Thread: Bad Ast Astro Van Build

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Thanks Dave! I can't even think about retirement right now. I'll probably be working till I'm not able too any longer...

I found the round isolators on eBay, they were cheap enough so I picked them up "hoping" I could use them for something. The expansion plugs I found at my local ACE Hardware. I was just looking thru all of the hardware they carry and found these. I immediately grabbed up a few and knew exactly what to do with them. At a buck apiece they were a good find.
I got all of my running done today. 245 dollars later I have new gas and some consumables for the tig machine! Part of the cost was the old argon tank i had. it was a dinosaur and about 30 years out of test!!! I had to pay to have it it re-tested which was 40 bucks and I also ordered a cover for the machine. After spending an hour or so cleaning it up I figured 80 bucks was worth it.
I hit my metal supplier also and picked up a nice sized pile of 16ga, 11ga, 1/4" steel plate and some 1/4 aluminum cut-offs. Quite a bit of metal for 35 dollars. The guys are good to me at Withers Steel. I am about the only one who comes in to sort through their drop bins. Lots of good stuff to be found there.
I also got a new toy dropped off on the porch this morning. A couple of weeks ago I did some test bending on the 1/2" hydraulic line with a Harbor Frieght hand bender I've had for years. It works real well on the softer stuff but this hydraulic tubing kicked it's ass... As seen here...
http://images61.fotki.com/v440/photo...MVC001F-vi.jpg
I found a nice bender at Speedway Tubing-Pipe Bender - Speedway Motors, America's Oldest Speed Shop ON SALE for 140.00 with 7.99 shipping! It is missing one of the tube clamps. Easy enough to make out of some 3/8ths steel. ANYWAY.... After setting that up and running a few test bends in steel and aluminum tubing I am very happy with the machine.
http://images16.fotki.com/v383/photo...MVC007F-vi.jpg
With all of the dies it came with I think it was an excellant deal! I tried to bend a piece of 3/4" Sq. tube but I'll have to mount the machine on my bending post to do that. The 1/2" tube bent fine with the machine mounted to one of my jig tables. The 3/4" sq tube is a bit stouter.
http://images107.fotki.com/v71/photo...MVC008F-vi.jpg
Here is a 90 degree in some 1/2" aluminum tubing alongside the original test piece.
http://images16.fotki.com/v387/photo...MVC002F-vi.jpg
Here is a 90 in that same 1/2" steel line...
http://images50.fotki.com/v1570/phot...MVC004F-vi.jpg
Much improved wouldn't you say? The radius is about 2 1/4" which will work fine for my application. That is probably most of the issue with the old hand bender. To short of a radius (you can see it is much smaller) which flattens out the tube.
Besides a bit of playing today I also got a few pieces cut out on the stomp shear for the trans cooler. The bottom bracket and the two verticle plates that will mount to the upper brackets.
http://images56.fotki.com/v701/photo...MVC015F-vi.jpg
http://images51.fotki.com/v747/photo...MVC014F-vi.jpg
I'll get out in the shop early in the morning and get these finished up before we have to leave for Turkey Day.
Have a good Thanks Giving everyone!!!
Mark

Got a good bit done today on the van. I did a little welding yesterday, read that "practice" welding, almost 4 hours worth. I am getting to the point that reading the puddle and dipping the rod (no nasty comments required here... ) are almost second nature. I still need to bring my consistancy up but at least I can do some decent looking welds on the outside corners.
Here are a few from the radiator shroud I welded this morning.
http://images43.fotki.com/v398/photo...MVC005F-vi.jpg
http://images28.fotki.com/v141/photo...MVC006F-vi.jpg
I know they aren't perfect but they are a whole lot better then what I was doing!
Fillet welds still kick my butt. I have some ugly ones I wont show you on the trans cooler.... I need to grind them out and redo them.
Here are a couple I did that aren't too bad. Pretty wide bead but that seems to be the way this stuff wants to weld. I am cleaning it and the rod, it justs take so much heat to get a good puddle going it ends up with a wide bead.
http://images108.fotki.com/v613/phot...MVC007F-vi.jpg
Mel and I got the left inner wheel well finished up and welded in today. We ran a bead on the inner skirt.
http://images57.fotki.com/v496/photo...MVC008F-vi.jpg
and tack welded in here.
http://images20.fotki.com/v685/photo...MVC012F-vi.jpg
This is the inside view.
http://images109.fotki.com/v83/photo...MVC014F-vi.jpg
Once it was tacked we pulled the panels out and sweetened up the mating edges. I welded the panels solid and got everything cleaned up.
http://images56.fotki.com/v713/photo...MVC017F-vi.jpg
Here you can see we were well on our way to having the panel welded in. Lots of spot welds.
http://images46.fotki.com/v62/photos...MVC019F-vi.jpg
as with the other panels this dude is solid with all of the welds complete.
While I was dinking around with the welder Mel was making the patch panel for the mangled right front inner fender. he cleaned up the mating surfaces,
http://images52.fotki.com/v1551/phot...MVC020F-vi.jpg
made a pattern and cut a blank out of some 18ga.
http://images57.fotki.com/v80/photos...MVC021F-vi.jpg
We'll get some holes puched around the edges tomorrow and get this welded in so we can pull the fender back off. Right now the fender is the only thing holding the right front corner to the van!
One last gratuitous inner fender well shot
http://images109.fotki.com/v786/phot...MVC001F-vi.jpg
Thanks for looking!
Mark

