Chevy & GMC Vans

I was waiting for the ideal astro but when i found mine I had to have it...it was love at first sight!

I would really like to add some things to it though, partly for safety's sake and partly for convenience.

1. Power front windows - what does it take to make this swap? The driver's side window is a little hard to turn after it gets about 1/3 of the way down. Should this problem be corrected before I add a motor?

2. Rear window defroster - can it be done? Will be very useful in portland with the rain and coolness.

3. Rear window windshield wiper - in portland I think this will be a must.

4. I would like to put a heater in the rear area so that I don't have to fry my toes to get the rear area warm. I have looked at electric heaters/defrosters but the ones I have seen are really wimpy. I have looked at heaters used in the rear of busses (have a heater core and fan, just like the one up front) but all of the assemblies I have seen are at least 7" thick. I want to mount this in the floor (hack, hack, hack!) With a little more work I could take a transmission cooler (about 1.5" thick) hook up my own fans, grate and box and put it in the floor for a total thickness of about 2.5" What do you think?

5. Also, not an addition, but the power lock mechanism isn't working on the drivers side. Is it likely to be the switch itself?

I have other interior mods that I want to make but they will come later. Before I do any of these I would like to install a separate fuse block for anything new, so that I don't mess up anything that is already working. Does that sound like a good idea to you? Then, of course, I am going to try to find a way to stuff 2 extra batteries under the car, hide a small microwave in the back, a nice little fridge, maybe add a fiberglass top to give me an extra 10 inches of room, mount a 21" computer monitor near the windshield between the driver and passenger (it will flip up to the roof), mount a dual core pc with solid state hard drive in the center console that I am going to make that will also house the nice little fridge and printer.....dreeeeaaaamm....dream dream dreaaaammmm dreeeaaaammmmmmmmmmmm my landyacht

Now if one of you guys would hurry up and do a diesel conversion prototype so that we could all benefit from your mistakes....

As far as the rear heater is concerned,there are rear heaters that are stock units.My 1994 Lt has one that works very well.You might find one in a junk yard in your area with all the vacumn lines and cooling lines and just upgrade you van to that.Again,someone might be able to chime in with a diagram of that system for your yr van.You can do a search for the info in the top right cornner of the forum section-look into the info-then ask questions of things you don't understand.I think for some of the stock items a Haynes or Chiltons manuel is very helpful as well and you can get that at any auto parts store.Also,buy a factory service manuel for your yr van.Those have tons of info in them way beyond anything you would ever desire.You can find them at a good price on ebay and if I remember right,there is a links section listing on this forum that covers a company that sells them as well as tons of ref info for a number of other subjects.You could look in the camping section on this forum and find what other members here have done on the their vans.I would suggest you look at T-low's van posting.He has done a really great job making a conversion van as only one example.Read,serach,ask questions,here there isn't much these members haven't done with their vans.Very quickly you will have learned stuff about these van to answer questions yourself when you see questions asked posted to the forum.

Yeah,most of all,have fun,your with some of the nicest group of people you can find anywhere on the web.Some night you might want to try your hand at the chat room too and chat live with members too.

Gary

Tackle the simple things first.

1. What type of rear doors do you have? Dutch or Barn Doors? This will make a difference on the defroster and rear wiper installation.

2. Driver's window -- Take the door skin off. Check the tracks for blocking and then see how dirty/dry the regulator is. If your window doesn't go up and down freely, the electric conversion will be for nothing.

3. Driver's door lock -- If you can lock the passenger doors from the driver's side, chances are the switch assembly isn't bad. With the door skin off, try some silicon spray on the solenoid and work it for a while.