Astro "El Camino" and other neat stuff,,,,

[HPbyStan]

Gary, when I had the origional top cut off, the body sagged in the middle so I put jacks under the floor / frame on both sides and got it back into position. I don't have a CAD machine to tell me how "chincy" I can make it so I'm probably over building everything now. Spent all day today on a search and identify mission on the wireing. Got all the lights in back working and the dome / courtesy overhead console as well. Sure have a lot of wires left over from rear A/C, heat, speaker wires etc. I had to lose the rear spot lights on the overhead console and shorten it a bit but the big dome light is still there. The wires to the top Dutch door are still all hooked up but I need to shorten all of them about 6 feet. Sure glad I didn't weld on the tail light fillers before I got the '94-'99 Cadillac taillights as they require cutting room in back to fit that wouldn't have been possible with the fillers welded in. "They" keep sending the local sheet metal shop the wrong stuff so I still don't have my inner bed sides yet. He did make up 2 lower cladding plates that go on the rocker panel for me though. Took about 5 minutes and Fagan Chevrolet in Janesville quoted me $170 USD each for them. Said they were in stock in Chicago. Bet they are, who would pay that? I forgot to get the paint code off the passenger door before I traded it in to the J/Y as a core but went to the Chev dealer with the vin number and he printed out the 2 pages of options on this thing including the paint code. Body Shop Supply is going to make up a couple "rattle cans" of OEM color and clear for me tomorrow so I can do all the door jams etc before taking it to a friend to be painted. FUN FUN FUN.

[1Gary]

Stan-I'm complimenting you on the end plates and what you said is over building. I would do the same thing especially if I intended to put anything in the bed.

[HPbyStan]

Added 3 more pics. Took it for a short ride today. If I'd seen a cop he would have gotten writers cramp filling out my ticket. Thing runs and drives really well.
http://s296.photobucket.com/albums/mm17 ... ?start=all

[1Gary]

Stan-coming along nicely,looks good. Maybe a LS or LX would be a interesting addition.

[HPbyStan]

Added pics of left inner 16 gauge bed side bent, cut, and setting in position. Starting to believe I can do this.

[Smiliesafari]

Those inner panels look good. They'll add a degree of stiffness to the van. How much work is required to make the rear hatch mate to the cab? Is it going to get a tailgate?

[HPbyStan]

Next door neighbors 2003 Silverado tailgate comes close enough to fitting that I think I can make one of those work. As for the "front of the box" under the window lift, that would be real easy if the upper dutch door was flat but I need to duplicate the slight curve into the box front so that's a bit of extra work. I think I have that worked out but sometimes my plan on this thing has changed as I get to the reality of doing it. So far, I've been able to adapt but this whole thing is so far away from my area of expertise that I'm never sure....

[Smiliesafari]

Sounds good. Maybe you could weld the dutch doors together. That would give you the curve to match the lift window. Just a thought.

[HPbyStan]

Next move is to try to fix the rocker area. I put off doing this until I was pretty sure the rest of it would work out. Now I've gotten to where I have to fix this area before I can do much more. Newville Auto Salvage is going to cut out this area for me and I'm to pick it up tomorrow. They want $200 for this which is another reason I put off getting until I was sure this was a go. I left this latest picture with them with lines drawn on where I want it cut. I'm hoping for the best.
http://s296.photobucket.com/albums/mm17 ... ?start=all

[HPbyStan]

Rocker area turned out well I think. Today I prepped for the Caddy Tails. Turns out there is way more to it than just buying fillers, when you can find them. I had to cut a lot of bracing out from behind the tails to make room. I'm going to add some bracing where I can but this area no longer has to support swinging doors so it isn't the big deal it would have been. Sure glad I didn't weld the fillers in before I noticed this as I could barely get in there as it was.
http://s296.photobucket.com/albums/mm17 ... ?start=all

[HPbyStan]

Whatever feeds the wire on my Mig welder stopped doing it and it's "in the shop". I've been making up small brackets etc that I can weld with the Tig welder on the bench but most progress has stopped.

[HPbyStan]

Back in business. Added 9 or so more pics.
http://s296.photobucket.com/albums/mm17 ... ?start=all

[HPbyStan]

Got the inner bed sides welded in today and cleaned up the lower "B" piller a bit. The temp is way down in the 90s today so I snuck this thing out for another little ride. Low 90s and no windshield was grand. Just like riding one of my BSAs except I didn't have to balance I should have the White '04 Cargo Astro back from the body shop some time this week. Getting some left rear quarter panel damage fixed that happened on the 1st owners watch and getting a mild design added to the paint job. Hope it looks as good on the van as in my drawing. I saw a pic of an Astro I liked and traced the van outline and drew in the pattern somewhat like the one in the pic. I kept the concept but changed it enough as to not be a total copy.

[HPbyStan]

Four more pics including the front of the bed cut and curved and setting in position to check the fit with the dutch door.
I bet I could get a lot more done if the temp would just drop under one hundred for awhile. Everything is so burned up around here it's like California without the taxes. Wisconsin is usually a beautiful green all summer but everything is brown this year.

[HPbyStan]

mo pics