that rolled bead is a great touch and will add strenght..

there is some small tricks on welding alum you may know .. mark one is band saw cuts can mess with your weld if the saw was used for cutting steel . the butt end needs to be smooth and clean i use a body file over the cut or a rotor bur hand tool. heat is key timing dip move dip move =cccccccccccccc the key is fit up many guy just tack with filler then just butter the joint with no filler rod. use no more cleaning action then needed . i bock my torch hand up so i not holding it up i use a block of wood or a steel block .then i only have to worry about my timming on filler dipping

Thanks Pat, I hoped you would chime in. I take care of the cut end with either a file or rotary disc. I get it pretty smooth. I use a hand prop when I can. I used a piece of C channel when I did the radiator shroud welds and the joint was clamped to a piece of 2 x 2 steel tubing to help control the heat. I actually did a lot of that shroud weld with no filler. Like you said I just buttered the joint and it went real smooth. One thing I learned tonight is to kick up the frequency when welding a fillet joint. keeps the arc focused in a tighter zone for better heat control. I'll be trying that in the morning.
You interested in giving a few lessons?
Mark

you can point the tungsten but blunt the tip some if you use ceriated this may help with the focus you weld heat. watch some of them dics cam add to the crap you have to burn clean. me give lessons ? i am far from the best but i would come over and help you out . mark it is really time behind the torch

Thanks Pat, I have a bunch of new techniques to try out when I get back on the tig machine. We'll see how I do.

HURRAY!!! The major sheet metal work is DONE! We got the right front wheel well finished up and all welded in today. We also got some closeout panels made and welded in. And, along with that, we cleaned up a couple of benches and swept the floor!
Here are a few pics of what we got done yesterday. Fitting and more fitting. This actually went pretty quick as we had already done the drivers side so we knew what to expect
http://images9.fotki.com/v248/photos...MVC003F-vi.jpg
This is the inner closeout clamped in place. We knocked off here Saturday. The same place we did last weekend. You can see the "bead centerline" marked out on the lower panel.
http://images56.fotki.com/v1602/phot...MVC014F-vi.jpg
Today we rolled the bead on the closeout panel and finished up fitting it all in. Here is the closeout tacked and out on the bench.
http://images14.fotki.com/v777/photo...MVC001F-vi.jpg
Once we started tacking things together it went pretty quick.
All welded in.
http://images61.fotki.com/v1610/phot...MVC005F-vi.jpg
This is one of the little closeouts we made to clean up the front of the new wheel wells. Compare this pic to the previous. You can see what we cut out and how much nicer this looks.
http://images108.fotki.com/v1629/pho...MVC018F-vi.jpg
http://images60.fotki.com/v224/photo...MVC019F-vi.jpg
From underneath. This looks really clean and there is plenty of room for tire under here.
http://images108.fotki.com/v360/phot...MVC016F-vi.jpg
A couple of "clean bench" shots! This right here is a milestone all in of itself!!!
http://images54.fotki.com/v77/photos...MVC022F-vi.jpg
http://images55.fotki.com/v648/photo...MVC003F-vi.jpg
I have tomorrow off. Plan to do some running, picking up rivnuts at Grainger's, probably some power steering hose and I'll check on the Tig welder cover I ordered a week ago.
Thanks for watching.
Mark

Some very nice work finishing up the sheetmetal! So many people just seem to be content to cobble things together in wheel wells and other such places then try to hide all their sins with seam sealer! Congrats on taking the time to do things correctly! Also, thanks for the "motivational shots" of the clean bench!!! Mike's Buick left yesterday, I was going to move my pickup in today but decided to take one extra day and spend it on the shop, hopefully I'll be able to find the top of my toolbox again!!!!

