Thread: Bad Ast Astro Van Build

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Mark, I am a van man. I love the idea of what you are doing.
Rock on and please keep me posted. I love it.
I am doing an '86 conversion van, full size G20. So far, 383/350, 2.73 rear, posi, teflon sheets in the rear springs, 1 3/4 torsion bar front and rear. Stock ride height. Dual 2.5 with crossover.
She is a daily driver and gets 22mpg on the highway. Quiet with a pleasant thump on each hit at idle. Changing the cam to a .224/.256. I do like a little lope. Everything comes on at 1500.
I really like what you are doing. Big blocks rule!

Thanks guys... Although I think I'll forego the leopard print and disco ball... Not my style... I'm thinking more graphite and aluminum for an interior theme with a blue pearl over black (blue/black) paint job with some ghost graphics. Simple, clean and understated. Until you really start to look at it.

Didn't do a lot last night other then a little cleaning and straightening and starting a mock-up of the cradle. This is rough and by no means is it squared up or laid out per my dimensions but it gives you an idea of what the cradle will look like when I start tacking it together.
A little more work with the flap disc to clean up the areas to be welded and i'll be able to start "glueing" it together...
http://www.clubhotrod.com/photopost/...k-up_1-med.jpg
http://www.clubhotrod.com/photopost/...k-up_4-med.jpg

Just to bring anybody that is interested up to date...
I haven't gotten a lot done lately due to heat... To friggin' hot to even think about doing any welding... I have gotten the lower rails tacked together and started finishing the upper rails but other then that there has been no real progress to speak of.
Over this last weekend I got the upper rails "C" notched for steering boot clearance and I got the filler plates made so hopefully I'll be able to get the uppers welded up so I can start tacking the whole assembly together this weekend.
The jig table works like a charm and the lower rails will bolt back in when I start the final assembly work.
I did get some virtual work done on the Upper & Lower Control Arms though. I designed a welding jig for the uppers and got the jig for the lowers started. I just wish it would cool down a little so I can get back to the real thing.
Mark

I have gotten quite a lot done in the last week or so. It's been cool enough that I can actually do some welding and grinding.
I have the main upper rails ready to stick together after getting the front halves welding together and ground down this week. The outriggers are almost ready to go and, after tonight, they should be tacked to the front halves with most of the reinforcements ready to be welded in. Check out the pics in my gallery. I hope you enjoy following along as much as I am building it...
Mark
http://www.clubhotrod.com/photopost/...t=1&thecat=500

I got a LOT done Saturday... Sunday was a no work day due to taking my son to Metro in the morning to catch his flight back to Vancouver and a family reunion in the afternoon.
Saturday was a good day though and I got both upper rails welded up and plated in. It took a while to do the welding, I took my time to put as little heat into the rails as possible to keep warpage to a minimum. I still had to do some tweaking to maintain alignment of the body mounting holes but they are well within a .12 inch true position tolerance I self imposed on myself. The eighth inch may sound like a lot but it is a TOTAL tolerance so the most the holes can be out is .06 in any direction.
There are more pics in my gallery. Thanks for looking.
Mark
http://www.clubhotrod.com/photopost/...itup-4-med.jpg

Boy - O - Boy Astroracer; It's nice when you've got the tools to do that stuff and even nicer when you know how to use all the tools to do that stuff. You know it all's make me sick, Now does any one want to help, a knows nothing out. HE! HE!
Welcome aboard Mark.


~ Vegas ~

Got alot done over the weekend! I had some issues with the welder though. I couldn't pull a good weld for the life of me! I did get the cradle tack welded together but I will be grinding most of those welds out so I can redo them. The gas line had a kink in it where it fed into the welder case and would shut the gas off in about 15 seconds of running. I found that and fixed it last night so the welder is back up and running and I'll be able to get the cradle all welded up this week.
http://www.clubhotrod.com/photopost/...cked-4-med.jpg
Here is a pic of my "Poor Man's" height gage. I bolted a machinists square to a 90 degree gage block. Using this set-up I could align the UCA Crosshaft holes in the plate to lines drawn on the jig table and also set them to height in one operation. Made it pretty simple to set heights AND fore/aft locations of the plates before tacking.
http://www.clubhotrod.com/photopost/...t-gage-med.jpg
By turning a point on a couple of bolts I had a good reference for the square to pick up. Bolted into the plate they picked up the center of the hole perfectly...
http://www.clubhotrod.com/photopost/...bolt-2-med.jpg

Did a lot of cleaning this weekend and built a tool post for my tubing bender. It's kinda funny looking because I used a cast off base for a diving board as the bottom and welded a piece of 5 1/2" x 3/8 wall sewer pipe to it for a post.
http://www.clubhotrod.com/photopost/...post-1-med.jpg

It does the job though. I bent this piece of 1.25dia. x .156 wall D.O.M. into a 180 with no problems. .
http://www.clubhotrod.com/photopost/...bend-1-med.jpg
http://www.clubhotrod.com/photopost/...bend-3-med.jpg
There was no movement from the post I could feel during the bending process and I will be able to mount a bunch of other tools to it also so it should come in real handy.
Thanks for looking.
Mark

Wow Mark! You must have a heck of a shop there! What do you do for a living? Anyhow, it's lookin great Thanks for the update!

Hey Mike, thanks! My shop is 30 x 48 and is stuffed to the rafters.
I have it partitioned into 3 rooms. The pics were taken on the "cold side". This is where I park cars during the winter. The other two rooms are heated. One is the machine shop which is 8 x 24 and the other is the fab room which is 22 x 26.
I am hoping to get a 24 x 32 addition added shortly but the price of lumber is scaring me off. We'll see though, I really need the room for storage and organization!
I am a Chassis/Suspension Designer by trade. I run Unigraphics NX at work and have worked on the Cadillac CTS, The Pontiac Solstice, the HHR and the Cobalt SS amoung others.

Holy toledo! Sounds like a heck of a shop!!!! I'm looking at garage/barn plans now, but I doubt it will be that detailed hahahaha...

Mike isn't MY name...lol...Mike P is another member of the CHR forums that I like to give a hard time because he's so sneaky...I'm actually a uh...how'd you put it..."fertilizer"...the root of all evil...lol

Anyway, thanks for the update...i've been following your thread since it started

Jeri

Ahhh... I see. Sorry for the confusion.
Don't take me wrong though Jeri, MOST fertilizer is good. This is a joke my wife and I have between us...
She has taken to calling the shop her "invisible fench"... as in I don't stray to far outside of it when I'm out there...
Mark

I haven't gotten a lot done on the physical build in the last couple of weeks because I have been working on the designs for the welding fixtures for the upper and lower control arms. I hope to get back into it this weekend though.
Here is a pic of a bunch of brackets I had laser cut. Got a good deal on the job and have a bunch of extra pieces I wouldn't have made if I had fabbed them by hand. I should have them today or tomorrow so I'll post better pics once I get them in my hands and checked against the detail drawings.
http://www.clubhotrod.com/photopost/...rkts-2-med.jpg
These look real nice and will definitely save me a bunch of fab time!
Mark

Just wondering,why leaf springs?