Thread: Bad Ast Astro Van Build

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Mark,
I looked through all of your pictures and the van is going to look great with those tires! We had a couple of Astro's years back, and I always liked their lines. Yours is going to be super cool!

I have a "two day" weekend thanks to MLK. Mel and I were out in the shop at 9:00am this morning. We made a game plan on the floor and tub work and got busy.
After I cut out all of the stuff that's in the way of the tire....
http://images44.fotki.com/v301/photo...MVC012F-vi.jpg
Here is the pile of "stuff"
http://images57.fotki.com/v300/photo...MVC011F-vi.jpg
And here is the tire at the correct ride height.
http://images61.fotki.com/v777/photo...MVC006F-vi.jpg
Inside... I made a little gage block to mark the inner fender were I needed to remove it. Sets the pen at four inches from the tire. That gives me 3 inches of jounce and some room for a taller tire if need be.
http://images44.fotki.com/v220/photo...MVC017F-vi.jpg
here is a shot with the old inner clamped in position. It'll look pretty good once all of the tin is replaced.
http://images27.fotki.com/v972/photo...MVC002F-vi.jpg
While I was dinking around with the van Mel was cleaning up and trimming the floor so we can replace the stuff we cut out. We are putting back most of what was cut. Just reorienting it and cleaning up the cross members underneath to clear the new frame.
http://images61.fotki.com/v384/photo...MVC009F-vi.jpg
Marking for the trim line. This will butt up to what is still in the van. The holes you see are spot welds to the original crossmember Mel cut out. The crossmember will be plug welded back in place to carry passenger seat load and give me a place to hang mufflers.
This next pic shows how the flange was welded to the old floor. This will now slide under the old floor and we will plug and stich weld it back together.... A little grinding and some seam sealer and we'll be good.
http://images57.fotki.com/v300/photo...MVC004F-vi.jpg
http://images34.fotki.com/v1081/phot...MVC018F-vi.jpg
There is a lot of work to do under the floor. We need some shallow notches to clear the new K member and the ends of the original crossmember need to be plated in for strength. I'll get pics of that tomorrow.
Mark