The BAD AST Project - Faze II

[trackrat79]

For a while a lot of the after market companies were making bumper covers for the astro van. Try checking out some of the tuner car supliers and you mite find a bumper cover style you like that will go rite on with little effort.

[bobbaganoosh]

Street Scene and Xenon are two companies that make bumper covers/valances for astro vans.

[astroracer]

Thanks guys, I've seen all of that stuff. I'm not a "bolt on" kinda guy though... To easy and to common. I'll come up with a design I like and build it myself. Doing it that way keeps the "belly button" syndrome at bay.
Mark

[slowcamaro]

Maybe these pictures will inspire some updates...

[trapin]

Mark...thanks for the updates. And congrats finally gettin back in the garage. I know how that feels after being away for a time.

[astroracer]

blyth18md!!! Where were the pics taken? That is pretty cool. I hope Bad Ast doesn't have that much body roll but it is cool to see someone doing this stuff with a box...
Tony, I haven't gotten a whole lot done on the project since the last update a month ago. I built a stand for my H/V bandsaw to make it easier to use but that's about it... Been to freakin hot to even think about doing a lot welding.
I am having some second thoughts on this cradle build though. I am going to do some re-designing tonight. I am thinking about using the stock cradle and just revamping the suspension mounting points to match my designs. I think I will be much farther ahead if I can get the stock cradle to work with the new arms. It may be to big of a job once I get the geometry laid out but I have to look into it just to try to save some time....
I picked up a complete '84 454 for $650 last weekend if that counts for anything. It is complete and was running when it was pulled, so I thought that was a pretty good deal...
Mark

[astroracer]

Haven't updated the thread in while because I had some "issues" I had to work through.
When I did the initial suspension design I used a stock Astro spindle as the jump-off point to develope the upper and lower ball stud and outer tie rod pivot points. This was a BIG mistake on my part. I figured the 2" dropped spindles I purchased would be basically the same other then the 2" higher spindle location. Wrong!!! EVERYTHING was different! The upper & lower BS points are farther inboard and the Tie Rod point is not even close! I really dropped the ball on this one. My mistake, I SHOULD have measured the aftermarket spindle from the beginning but I was lazy....
I spent last weekend setting up the 2" dropped knuckle and brake corner in one of my spindle jigs and re-measuring everything. Sunday afternoon and evening were spent remodeling all of the points in my UG geometry file and I worked until 11:30 last night updating my geometry points and plugging the new numbers into my suspension program.
The upper and lower control arms will be shortened a bit and the shock and steering rack require relocation but it's not much of a tear-up on the main frame design. The inner rack points didn't change (cross-car) which dictates the upper and lower control arm inner pivot locations so no change there. The new outer tierod point actually brings it back towards the stock Corvette outer location. I can't see any issues with bump steer with the new rack location as Suspension Analyzer optimizes that internally which gave me the new location.
Tonight and this weekend will hopefully see some work done on the relocation of the components and some redesign of the control arms and rack crossmember and brackets. I will also be updating the motion file to check clearances so I have a bit of work to do before I get comfortable again...
Mark

[slowcamaro]

Those pictures I snagged off of a japanese website. They do amazing things with U.S. domestic cars (vehicles) in Japan.

[Tiger]

Mark,

I love the look of the computer drawing you first posted, the bumper and all.
what look strange to me is the scoop thought, have you tried to draw it without a scoop at all?

I also have a van, its a 1980 Chevy g10 (short) with dropped spindles and such, havent been working on it in some years though.

[astroracer]

Hey Andre, I have so many sketches and drawings of this thing I could paper my entire shop with them! What you see in the rendering is simply one of many ideas I have had. I have others that involve reverse style scoops and NACA style scoops and what have you...
I just need the time to do some work on it. I have waded through the suspension redesign and, although it was a bit of a tear-up, it wasn't as bad as I had envisioned. Moving the rack and coil-overs a bit and redesigning the control arms has been the extent of it.
I hope to get back to work on it shortly. I am actually looking forward to "winter" because then I have nothing to do but shovel some snow once in a while...
Mark

[Tiger]

Mark,
I have an idea, why dont you post a poll and see what we guys think is the best?

[twosaturns]

love it! are you using the short or long astro? my work van is a '94 safari long w/ dutch doors. great van. anytime I visit www.astrosafari.com I want to put a V8 in it!
I'm going to watch your project- very cool.

