Thread: Bad Ast Astro Van Build

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Here is a bit of an update on build progress after almost a month... What with a few car shows, running back and forth to Kawkawlin and pulling together all of the wiring stuff, actual progress as been slow
We built an upper crossmember and have been picking away at the rear floor closeouts around the tank.
This is an overall view. The xmbr bolts in between the wells and the closeouts sweep up along the inside of the wells.
http://images14.fotki.com/v219/photo...MVC020F-vi.jpg
This one of the tapping plates we made to hold in the xmbr.
http://images60.fotki.com/v361/photo...MVC008F-vi.jpg
The other side with the 1 x 2 tubing fit in and ready to weld
http://images15.fotki.com/v587/photo...MVC010F-vi.jpg
These are closeups of either side of the close out panels.
Right side
http://images52.fotki.com/v8/photos/...MVC016F-vi.jpg
Left side
http://images20.fotki.com/v681/photo...MVC019F-vi.jpg
We need to make the rear filler panel yet. I won't weld any of this until that is ready.
I also got that left front wheel well welded in and primed. Haven't seam sealed it yet. Will wait and do that when I finish up the rear panels.
http://images52.fotki.com/v640/photo...MVC005F-vi.jpg
Most of this we got done in a day about a month ago. The last few weeks I have spent WORKING ON THE WIRING!!!! I'm sorry, was I yelling?
Mel has been doing some serious camping. He has a 27' trailer and has a membership at one of the camp grounds out by Davison.
The next post will touch on a bit of the wiring for this dude.
Thanks for looking.
Mark

Now! On to the fun stuff! Actually wiring isn't that bad. I kind of enjoy it. Sorting through decade old harnesses... Fingers covered with YUCK from the old tape wrap... Yummy... This is where I've been spending a lot of time. Sorting through this stuff with wiring diagrams and actual harnesses.
Anyway, I will be combining the original '88 harness with the '95 donor harness. The '88 didn't come with power locks or windows and I will be throwing the '95 doors on Bad Ast to get those amenities.
Here are a few pics as i jumble my way through the wire jungle.
This is the '95 harness and column. I will use the '95 as the '88 didn' have tilt...
http://images107.fotki.com/v159/phot...MVC021F-vi.jpg
This is the '88 before i stripped off the loom and tape.
http://images16.fotki.com/v378/photo...MVC022F-vi.jpg
The '95 also has a lot of stuff I am not going to use. The computer wiring is not needed neither is the airbag stuff.
I am stripping all of that junk out and trying to maintain the ignition/start, neutral safety and HVAC systems. EVERYTHING is tied back into the ECM... See that pile of wire at the upper right? That's all airbag stuff I stripped out...
http://images15.fotki.com/v792/photo...MVC002F-vi.jpg
That's where the '88 harness comes into play. It is a little less complicated and has the HVAC stuff so I am pulling all of the power lock/window stuff out of the '95 incorporating it into the '88 junction block.
http://images54.fotki.com/v627/photo...MVC001F-vi.jpg
I have also traced the turn signal, hi beam and brake light circuits to the cluster connectors and will use those to power the new led's in the rebuilt cluster.
I work on it for a couple hours and I have to walk away... It all starts looking the same for some reason.
I took a break tonight and started building the center stack gauge harness.
I loaded the gauge panel.
http://images56.fotki.com/v701/photo...MVC004F-vi.jpg
Flipped her over and labeled all of the gauges. (helps me keep things straight).
http://images60.fotki.com/v662/photo...MVC009F-vi.jpg
First up was tying all of the illumination bulbs and grounds together. I simply butt spliced the wires into two different circuits with a long pigtail for the remote connctor
http://images60.fotki.com/v370/photo...MVC010F-vi.jpg
Then I got the ignition side done. I haven't shrunk any of the heat shrink tubing yet and I will wrap everything up with cable ties when it's done. Should look pretty good.
http://images12.fotki.com/v532/photo...MVC012F-vi.jpg
I knocked off here tonight. Tomorrow I will finish the ground side for the gauges and run the sender wires. At that point I can install one half of the 12 way molex connector I will be using and this harness will be complete.
http://images108.fotki.com/v1629/pho...MVC013F-vi.jpg
It was a good break. Got something done.
Mark

Wiring is always fun. If someone come by I quit till there gone

Coming along nicely, Mark!!! The wiring part is always soooooooo time consuming!!!!!

Originally Posted by cffisher

Wiring is always fun. If someone come by I quit till there gone

I do the same thing! On all those important jobs...

yep sounds about right mark . showed mark one customers shops and some of his toys .then one of the body shop i worked at on and off from the early 80s till the late 90s next to my customers shop. yesterday it burn down lucky for the guy he did not burn up .next time you come up .we can take the blue machine for a ride working one that right now. i will show you how i run threw the gears if your a willing passenger. mark had some cool sticker made for me

Very cool, Mark. You're doing some really nice work.

