Project BadAstro

[ADDvanced]

Goal: Budget Build of a Mild Overlanding Camper, big enough for 2 people and some dogs, but also needs to be a pickup truck replacement for hauling bikes and things.

I pulled the trigger on this 99 Astro AWD conversion van this weekend, one owner, always garaged, body is very clean but the underside is a bit crusty, only 92k miles. Conversion was done by DMC Vehicles in Milwaukee, and everything was in pretty good condition.

Behold:

Here are some shots of the interior:

There was small wooden panel in the above pic that had me curious, what am I looking at? It looks like a small radiator? Does this have rear heat?!?!

Turns out it has a rear heater core AND AC condensor. Not sure if that stuff is staying long term or not; that 'shelf' takes up a lot of space.

The van is largely the same but my credit card is on fire lately, I've spent a lot of money and I'm not even sure how i'm paying for it yet, but I figure if I'm doing the suspension I want to do ALL of it so I don't have to **** with it for a while. My girlfriend said the van "drives like a wet marshmallow" and she feels like it's going to flip on the onramps. I think it drives okay, but there's definitely a lot more weight up high than she is used to.

I got it up on a lift last weekend, and inspected things and found the following:

- Rear Pinion Moist, diff is wet near front.
- Front shocks are leaking a ton of fluid
- Factory lift points are obscured by fuel fill and heat/ac lines
- Lifted the van on the spring perches, lifting on the frame was impossible with the side skirts installed. Any tips/tricks on this issue? Would like to not remove the side skirts!

I picked up 2 quarts of POR15 and 1 thing of Metal ready, and last friday I scoured the bottom of the van with a wire wheel and coated it with a few coats of metal ready. I was going to paint the chassis when I did the suspension install, but I'm not sure how Im' supposed to paint upwards without it running all over me.

Anyway, here's what I ordered:

Suspension:
- Journey's Offroad 2-5" Super Van lift Kit
- Mevotech Supreme Upper Control arms w greasable balljoints
- Mevotech Supreme Lower Control arms w greasable balljoints
- Mevotech Supreme Inner Tie Rod Ends
- 1 Moog Problem Solver/1 Mevotech Supreme Outer Tie Rod end
- 1 Moog Problem Solver/1 Mevotech Supreme Idler Arm
- 1 Moog Problem Solver Drag Link
- Moog Problem Solver Swaybar Endlinks w Poly Bushings
- Moog Tie Rod Adjusting Sleeves
- Moog Problem Solver 1&3/16 Swaybar Bushing w Fabric Lining
- Belltech Rear Swaybar Kit
- Bilstein HDs front and Rear

Drivetrain:
- Dayco Belt
- Wix Trans Filter/Gasket
- Fram Oil Filter
- Fram PCV
- Fram Air Filter
- AC Delco Iridium Plugs
- AC Delco Cap/Rotor
- AC Delco Fuel Filter

Also, I just picked up a set of American Racing Gotti J55 replicas, 15x8.5. I test mounted them with 245/60/15s, and they definitely contacted a few places due to the width. The sliding door was close; it just brushes against the tires but does open it's full width. I don't want to run huge tires, so there aren't many tires in a size for that rim. I said **** it, and ordered 4 General Grabber ATXs, 235/75/R15s. I'm expecting I might have to bang/trim a bit of the body, but not much.

Started planning the interior, but honestly whatever I do right now is just stop gap because I have a trip in about 2 weeks and I need to slap this together fast!

Found some blueprints of the astro online, and whipped up quick solidworks model. Didn't bother surfacing anything, this is close enough for planning things.

I used 1x3s for the slats, and 2x2s for the frame. I could have used 2x4s, but I think 2x2s will save weight, give more storage, and they're 'select' grade so they're actually sort of nice!

Mocking up the bed/couch frame. I used the router a lot on this thing to remove harsh edges that can catch on fabric. The inner portion of the frame was cute using a huge chamfer to 'add visual lightness'..... and because I like the way they catch light.

