Thread: Bad Ast Astro Van Build

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another good day at the shop

Nice work and a nice place to hide a bunch of relays! I've got to come up with a similar plan for the Cutlass, Mike was up last week and conned me into doing the wiring, too.....As always, nicely planned and executed, Mark!

Yep, great to see a well thought out plan executed well. Makes me think of rivnuts in a new light!

Thanks Dave, thanks Roger. The Radio Shack Project Boxes work well for hiding relays, distribution lugs and terminal strips. I will probably end up with four of them in the van.

Got a lot of head scratching done last weekend. We starting mocking up the scissor style hood hinges. Mel made a couple of plates to get the ends constrained so the hinges operate properly.
http://images50.fotki.com/v405/photo...MVC004F-vi.jpg
Here are a couple pics I marked up in Paint to show how the hood will open forward. The hinges will mount to the radiator support in some fabbed boxes. This is with the "hood" closed.
http://images52.fotki.com/v640/photo...markup1-vi.jpg
And one with the "hood" open.
http://images52.fotki.com/v1565/phot...markup2-vi.jpg
The reason for this is I want to extend the hood back to the windshield to remove the plastic wiper cowl. I also want to have the cowl hood scoop reach back to the windshield. There is no way the Astro hood will open using the stock hinge pivot points so this is my fix.
I will be building the hinge boxes where the hood bumpers live now.
Drivers side.
http://images59.fotki.com/v684/photo...MVC008F-vi.jpg
Passenger side. We stuck the HVAC box in to check clearances.
http://images108.fotki.com/v1623/pho...MVC010F-vi.jpg
I am planning to build the hinges with nylon bearings and use shoulder screws or threaded spacers to put everything together.
We also started building the rear floor closeout that kicks up over the rear frame. We laid out a pattern on the rear wheel well and Mel bent up some 16ga. brackets we will spot weld to the tubs.
The pattern
http://images49.fotki.com/v1510/phot...MVC022F-vi.jpg
The brackets
http://images52.fotki.com/v727/photo...MVC020F-vi.jpg
These will get welded in approximately here on both sides. Following our layout lines.
http://images52.fotki.com/v639/photo...MVC019F-vi.jpg
Once these are in we will fab a strip of 16ga to weld on top of them. This strip will carry the Dzus fasteners to hold the panel in. It will be nice to have easy access to the shocks and rear diff through this panel.
I also spent some time looking at fuel filler designs. This is the Astro filler neck I cut up for "look see" stuff. It is 2" in diameter.
http://images16.fotki.com/v301/photo...MVC018F-vi.jpg
I just ordered some 1 1/2" dia. mandrel bent aluminum tubing I will use to build the filler tubes. I also need to pick up some fill hose and the fuel filler I am planning to use is from Speedway. It is a flush mount with a keyed cap.
Before we knocked off Sunday we routed a light cord to measure the shifter cable required length. I figured 10 ft would do it but I will get an 11 footer just to be sure. There is plenty of room under there for cable routing so an extra foot will not hurt anything.
Thanks for following along! Hopefully next itme there will be some real work done.
Mark

I like the hood hinges Mark!!! Hope they work out well for you so I can copy them!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks Dave! Copy away dude!

Got a lot done this weekend. Mel was out yesterday and we got the brackets for the rear closeout panel built and welded in and got the flanges made to start rebuilding the back of the floor.
here are some pics of the rear brackets being put in. We clamped up some sheet stock to hold them for plug welding.
http://images56.fotki.com/v1298/phot...MVC001F-vi.jpg
http://images59.fotki.com/v426/photo...MVC002F-vi.jpg
After welding. These are pretty strong even with just a few welds.
http://images60.fotki.com/v778/photo...MVC012F-vi.jpg
To show you how strong these are we had to do a little tweaking to bring the angles into line... This is Mel using a hand seamer on the 18ga to bend it after welding. No issues with weld strength here.

http://images20.fotki.com/v1590/phot...MVC011F-vi.jpg
Once got those welded in we made up the actual strip that the closeout panel will get fastened too.
These are 1 1/2" wide strips of 18ga. I will drill them for Dzus fasteners after we have them finished and the panel made.
http://images60.fotki.com/v661/photo...MVC015F-vi.jpg
All welded in. The plug welds were nice and flush. These strips will get seam sealed to the tub after all of the fab work is done.
http://images12.fotki.com/v532/photo...MVC018F-vi.jpg
An over all of the area we are working on
http://images49.fotki.com/v566/photo...MVC020F-vi.jpg
Once the welds were smoothed off with a flap disc we moved on to make the lower flange.
This is the passenger side.
http://images58.fotki.com/v448/photo...MVC022F-vi.jpg
And this is the drivers side. These will get the Dzus fasteners.
http://images14.fotki.com/v777/photo...MVC024F-vi.jpg
The upper four link bars will intrude iinto the interior by a few inches at full jounce so we cut a couple of clearance notches to give them room.
http://images52.fotki.com/v640/photo...MVC025F-vi.jpg
We designed a little flange to close out the back of the floor and give us something to weld the rest of the floor too.
Here is the design with some dimensions.
http://images50.fotki.com/v1527/phot...MVC006F-vi.jpg
And here is the part. We bent this up out of 20ga on the 3 in 1.
http://images57.fotki.com/v505/photo...MVC005F-vi.jpg
This is the flange clamped in place between the suspension notches.
http://images46.fotki.com/v400/photo...MVC003F-vi.jpg
That's what we got done Saturday.
Thanks for looking.
Mark

