The BAD AST Project - Faze II

[astroracer]

Thanks FGC. Good to hear from you!

We have seat frames! Got all of the laser cut pieces fit in and tack weled today. We sure were digging that A/C unit this afternoon! Made it bearable to work out there.
Here is the seat frame all clamped up and ready for welding.
Side view.

Front view'

Everything went together great!
We decided to tack the frames up while they were bolted into the seat... I had an issue with that but Mel assured me he would keep the seats safe from spatter...

He did..

All tacked up.

Sitting in thr van. They are very sturdy just tacked. I sat in this and jimmied around a bit. No movement at all.


Both seat frames tack welded. We were pretty well wiped out by this time. Called it a day. I needed a shower.


Tomorrow. Final welding and we put in that stupid left front wheel well!
Mark

[FoxGranadaChuck]

Merely being excessively nosy, but what kind of seats are those going into BadAst?

[elcamino80]

looks good! can't wait for more progress pics

[astroracer]

Hey FGC
The seats are Scat Procars.


Hey Chris, thanks, here is a bit of an update after almost a month...
We built an upper crossmember and have been picking away at the rear floor closeouts around the tank.
This is an overall view. The xmbr bolts in between the wells and the closeouts sweep up along the inside of the wells.

This one of the tapping plates we made to hold in the xmbr.

The other side with the 1 x 2 tubing fit in and ready to weld

These are closeups of either side of the close out panels.
Right side

Left side

We need to make the rear filler panel yet. I won't weld any of this until that is ready.
I also got that left front wheel well welded in and primed. Haven't seam sealed it yet. Will wait and do that when I finish up the rear panels.

Most of this we got done in a day about a month ago. The last few weeks I have spent WORKING ON THE WIRING!!!! I'm sorry, was I yelling?
Mel has been doing some serious camping. He has a 27' trailer and has a membership at one of the camp grounds out by Davison.
The next post will touch on a bit of the wiring for this dude.
Thanks for looking.
Mark

[astroracer]

Now! On to the fun stuff! Actually wiring isn't that bad. I kind of enjoy it. Sorting through decade old harnesses... Fingers covered with YUCK from the old tape wrap... Yummy...
Anyway, I will be combining the original '88 harness with the '95 donor harness. The '88 didn't come with power locks or windows and I will be throwing the '95 doors on Bad Ast to get those amenities.
Here are a few pics as i jumble my way through the wire jungle.
This is the '95 harness and column. I will use the '95 as the '88 didn' have tilt...

This is the '88 before i stripped off the loom and tape.

The '95 also has a lot of stuff I am not going to use. The computer wiring is not needed neither is the airbag stuff.
I am stripping all of that junk out and trying to maintain the ignition/start, neutral safety and HVAC systems. EVERYTHING is tied back into the ECM... See that pile of wire at the upper right? That's all airbag stuff I stripped out...

That's where the '88 harness comes into play. It is a little less complicated and has the HVAC stuff so I am pulling all of the power lock/window stuff out of the '95 incorporating it into the '88 junction block.

I have also traced the turn signal, hi beam and brake light circuits to the cluster connectors and will use those to power the new led's in the rebuilt cluster.
I work on it for a couple hours and I have to walk away... It all starts looking the same for some reason.
I took a break tonight and started building the center stack gauge harness.
I loaded the gauge panel.

Flipped her over and labeled all of the gauges. (helps me keep things straight).

First up was tying all of the illumination bulbs and grounds together. I simply butt spliced the wires into two different circuits with a long pigtail for the remote connctor

Then I got the ignition side done. I haven't shrunk any of the heat shrink tubing yet and I will wrap everything up with cable ties when it's done. Should look pretty good.

I knocked off here tonight. Tomorrow I will finish the ground side for the gauges and run the sender wires. At that point I can install one half of the 12 way molex connector I will be using and this harness will be complete.

It was a good break. Got something done tonight.
Mark