I wanted to get Kumho AT51s, but wound up getting some General Grabber ATXs. They're LT tires, snow rated like the Kumhos, but rated better in every category. Apparently this is General's newest tire and it's kind of awesome at everything, but CHEAP! A set of these was over $100 cheaper than the Kumhos!

Ordered mevotech supreme control arms, tie rod ends, idler arms, and some moog parts like hte draglink, tie rod couplers, sway bar end links, bushings, etc. All new! Since I had time last week I painted everything with a few coats of POR15.

 

[ADDvanced]

Used a lift at my old warehouse space for this part, saved a ton of hassle

Yup. Definitely a midwest vehicle. Luckly, the pinch welds were all clean, body is clean, just a ton of scale on the frame and undercarriage.

BEFORE PICS

End of friday night, all the suspension is off the van except the passenger control arm. Upper control arms, knuckles, calipers, shocks, steering linkages, all removed, first coat of POR15 is applied.

For lolz we mocked up a BBS wheel with a 31 on it

Test fit!!! Hopefully the slider door clears, havent' checked yet.

235/75/15 General Grabber ATXs, mounted to American Racing 15x8.5s. These are the LT tire with the thicker sidewall, so they did require a cheetah to mount them onto the wheel. Yup. Running stretched tires on the BadAstro! lol

Chasing ring times, bruh! Nah, just thought billys might handle the additional mass of tire/wheel better than OEM shocks

AFTER PICS:

Gave up last night at 2am. Front 2" bodypucks are installed, but I got stuck an removing the upper shackle bolt. I did loosen the bolts on the leaf spring mounts, but the upper bolts are just laughing at my impact gun. Not sure what to do yet. Any ideas? Does anyone know what size bolt that is? I have a feeling I'll need to cut it out.

Update 10/17
Got the bolts out and shackles installed! Teaser pic, still need to bleed brakes and check for rubbing and 'adjust' where it rubs.

 

[ADDvanced]

reserved for future updates

 

[ADDvanced]

reserved for future updates

 

[ADDvanced]

reserved for future updates

 

[6door74]

I will be keeping an eye on this thread! This is the exact configuration I've been looking for, a 99 conversion Astro/Safari. Your build thread will help guide me once I get my hands on one. I plan on doing the transfer case swap as well. Good luck and enjoy

 

[Herbie]

Subscribed!

 

[Sneaks]

Budget builds are great.

 

[Herbie]

Budget builds are great.

Agreed. I love the creativity and prioritization that comes when you can't just throw bucks at the build. I'd like to say think my rig stands as an example of how patience and DIY will net you a lot of smiles per dollar.

 

[Sneaks]

Agreed. I love the creativity and prioritization that comes when you can't just throw bucks at the build. I'd like to say think my rig stands as an example of how patience and DIY will net you a lot of smiles per dollar.

Off to read it

 

[chet]

awesome! just did the 2" lift on my 2002. rear upper shackle bolts just cut them with a sawzall. you get new ones in the kit. I wish i got the bilsteins. my stock front replacements suck. we just did a nice offroad ish excursion on sunday and the bounce is still pretty bad. the added clearance was awesome though!

 

[ADDvanced]

Update:

 

[Trikebubble]

Just remember to replace the fuel filter with every oil change. I retired my 2000 Astro Van last year after 300K Km of hard work kilometers. I beat on that van, and used it like a work truck for 15 years and it was the best van ever. The only real issue that came up was replacing a few fuel pumps. I was told that I needed to keep on top of changing fuel filters (which is really easy on that van) to keep that issue at bay. I wish they still made the Astro Van, I'd have bought another without even thinking about it. Unfortunately I bought a Dodge Caravan as a new work van, and it ******** its motor at 110K km.