I was working alone today. I got more done then I figured I would but I kept busy in between Daytona 500 breaks!
I puttered around a bit before I got to work on the van. I went thru a box of old drill bits and sharpened and sorted around 30 of them. I also put new points on a couple of worn center punches. I chucked them in the lathe and ran a carbide over them to sweeten up the points.
I got the 1 1/2" aluminum tubing I ordered for the fuel filler. I trimmed off the 180 degree piece to make the fill neck and cut a hole intot the corner of the tank for it.
http://images14.fotki.com/v777/photo...MVC006F-vi.jpg
http://images56.fotki.com/v124/photo...MVC002F-vi.jpg
http://images12.fotki.com/v236/photo...MVC003F-vi.jpg
I did a bit of figuring to start making the tunnel pieces for the suspension notches. The bars come up thru the floor at about a 15 degree angle so I based my drawing on that.
The bottom edge of the cardboard is the floor. You can see the angle of the rear panel on the left and the flange is apparent at the back of the floor.
http://images15.fotki.com/v792/photo...MVC008F-vi.jpg
Mel and I figured a 4" wide tunnel should be plenty to clear the bars so, with this drawing and the knowledge that 1/2 the circumference of a 4" circle is 6.28", I sheared off a couiple strips of 20ga at 10" wide. That will give me a 2" deep "skirt" on either side to reach down to the floor.
This is one of the pieces with a centerline and two tangencies laid out for rolling.
http://images61.fotki.com/v52/photos...MVC007F-vi.jpg
Just getting the shape started on the 3 in 1.
http://images16.fotki.com/v258/photo...MVC009F-vi.jpg
After a few trips through the rolls I had a shape that was close. I use the tangent lines as a guide for the rolls. As I roll the steel back and forth I stay inside the tangent lines. This maintains a straight skirt on either side.
http://images16.fotki.com/v383/photo...MVC012F-vi.jpg
After the piece comes off the rolls I need to do a little "sweetening".
http://images43.fotki.com/v1505/phot...MVC013F-vi.jpg
Clamping the piece to the bench so I can hand bend it to straighten out the profile. That's a piece of 1 x 2 tubing clampes on the tin.
http://images108.fotki.com/v1623/pho...MVC015F-vi.jpg
Here you can see the profile is pretty darn close. This took about 15 minutes from layout to formed piece.
http://images20.fotki.com/v1588/phot...MVC014F-vi.jpg
Sweet!
http://images61.fotki.com/v53/photos...MVC016F-vi.jpg
Mocked up in van. Obviously this is a bit long....
http://images60.fotki.com/v367/photo...MVC020F-vi.jpg
http://images12.fotki.com/v531/photo...MVC001F-vi.jpg
I made another tunnel and got everything mocked up before I knocked off at 4 and went in to finish watching the 500...
http://images59.fotki.com/v255/photo...MVC011F-vi.jpg
http://images59.fotki.com/v684/photo...MVC012F-vi.jpg
Well, thanks for watching. I hope to get a bit more done during the week so I'll keep you updated.
Mark

More of that time consuming work that nobody ever notices when they ask you if the project is done yet!!!!! Nice work, Mark.

Finishing the cuts in the floor for the clearance tunnels. We cut out the rest with a cutoff wheel in a die grinder. Made pretty quick work of it.
http://images12.fotki.com/v213/photo...MVC004F-vi.jpg
We made a bigger cut then necessary on the drivers side just to get rid of the floor rib. That was making it difficult to get a nice flange under the floor. This will get pieced in as we weld the floor together.
Once we had the holes opened up we marked the tubes for final trimming. I ran a line about an inch outside of that one and we set up the bead roller. We formed flanges on either side of the tunnels which will get welded into the floor.
http://images14.fotki.com/v1625/phot...MVC008F-vi.jpg
After a few trips through the tipping dies we have a flange!
http://images49.fotki.com/v1555/phot...MVC011F-vi.jpg
A bit of grinding and fitting and the tunnels are clecoed in.
http://images15.fotki.com/v587/photo...MVC005F-vi.jpg
http://images49.fotki.com/v1556/phot...MVC014F-vi.jpg
Here we are getting the back edge square and level. The flange we made last weekend needs to go here.
http://images12.fotki.com/v531/photo...MVC016F-vi.jpg
Setting up the level so we can clamp the floor at the right height.
http://images58.fotki.com/v449/photo...MVC012F-vi.jpg
We drilled 1/4" holes along the edge in the valleys to spot weld to the flange.
http://images59.fotki.com/v255/photo...MVC018F-vi.jpg
Once this is all welded to gether it will be really strong.
The tunnels will get trimmed off to match the plane between the top tubing and the floor flange we just welded on. Of course they will be lrft long like we did the floor flanges. We'll run the tipping dies around the ends to form a nice spot welding flange.
http://images57.fotki.com/v1354/phot...MVC021F-vi.jpg
http://images108.fotki.com/v191/phot...MVC022F-vi.jpg
With all of this set up I will make patterns for the filler panel and get that made this week.
Mark

