Bad Ast Build Thread

[astroracer]

So why didn't you just chuck this thing in a vise with soft jaws? Just asking...

I've had a few people ask, "why not just clamp it in a vise?"
You could, if you were only doing a few crimps, that would work fine. I want to be able to take the crimper right to the vehicle. The plate will let me clamp it to just about any flat surface. Especially at the front of the van where I will be doing a bunch of these big crimps. Clamping the crimper to the radiator support will save having to walk back and forth to the vise at the other end of the room...
Mark

 

[astroracer]

Even though I am working 10 hrs this week I got out and did some wiring stuff tonight...
I clamped the Hydraulic Crimper right to the rad support and got busy. This little mod is turning out to be pretty handy...

I hung the relay box and routed the wires in some semblance of how they will be when installed.

I got the power lead for the relay box, the charge/power lead for the battery (from the back), the power lead for the fuse box and the power lead from the alternator all crimped tonight. Once I got going it took about a half hour to do all of the crimps. Having the crimper right there, where I was working, was nice!

These are some very tight crimps...

I did learn a bit tonight. The terminals I am using are rolled, with the seam at the top, as you can see here.

After I did the first one (which I got lucky on) I decided to pinch the terminals closed a bit so one edge is "tucked" under the other. When doing this the edge getting tucked will actually "snap" under the top edge.

This guides the crimp into a very tight roll. I think it compresses the wire about half it's diameter, just looking at it...

This ready for some heat shrink. I need to get some larger diameter red shrink (this is just the plastic boot that came with the terminal)... I could use black I guess but I am trying to make this stuff look like I thought about it before I did it.

Here is the power block I mounted last week with the cables loosely routed.

Here is a pic of the relay center with the cover in place... This will get painted body color so it will all but disappear after install.

That's what I did.
Mark

 

[Bruce4310TX]

Even though I am working 10 hrs this week I got out and did some wiring stuff tonight...
I clamped the Hydraulic Crimper right to the rad support and got busy. This little mod is turning out to be pretty handy...

I hung the relay box and routed the wires in some semblance of how they will be when installed.

I got the power lead for the relay box, the charge/power lead for the battery (from the back), the power lead for the fuse box and the power lead from the alternator all crimped tonight. Once I got going it took about a half hour to do all of the crimps. Having the crimper right there, where I was working, was nice!

These are some very tight crimps...

I did learn a bit tonight. The terminals I am using are rolled, with the seam at the top, as you can see here.

After I did the first one (which I got lucky on) I decided to pinch the terminals closed a bit so one edge is "tucked" under the other. When doing this the edge getting tucked will actually "snap" under the top edge.

This guides the crimp into a very tight roll. I think it compresses the wire about half it's diameter, just looking at it...

This ready for some heat shrink. I need to get some larger diameter red shrink (this is just the plastic boot that came with the terminal)... I could use black I guess but I am trying to make this stuff look like I thought about it before I did it.

Here is the power block I mounted last week with the cables loosely routed.

Here is a pic of the relay center with the cover in place... This will get painted body color so it will all but disappear after install.

That's what I did.
Mark

Your doing some great work here, but this crimp is a disaster waiting to happen you have the wrong size terminal for your wire, when it fails in time that hot wire will be ready to start a nice fire in the engine bay. Its not designed to be smashed this way thats not a crimp. I wire airplanes for a living we use the same stuff, in the automotive world not all wire is the same dimension as the manufacture claims. Some do not follow the correct standard some have too much insulation and less wire, your wire should be held by both sides of the terminal. When the terminal heats up it will open just a little which causes more heat till a little vibration causes it to slip. We use the type your using on small gauge wire, large gauge we use a enclosed terminal much safer and crimped correctly does not fail. And would be a better choice and you can solder it after you crimp it will outlast the vehicle. You have a nice crimper use the correct terminal.

 

[katotter]

Subscribed, the attention to detail is amazing.

 

[astroracer]

Your doing some great work here, but this crimp is a disaster waiting to happen you have the wrong size terminal for your wire, when it fails in time that hot wire will be ready to start a nice fire in the engine bay. Its not designed to be smashed this way thats not a crimp. I wire airplanes for a living we use the same stuff, in the automotive world not all wire is the same dimension as the manufacture claims. Some do not follow the correct standard some have too much insulation and less wire, your wire should be held by both sides of the terminal. When the terminal heats up it will open just a little which causes more heat till a little vibration causes it to slip. We use the type your using on small gauge wire, large gauge we use a enclosed terminal much safer and crimped correctly does not fail. And would be a better choice and you can solder it after you crimp it will outlast the vehicle. You have a nice crimper use the correct terminal.