 

[ADDvanced]

Thanks. Pretty frazzled right now, was up until 1 am last night wrenching and the shop is an hour away from my place. Here's what I got done, and what ************ me over:

First off, BRAKES! I removed the calipers during the suspension rebuild, and crimped off the brake hoses with those special locking pliers made for crimping hoses. Anyway, needed to bleed them, except the bleeders were frozen. Hit with penetrant, tried a light impact, then a torch, then snapped them right off both front calipers. My buddy was trying to drill them out, except then the harbor freight "WARRIOR" drill bits snapped right off in the snapped off bleeders. Rad. After spending too much time screwing with that, I just went and picked up new rebuilt calipers and threw them on:

Picked up some clip on wheel weights to smash onto the edges of the alloys, because frankly, the sticky weights (which I prefer due to aesthetics) were just not cutting it. Rebalanced all 4 wheels with them. Here's what the inside of one wheel looked like with sticky weights: ?

Installed the Belltech swaybar ABOVE the rear axle. Idk why anyone would install it under the axle, that just seems dumb. Plenty of room, may contact my rear shock if I go airborne, but going keep an eye on it as I play with the suspension a bit and see what happens. Pretty easy install, but I just bent the brake lines on the axle out of the way. Do they need to be secured? Factory axle had little metal clips to hold them in place.

And here's the end to my night. Decided to tighten up the tie rods, and go for a test drive to see how bad it rubs in front. I made it about 10 ft off the lift before I heard a weird noise, and my buddy started yelling to kill it. So...... I THOUGHT I had been careful lifting the body and checking things..... but.....

Yup. That's my power steering hose, resting against the pulley. From my research online, this is the hydroboost to pump hose. Power steering fluid was sprayed everywhere. Super bummed, had to leave the van parked for yet another night. Hopefully.... tonight will be the night.

 

[ADDvanced]

Update 10/21/19

I leave on a 3-4000 mile road trip in 4 days! Went HAM on the van all weekend.

Friday I replaced the power steering hose with a new unit from Oreillys, and I used the “lifted van steering hose mod” by Music man (https://www.astrosafari.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=124313), this worked AWESOME. I see no reason to get a savanna hose or Dakota hose or any of the other ones, just slightly bending the ends and rerouting it through the hydroboost was PLENTY of room. After wrapping that up, I spent another few hours painting the chassis with POR15 again. I now have two coats of POR all over the frame, driveshaft, inner body, hopefully this will fight off some of the rust because I plan to use this occasionally in winter. I plan on doing one more coat of regular enamel paint, then using like 2 cans of Boshield T9 corrosion inhibitor all over the underside.

I finished installing the Belltech rear sway above the axle, but I am unsure of what to do with the brake lines. The U clamps that hold the sway bar brackets go right against the axle, so the brake lines have to go around it. Thinking about just putting some rubber tubing on them at that point and zip tying to the axle? Idk. Up for ideas.

Had to clearance the front fenders quite a bit, it took me 3 times to get rid of most of the rubbing. Used an angle grinder to just hack off what was interfering, and then a big sledge to ‘adjust’ the inner wheel well area. Brutal and satisfying, but effective! Here’s a shot of my girl filing up the front bumper. In the first pics of my van, you may have noticed the front bumper had a missing chunk on the bottom edge. I cleaned that up with an angle grinder and made it symmetrical. The trailing edge of the front bumper also needed to be trimmed a bit, but not much. I’m not going to use the bumper support rods, they seem pointless.

Here’s the slide out bed frame I built for the van, I admittedly got a little OCD with my router but I didn’t want it to snag fabrics. The stain was intended to match the oak in the van. It’s close enough.

Detail shot, this isn’t closed all the way but it lines up nice:

Added a heavy chamfer on the inner edge of the vertical frames to ‘add visual lightness’:

And in order to get the clearance to fit a dog crate, I had to modify the outer frame to hug tighter against the wheel well:

Installed it last night but didn’t take any pics yet of everything set up. I did a string alignment to drive it home from the shop, not great, but made it safely, and here’s how she sits:

Super stoked about the fitment!!!! The 15x8.5s really give it a wider stance, which fills out the fender flares pretty nicely. The 235/75/15 General Grabber ATXs look fantastic on this thing, the ride isn’t louder, and I did a lot of research that this size is a pretty good compromise for all around driving with light offroading. 3 days to build up the interior, then it’s adventure time!