Chevy & GMC Vans

I am starting this thread to have one only complete thread of my project 1985 High top Astro.Many here know about this van and there I guess some who don't.So a very brief history I will post here.

I bought this van solely to use as a tow van for my fleamarket business so I could stack product cases in the back of it.I got the van in Tenn. and dolly towed it back to Roch,NY about two yrs ago.It currently is a carbed 4.3 with a rebuilt 700 tranny.



It was being used as a ice cream truck.

I stripped off all the decals and that dumb bell off of it and removed the running boards.



I wanted to do a V8 conversion,but didn't want to deal with the rewiring issues.I determined I needed to find a van that already had the V8 conversion done to it as a donor.I bought this van from a member here and it had a crate 5.7 TBI with only 30,000 miles on it and a blown-up 1991 V8 700r from a pick-up truck.



We stripped donor and took out the V8 power train by dropping the sub frame so I would have a sub frame to build up and just swap it into Ole Yellar once I finshed with the mods I want to do to it.Oh yeah,we cut out rust repair patch panels that I felt I needed for Ole Yellar too.



The donor van also had a tilt steering column which I installed into Ole Yellar.

Lookin good. Jim

Here is some pic's of the sub frame and engine shortly after we dropped it out of the donor van.



And some pics of the sub frame that I am currently stripping for clean-up,paint, and welding on 3" lift body tubes.



This is progress on the sub frame so far.



The first day I didn't get very far honestly because I wasn't very organized with my tools.I did find the passenger side sway bar cracked and the passenger side sway bar link broken.





This is the passenger side completely stripped.



I am pretty sure most of you guys know already that the coil springs are no joke and could be very dangerous taking them out without a spring compressor.I went to Harbor Freight and bought one that I later realized wouldn't work on Astro vans.I also bought a pickle forks for the ball joints and the tie-rod ends.

So anyways you can see that I looped a cable threw the bottom two coils of the spring and threw the shock hole of the a-frame and then to the other side of the frame.Bottom line if the spring was to take off,it wasn't going very far.I stood behind the spring in the center of the frame with a bar and wedged it loose after the ball joint broke loose.







LOL-here is my version of a rust buster which I used on the other sway bar link and had to use on one bottom shock bolt that I cut the head off of the bolt.



Well that about it for now.I have the drivers side bottom a-frame to yet remove and some small stuff before the frame is completely bare and ready for welding on the lift tubes.

Looks like Ole Yellar will be real sweet when you get it back together. Keep us updated on the progress.... we are excited to see it come together; that is after all the hard work of tearing it down is over!

Good to see you back on the project.

Good to see you back Gary and rockin and rollin.

It's going to be acouple of wks while we work threw centering and building the 3" lift tubes/piping for the now completely striped sub frame.This gives me time to consider the parts for a rebuild of the front end parts.I want to put all new replacement parts on the suspension,brakes and steering.In fact I am considering a rack & pinion steering mod for it,but that is for another post after I review the threads about that which honestly I haven't done yet.The main goal is a trouble free result and long life given the fact I expect to put tons of miles on this van once I am done building it.

We all know about the 3/4 ton calipers/pad mod and the use of Blembo rotors which I will use for this van.We all know about using Moog parts as well for longer life.

The thing is I don't know or remember if anyone has adapted front end parts that are Moog's,but for say a 3/4 ton
pick-up and therefor would be even more of a heavier duty part.

Going to leave this post here and await to see the replies.


Please and Thank You in advance,

Gary

Btw:I have excluded the use of poly bushings because of the problems I read about SafariRob had with squeaking.

This is or is going to be an AWD/4wd when you are done isn't it? If so, you'll be navigating through unchartered territory with a rack & pinion swap. But please do as I'd like it on my van someday!

No Matt-it is a RWD.

I think the stock replacement parts (Moog) are good enough. With the exception of those stinking idlers. And you know how I solved that. You aren't going to abuse your van. The big brake upgrade and the rack and pinion are going to be enough.

I think a project like mine has a number of different aspect to it.So please excuse me for jumping around some on the topic's.I have said the body work is the main focus and I will start on that once the LT is road worthy again.

The owner of this van before me just ruffed up the side and rear door windows and painted them.Not a very good move.I am getting rear no window rear doors and have a no window slider and want to weld fillers for the side windows to create a true high top cargo.

I got cut-out panels from a junk yard cargo.






I made a mistake in not paying attention when they where cut out.The one for the larger window may not work out because it was cut too close to the window frame.I just laid the panel on the side of the van to see what I needed to cut to find that out.No big deal really,they came from a friend's junk yard and I didn't pay a lot of them anyways.I could get another for that side easily.

At first I considered cutting out the window frame to a square to the body line by the window frame.I thought it would be easier to hide the welded panel in the body lines and not have to deal with duplicating the corner curves of the window in the panel.





I looked more closely that the inside of the van to find that if I cut on those body lines,it would leave the cut outs under the body frame work.That would mean I couldn't weld the panels on the inside without cutting those body work frame pcs and then re-welding them back on.I think that could be high risk move considering the top has been cut for the fiberglass high top.Here is the body work frame I am speaking about:






Inside of the rear window:




So I now think the best way to do these fillers is to over-size trace the windows to the size of the window openings on the side of the van for a tight weld seam and weld shims to the frames so the panels lay flat to the side of the van.I'll have to measure the thickness of the filler panels so I can do that.Weld the shims in very short sections so as not to distort the panels once tack welded to the shims because of the curve of the body sides.I am aware of not welding long beads because of warping the panels.It is more like tack welding and moving the welds around allowing each to cool.I hope to use magnetic copper panels to eliminate warpage and burn threw problems.It is more like 1" long tack welds watching the panel and moving those welds around until you have the whole panel tack welded in place with a continuous weld to grind down on the outside of the van.Then skin it with body fillers and sand.

I have joined two metal forming forums to bring me up to speed on the best way to do these fillers and I spend time on them regularly.I have been asked to attend a meet at the end of April and to bring the van there for them to teach me the best process to do one of the fillers there.I am considering going to that which is outside of Syr and it two hrs away from me.I am also considering buying a number of metal forming items because the amount of metal work needed on a number of projects I have to do.(english wheel from HF,metal brake,shrinker/stretcher,dollies and hammers.bender from Eastwood,etc)

In the end,I want it to look like it was a cargo built by GM or better.More to come on this as I have updates.

How about some links to the metal forming sites. There's probably some very useful info there.

Smiliesafari wrote:How about some links to the metal forming sites. There's probably some very useful info there.

N/P Skip:

http://metalmeet.com/forum/index.php


http://www.allmetalshaping.com/index.php

Thanks, Gary. That's some BIG project you got going there.