[astroracer]

A poll? No, I don't think so... That's the thing, Andre, I don't work that way. I can't rely on other peoples opinions to design my vehicles. I will know it when I find it and I will admit I haven't found it yet. I'm close though and I will probably end up combining a few ideas to come up with the end design. I went through this same process when I designed the front airdam and rear pan for my truck. I have stacks of sketches for that also and ended up using portions from a couple of separate drawings.
Now, if you (or anyone else) have any ideas let me know, I will look at them and see how they fit into the scope of the project. The hood is difficult because it needs to tie into the rest of the front end design as a theme. With nothing "designed" right now your ideas are as good as mine at this point in time.
I really welcome the input though. I haven't gotten a lot done this summer and was getting discouraged. I had even thought about scrapping the project when I found the suspension glitches... I worked through it though and hope to get some work done this weekend.
Mark

[Tiger]

ok, the poll idea was to make me see some more scetches... I'll admit it.
I normally do the same way around, I do what I like and doesnt care much about what other people think, but then at other times I get stuck and need some ideas to get unlocked and procede.
As for being discouraged, I'm excactly the same way,sometimes I shut the garage door and do not open it for a month or two but then there are times (like now) when I love being there for twelve hours straight.
Last sunday I was so tired while measuring for the fuel tank that I caught myself taking a nap, thats when I decided it was time to go to bed :o)

well well well... back to your car.... please let me see a scetch as the one above but without a scoop and then again the same one with a the newer style lights.
As I said earlier I wouldnt touch the silverado front at all, just maybe put some fog lights in the round holes.

I wouldnt use a wing on the rear either, but maybe a Small sheetmetal lip.
on my van I have choosen to not use any door handles to have a clean look.

[Tiger]

ok, the poll idea was to make me see some more scetches... I'll admit it.
I normally do the same way around, I do what I like and doesnt care much about what other people think, but then at other times I get stuck and need some ideas to get unlocked and procede.
As for being discouraged, I'm excactly the same way,sometimes I shut the garage door and do not open it for a month or two but then there are times (like now) when I love being there for twelve hours straight.
Last sunday I was so tired while measuring for the fuel tank that I caught myself taking a nap, thats when I decided it was time to go to bed :o)

well well well... back to your car.... please let me see a scetch as the one above but without a scoop and then again the same one with a the newer style lights.
As I said earlier I wouldnt touch the silverado front at all, just maybe put some fog lights in the round holes.

I wouldnt use a wing on the rear either, but maybe a Small sheetmetal lip.
on my van I have choosen to not use any door handles to have a clean look.

[astroracer]

Here are some sketches I did when I was bubbling up the project. I have tons more but 99% of them just aren't worth scanning.
The actual donor van is an '88 shortie with a 4cyl iron duke, an auto and A/C. It is an Arizona van though and is entirely rust free which is why I bought it in the first place. It still starts, runs and drives fine with 125K on it...





All of this stuff is in my lengthy original posthere:
https://www.pro-touring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=655
If you haven't looked through it you may want to. Lots of info.
Mark
I just realized I have been "working" on Bad Ast for over two years now with nothing to show for it other then some junk weldments and a pile of unused parts... I think it's time to get busy this winter...

[trackrat79]

I like the front bumber cap and wing of the first pick but I like the hood and side skirt cap of the second. One question though. I looks like you're actuall van is of the previouse model desine than what you modeled you project van on. Will the newer style front bodywork bolt up to the older van body?

[astroracer]

I like the front bumber cap and wing of the first pick but I like the hood and side skirt cap of the second. One question though. I looks like you're actuall van is of the previouse model desine than what you modeled you project van on. Will the newer style front bodywork bolt up to the older van body?

With some minor updates to the rad support the '95-up front clip will bolt on. Like I said though, those sketches are pretty early and I have gone a different route with the front end design. I plan to use '04 Silverado headlights (the "mean eye" looking ones).
What do you think of this?...


Naw... just kidding...
Here is one I was working on a while back.

It has a different bumper but the headlights are correct. I will have to do some fabbing on the hood and grille to merge it all together but's doable. I should probably get the up-dated bumper into this file sometime...
Mark

[trackrat79]

I tride to blend the parts that I liked together and made a few mods of my own.



I am still learning photoshop so my cuts and pasets are not that good. I may try and update the picture with the newer fron end design later. this was hard enough.

[astroracer]

Wait. Give me a couple of days. I will try to get my CAD file updated and that will give you something current to work with. It also gives me a reason to git 'r done...
Mark