Well the 04 Astro is beginning to show it's age in several areas.
Had the rear door stops showing severe wear. Bad design, soft steel hinge that flexes every time and are now failing to hold the doors open. (In the pic you can see how the paint has flaked off due to the steel flexing). Can't remove them, as one time the wind snatched a door out of my hands and it flipped around 180 degrees and dented the door!
So I removed the passenger side (which gets used slightly more) - the door stop was almost fatigue-cracked all the way through. Couldn't undo the 3 bolts, because the nuts on the other side are tucked in behind the plastic tail light shell. Had to break my way into there, remove the nuts and stop, and fashion something that would work and not flex. Found a shelf brace at Ace of the right thickness and basic shape (4$ and tax!!!), and after a couple of attempts got a pull design that seems to work well. Will give it a workout for a couple of weeks - if it appears to hold I'll make another one for the opposite door.
Also thinking of converting the van to full personal use so it'll be a hippy/camper van.
Good for short trips or get out of dodge situations. So need to rig up a handle and lock so the rear doors can be opened from the inside. Little engineering there. Then I'll draw up plans for a layout.