1990 Astro Rs - D'Astro
Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2010 10:16 am
Here's my newest toy. 1990 Astro RS. Runs pretty good but needs some work. Gonna be a project for the summer. I bought it as it looks in the pictures. The guy who had it before me did the matte black paint and the boxes on the interior. It was originally red. He also did some LED lighting inside and outside. Ill take some pics at night soon with the light show going and post them here. Its got an aftermarket exhaust on it (Thrush?) Its got a pretty deep tone. Not sneaking up on anybody in this thing.
Work that I already did to it:
- Water pump
- Radiator and hoses
- Front brake lines
Work that needs to be done:
- High idle problem in Park and Neutral. Have to check vacuum lines and IAC
- Front end (right side) needs work. Not sure if its tie rods or ball joint
- Needs new windshield
- Replace driver's door handle
- Latch on sliding door not working properly
- Rear doors stuck in locked position
- Speedometer/odometer not working (Was hoping to replace with a digital dash out of another '90 Astro. Not sure how much work is involved with that.)
- Driver's window weather strips
Custom work plans
- I bought a set of Blue Captain's chairs. Not sure what kind of van they came from. Didn't come with bases so i had to drill out the 1" steel crossmemebers on them to fit the astro bases. That actually went surprisngly well. Thought it would be a pain to drill through the steel with a hand held drill. Haven't done the driver's seat yet because I have to deal with the electric seat mechanism. Its first on the list though because I need symmetry.
- I have a pair of gray touring seats with the fold down armrest/cupholder for the back that I was going to put in my old 93 astro. Im thinking about ditching the boxes in the rear. Right now the boxes in the rear are built on top of a piece of plywood that runs from the rear doors to right behind the front seats and is carpeted with speaker box type carpet over it. I'm going to take the boxes and plywood floor out and put an exact fit carpet kit in (front and back) and just use one row of seats. Going to have to install seatbelts in the roof too.
- GrantTech 3" dish 12" diameter steering wheel going in.
- Stereo in there now is stock delco crap. Going to do something simple with a new headunit, rear pillar speakers and mids and tweeters in the doors. Not a fan of dash speakers because of sun abuse, bad imaging and dirt accumulation. Maybe a simple sub and amp setup down the road too.
- I want to give the van a wider stance. Trying to figure out what i can do to make it wider without putting spacers on as well as not interfering with the slider and rubbing in the front. I'd like to fill out the wheel wells right to the lip. I have 245/60/15's on it now.
- The RS does have the front and rear sway bars and the RS steering box, but this one is missing the cowl that goes under the front bumper. I'd like to either get one of those or an after market bumper cover that could house the fog lights.
- Replacing dash cover (cracked)
- Building a console
Thats all i can think of right now. Pics taken from my phone. Ill try to get some real camera pics up soon. Thanks for looking.
Work that I already did to it:
- Water pump
- Radiator and hoses
- Front brake lines
Work that needs to be done:
- High idle problem in Park and Neutral. Have to check vacuum lines and IAC
- Front end (right side) needs work. Not sure if its tie rods or ball joint
- Needs new windshield
- Replace driver's door handle
- Latch on sliding door not working properly
- Rear doors stuck in locked position
- Speedometer/odometer not working (Was hoping to replace with a digital dash out of another '90 Astro. Not sure how much work is involved with that.)
- Driver's window weather strips
Custom work plans
- I bought a set of Blue Captain's chairs. Not sure what kind of van they came from. Didn't come with bases so i had to drill out the 1" steel crossmemebers on them to fit the astro bases. That actually went surprisngly well. Thought it would be a pain to drill through the steel with a hand held drill. Haven't done the driver's seat yet because I have to deal with the electric seat mechanism. Its first on the list though because I need symmetry.
- I have a pair of gray touring seats with the fold down armrest/cupholder for the back that I was going to put in my old 93 astro. Im thinking about ditching the boxes in the rear. Right now the boxes in the rear are built on top of a piece of plywood that runs from the rear doors to right behind the front seats and is carpeted with speaker box type carpet over it. I'm going to take the boxes and plywood floor out and put an exact fit carpet kit in (front and back) and just use one row of seats. Going to have to install seatbelts in the roof too.
- GrantTech 3" dish 12" diameter steering wheel going in.
- Stereo in there now is stock delco crap. Going to do something simple with a new headunit, rear pillar speakers and mids and tweeters in the doors. Not a fan of dash speakers because of sun abuse, bad imaging and dirt accumulation. Maybe a simple sub and amp setup down the road too.
- I want to give the van a wider stance. Trying to figure out what i can do to make it wider without putting spacers on as well as not interfering with the slider and rubbing in the front. I'd like to fill out the wheel wells right to the lip. I have 245/60/15's on it now.
- The RS does have the front and rear sway bars and the RS steering box, but this one is missing the cowl that goes under the front bumper. I'd like to either get one of those or an after market bumper cover that could house the fog lights.
- Replacing dash cover (cracked)
- Building a console
Thats all i can think of right now. Pics taken from my phone. Ill try to get some real camera pics up soon. Thanks for looking.
