Recent content by Mark S.

Start out by building a wire frame. Make the front, back and top edges of the spoiler out of 3/16th's rod. Build the shape right on the car. Use your "gussets" to tie the rod together and also attach the spoiler to the car. You can then use that as your buck as you are shaping the spoiler. The...

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...

Yea, I consider myself pretty fortunate. I haven't really wasted a lot of material on goof ups like this. I have changed my mind on a few things as I am building them but I think this is the first I have ruined anything while making it... I took another "stab" at it this weekend... (you see...

I also got 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...

Here are some pics of the ruined stab bar... Everything was looking good as I got these 3 bends completed. Even the forth bend came out in the right spot. BUT, if you look at the tube where it is exiting the bending die, you can see a silver line wrapping around the tube a couple of inches...

Well, I got bit by the measure twice cut with an axe bug Saturday afternoon... Working on the front stab bar, I got it designed and detailed and started doing the bends. The tubing is 1.25" x .125 wall 4130 so it is not cheap... I had 6 bends to do and got the first 4 correct. The 5th bend I got...

Moving on to other things... I dug out the trans and Gear Vendor Overdrive unit tonight. I was curious to see how much of a tear up I would have on the K member in the frame. I designed and built the K member and trans cross member around a 700R4, not figuring on finding a gear vendor unit for...

I got out this morning and finished up the cover. Got it trimmed "almost" to length and mocked up the wheel and paddles. Cut to length I could expand the 3 1/2" end to slipover the top plate the bolts to the extension. With the paddles and steering wheel adapter attached. With the wheel...

A week ago Sunday morning I was in the shop at 9:00am. I worked out there for an hour or so and started not feeling well... Anyway, I got sick Sunday morning and was out of commission until Friday afternoon. You name the symptom and I had it. :( Stomach, chills, sweats, aches (even my hair hurt)...

Thanks guys! Jason, with the direction I am going now (shifterless) the dog house will get rebuilt. Hopefully with more aircleaner clearance and a bit lighter in the weight department. :) After some mock up work though I found the "shroud" to be pretty unusable. The expanding left it very...

Actually a BBC will bolt right into a stock Astro. Mine is far from stock though. With a full frame, custom front and rear suspensions, lowered about 10" and the engine set back 18" and down 6" there is little left of the stock van other then the body. Click the link for a running build thread...

Thanks! Yes, TH400 with a gear vendors Overdrive unit behind it. The van will running a 509 BBC, about 550 horse w/ 600 or so lbft. The mill is an old one I picked up a few years ago. It's a Cincinnati horizontal mill base with a BP head unit adapted to it. It uses B&S #7 taper tooling. I call...

Took the column parts in to Dave's Muffler Shop in Durand this afternoon. We grabbed a chunk of 3 1/2" pipe and worked with the expander to get it to fit the column parts. It took about 15 minutes to get the sizes right but this will work. It's bit rougher then I envisioned but it will smooth...

Worked in the shop and on the computer last night. The steering wheel interface to the paddle shifter is 4.75" in diameter. That's exactly an 1" bigger then the first plate I made. I remodeled the plate and added a big chamfer around the perimeter where it mates to the shifter unit. The...

Worked on the steering wheel adapters this past week. I was doing a test fit Monday night and found the wheel adapter I had in my stash was to small to fit the Astro column. I ordered an adapter kit from Summit. While I was waiting for that I got to work making the upper adapter plate. This is...