The BAD AST Project - Faze II

[FoxGranadaChuck]

Mark keep on keepin on. Back in the 90s(oh lord this shows my age) while working at a Chevy dealer a fella bought an Astro and the 4.3 spun a bearing, well we fixed that then wife picked up a Safari conversion van used from us and it locked up a week later.
Well we had a customer have me install a BBC crate engine in his 4x4 and his old 454 was sitting there, waiting for a home, and we had and old 700r4, well I talked to guy with astro, he swaps his fresh 4.3 into Safari, and I got radical (my service manager said insane, totally bent idea) thought of putting a 454/700r4 in an astro, and since we had room and BBC is only 1 in all around bigger it fit like a glove and we simply nodded some S10 swap plates.headers actually from a Corvette and I made the factory computer work but we used the 454 TBI.
Well firdt drive figured out subframe bushings needed swapped, made aluminum ones, then we "tied the frame together" and tada, FUN and we installed some wheels we found at salvage yard that fit and he actually still has it and drives it daily.
I did this in 93/94 and freshened up the engine in 2000 and he had trans done not long after.
FUN FUN FUN.
GOT MY TIG WELDER NOW so I am gonna have fun soon!

Sounds like a nice, torquey driver.....

[astroracer]

Should I revive this thread?
I know it’s been a year and 3 months since I did anything constructive on this project but this time work is progressing! THINGS ARE GETTING DONE!!!!
The Bad Ast chassis is on the jig! I have purchased an engine and fuel system and the trans and rearend are quoted and waiting for me to pull the trigger.
I got a good start on the chassis Sunday and, if the power hadn’t gone out due to a bad storm Sunday evening, it would have been 75 or 80% yesterday.
Thanks for looking and I would like some feedback, good or bad.
Mark

[FoxGranadaChuck]

Should I revive this thread?
I know it’s been a year and 3 months since I did anything constructive on this project but this time work is progressing! THINGS ARE GETTING DONE!!!!
The Bad Ast chassis is on the jig! I have purchased an engine and fuel system and the trans and rearend are quoted and waiting for me to pull the trigger.
I got a good start on the chassis Sunday and, if the power hadn’t gone out due to a bad storm Sunday evening, it would have been 75 or 80% yesterday.
Thanks for looking and I would like some feedback, good or bad.
Mark

Should you revive this thread?! In one word, yes. In two words, hell yes!! I've been looking forward to hearing from you and your BadAst project again.

Are you still going with the BB Chevy under the hood? Merely curious,

[dusterbd13]

yay!!! its Back!!!

im looking forward to seeing updates again.

[astroracer]

Hey FGC, Hey Mike,
Thank you for being so loyal. You have to understand the frustration I have been experiencing to get this project off the ground. The biggest push I had was when my wife told me to just do it! I have to admit, she is my biggest supporter…
My real motivation came when I got the opportunity to buy this tired old 396... I cannot let this dude sit around wasting away. It needs to be running.

As you can see FGC, I am still going BBC.
I am FINALLY on short hours (40) at work and just decided to jump in and get something done! This last weekend I got the jig tables cleaned off and, with the help of a friend, we got most of the front half jigged up and welded Sunday. Having no power Monday is just more frustration thrown on the pile...
I will post up some chassis pics as I get time. I plan to work on this as much as I can and I will try to post updates from work. Home time is going to be build time...
Thanks again
Mark

[syborg tt]

yep - post away brother

[wellis77]

YES!!! I can't wait to see more of this thing. Next time I'm back, if I can fit it in, I should try to connect and check this out. I'd love to see it, especially as it progresses.

[FoxGranadaChuck]

Hey FGC, Hey Mike,
Thank you for being so loyal. You have to understand the frustration I have been experiencing to get this project off the ground. The biggest push I had was when my wife told me to just do it! I have to admit, she is my biggest supporter…
My real motivation came when I got the opportunity to buy this tired old 396... I cannot let this dude sit around wasting away. It needs to be running.

As you can see FGC, I am still going BBC.
I am FINALLY on short hours (40) at work and just decided to jump in and get something done! This last weekend I got the jig tables cleaned off and, with the help of a friend, we got most of the front half jigged up and welded Sunday. Having no power Monday is just more frustration thrown on the pile...
I will post up some chassis pics as I get time. I plan to work on this as much as I can and I will try to post updates from work. Home time is going to be build time...
Thanks again
Mark

I'm curious as to how you are going to fit the 396 under the hood. My understanding (however flawed) is that an LS engine is a tight fit under the hood and 'dog house' of the Astro. Of course, I am fully aware that you have engineered a custom subframe. I am curious as to what tricks you are going to employ to get it to fit under the hood/doghouse and your subframe.

[astroracer]

I'm curious as to how you are going to fit the 396 under the hood. My understanding (however flawed) is that an LS engine is a tight fit under the hood and 'dog house' of the Astro. Of course, I am fully aware that you have engineered a custom subframe. I am curious as to what tricks you are going to employ to get it to fit under the hood/doghouse and your subframe.