"ceriated electrodes" are these the ones with the gray color band?

Got to be happy about getting that out of the way, coming along nicely

Originally Posted by pepi

"ceriated electrodes" are these the ones with the gray color band?

Got to be happy about getting that out of the way, coming along nicely

well no but there is gray 2% . gold. blue. and brown .more ?? then the old stand by red 2% and green . i know what some of the colors are but some seam to use different colors for the same electrodes? gray is used for rare earth tungsten as well or silver ?? . the ceriated is orange code i use . one time there was another color code for it ??? you just have to try it use what you like i think the ceriated seem s not to blow off this happens when i push past 250 amps with smaller tungsten

I was in the shop all day today never did see the top of my benches. Did get some tools put away

Originally Posted by cffisher

I was in the shop all day today never did see the top of my benches. Did get some tools put away

Couldn't see over the ice cream bowl?

I do have to admit it is nice walking into the shop and having a clean bench and floor looking back at you. Those two benches haven't been that clean since we started the build! The floor gets vacced up every other week or two, depends how much grinding we've been doing...

Picked up a few more fittings for the power steering install. These are the ones I picked up last week.
Two 90's on the boost unit. I mocked the boost unit into the van to check routing and didn't like the way things were looking.
http://images58.fotki.com/v510/photo...MVC004F-vi.jpg
Two 90's on the steering gear.
http://images12.fotki.com/v540/photo...MVC005F-vi.jpg
The 90's are better then straights and they will work fine on the rack but a couple of 135's would be better up on the booster. I called my LAPS and they said nobody makes the fittings in a 135 degree. CRAP! So, I looked them over and got out one of my cheapy brake line benders.
Chucked it up in the vise and used a piece of aluminum tubing that "just" slid over the 3/8th's steel line of the fiiting.
http://images51.fotki.com/v103/photo...MVC010F-vi.jpg
The short piece of aluminum gave me enough leverage that I could bend the steel line in small increments to get it to where I needed it.
http://images58.fotki.com/v513/photo...MVC011F-vi.jpg
All bent up and zero kinks!
http://images55.fotki.com/v268/photo...MVC002F-vi.jpg
Here is the bend I did for the pressure out line from the booster to the rack.
http://images15.fotki.com/v792/photo...MVC004F-vi.jpg
I left enough straight so I can install the crimp fittings.
http://images51.fotki.com/v303/photo...MVC005F-vi.jpg
Installed on the booster I have much neater angle. This points the line straight down toward the rack fittings. Otherwise it would be heading out over the steering column...
http://images108.fotki.com/v613/phot...MVC007F-vi.jpg
I did the same thing with the 18mm in line from the pump. Here is the unmodified 90 degree fitting. Kind of points out into space toward the front of the engine.
http://images14.fotki.com/v1625/phot...MVC008F-vi.jpg
After I "sweetened up" the angles a bit... This points the line right down the inside of the engine cover openinig.
http://images108.fotki.com/v1629/pho...MVC014F-vi.jpg
There is a stud on the sheetmetal that will carry a clamp for the line coming from the pump. You can see it at the bottom of this photo.
http://images46.fotki.com/v1622/phot...MVC015F-vi.jpg
That's it for today. Back to work tomorrow. I have Friday after next off(the 14th) and the 13th will be my last work day this year! My son is coming home from Vancouver the 17th so I'll spend some time with him AND work on the van!
Thanks for watching
Mark

That should work just fine, Mark, nice work. Did a bit of cleaning myself today! Also got one of my ceiling lights working that has been out for a year, just a ballast but you know how that stuff gets put off!!!!

What's next on the agenda for the Astro????

I'm new to the club/forum and I have to say very nice work Mark I have a 1989 Astro RS I bought from a guy who got it in Florida. I will post some pics soon. Mine will not be as drastically altered as your but I am a big fan of these vans.