*Update* I have since raised the rear of my van with fuullsize truck lowering shackles. I had to use spacers at the point where they mount to the "frame" but otherwise they work great. This is only temporary however. My ultimate plan is to convert to steal springs and a normal spring pad a...

Lockdco glad to see you had some luck swapping doors. I sold my 96 donor van to finance a V-8 S-10 Blazer, so now I'm on the hunt for just front sheetmetal.

Looking good Lon. Nice. How ya been doing up there in the far north ?? :muhaha: Far north!?!?!?!?!?!? 120 miles makes LickSkillet the Far North? Unlike the mile marker, we got wrasslin on Saturday night at the Music Barn. Thanks fro the compliment. It isnt as radical as a Vette rear, but I have som...

Looks great! But how do you open the door? For now I open it from the inside. GM's worse idea ever, no interior door handle on a 93 Astro. I took the door panel off before I welded everything solid. The plan is to repurpose the door lock acuator to open the door. Eventually I will shave all of the ...

Finished pic. I want to repaint the van after repairing the wreck damage so paint amtching isnt a priority.

Now I have gone and done it. The van is useless now. A friend gave me a steel tagbox, I wasnt going ot use it, then decided to use it.

The front is still wrecked, but I have couple donor vans lined up, so it will be fixed soon.

Yeah those welded hinges were my big road block. I have looked at the hinges and pulled the passenger side door panel and decided I will just swap all of the brackets and door guts. I actually at one point wanted to swap the entire interior. The 96 has rear air. I dont even want to think of tackling...

I'm swapping the front end on my 93 Astro to a 96 front end. My donor van's door locks, and windows work perfect and the the newer door panels have a place for speakers. I had planned on swapping just the door panels and the brackets when my wife asked why dont I just swap the entire door. So how mu...

Thanks for the replies. I have found a junkyard in Athens Al. that has a lot of Astros but no AWDs. At least I know where to get the stuff to fix the crash damage. I know when I raise it back up it wont be back to stock ride height. I will probably keep it RWD to see if I like how it handles. 9dawgs...

I have found a solid 1973 K-5 Blazer in the junkyard, it is a 4x4 with all the axles, but no motor. I can get it real cheap. So instead of swapping subframes I may just go SAS. I have always wanted a 2wd fullsize Blazer, and a 4x4 van. Still researching my options at this point, but summer cruising ...

The youtube video reminds me of when I took a totaled 88 Astro to the junkyard. I smoked the tires at every stop sign and drifted it around the corners. My wife was following me and aske that I not drive like that with her in the car. After the abuse the j/y owner used the van in the boat trailer ra...

Yeah that was the plan. As you can see from the wreck my wife can not drive. This is the third truck of mine that she wrecked, she backed her custom 99 S-10 into my bagged GMC one rainy night. She isnt getting anything newer than 1990 and nothing lifted. I found an 89 Blazer with a new motor. The ow...

I think the general consensus is that its better just to start with an AWD van. You'd need the subframe and all steering/suspension/drive train components, plus the transmission and transfer case. If you use 1990-98 parts you shouldn't run into any computer problems though. With everything you'd ne...

I have a 93 EXT RWD. Right now it is lowered and wrecked, but drivable. My wife wants an S-10 Blazer and wants me to sell the van. I really dont want to sell it, instead I want to use it for my camper. Since I will be raising it back to stock I thought of swapping the sub frame for an AWD sub frame,...

SoCali, yeah I have seen your notch. The pic of that rectangle tubing is going to be my notch. I wanted to do the notch this weekend but I discoverd the axle isnt square in the chassis. It isnt noticable with the 225/70/15s, but I was experimenting with 275/60/17s and saw that the tire hit the back ...