Love to watch the sheet metal work makes me want to go build something, can't go wrong with Milwaukee tools .

As always Mark great work. I was up in Owosso Sat. that can't be far from you..

More great work, and fantastic detail photos and explanation of your steps. Thanks once again for taking time to document your work.

Thanks guys! Charlie, Owosso is about 20 minutes NW of me. I was over there last evening.

Spent today working on the floor again. I made up templates for notching the rear bulkhead panel around the clearance tunnels.
http://images55.fotki.com/v268/photo...MVC016F-vi.jpg
http://images12.fotki.com/v155/photo...MVC015F-vi.jpg
Once those were done we trimmed a sheet of 20ga to size and laid out the notches for cutting.
http://images52.fotki.com/v641/photo...MVC018F-vi.jpg
http://images49.fotki.com/v566/photo...MVC019F-vi.jpg
I cut them out with a die grinder and cutoff wheel and cleaned them up with a stone in the grinder.
http://images43.fotki.com/v398/photo...MVC020F-vi.jpg
Test fitting the panel.
http://images61.fotki.com/v439/photo...MVC022F-vi.jpg
Once we did a little fitting we clecoed it in place and marked the tunnels for trimming.
http://images15.fotki.com/v792/photo...MVC023F-vi.jpg
Once the tunnels were marked we pulled one out and I laid out cut lines to trim to. We left it about an inch long so we could roll up a flange for welding to the floor.
http://images46.fotki.com/v529/photo...MVC019F-vi.jpg
After a few runs through the bead roller with the tipping dies in place we had a nice flange that only took a hammering to get flat enough to cleco in.
http://images57.fotki.com/v1613/phot...MVC021F-vi.jpg
http://images46.fotki.com/v274/photo...MVC022F-vi.jpg
This is under the floor. We had a bit of fitting to do to get it sitting right.
http://images43.fotki.com/v1505/phot...MVC023F-vi.jpg
Once we had everything fit together we put a couple of cleco's in the top flange and called it a day...
http://images50.fotki.com/v1513/phot...MVC007F-vi.jpg
The fit is pretty good underneath. This will get tightened up a bit while we are welding it in.
http://images56.fotki.com/v1599/phot...MVC005F-vi.jpg
Thanks for watching.
Mark

I posted this in the homemade tools thread also but thought I should put it here for continuity.

Today Mel and I made a simple sheet metal bender out of scraps I had laying around. Necessity being the mother that it is, I had to bend a panel for the van that was just under 39 inches long and the 3-in-1 is too short to do that.
This is the panel. You can see the dashed tangent line at the top. That's where we needed a 1" radius bend.
http://images61.fotki.com/v439/photo...MVC022F-vi.jpg

Using some 3 x 3/8ths plate, a piece of 1x2 tubing and the top tube out of an old swingset I fabbed up a simple bender that will clamp the steel in place and except a piece 48" wide.
Here you can see the 38" piece we bent for the trial. It has a short flange on one side and we just clamped it in place and hand bent it (20ga).
http://images16.fotki.com/v220/photo...MVC004F-vi.jpg
You can see the tube here with the bent flange at the top.
http://images58.fotki.com/v449/photo...MVC005F-vi.jpg
Here is the panel set in place. Very nice.
http://images55.fotki.com/v268/photo...MVC008F-vi.jpg
I will get some clearer pics later. Once the sheet was bent I cleaned up the bender and sprayed it gloss orange so I had to wait to let the paint dry.
This is the "top" piece. There are no bolts. It just gets C-Clamped together while I am doing the bend. Quick and easy...
http://images52.fotki.com/v727/photo...MVC010F-vi.jpg
The bottom half. This is a 1 x 2 rect tube welded to the two end plates. The upper half clamps in between to capture the sheet being bent. This guy will clamp to the fab bench or the jig tables.
http://images60.fotki.com/v661/photo...MVC014F-vi.jpg
Mel and I spent about an hour making this thing. Do you know how much time it will save trying to clamp steel and round tubing together to make a long bend? A LOT!!!
Mark

Mark found a Tube Coping Calculator program you might find handy down the road.

Tube Coping Calculator