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JB'S 4door build thread (lots of pics)

82K views 285 replies 80 participants last post by  1985 Bronco 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
JB'S 4door prerunner build (lots of pics)

well after some time i finally have a working computer to spend the time make a build thread. Little info about the truck its a centurion c150 that a bought six years ago for $6,000. Has a 5.8/351w and had an e4od with ruffly 150k on the ticker.

One of the first mods was a front bumper thanks to a cavaliers rear end.

Started off as what i thought was a rust/rot free body, boy was i wrong everythimg was masked in heavy bondo. didnt take long before it started rearing its ugly head.


things got worse the more i dug in, tailgate, rear quarters, inner wheel wells, rockers and some of the floor. desided it was going to be glass bedsides for me.

part way into it i desided that a was not going to use duzit fasteners and opted for panel bond. This had some challenges to over come. i had to drop the top rail down about 3/16ths for good panel alignment.

while i had the quarters off made for easy repair/fabrication of new longer wheel wells.

Made them much longer in hopes of leaving room for a four link and coils down the road. Here the driver side is done and part of the pass side is tacked in.

now came time for the glass sides.


well after that was done my attention went to the roof, which any centurion owner will tell you is fubar. Cent packed about 1/2"+ of bondo on there welded roofs and over time it cracks. Also removed the visor that was eating away at my roof and an unwanted cb anntena.

Never liked automatic transmissions allthough mine had a wicked shift kit in it. Found me a craigslist zf and went to work. Fully cleaned and painted it.

Since the shifter i got was busted i made my own.


Next i did a maf conversion. Never liked the truck intakes so i used one from a stang ported for an exploder 5.0 tb. Used 24lb injectors/maf and made my own intake/ intake mount.

Next area on the chopping block was the front suspension. The cent came with a stiff skyjacker 4" kit, but that would not do. I picked up a set of old style rancho extended radius arms cheap and went to town plating them. used 1/4 plate because the local metal shop was out of 3/16". overkill? we'll see.




Picked up a lightly used set of deaver 5.5" coils and had solo motorsports build me some cut and turn beams. Have yet to put the beams on yet because i'd like to plate?brace them. but here it is with the coils and arms on.


So little clearance had me worried about the heater on the oposite side. Gunna fold over the body seam to gain a hair more.

To "fix" any posible clearance problems with the heater box i used yogib's idea and went with a ranger heater box(84-92).

Here is a shot i took of it last winter and it stands fairly the same today.

Upcoming plans are to finish the body work and add some paint. Finish up the c&t beams and get them in. Then focus on getting the interior back together.
 
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#6 ·
Thanks for the compliments, shes my pride and joy.
Those are procomp 1079's in a 17x9, im wanting to get the optional trim ring for them. Found them for $71 each free s&h.
Not alot done to the engine used the 24lbs because i had a pro M maf meter laying around for years calibrated for 24'sand got the 24's for $50. I know its "fooling the computer" but seams to be working well. Have a A3M1 im gunna swap in shortly, it has better fuel curves then the truck comp and has better support for a moates tuner.
 
#8 ·
#12 ·
Not to sound like a COMPLETE idiot. But i was under the impression that since the centurion was based on a 4 door F350 that they came with one tons? Or at least 3/4 ton running gear. Just curious, I saw the first one in person last year. The coolest broncos ford never made:thumbup
 
#13 ·
Not to sound like a COMPLETE idiot. But i was under the impression that since the centurion was based on a 4 door F350 that they came with 8 lug one tons? Or at least 3/4 ton running gear. Just curious, I saw the first one in person last year. The coolest broncos ford never made:thumbup
they all were not based on the F350

for more info check out

http://www.fourdoorbronco.com/
 
#16 ·
The first Centurion I saw was a 95 built on a F350 platform that looked SWEET and was for sale. WAAAAY out of my price range at the time. By the time I could afford one I couldn't find one so I ended up with my 01 Excursion instead. All the benefits of the Centurion just without the removable rear roof. It also helped justify my 78 Bronco project. Keep up the great work and keep the pics flowing.
 
#17 · (Edited by Moderator)
well got alittle more done in the last week. started the brace for the c&t beams, here it is with the cardboard templetes.

here it is with them fabbed and tacked into place. my welder crapped out on me so its time for a new one,:banghead

so that put my attention twards lighting up my world. got three 6" harbor freight lights. moved the wire outlet since it hit the grill on two of them. welded the old hole shut, then preped and painted them with high temp black. Upgraded to thicker wireing and threw in some 100w bulbs since i couldnt find 120w at the zone. still have to put in my relay and such.

Thanks for the complaments, ill see you all or ya'll later.
 
#19 ·
I didnt want any visable fasteners, I also didnt like the idea of people tampering with it and or stealing them. Theres realy no reason for them to come off anymore. They are also blended into the piller so its looks like they belong, instead of a 1/4" edge. At first i was going to use a heim but decided against it for two reasons. 1 its will be driven on the street so i wanted a smoother ride. 2 makes replacements bushings or mounts easier to obtain. Better make that 3 im sure the ra bushings will outlive a heim. The ones that came off prob had 200k on them.
 
#20 · (Edited by Moderator)
well got some 1-1/2"wheel spacers in the mail from mike at southwest and went to town. Painted my brake calipers/ rotor hats and hubs with a quick spray bomb. installed the spacers and injoyed that my tires will never rub again. most likely gained some wheel travel too, minimal but every little bit counts.

 
#21 · (Edited by Moderator)
well yesterday and today I tackled a tie rod flip. replaced the drop pitmna arm with a stocker and replaced the two driver side tie rods. they werent bad but i didnt like the looks of them. would like to give a speical thanks to REDWAGON for lending me his reamer. after all is said and done the stearing linkage is nice and flat and im happy with the results. and after 6 years my stearing wheel is finaly strait.

 
#22 · (Edited by Moderator)
well yesterday I got my white face guages in the mail that i bought off of Landtortise89. so today i had something to do. here they are installed without the needles in place. i desided to change the needle color since white on white would be hard to see. so i went with red thanks to my girls nail polish collection.

And here they are lit up.

only complaint i have with them is the writing over the factory stuff like battery, check engine, etc. doesnt line up. but i can deal with it. I'll prob post some more tommorow because im expecting yet anouther delivery of goodies.
 
#23 · (Edited by Moderator)
Got my delivery yesterday and went to work. Imo i think it looks bad ass! what do you think?
before-

and after-


I love the low and wide stance, its only a 5" lift give or take. well im off to the bone yard to rape an f150 of its lift leafs, later.
 
#25 ·
It does look mad, lol. Theres alot of room under there when i redid the wheel wells. I can easily fit under there and work if i had to. And right now nice kings or saws are long way down the road. So it cheap Part store shocks for now. But for the most part i did it for asstetics no visible fasteners to stand out. Also why i pick mcneil for quarters, they have a full quarter that doesnt end before the tail lights. Once this things painted youll never know they were added.
 
#27 ·
I got them on ebay. It was a 6 peice tinted set for $95 to my door. Quality is good, not great. I had to flaten out some flashing on the backside of the corner markers to get them to lay right. And had to remove some more to get the headlight bulbs in. Came with new adjusters to so that was a plus. Im happy with them so far we'll see how they hold up.
 
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