I'm back! New astro pickup tomorrow

[meetthespeakers]

Well guys, I sold big blue a little over a year ago to downsize vehicles, I no longer needed it, bought a 2004 Blazer Xtreme... But I am now finally going to be moving and I am buying another fixer upper house and could use the hauling capacity again. I am so excited, I have been really missing owning an Astro and I am going to be picking one up tomorrow. Leaving at 4am to drive down to North Carolina to pick it up. I sold the Blazer for as much as I bought it a year ago, and it will leave me with about $1500 to spend on the van. Anyway here are my projects now:


My 2004 Blazer Xtreme I sold, cleaned up real nice.

New 2000 Astro RWD, custom 2 tone paint, Harley Davidson theme, 17x8 C5 Coys

My 1973 Austin Mini Clubman Estate, Right hand drive

My 1980 Austin Mini, I converted to a Acura Integra B18c1 GSR drivetrain

[meetthespeakers]

You can see more photos and the build the guy did here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/meetthespeakers/2000Astro#

I will be selling the 17x8 C5 Coys if anyone is interested. Guy just put them on with new tires, comes with 5 complete wheels. I just am not a chrome guy, I will be putting 18x8 Boss 338 Wheels like I had on my Blazer. Anyway, the funny thing is the van will match my Orange Clubman pretty well. Other than that I am looking forward to finally having a garage to work in! I have been working in a carport for 4 years restoring 4 Minis, and building bikes, etc. Winter months sucked! Let me know what you guys think.

[mdmead]

That's a good lookin' van!

Wow, that Clubman Estate is HUGE... (relatively speaking of course!)

[meetthespeakers]

Thanks! I have been working on the Clubman for a little over a year now, and it was 95% complete. I rebuilt the motor/gearbox back in the spring. However the 1980 Mini I have been working on now for 3 months and completed the engine swap, and after enjoying that for a month, I now want to pull out the motor in the Clubman and put a Honda D16 motor in it for a little more pep. I am hopefully going to start on that this winter... hopefully. I also have a buddy's 84 mini I will be doing the same swap to. So we will see.

As fas as the van it's been lowered 2" in the front, 3" in the rear, and it also has air shocks in the rear. The hood is a grafted 2006 GTO hood scoops. Stenciled logos, smoked headlights/taillights. A nice stereo is in there, but other than that the interior remains fairly stock. My plans are to swap the wheels for some 18x8 Black with polished lip Boss 338 rims. Convert the headlights to HID's which I took of my Blazer before I sold that. Other than that, remove the cheesy foglights, and hopefully call it a day. Just need to make sure it's setup for towing, so I ordered a Tru-cool LPD 4490 Tranny cooler. Hopefully put that on soon.

[1Gary]

Yeah,I saw that van listed on ebay while surfing.Good to see a member bought it to return it to the family of Astro's.Really nice looking van.Congrats.

Just curious,what is a Cooper's wt??.I wouldn't think it takes much of a engine to turn it into a monster. The right hand drive huh.Well now you need to pick up a mail route or newspaper route.LOL.

Anyways,welcome back.

[meetthespeakers]

The Estate weighs in around 1500lbs, and the Mini coupe weighs in around 1400lbs with the swap. Now with 180+hp from the B18c1, it gets around 35-40 Mpg (When your not ragging on it), and does 0-60 in the mid 4's and 1/4 in the mid 12's. It is brutally fast. The Estate I had a 1300 Metro engine from the UK in it, but swapped it for a cheapy 998 motor, makes about 42hp or so, and does 0-60 in about 19 seconds or so... extremely slow, but gets me around to car shows. It does however get 45-50mpg. The D16 swap is great, 130hp, lighter than the B series (70lbs lighter), cheaper, and a little smaller so it fits better. Anyway, I am a big Mini enthusiast to say the least. I will be selling the black Mini hopefully this fall when I complete it. Currently it is at the painter's getting painted Audi R8 Daytona Gray with Pearl.

[kings-x59]

here's what I think
welcome back btw...
I had no idea you had all that going on behind the scenes. I'm sure you posted about it sometime in the past but I never picked up on it. I am duly impressed. And, that is one badass van. I wish I had the money to buy the wheels off ya, but alas I don't.
and, it'd be lipstick on a pig in the case of my van. Yikes, someone might steal it just for wheels

[meetthespeakers]

I am glad to be back, I do have a lot of projects going on. The first 6 months of this year was horrible, but it looks like the rest of the year is turning around. Going to hopefully be moving in the next month or so, and getting a new job. I am planning on building a Lemons Race car for next year as well over the winter. We will see how the wife tolerates all my projects. Lol.

[9dawgs]

Wow, that is one nice looking van. I'd love to do something like that to my wifes van. Are the wheels & tires the same on all 4 wheels? If so what size/type of tire were you running?

[GnarliSafari]

how are you really missing owning an astro? dont you currently own a 2000 astro?

[patgizz]

cool stuff. there are a bunch of guys on forum at grassrootsmotorsports.com who would LOVE to hear about your minis. i'd love to see more of the swapped one.