The BAD AST Project - Faze II

[astroracer]

I also go the mounting plates done for the bushings. I made these out of some 1/4" plate trimmed to size and slotted for adjustment. These will weld vertically into the frame. I thought it looked a lot cleaner then big flat plates hanging off the side rails.


Mounting to the angled down tubes. These will weld on once I get the paint cleaned off. The chassis is upside down on the rotisserie so this is the drivers side.





And this is the passenger side.

thanks for watching.
Mark

[astroracer]

Well, I took another "stab" at it this weekend... (you see what I did there? )

The new bar bent up with no problems from the operator. I got it bent and trimmed. the end link plates made, the bushing brackets finished up and everything is ready to weld up.









I got side tracked before I got any welding done. We had a new freezer delivered this morning so I spent some time building a roller frame for it out of a Harbor Freight furniture dolly. Having it on casters makes it easy to move to clean under it, as with anything else in my shop.
Mark

[astroracer]

Okay, a few more steps closer to paint. I've been working on a new drive shaft loop since the one I was planning on using is now just decorative. I used the 24" long drop from the 8' piece of 4130 I used for the front bar. Bent it into a 180 and trimmed to length.

I cut a couple of pieces of 1" x 1/4 wall DOM to use as mounting points. These will get welded to the cross member and the loop will plug on.
.



Drilling the loop for two 5/16 bolts will let me bolt it on for removability. The two mounts will get drilled and tapped for 5/16 x 18.






With the loop made I fired up the welder and did some tacking. Tacked on the loop mounts, the front bar bushing plates, the front lower control arm link mounts and I repositioned and tacked one of the steering stops on the drivers side spindle.



Here is the loop in it's finished positioned.

With all of that done I can start pulling the suspensions apart to finish up the component and chassis welding and start prepping the frame for paint.... It is a good feeling to finally see some progress getting all of the little things done and moving forward.
Mark

[astroracer]

Another milestone today!! We have paint on the frame!!!
Sand blasted everything last night.

Prepped and cleaned for Rustoleum Silver Hammered today.

I mixed a little enamel hardener into the Rustoleum and it got as hard as a rock after about an hour dry time.

The control arms and spindles have already been repainted and I need to repaint the rear housing and get the stab bars painted but this is a big one!
I can actually start putting things together now...
Mark

[Bugzilla]

Mark, I have been following your build for some time now. One of my favorites on here cause its completely different. Keep up the awesome work! Cant wait to see it all together.

[Motown 454]

Sweet! that's a big step getting the frame painted.

[astroracer]

Mark, I have been following your build for some time now. One of my favorites on here cause its completely different. Keep up the awesome work! Cant wait to see it all together.

Thank You Sir! I follow yours for the same reason! I appreciate the kudos very much.
I can hardly wait to start putting this thing together!

[astroracer]

A few more things got done yesterday. I prepped and painted both stab bars and the driveshaft loop and cleaned and scuffed the rear end for a repaint.
I let everything bake in the sun all day, even rolled the frame out for some sun time.
The bars and rear end were painted with black hammered.






The drive shaft loop got silver hammered to match the frame

I also made a decision as to how to route the wiring and fuel lines. To keep them accessible after the frame is installed I decided to run them on the outside of the original frame rails. This meant I had to bunch 2" diameter holes in 6 body gussets to create a routing channel... Not to difficult until the last two holes when my hole saw decided to go dull on me. A trip into Lowes for a new saw and I finished up the process last night at 8:30.


I have told myself I can't put the chassis together until I get the underside of the body finished and painted. I hope to get that wrapped up next week.
The exciting thing here is I am going to be putting the frame together for the final time here in a week or so.... This will be the 7th (and HOPEFULLY final) time everything has been bolted together...
Mark

[astroracer]

Well, I guess you have probably figured out, by my lack of posting, that I haven't gotten much accomplished on the van this summer and you are correct! To many honey-do's, car shows and other things going on to keep me distracted from the project. I am ramping up to get back on it though and will start out with a cool piece I found at Penny's. Went to the groomer Tuesday afternoon and then on to the mall with the better half. She had a $10 off coupon for Penny's.
I found two of these on the 50% off discount rack.

The original price... and the discounted price...

50% off the discounted price made them $8.50 apiece. I could do $8.50...
With the wife's $10 off coupon... $8.49 for both of them...

Do you think these will make a cool puke tank and power steering reservoir? I do...

Now to get back to work...
Mark

[Motown 454]

Cool!

[astroracer]

Thanks Wayne! I think they will be very different looking.
I am in the process of making fittings for them.
Turning down the weld bung on a couple of -8 aluminum fittings so I can press fit them into the neck with a bit of lock-tite.
As purchased.

