Snowgeek135
Observer
Coming soon.... Astro meet land rover disco seats..... Land rover disco seats meet astro. You two are going to be great together.
2004 Chevy Astro AWD Build: Lifted - CCV Poptop
- Thread starter Snowgeek135
- Start date
Snowgeek135
Observer
When i was looking for my Astro, i was really looking for the light grey on grey. I didn't really want white.....and one of my least favorite colors was this bronze-tan color.
Well there were only 3 ok condition Astro's that came on to my local market over 5 months. This was far and away the best one that came around so i bit.... despite the 3.42 gears and the color.
After purchasing the van i ran across a safari van that inspired the look of my van in many ways. Thanks for the inspiration Rastafari
see Rastafari03 build here
I may or may not already have z71 stickers made :ylsmoke:
I chose to powder coat my wheels rather than buy new ones....it was cheeper and well i kinda like the stock ones. The powder coater baked the clear off and powder coated them for about $250. This included the center caps as well. On the center cap note.... I pealed the tabs of the metal face plate off and was able to have them powder coated as well.
Stock wheels:
Center cap metal facade:
Powder coating these worked really well. There was a little cracking as i rebent the tabs to hold it onto the plastic backing but i have not seen any problems yet. I planned on a dot of glue or a smear of black silicon to seal the cracks if need be.
Final product: the black center looks a little different shade in this picture. This is not the case i think the wheel was dusty in this picture and the center was not.
One note....after powder coating, since this is a hub centric wheel, I had to sand the inner boar in order to get it to slide over the hub. In reality it is no problem getting the wheel on the hub as you tighten the lug nuts, but it takes some amount of kicking the tire to get it off. Not something you want to spend time doing when you have a flat.
In the end i now love the color and the over all look of the rig.
Next.....tire selection.....
Well there were only 3 ok condition Astro's that came on to my local market over 5 months. This was far and away the best one that came around so i bit.... despite the 3.42 gears and the color.
After purchasing the van i ran across a safari van that inspired the look of my van in many ways. Thanks for the inspiration Rastafari
see Rastafari03 build here
I may or may not already have z71 stickers made :ylsmoke:
I chose to powder coat my wheels rather than buy new ones....it was cheeper and well i kinda like the stock ones. The powder coater baked the clear off and powder coated them for about $250. This included the center caps as well. On the center cap note.... I pealed the tabs of the metal face plate off and was able to have them powder coated as well.
Stock wheels:
Center cap metal facade:
Powder coating these worked really well. There was a little cracking as i rebent the tabs to hold it onto the plastic backing but i have not seen any problems yet. I planned on a dot of glue or a smear of black silicon to seal the cracks if need be.
Final product: the black center looks a little different shade in this picture. This is not the case i think the wheel was dusty in this picture and the center was not.
One note....after powder coating, since this is a hub centric wheel, I had to sand the inner boar in order to get it to slide over the hub. In reality it is no problem getting the wheel on the hub as you tighten the lug nuts, but it takes some amount of kicking the tire to get it off. Not something you want to spend time doing when you have a flat.
In the end i now love the color and the over all look of the rig.
Next.....tire selection.....
Stroverlander
Adventurer
Mine clear everywhere except they rub on the subframe at/near full lock, weird.
Stroverlander
Adventurer
Where'd you find those front fender trim pieces? I'm considering removing the lower trim as well as it definitely gives the van a different look, still undecided.
I only had my original center caps and didn't want to do anything permanent since I still have a set of silver wheels so I removed the outer covers like you and painted the black plastic with PlastiDip spray to match the wheels.
Nice looking van for sure!
Snowgeek135
Observer
While your van is two tone and looks much better than mine with the trim in place.....loosing the trim takes away a bunch of the whole mini van thing, it looks so much more utility. It also gives the van a taller look....it will make the van about 1 inch higher from the ground. The trim piece is available on all cargo vans from our body style. They are almost all white.... i have only seen a few cargos in other colors. Most of them have one of the mounting holes ripped out as one of mine does but they are cheep at the junk yard so i will likely get a spare or two as i seem them. Removing the cladding is a pain but very attainable. I will post about it here in my build soon.
Ryan
Last edited:
Snowgeek135
Observer
Ok, so i planned on doing a big write up on my tires selection.....
Cooper AT3 245/75/16 load range c
Well i don't have enough miles on them to do a review and the selection was fairly simple so i will be brief.
My needs: lots of highway, lots of snow, fair amount of dirt roads, a little gnarly terrain.....and you can't forget for them to look cool.
