...MVC002F-vi.jpg
Cutting it out. If you haven't used one of these shears you are in for a treat. Very nice to use and so much quicker than snips...
http://images51.fotki.com/v103/photo...MVC003F-vi.jpg
Did a little bending and hand forming to get the flanges rolled over. I made this out of one piece rather then two like the drivers side. This piece is flat so it was a little easier to work the radii. The drivers side went uphill while transitioning into the "S" shape. Pretty tough to form off-hand.
http://images44.fotki.com/v220/photo...MVC010F-vi.jpg
http://images58.fotki.com/v279/photo...MVC012F-vi.jpg
Mel was out today and we got a lot done. I was working on the drivers side filler piece while he was cleaning up and fitting the doghouse pieces together. I got the drivers side piece trimmed and fit well enough that I could start welding it in.
This was during the fitting process.
http://images61.fotki.com/v218/photo...MVC014F-vi.jpg
Doing some tacking...
http://images50.fotki.com/v1557/phot...MVC009F-vi.jpg
We added some extra length to the doghouse piece to fill the gap back to the floor brace.
http://images51.fotki.com/v102/photo...MVC018F-vi.jpg
We carried the floor ribs up into the doghouse piece.
http://images56.fotki.com/v362/photo...MVC004F-vi.jpg
These are all welded up now and I have a little grinding left to do to finish it up.
http://images56.fotki.com/v362/photo...MVC017F-vi.jpg
The new floor piece, as you see it, will be removable for engine and trans access. I drilled holes and installed 10-32 threaded inserts into the floor brace and the cover is bolted in right now. I will finish developing the passenger side filler pieces tomorrow....
Thanks for looking.
Mark

This work was done over the xmas holiday. I did get a little shop time over the break.
The passenger side is done and I'll have the drivers side wrapped up tomorrow. This was a LOT of work!!! I still have a bit of cleanup work to do but the passenger side looks great and it all unbolts for easy engine access. Read that plugs and header bolts.
http://images44.fotki.com/v301/photo...MVC012F-vi.jpg
Some "during" shots.
http://images60.fotki.com/v778/photo...MVC013F-vi.jpg
http://images41.fotki.com/v195/photo...MVC012F-vi.jpg
http://images59.fotki.com/v112/photo...MVC019F-vi.jpg
The drivers side will have the same removable panel. I will fab up the rivnut tabs tomorrow and get that stuff welded up. Should have a complete doghouse flange by noon.
http://images16.fotki.com/v377/photo...MVC009F-vi.jpg
Thanks for looking.
Mark

This series was done over New Years weekend.
What with my 34th wedding anniversary and New Years Eve being the same night I killed two birds with one stone, so to speak.
We had a party Saturday and another on Sunday but I got a few hours in each day along with helping to clean and set stuff up.
Actually got a lot done. The doghouse removable panels are done, both sides. Everything is bolted up and fits very well so I am happy. Having these panels removable makes for easy working clearances around the plugs and headers.
http://images44.fotki.com/v220/photo...MVC018F-vi.jpg
http://images59.fotki.com/v255/photo...MVC019F-vi.jpg
http://images51.fotki.com/v628/photo...MVC020F-vi.jpg
I still have to finish up a short flange for the rear part of the floor but that is easy and I'll get that wrapped up this afternoon.

I also finished up a short flange for the rear part of the floor Monday afternoon. It was fairly simple. A flat sheet formed around the front of a floor rib and welded to the removable half of the doghouse flange.
http://images44.fotki.com/v301/photo...MVC011F-vi.jpg
A little trimming and bending and it fit very well.
[img]http://images56.fotki.com/v124/photos/5/904975/10310642/MVC013F-vi.jpg/img]
The piece is welded on and bolted down with a bit of grinding left to do. Once this is finished and painted it will look great.
http://images12.fotki.com/v20/photos...MVC014F-vi.jpg
The floor and doghouse areas are very sturdy now.
Thanks for looking
Mark