Bronco Forum - Full Size Ford Bronco Forum banner

Little mods you think are cool..

82K views 253 replies 93 participants last post by  Apache0715 
#1 ·
I know there is a lot of upgrades out there that we all would like to do but may cost too much, not have the room to do the work, or have the tools needed to do them.

So I would like to know what are some "little" or "inexpensive" modifications you've done to your Bronco over the years. Whether you used seats from another vehicle, added some more interior lighting, swapped a different dash, painted your trim a different color, different gauges, added more storage, found a nice center console, added a hidden but easy accessible spot for your concealed carry:armed. Anything that was little out of pocket cost and was a cool addition to your Bronco.

Still working on my 81' at the moment. Trying to fit the seats from my moms old windstar, re-painted the grille/headlight bezels/bumpers, an electric fuel pump, and hopefully buying a dash and gauges out of an 87' Lariat. I have a lot more planned for it but this is what I have figured in the budget for now.

But anyway lets see what you guys have done!:beer
 
#19 ·
This ^ i didnt even take all the slack out and it made a HUGE difference.

As for upgrades, my dads old CB, bedline the rear, and an FSB sticker
 
#7 ·
I vacumed it :toothless:

And I spent an hour or so and hand waxed the paint,soooo worth the time,paint looks awesome now.
Doesnt cost all that much for the wax either
 
#15 ·
And JBfab what the ziptie mod?
Under the dash, on the go-pedal there is a throttle cable that comes through near the top. After time the cable gets loose/stretches, so you pull what you can through and sinch some zipties around the wires. This makes it so there is no dead feel in the pedal.

You can tell if this would help, without getting under the dash, by lifting up the pedal from it's resting position to see how much it moves. No real performance gains, just helps pedal feel I suppose.
 
#10 ·
Replaced the metal vacuum reservoir with a plastic one from a '90's F250. Never have to worry about it rusting threw again!:rockon
 
#13 ·
i would have to say 7 bucks at walmart. i bought one of those nifty cigarette lighter things, that you plug in and it gives you 2 ports instead of just the one.... Now this may not sound that great to most.... but this allows me to plug in my kids DVD players AND charge my phone or plug in the GPS

Also makes it nice when me and the old lady go spotting *deer* we can use 2 spot lights and hit both sides of the roads at the same time. Was thinking of adding a second lighter to the back of my center console, but that little 1 to 2 plug in thing is amazing.

EDIT!!!!

Also added push button start, i like it. its nifty and different not many push button starters in these old rigs
 
#23 ·
My drivers side seat padding was crushed, added 2" of quality foam under
upholstery since I didn't have cash flow for new seats or reupholstery.
$5=no more back pain.
Instead of adding foam I added springs to my seat...
(got pictures of this Bubba;)




The factory had basically left out -half- the seat springs from the seat
bottom on purpose! :( What? The engineers did it -wrong- back in '75?

It'd hurt our backs and I inherited that '91 Super Cab seat from my step
father and he and others that had rode with 'im complained about the
sorry original Ford seat too. I got the '91 F150SC with 66k miles on it.
He bought it new and had trouble with it right away.

My '90 parts truck ain't a super cab and so uses a coiled type of seat
spring but it was soft too. Not sure what they had in mind doing that! :(
Just add coil springs from the hardware store to fix those. :)

Hmmm... this may be the best (most useful) mod I did.

Alvin in AZ
ps- One spring (just left of center in the second picture) was flipped over
and swapped end for end for the seat belt to go through. Its 45* bend was
straightened then on the other end another 45* bend was put in different
section of the spring, that way, that spot, wasn't bent 90 degrees total.
 
#18 ·
No real performance gains, just helps pedal feel I suppose.
If theres alot of slack in the cable you will never get full throttle when the pedals to the floor. Remove your intake tubes and put a brick on the gas pedal.Chances are with all the slack it will never open fully. So yes there is some kind of performance gain. More like a performance restore.

Just dont over do how many you use. Theres a spring on the end, make sure your not compressing the spring any when finished. You can compress the spring to aid getting them in position. And dont forget to cut the tails of the ties. It also helps to have good quality ties. I used ones with a metal keeper built in.

This is the first thing i do with every ford truck ive ever bought.
 
#22 ·
I have a 96, so my mod isn't really a mod, but 'back-dating' my dash and doors a little bit... I really like the silver trim VS the molded black on the door and the dash, so I removed it and replaced it with the silver.

When I used to have the '85, I also liked how I took a newer model spare tire carrier and swapped just the hinge brackets with the '85 and upgraded it.

Oh, and the 3G alternator mod on the '85.

I'd still like to do the explorer ceiling console.
 
#24 ·
the ziptie help me alittle but my cable isnt very old. that trailer waring is an awsome idea.

a propper tune up. not really a mod but its something that definatly helps. for people with 302 then the timing bump after the tuneup is great.
 
#27 ·
Very nice work alvin. Ad for the seats I wanna pull the bucket and bench seats out of my moms old windstar and see if I can get them to fit. I know they were very comfortable all the long trips in that van when I was a kid lol

I havent really been able to do much on it lately. I started these injections for my psoriasis and they're kicking my ass. Hoping to get back on it tomorrow and get the wiring on my fuel pump finished (thanks to JBfab giving me the right direction) and I wanna insulate the cab with this roll of hushmat I bought, then take a look at those seats!

Oh yea I picked up an overhead console from an S10 on craigslist for $20, gonna see what I can do to fit that in my bronco.
 
#29 ·
My raised rear bumper. I never liked the stock gap between the tailgate
and the bumper. It almost looked like it had a body lift.
Cool. :)

Same here and raised mine right at 1" and left out the black plastic
while I was at it. ;)

How much did you raise yours? Same I'm guessing, it's about all it
can be raised and not have the tailgate lay on the bumper? :)

In the process I tapped out the captive nut on the frame to 5/8"-11
and drilled everything for 5/8" bolts, got grade-8 flanged nuts and
bolts from McMaster-Carr by the bag. :)

The bumper ain't going anywhere without the Bronco's frame comin'
along. ;)

Alvin is a tinkering fool in AZ
ps- Thanks Bubba. :)
 
#31 ·
A lot of good ideas in here. I want to setup a triple battery in my 78, Dual's up front and one in the rear, that way I wont have to run a big ass cable in the back for hooking up the winch I plan on getting. Setup an inverter in the rear for kids stuff. Then just a few 12V power sources around.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top