Thread: Bad Ast Astro Van Build

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I realize this is not a "classic" Hot Rod but, if anyone is interested in following this build, I have started throwing pics into my gallery.
Bad Ast is what I have named the project and, to give you a bit of background, this is an '88 Astro that I am building in the Pro-Touring style that has emerged in the last few years.
I have the chassis and suspensions designed in a 3D cad program and am working on most of the body panels.
The van is lowered 6" and along with the redesigned front and rear suspensions it will be running a Big Block Chevy set back 14" and down about 5.5". A 700r4 (or 4L60E) will be the trans of choice and a 9" rear with 4.11's and an Auburn posi will sit out back.
Tires and wheels are Michelin Pilot Sports; 275/40-17's up front with 345/35-18's out back. They are mounted on Bonspeed 17x10's and 18x12's respectively and all rims run a 7.00" backspacing.
At the moment I have a full set of Corvette Grand Sport HD disc brakes, 13" in front and 12" in the rear but I may upgrade to wilwoods or Baers before the proect is done.
Thanks for looking
Mark

Welcome to CHR Mark.

Good to have the advantage of a computer CAD program to plan stuff out. Will the rear suspension be a triangulated 4 bar?

I like watchin' any make, model or year being custom built. Keep us posted.

Thanks for the welcome...
I'm not "new" to the boards by any means but I did lose them for a while. I just rediscovered them a week or so ago and I was suprised to see my user was still good.
The rear suspension will be a set of relocated leaf springs with CalTrac style traction bars that I will be building. Should be plenty good enough for my intentions.
I'll keep you posted...

Glad you found your way back. Got any pics. of the van?

I've got "real" and "virtual" pics... The real ones are of a boring, biege colored Astro with Caprice rims, a four cyl. motor w/ A/C and nothing else. The virtual pics show what the intention is...
Here is a virtual...
Check my gallery for more. I'll post up some real pics later.
Mark

I got a new toy delivered the other day. I purchased a tubing bender from Pro Tools. They shipped it Friday and it was dropped off Tuesday night. I only had enough time to open up the boxes to check it over but it looks real nice and I hope to get it up and running this weekend. I'll take some pics and post them up...
Mark

I'll be using the bender to fab the upper and lower control arms for the van. The arms will be made out of 1 1/4x .156 wall D.O.M. tubing.

take a look at what the owner calls The Worlds Fastest Wheelchair Converted Van might give ya some extra ideas
http://www.stjinks.com/king/images/van/burn.jpg

Well, I have finally taken the Bad Ast project off the computer. I started cutting out parts for the Front Cradle Monday morning and last night. I took a few pics of a rough mock-up of the LH Upper Rail.
Realize there is a lot of fit-up I need to do and this is just a "look see" at the assembly. The #2 Body Mount will have a lot of reinforcement welded between the tubes rearward of the current contact point and that gap will disappear.
Check out my gallery for more pics.
Thanks for looking.
Mark

I got a little more done this weekend. All of the lower crossmembers and vertical supports are cut out, fishmouthed and notched.
Fishmouthing the tubing was pretty basic. I used a tubing notcher and a 2" holesaw to make 14 notches. Making sure the notches were parallel in the crosmembers was the only difficult part. I made the initial fishmouth on one end and then used a piece of tubing and an angle finder to make sure the second notch ran true to the first.
I built a quickie notching jig to cut out the notch in the vertical supports that fit up to the bottom of the upper rail. I used a piece of maple for the base, bolted on a short piece of 2" tube as a "nest" and clamped the tube to be cut into the jig with a C-clamp. Worked pretty slick and this rig makes sure that all of the verticals are the same length.
There are more pics here:
http://www.clubhotrod.com/photopost/...at=500&thumb=1
Thanks for looking
Mark

Looks like a great project. I've been messing with these things for years. We LT1ed an 85 in 86 and drove it for 6years. Anyway, I was lucky enough to have been involved in parts of a project known as Blastro. Its a 7second street legal Astro with more mods than I want to type. Enjoy, and I'll watch for the up dated pictures.

Cool stuff. I also enjoy all of the fab pics and drawings.

It's been to F'n hot out for me to get much done in the shop the last week or so. It's a lot easier to sit in the A/C and work on drawings. It was nice out out last night though so I got a few more pieces cut out.
These are the vertical attachment plates for the Upper Control Arms. The holes for the cross shafts haven't been drilled yet but the shape is complete.
Check the pics, I loaded more into my gallery.
Thanks for looking.
Mark

I didn't get as much done this weekend as I had hoped but I got some major hurdles jumped. Friday night I picked up a couple of sheets of particle board to use as the assembly table. One is laminated with melamine (like formica) and the other was plain.
Saturday was a honey do day... worked on mowers and house projects til 4:30pm and then went to the inlaws for the evening. It wasn't wasted though as my Father-in-Law is a pack rat and I got a bunch of steel and aluminum from him.
Sunday was spent building the jig table top. I glued the two pieces of board together with construction adhesive and pulled them together with drywall screws. I then cut the top down to 4' x 6' and laid out the centerlines. Center of car runs the long way and the wheel centerline runs the narrow way 24" back from the end. I then used a straight edge and a narrow kerf blade on my skill saw to cut both lines 3/8ths of an inch deep. This gives me a place to hook a tape measure for laying out the cradle dimensions. I can also slip a long straight edge into the kerfs and use them as baselines for my machinists square.
I also got my shocks on Friday. Very nice! They look great and now that I have them I can verify my LCA and Tower attachments.
More pics of the shocks and the jig table are in my gallery.
Thanks for looking.
Mark

Welcome to CHR Mark! Hey, i was hoping to do something like that with my Merc Villager...maybe some lepard print headliner and a disco ball to go with...i have to see how yours comes out