Fitting a BBC under the hood of an Astro is no harder than dropping in a small block. They fit quite well, actually. In this case I will be relocating the engine rearward and down in the frame. Approximately 10 rearward & 6 down. This will, of course, require a custom doghouse.
Here are a few pics from Sundays work. The lower ladder is tacked up in the first pic and the right upper rail is mocked into place in the next. This is where it sits right now due to the storm and lost power all day monday...



Thanks for looking.
Mark

[formula98]

Looking good Mark... Nice to see you working on the Bad Ast again. Keep the posts coming!

[astroracer]

Thanks Guys, you too Ron, We haven't talked in while...
A couple more pics of the front half as it sits right now. I got the main rails tacked up last night and plan to have the back half built and welded in this weekend.
The next hurdle will be building the welding jigs for the upper and lower control arms. I want to have the control arms built before I weld in the brackets for them.

[astroracer]

Here is a jpeg of the chassis design up to this point.


I still have to work out a few things like engine and trans mounting but I'll do that on the fly after I get the body in place.
Notice the one piece rear rails... I had designed these as a three piece rail earlier and found these " dropped crossmembers" on Alstons site. 2 X 3 x 11ga., much easier and cleaner than welding them up...

[astroracer]

Got alot done over the weekend. Repositioned the frame and got it squared up to the jig tables again.



I had to do a lot of freehand cutting on the bandsaw to get the spring hangers up to speed per the current design.

The previous hangers had been lazer cut back in '06. (Can you say OMG?) As you can see in the pic I downsized them quite a bit.

I also spent some time rethinking the spring hanger to frame interface. During mock up I was concerned with access to all of the welded joints. I redesigned the fitment to improve weld access and greatly simplify the joint. Should make for a stronger frame also. I didn't do any welding but hope to get everything mocked up and tacked tonight or tomorrow.

[astroracer]

Not much to report. I spent Monday and Tuesday evenings rebuilding the lawn mower deck. Last nite I got some new pieces cut out for the rear rail/front rail interface.
The pic below is of one of the rails I got from Alston. Ran into some problems with those not being "linear" around the bends...

The front half of the RH rail is .50" lower than the rear half. Not a show stopper, it just creates a set-up issue that has to be taken into consideration. The LH rail is different from the RH so it will require a different set-up.
The spring hangers are not dependant on the rail height. They register on the bottom of the crossmember which is still square to the table.

[astroracer]

I got a LOT Done today.
There is actually a complete chassis sitting on the table in the shop. Mel was over and helped a ton getting the back half jigged up, squared and welded.

Getting the "twisty" rear rails squared up was the big problem.



In the next pic you can see how we end up getting the back around the rear shackle hanger square and letting the front go where it needed to. The front is a little out of alignment but it is do-able

This isn't all bad as the front of the rail "floats" inside the spring hanger. Once all of that rail was welded in we build the spring hanger box to tie the rear rails to the front.

Building the spring hanger box and tacking it in. The twisty rail disappears into this box so there is really no evidence of the misalignment after welding.

Have a few welds to complete tomorrow. Fill the C notches up front and add another brace to the top side of the front to rear rail interface. That will get done tomorrow.

[WS6]

Glad to know this project is out there still. Good luck with it mark. You'll make it eventually.

[astroracer]

Hit it hard again today. The chassis is about 75% right now. Still have a bit of welding to do. Finishing up some topside welds after we flipped the frame right side up.
This morning I got started by building the C notch fillers. I set my bender up on one of the tables and made two filler plates in about 30 minutes. All fit in a ready to weld.
This is what I started with. A pice of 1/8th in plate cut to size.

This is my bender. It's a Pro Tools Mighty Bender and it works slick.

It didn't take long to bend two pieces up. This is a trial fit.

Final fit and ready to weld...LH & RH Sides

After welding I ground everything smooth.

Thanks for looking
Mark

[Martin71RS]

Hey Mark, good to see you are back at it...it's been a while!
I must say you are making up for lost time working at this speed :-)
Chassis is looking good!

Martin

[astroracer]

Didn't get a lot done during the week 'cause I'm back on 10 hrs. At least I had most of the weekend to work on the chassis. A funeral and mowing ate up some time Sat. but I still got some stuff done.
These are the rear rail gussets Mel made from a piece of 2 x 4 tube. He made these last weekend and they will get welded to the top of the rear frame to support the spring hangers.


Got out early Sat morning and started laying out the cuts to build the Lower Control Arm welding fixtures'

The pieces in the middle get a hole to except the Lower Ball Stud Cup for positioning.

We had a funeral to go to at 10:00 so I cleaned up for that at 9:30. Got back at it Saturday afternoon and got all of the pieces cut out along with cutting the blanks to make the Upper Control Arm Sleeves.
Here is a pic of the welding jigs being tacked to gether. This shows the clamp feet being tacked on.

This is showing the jig upside down getting the top tacked on.

[astroracer]

Here is a pic of one fixture completed.

Below is a pic of the upper control arm bracket. I got both of those tacked on today also.
I won't finish weld these until the control arms are built.... Just in case I have to move something.

Finished up a little welding today. The top of the spring hangers and rear crossmember along with those gussets.


This week I'll try to get the mandrels built to finish the control arm welding fixture.
I'll keep you posted.
Mark