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95 Bronco XLT Rust Recovery

9K views 11 replies 7 participants last post by  Spinner Spencer 
#1 ·
Well I finally have my 30 posts so as I said in my introduction, I’ll post some more pictures about my Grandson’s and my 95 Bronco XLT recovery. I bought it new and it has 130,000 northeast miles on it and is showing it’s age. We have a lot of work in front of us. The only thing that will be slower than fixing up the Bronco, will be getting it posted up here, Ha Ha
So here we go. We knew it was time to replace the radiator support when we noticed the passenger side of the grille starting to list to the bumper and away from the hood. We decided to replace all of the body mounts at the same time. I also had a water leak on the motor so we figured it would be easier to pull the intake and heads while the front was off of the truck. We picked up a set of Prothane urethane body mounts off of Amazon for a decent price. We sprayed the existing mounts with penetrating oil for about a month before we started, hoping it would make things go smooth.



I picked up a good used support out of California off of Ebay, shipped to the house for a little less than an aftermarket support shipped. We cleaned it up and spray bombed it. We also sprayed it with flexible rubber spray all along the bottom and at the mounting points and radiator mounts.








It wasn’t too bad taking everything off to get to the support. We took our time, used a little heat from the torch, plenty of penetrating oil, and all of the bolts came out OK.








There wasn’t very much left of the support at the mounts. We zipped right through the support with a sawzall to get the support out.




There was no way the radiator support mounts were going to come apart the way they went together. It was a solid mass of rust! Heat and the impact wrench did nothing.








We tried to sawzall through them which was turning into an exercise in futility. Then I discovered the secret. Smack the mount with a hammer and it comes right out of the bracket! Oh joy!



That’s it for now. I’ll post up more as I can.
 
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#3 ·
I didn't find a weld on replacement anywhere, so I used a bolt on, welded to the original mount ears. I cut back the mount with
a grinder until the bolt on mount just fit in between and then welded it in. Hope to post more pictures soon.
 
#4 ·
Found a little time to post up some pictures. I managed to get the spacers off the old radiator support mounts with the cutting torch and a hammer and chisel at work.



The only mounting brackets I could find were bolt on replacements. I cut the ears for the original welded bracket back with a grinder until the replacements just fit in between so I could weld them on. The bolt on brackets weren't designed for the corrugated frame.





After getting the front apart, we moved to the cab and bed mounts, one side at a time. We had to cut the drivers side cab mounts with a sawzall. The puller I made wouldn’t fit over the rubber it was so swollen and distorted. The puller worked great on the passenger side. The bolts came out of the bed mounts with a little heat and impact, but when we tried to hammer them apart, they just broke through the frame. Just a little thin under the mounts.











The only thing I could think of seeing that we were in no position to pull the body off the frame to repair or replace it, was to strap the top rail of the frame. I used ¼” x 3 ½” flat stock and ran it up over the frame bump. I made it flush with the inside rail with a ¼” overhang on the outside of the frame, so I could weld on some reinforcement pieces. Also put some ¼” plates on top of the cab bushings to keep it all even.



 
#5 ·
The Grandson wanted a body lift, but after explaining “Center Of Gravity” and showing him Steve83’s body mount pictures when the body lift collapsed, he agreed that a 1” hockey puck special lift would be good enough. He wants 35” tires in the worst way!



I made the mount hardware out ¾” OD x ½” ID tube welded to heavy ¾” ID washers. I made bushings out of 1”OD x ¾” ID tube that slips over the ¾” OD tube where the Prothane bushings go. I cut them 1/8” shorter at each end of the assembled bushing height. The ¾” OD x ½” ID tube welded to the heavy ¾” washers, was cut ¼” shorter than the height of the bushings and hockey puck. I used Grade 8, 7/16”-14 threaded rod cut to length and Grade 8 Heavy nuts with heavy 7/16” washers.







When we put the mounts together, we gave the hardware a generous coat of Rust-Veto cosmoline grease so it hopefully lasts a while.





I don’t have welder, so we rented a gas powered Lincoln AC welder from the local rental center for a weekend to weld up the frame straps and front mounts. Some of the welds look like a flock of seagulls flew over, but I’ll guarantee they won’t break!
 
#6 ·
New Cross Members
Well, working under the truck changing the body mounts, I kept looking at the rear cross members and I realized just how thin they were getting from the rust. I checked for Ford parts but they are unavailable. Junkyard parts around me weren’t any better than what I had. I figured I could maybe have new ones fabricated. I measured the distance between the two cross members at the lower lip and cut a 2x4 the same distance, so I would always have that reference. I pulled the rear cross member and took it to a local sheet metal/fab shop to see what they could do. I was only interested in getting 3/16” plate bent up correctly so it would fit, I would drill the holes. The fab shop did a good job as far as I was concerned.
After a test fit, I brought them into work so I could drill the holes and make provisions for the gas tank straps. I butted the new and old cross members together at the top flange to mark up the frame holes for drilling. I them did the same for the bottom flange holes for the skid plate. I didn’t want to drill the holes for the bottom frame rail until the new cross member was in position on the frame.



For the rear cross member, I scribed the cutout for the tank strap onto the new piece, drilled holes all along the scribe, and then cut out between the holes. After a bunch of filing, I got the straps to fit. For the wire pass through, two hole saw cuts and then I milled off the excess.



For the forward cross member tank strap mounts, I milled slots on the backside and then trimmed up some pieces of angle iron to get the same angle as the original cross member
strap mount hole and drilled a hole in the same location.









I bolted the rear cross member to the top frame rail first, wedged the 2x4 I had cut to length between the original front cross member and the new rear cross member, then I drilled for the bottom frame bolts. Then I pulled the forward cross member and repeated.



I didn’t put a relief in the front cross member for the fuel lines like the original. I think I have enough clearance. If I don’t, it will get modified and I will update the thread.
 
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