Okay, I understand what you are saying. The terminals you see in my pics are the right size. The cable fits in them comfortably, I am just "squashing" them, not crimping...
I have an idea on how to get the crimp dies to "roll" the edges of the barrel down, into the wire similar to my Molex crimpers. The dies are the normal hex shaped dies so there is no rolling action, they simply squash the terminals willy nilly. I thought doing as I did it would be better then a "willy nilly" crimp... As it is I will pick up some better terminals (solid, no edges). I have the solid lugs for the main battery terminals and they crimp nicely...
Thanks
Mark

 

[awdblazer]

you should go to your local electrical supply house and get some crimps, they are not split and probably are cheaper

 

[astroracer]

Okay, I got some better 4 ga terminals from McMaster Carr...

And came up with a plan to hopefully make some better crimps. I used a piece of 1/8th inch diameter steel rod to make an impression in the top of the lug.

I clamped the lug in the crimping tool.

While crimping, this rod caves in the top of the lug similar to the Molex style crimpers.

The caving action draws in the sides of the lug and keeps it from spreading out. Once this is done I removed the rod, turned the lug 90 degrees and recrimped it.
Does this look better?

 

[awdblazer]

you should not have to put that piece in there
it should be tight enough without it and look better

 

[DesertSparky57]

That crimp terminal looks to be a bit large for your wire. No way you should be able to fold it in like that. The hex dies should squash it like you said, but the original fit before squashing on to your wire should be almost tight. If the wire can swim around in the crimp terminal before you actually crimp it, you have a size issue.

Many stranded wire types vary hugely in overall diameter. The right size crimp is a crucial part of a good connection. Airplane Wiring Guy above is most likely VERY experienced with creating fail-proof connections. His mention of soldering is a good idea as certain strand configurations just do not take to crimping very well.

It's been my experience that the finer the strand arrangement the better it takes to crimping, to a point. But the wrong crimp can damage and even cut through your wire over time. It sounds like a old wives tale, but I've seen terminal failures, they are never pretty.

Van looks sweet BTW, keep up the good work!

 

[astroracer]

Thanks for the feedback guys, I have gotten better with the new crimper. Just a matter of figuring out which set of dies it takes to get the right compression. I have decided to quit showing my crimps "naked". They are good and strong and very serviceable but from now on they will be dressed in heat shrink.
I have been getting some excellent shop time so far this week. I have most of the 4ga cables made and cleaned and painted the alternator with hammered silver.
Here is the alternator in a b4 and after series. I pulled it apart to re-clock it from a 9:00 a o'clock to a 12:00 o'clock because the connector was hitting the block.

I pulled the fan and pulley off to do this, besides I had a chromed set-up to put on it anyway. While it was apart I threw some grease into the rear needle bearing.

I had the alternator bench tested before I pulled it apart and it was putting out over 15 volts. It's a 108 amp 12SI that I got with the engine when I bought it. Should do the job to power the van.
After some paint and a chrome fan and pulley.

One issue with the new pulley is alignment to the engine pulleys. It is a bit thicker so I will end up facing about an 1/8th inch off the block spacers to get it back into alignment.
Here are some pics of the cables I have been building. These are 4 ga and are for battery charging and power distribution off the front junction block I hung a couple of weeks ago.

All of this will be covered with loom at final install.
These cables from the alternator will run up to the junction block for the red one and to the frame for the black one (5/16-18 drilled and tapped hole).

The power box in the rear gets fed from the Master Disconnect under the battery. It feeds the front junction block and is also the battery charge wire.

The wire feeding out the bottom bolts to the cable pass-though mounted in the rear tray. I drilled a one inch hole for that and bolted it in with #10 button heads.

 

[astroracer]

Worked on something other then wiring yesterday. Mel came out and we attacked the left front fender. I want to get both front fenders modified for tire clearance before we pull the body back off the chassis. We got the left front clecoed in place today. In order to get the width I need at full left lock we ended up trimming out the original wheel well lip back to the new inner fender line. This is 4"inches higher then the stock inner.
Doing some sketching and thinking. We had the tire in place with the suspension in full jounce and marked full lock left steer and full lock right steer on the wheel well lip.

Yea, this is kinda ugly... Just the initial cut. We will end up removing all of the lip and most of the flare by the time we are done.