Turned down in the lathe to a light press fit into the necks.

These will have no pressure on them so this should work great! Not pressed in yet, waiting to get the correct lock-tite.

Mounting them in tandem would be pretty cool. Designing and fabbing an aluminum bracket isn't difficult.

I am seriously considering leaving the "SHIP FACED" logo in place... What do you think?
Mark

[JayinMI]

This is a GM piece used on the 3rd gen F-Bodies. It mounts in a couple of holes on the front of the passenger side fender.

Thanks for looking.
Mark

I thought that thing looked familar! My ex had an '86 Camaro, and it kept losing power while driving. The place she took it to told her she needed a new fuel pump. They replaced it, and the problem persisted. One night at work, her car wouldn't start. I came out, figured out what the problem was. The stud on that junction broke and wouldn't keep tension on the connection. One of which was the fuel pump relay constant feed. I rigged it up with some nut/ bolts/ electrical tape. When I called the dealer they told me the part was only $2.50. Cool...BUT they didn't stock it and I had to order 10!
Shortly thereafter we got her a new 2001 Extreme S10. lol Solved a lot of problems. (all in all, I should have just bought 10 of those things. lol)

Also, I've been reading this thread (started at page 19, a link from another thread I was reading) and am still at it like 4 hours later (I'm on page 30.)
Sorry to hear about your dad. My condolences.

I'll have to keep an eye out for this when it's on the road. I live in Flushing, so it doesn't look like we're very far apart.
You go to Woodward dream cruise or Back to the Bricks?

Jay

[JayinMI]

Thanks,
Glad to entertain...

I modified my crimper yesterday so it will easily clamp to the welding bench. Frees up a hand for holding the wire in place.
I marked out a pattern for a couple of drilled and tapped holes in the head.

I will be screwing it to this piece of 1/4" plate with a couple of drilled and counter bored holes.

I clamped the tool in the drill press vise and drilled two holes out to .149 for tapping for a #10-32 screw.

Here is the plate getting drilled and counter bored.

Test fit. Bolted up nice and was very sturdy. This will work great when I get to crimping all of the van cables...


Cleaned and painted the plate.

This will be good to go and, if I need it do any crimps in tight places, the plate will come right off.
Mark

Genius! I had a similar crimper and one day it fell off the counter and now it won't build pressure. I may order another and steal this idea.

Jay

[JayinMI]

I apologize to anyone who got excited by update notifications.

Interesting thing about the Hot Rod High. I do Car Audio/Security and it's getting SO hard to find young guys who want to work with their hands, or have any idea that "just because it works, doesn't mean it's right." Hell, it's funny to me how many kids have no interest in driving much less working on cars. I had been trying to talk my parents into letting me get a car to fix up from the age of 13. My GF's nephew is finally getting his license because his parent's are making him do it. lol...his grand parent's already bought him a car. Sigh.

Jay

[astroracer]

Hi Jay, yea Flushing is pretty close. I do Back to the Bricks, much closer to home and it doesn't have the traffic jams that Woodward is turning into.
Sorry to say the Hot Rod High thing has been shut down. Baker killed off the welding and autobody courses and shut down the buildings. With nowhere to work on the car the program died.
I haven't done anything with the van this winter. Got wrapped up in the Chrome & Ice show in February and spent a couple of months working on my truck getting it ready to show.
I also had a bit of a health scare with a few blood clots and some pneumonia. That slowed me down for a while but I am on blood thinners and back on my feet so that is hopefully in my past now.
Currently working on a downstairs family room makeover. New flooring, paint, all new trim, oak stair treads and retrimming around a window. Just put up the plinth and rosette blocks tonight and will get the door casing cut tomorrow. Honey do's are high on the list this time of year. Of course it is still winter and we have a good covering of snow on the ground right now...
I do quite a few car shows during the summer. Give me a holler here if you want to hook up.
Mark

[JayinMI]

Yeah, the only reason I make the dream cruise is because I work at Woodward and 11 Mile. No way around it, really. lol
My commute is a little over 60 miles one way.
Glad to hear it sounds like you're feeling better.

Jay

[astroracer]

Yup, no way around it for sure. I did it every year when I was in Livonia at AM General.
This is my '02 Collector Edition at Athens Coney Island.

I work in Milford at the Proving Grounds now and I avoid that drive like the plague..
Here is my truck at the Chrome & Ice show this year.

[JayinMI]

Yeah, I pass there every day. Twice...except now Athens is Nicky D's.
My GF's Brother in Law works at the tech center as well, tho I'm not sure what department he's in.

The truck looks good.

Jay

[astroracer]

Another year has gone by... Guess what I am doing?

[Protour_Pinto]

I always get excited when I see this thread jump to the top!