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1993 Astro Van Dropped Family Hauler
First thread, saw what I liked being built on this website, so I thought I would toss up a few projects and introduce myself. Make a long story short, built 46 classic Mini's last year (All original, or fully custom, b18c1 swap, suzuki swap, etc). Wife is from Germany, we had a baby 2 months back and I started building a family hauler up again. Some of the other projects are the 61 Morris Minor I'm building for my pops, on bags, full frame, 95 camaro v6 engine to replace the 4 cylinder that made 34hp. Should be good for low 12's. I'll start a build page on that after lunch. Wife's car I just finished restoring last fall, 1980's German Polizei Wagon from East Germany. My toy car I'm just starting to build a 76 Mini Clubman Estate. Anyway, here's where I am at, sorry don't have a whole lot of build photos, but I will try and take some in the future for phase 2.
After 3 weeks of work, she's sitting pretty.
Front can get a hair lower, but it's about maxed out with this tire size. I commute with it 3 hours a day, so had to put a little bit taller tire on it, 45 series...
Then I wanted to focus on the interior. Guy had previous put 4 captain chairs in it, no seatbelts. So I tracked down a set of 2004 Astro leather seats, getting really hard to come by these days.
I had to cut off the legs of the bench seat, and fabricate a new frame to be able to sit it on top of the wheel tub. It now bolts in and out if I need to take it out.
Rear 12 gallon tank, and dual battery setup.
Seats all installed.
New Billet Specialties 14" Steering Wheel
Custom hidden hitch to fit behind the roll pan and be able to tow the Mini's around with.
Custom 1/2 ton bumper, narrowed, smoothed and recessed a plate holder into it. Should look the biz when it's done.
Hitch installed, tucks nicely up in there.
Rear setup
6" C Notch with full tub
Here you can see the shaved back, no handles, rear door pops open with a switch. License plate flips up to get to hitch.
All finished off with the clubby in the foreground. That'sit for now. Going to be redoing all the doors, stereo, custom dash up next. New bags are on there way. Should hopefully be wrapped up in the next month or two. Need to fix 4 bullet holes on passenger side!
After 3 weeks of work, she's sitting pretty.
Front can get a hair lower, but it's about maxed out with this tire size. I commute with it 3 hours a day, so had to put a little bit taller tire on it, 45 series...
Then I wanted to focus on the interior. Guy had previous put 4 captain chairs in it, no seatbelts. So I tracked down a set of 2004 Astro leather seats, getting really hard to come by these days.
I had to cut off the legs of the bench seat, and fabricate a new frame to be able to sit it on top of the wheel tub. It now bolts in and out if I need to take it out.
Rear 12 gallon tank, and dual battery setup.
Seats all installed.
New Billet Specialties 14" Steering Wheel
Custom hidden hitch to fit behind the roll pan and be able to tow the Mini's around with.
Custom 1/2 ton bumper, narrowed, smoothed and recessed a plate holder into it. Should look the biz when it's done.
Hitch installed, tucks nicely up in there.
Rear setup
6" C Notch with full tub
Here you can see the shaved back, no handles, rear door pops open with a switch. License plate flips up to get to hitch.
All finished off with the clubby in the foreground. That'sit for now. Going to be redoing all the doors, stereo, custom dash up next. New bags are on there way. Should hopefully be wrapped up in the next month or two. Need to fix 4 bullet holes on passenger side!
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