I chose the all terrain due to the snow; load range c to keep the weight down, and the size because well that is what t.low did.
Edge shot: not the most aggressive edge but seems to do the job so far
Tread design: good stock sipping for the snow, i will likely have them sipped when they are worn 25 or 35 percent.
Rear profile: fender clearance has been great....no rubbing no problems.
Front profile: i did the standard work to keep the tires from rubbing, working the seam at the rear of the fender back and cutting the bumper. I have not experienced any subframe rub.
I will be excited to see how these tires wear, handle and stand up to abuse. If any of these these are not up to par the next tire will be the bfg at. I stayed away from this tire on the first go around to get the load range c and lighter weight. We will see what happens.
Ryan
Cooper AT3 245/75/16 load range c
Well i don't have enough miles on them to do a review and the selection was fairly simple so i will be brief.
My needs: lots of highway, lots of snow, fair amount of dirt roads, a little gnarly terrain.....and you can't forget for them to look cool.
I chose the all terrain due to the snow; load range c to keep the weight down, and the size because well that is what t.low did.
Edge shot: not the most aggressive edge but seems to do the job so far
Tread design: good stock sipping for the snow, i will likely have them sipped when they are worn 25 or 35 percent.
Rear profile: fender clearance has been great....no rubbing no problems.
Front profile: i did the standard work to keep the tires from rubbing, working the seam at the rear of the fender back and cutting the bumper. I have not experienced any subframe rub.
I will be excited to see how these tires wear, handle and stand up to abuse. If any of these these are not up to par the next tire will be the bfg at. I stayed away from this tire on the first go around to get the load range c and lighter weight. We will see what happens.
Ryan
Snowgeek135
Observer
So I have sunk back to occasional lurking around here in the last 4 month being to overwhelmed with a baby that won't sleep, moving my business, having our busy season starting, and my manager quitting all at the same time...... finally I am getting caught up. More to come -
Ryan
Ryan
ihatemybike
Explorer
Always good to see your posts.
ihatemybike
Explorer
Thus far I've had two different sets of oversized tires on Grumpy with the 2" lift. Note: Grumpy has an aftermarket aluminum front bumper and has had a heavy hammer taken to the lower rear section of the front wheel well.
The first set were Goodyear Wrangler RT/S in 31x10.5R15. These tires aren't very aggressive and fit pretty well. I could get them to rub the body while turning if the suspension was compressing at the same time.
The current tires are BFG All-Terrain T/A in 245/75R16. These tires have more aggressive tread on the edges and despite their well used condition from being on my wife's Jeep they rub almost every time the tread edge gets close to the body. I feel the difference in backspacing and width of the ProCompe rims add to the rubbing though.
I'm guessing you are looking at the Cooper A/T3 tires based on the sizes given. Personally on a nicer van I wouldn't go as large as I have. It's typically recommended for Astro's with 2" of lift to use 235/75R15 or 235/70R16 tires. (Roughly 29s)
I've gone bigger on Grumpy, cause the lift and tires were free and the van was bought cheap enough and beat up enough that I don't mind hurting it a bit. Plan is to clearance the wheel well sheet metal a bit later this spring after I get a couple other projects taken care of.
The first set were Goodyear Wrangler RT/S in 31x10.5R15. These tires aren't very aggressive and fit pretty well. I could get them to rub the body while turning if the suspension was compressing at the same time.
The current tires are BFG All-Terrain T/A in 245/75R16. These tires have more aggressive tread on the edges and despite their well used condition from being on my wife's Jeep they rub almost every time the tread edge gets close to the body. I feel the difference in backspacing and width of the ProCompe rims add to the rubbing though.
I'm guessing you are looking at the Cooper A/T3 tires based on the sizes given. Personally on a nicer van I wouldn't go as large as I have. It's typically recommended for Astro's with 2" of lift to use 235/75R15 or 235/70R16 tires. (Roughly 29s)
I've gone bigger on Grumpy, cause the lift and tires were free and the van was bought cheap enough and beat up enough that I don't mind hurting it a bit. Plan is to clearance the wheel well sheet metal a bit later this spring after I get a couple other projects taken care of.
Yes, plan is to go with Cooper Discoverer A/T3, I have 2004 Astro, so it's 16" rims.
235/75 or 235/70 is almost 1" difference in height, first one will be almost 30" tire. I don't think that it will be easy to avoid rubbing with any of those, now I have to figure out how easy it is to do trimming.
Stroverlander
Adventurer
Check out my build thread, I ran 235/70-16 tires pre and with 2" lift. A little front bumper cover and support bracket relocation (or removal) may be all that is required.