Originally Posted by pat mccarthy

yep sounds about right mark . showed mark one customers shops and some of his toys .then one of the body shop i worked at on and off from the early 80s till the late 90s next to my customers shop. yesterday it burn down lucky for the guy he did not burn up .next time you come up .we can take the blue machine for a ride working one that right now. i will show you how i run threw the gears if your a willing passenger. mark had some cool sticker made for me

Are you serious? The place burned? Geez, are you sure you want me to come back up there??? Seems I have a bad mojo...

next time you come up .we can take the blue machine for a ride working one that right now. i will show you how i run threw the gears if your a willing passenger
You don't have to ask twice! I'll definetly have the camera in my grubby hands for that!

mark had some cool sticker made for me
Yes sir! I think they look pretty good!
http://images108.fotki.com/v1623/pho...00_5119-vi.jpg
http://images55.fotki.com/v1603/phot...00_5120-vi.jpg

Thanks for all of the good comments guys! I will keep at it.
Mark

I got the Gauge cluster wired up tonight. I put 12v's to the lites and they lit up without any arcing or explosions so I was happy!
They are kind of dim. I was running them off my cheapo battery charger so they probably aren't getting a full 12.
http://images52.fotki.com/v733/photo...MVC003F-vi.jpg
Full view
http://images52.fotki.com/v733/photo...MVC001F-vi.jpg
The back. I will get to the final bundling after I get the shrink tube finished. It's kind of sloopy looking right now but it'll look nice once it's all cable tied.
http://images16.fotki.com/v383/photo...MVC015F-vi.jpg
I finally got myself a good Molex style terminal crimper. This one came from Jegs.
http://images15.fotki.com/v587/photo...MVC007F-vi.jpg
I did all six wire and insulation crimps with zero defects. These crimpers make this a no brainer, really.
First, strip the wire.
http://images57.fotki.com/v300/photo...MVC008F-vi.jpg
Crimp the wire side.
http://images49.fotki.com/v566/photo...MVC009F-vi.jpg
Then move to the next bigger crimp and crimp on the insulation. These are strong crimps, they aren't coming apart.
http://images9.fotki.com/v114/photos...MVC011F-vi.jpg
I then shoved the connectors into the housing. You can see how I labeled the connector with the wire color. Probably not necessary but it helps when planning the connections.
http://images56.fotki.com/v168/photo...MVC012F-vi.jpg
All done..
http://images49.fotki.com/v570/photo...MVC014F-vi.jpg
I have done a lot of wiring before so I am very comfortable doing it. I know a lot of people are intimidated by the "spaghetti"... If you want to learn more I would suggest picking up two books. Both of them are by Tony Candela and are very well written.
He touches base on all of the basics in his first book
http://img2.imagesbn.com/images/39880000/39882075.JPG
and covers some fairly in-depth projects in his second.
http://img2.imagesbn.com/images/101430000/101439313.JPG
I have read through both of them a few times and everything I am doing here on the van I have either picked up through Tony's books or had my knowledge reinforced or changed for the better by him. The other thing I can tell you is, if you want to learn to do your own wiring, get out and do it. It's not that difficult and, with these books as reference, I think anybody could re-wire a car with little difficulty. Or just start small by tiding up all of those loose wires!
Thanks for looking
Mark

Got a lot done today. We finished closing in the fuel tank. Made the rear filler panel out of a piece of 18ga. Bent a 1/2" lip on the front side, punched a bunch of holes in it and spot welded that and the two end panels into the van.
This is the driver's side before spot welding.
http://images55.fotki.com/v1604/phot...MVC003F-vi.jpg
The passenger side.
http://images54.fotki.com/v514/photo...MVC004F-vi.jpg
After welding. This closes out the rear tank opening and, after finish paint, a strip of rubber will go between the tank and body to seal everything up
http://images56.fotki.com/v1600/phot...MVC007F-vi.jpg
http://images54.fotki.com/v880/photo...MVC008F-vi.jpg
After some cleanup and primer.
http://images20.fotki.com/v503/photo...MVC014F-vi.jpg
Here you can see the verticle spot welds on the end panels.
http://images16.fotki.com/v378/photo...MVC015F-vi.jpg
These will get buried in seam sealer to smooth things out. After the body comes off the frame I will seam seal on the back side also.
http://images59.fotki.com/v111/photo...MVC016F-vi.jpg
Here's a shot with the tank in place. Everything fit up great! I will work on the seam sealer stuff tomorrow night.
http://images18.fotki.com/v270/photo...MVC020F-vi.jpg
http://images14.fotki.com/v384/photo...MVC021F-vi.jpg
I got the engine compartment inner wheel wells cut out today also. Fired up the plasma cutter and did some trimming.
http://images57.fotki.com/v1614/phot...MVC001F-vi.jpg
There isn't much left! I will be rolling some 18ga to rebuild these guys. The drivers side will see mounts for the relay box build into it.
This is the pass side. Won't be much of this visible once the HVAC box goes back in.
http://images45.fotki.com/v148/photo...MVC002F-vi.jpg
Got something done today!
Thanks for looking!
Mark