Tire in place and positioned at full left lock

My plans are to make this a "sorta" wide body mod. Clamming an additional fender right over the existing to get the tire covered by the flare at full jounce/left lock. Left lock is worst case by about a quarter inch over right lock.
Here is the "new" fender, Mel is cleaning it up with the grinder after we trimmed off all of the extra stuff and removed the inner bracing so we could set it on top of the original with no interference.

Set in place with a couple of clecoes holding it on at the front. We let the tire hold it out in the middle and worked on the rear of the flare to get it to **** back in at the bottom.

This ended up being a lot easier then we thought it would be. A couple of passes through the shrinker dies brought it right back to the original flare.

This angle gives you a good look at the mostly final shape. There is still a lot to do. I plan to fill the gap with screen so all of the flanges will have to be modified and shortened up to inset the screen about an inch or so into the fender opening.

The top will get closed in with a long pie shaped piece that will blend out to nothing at the front of the fender.

The new piece will have a bit of an angle on it. Blending it down from that little reveal to the new outer skin. I plan to keep the same sharp corners as the rest of the body lines.

Well, that's what I did. Thanks for looking.
Mark

 

[astroracer]

Worked on the right front fender last Friday. Mel did some trimming with the plasma cutter on the original fender for tire clearance.
This is pretty much the same as the drivers side.

While Mel was working on that I gutted the donor fender and got it trimmed down to fit over the original.

Once it was clecoed in place I had to do a little shrinking to get the bottom to follow the shape of the original fender.

After some shrinking it flowed nicely down to the bottom of the original. Doing some trimming on the flange let it snuggle right up to the original.

This gets the van to a point where we can pull the body back off to start finishing things. We will start prepping it to do that tomorrow.

 

[astroracer]

I was planning to post this stuff Sunday afternoon but that big storm changed my plans... Power went out at 5:00 or so Sunday afternoon and finally came back on at 10:00 last night. Which is great because we were hearing Friday or Saturday would be the soonest. Thanks Consumers!

The plan to get the fenders clearanced was so we could get the van moved over to the hoist side. With the Passenger side fender cut up we could do the move. We pulled the front suspension to lighten the load and started raising the van so we could slip the trundle cart in place.
From the work height we raised it about a foot so the cart could slide under the trans crossmember.

I get kind of nervous taking a vehicle to the top of the jack stands...

It went well though and we had the van on the cart in just a few minutes.

Just as we are setting the van on the cart a nice little downpour comes thru to get the grass and leaves nice and soaked.... Sitting a spinning. The Cubby couldn't drag the weight up that little incline to the driveway because of the wet grass and leaves...

We ended up hooking Mels '79 Parisienne to the cart and hauling it up to the driveway with that. Worked well and he didn't spin a tire... We pushed the van into place on the hoist side and called it a day.

I did a bit of cleaning on the work side after Mel left but it was starting to get nasty, weather-wise, so I locked up the shop and went into the house.
Almost exactly two years since this space has been empty!

I got the fender work posted Sunday but, by that time, the wind was really starting to kick up so I shut down the computer right before the power failed...
My plans to get the body off the chassis Monday were shot in the foot by the power outage so i'll get to that later this week...
Mark

 

[41ratrod]

This is one bad astro build. Are you going to chop the top? I told 6" off the
front of mine and 5 off the back . I would of took off more but would have to
widen the top to get it match the body.

 

[41ratrod]

Here is some pix of the chopping.

 

[astroracer]

No plans to chop mine but we need more pics of yours! Start a thread and post up some info! Chassis? Engine? What's the story.

 

[41ratrod]

I'll see if I can load up some more pictures I'll have to scan them .

 

[41ratrod]

Sorry about not posting more pictures the scanner isn't working.
Have you gotten anymore done on yours.

 

[freedomgli]

Sweet project man! Always loved custom Astro vans. Any updates?

 

[41ratrod]

Hay Astroracer have you gotten any more done on the van?

 

[astroracer]

After a year of "doing other things" I am back at it on the van! I was getting pretty well burnt out on this build but after this reset I am ready to finish her up.
6 hours worth of cleaning, sweeping and rearrainging and the chassis is on the working side. Tomorrow I will start the clean up process and laying out brakes lines.

It sure is grundgy looking!

I have to weld on stab bar brackets, do the brake lines and get her ready for paint. I hope to have it painted by the end of the month. I have the whole week of Thanks Giving off so that should be doable.
Mark

 

[Kevin54]

Glad to see this bumped back up. I forgot about it, but I did follow it for a long while, although it was on another forum. Glad to see it back up on here!!!!