Back end around the tank came out great Mark! Neat and clean installation.

Thanks Dave! For what room there is, neat and clean was about our only option. All of this will get enclosed in another box for fire safety which will make a short deck right above the tank. Some shag carpet and a disco ball and it'll be good!

As I have been pulling together the wiring I have found some excellant suppliers with high quality products. The wiring books were a couple and here is another.
If anyone is in need of automotive wire give Nate Garland at Welcome to Wire Barn - Your Trusted Wire and Supply Source a look. He sells a number of different types with GXL cross-linked polyethelene being one of them. This stuff is a far cry from your basic PVC covered junk.
He sells it in 25' lengths in multi-packs of six or eight colors. This is perfect for a home builder like myself as I don't need 100' spools of wire laying around. It's also a helluva lot cheaper... I just bought 1 ea. of the 18ga, 16ga and 14ga 8 color packs from him and paid about what I would have for four 100' spools of 16ga. This is more then enough wire to finish up the van and probably a couple more projects down the road. With 8 colors and three ga sizes I am pretty well set for wire for a while. He also has 12 ga and I'll be picking up a selction of that this week.
Here are some pics of the wire he sent me. It is very nice stuff. And it is made in the USA!!!
http://images60.fotki.com/v224/photo...MVC017F-vi.jpg
http://images107.fotki.com/v159/phot...MVC018F-vi.jpg
Mark

His prices aren't bad at all...Let us know when you find that shag carpet wearhouse

Things are moving slowly on the van. I have been working on another "project" and the fall weather is making me take care of some "around the house" projects.
I have gotten a couple things done though. I ended up ordering some chromed pulleys from Jegs. Just to get the front dressed out and let me finish the alternator brackets. The pulleys needed a bit of work to get them tofit right but I did that last week and got the alt brackets done over the weekend.
I made the mounting studs from 3/8-16 threaded rod. Cut two to length and threaded them into the aluminum head as far as they would go. I will pull them out and put a little anti-sieze on them for final assembly. I will probably put some acorn nuts on them to clean them up.
http://images109.fotki.com/v144/phot...00_5268-vi.jpg
Here is a creen shot of my UG file for the bracket design... Looks pretty close doesn't it?
http://images55.fotki.com/v585/photo...RNATOR1-vi.jpg
I used 1" dia aluminum to make the spacers. Bored them out on the lathe and put a nice polish on them after I faced them to length.
http://images107.fotki.com/v159/phot...00_5271-vi.jpg
The brackets will get sand blasted and powder coated black after I smooth out the edges.
The pulleys will get the motor running and drivable but I plan to upgrade them to polished aluminum when the van is on it's way to completion.
http://images59.fotki.com/v683/photo...00_5267-vi.jpg
I have a chromed fan and pulley for the alt and am waiting on the power steering pulley to show up.
Mark

Here are few pics of the wire spool I made to hold all of the wire I got.
http://images59.fotki.com/v684/photo...MVC016F-vi.jpg
This is pretty simple as it's only a heavy cardboard tube with dividers made from heavy cardbooard and hotglued in place... A scrap of 5/4 deck board made the base.
http://images55.fotki.com/v268/photo...MVC018F-vi.jpg
I put hooks in this and it hangs right over my wiring bench so the wire is easy to reach and stays out of the way.
Here are some pics of the battery box. The rear most position just isn't good because it's way to high in the van.
http://images107.fotki.com/v159/phot...MVC005F-vi.jpg
I thought about putting it in the floor in front of the passenger side wheel tub but that is a lot of work for no real gain. Also it would be in the way of my planned exhaust routing.
http://images49.fotki.com/v855/photo...MVC002F-vi.jpg
I've made up my mind to put it up front. Centered in the frame as low as I can get it yet keep it above the bottom of the lower frame tube.
http://images23.fotki.com/v859/photo...MVC018F-vi.jpg
It will be sitting fairly low and will not even see the radiator. This is also going to simplfy the wiring by leaps and bounds! No huge mass of cables running front to back now.
Mark