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Rept's Super Slow Re-Re-Rebuild (88)

85K views 609 replies 54 participants last post by  OX1 
#1 ·
Ok peeps, here we go again :duh

So after years of wheeling and not caring, ive pretty well thrashed the body on my bronco.




The whole cab is twisted so the full doors don't come even close to closing so we have to use the half doors any time we take the truck out, and then tarp it up so it doesn't get wet inside n the rain/snow.
So after going back and forth, we decided to go back to a bronco body on this thing. The cab/bed was cool and all, but it dosent really have much room for carrying much gear, and not being able to drive it on the road sucks. So I stared looking for a bronco project. I wanted to stay true to the trucks roots (I have owned it 16 years afterall) which meant the body has to be an 87-91. I wanted to find something clean because im not a sheetmetal guy, and the condition of the drivetrain was completely irrelevant because im just going to drop the body on my frame when im done.

So I snooped around CL for quite some time. Seen trucks come and go, but nothing really jumped out at me. Then one day I spotted a lift 4-door bronco on CL up in the Poconos. Only two pics of the exterior, but it looked like a decent buy for the price, so I made the trip. On an impulse i decided to go up there and see if it would be a decent beater to cruise around in. Unfortunately it was a bit rough around the edges, more-so than I would've liked for a street cruiser so I decded to pass on it. But while BSing with the guy, he told me about this bronco he had planned to restore, but it never really happened. So we go over to take a look at it, and its perfect. its a '90 in decent shape with no motor or trans. The perfect donor vehicle! So we struck up a deal, and I brought it home :thumbup


So here she is, in all her glory.




It was a parked in stones under a tree for 10 years, so while being absolutely covered in moss, appeared to be in decent shape!

He had put a body lift in it (homemade, about 2"), and he built his own shackle flip for the rear with some extra leafs stuffed in there for some more lift. And there it sat, never got around to lifting the front, or doing anything else to it.
 
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#61 ·
Yeah times flies, its hard to believe hes already 6 months old now. Mom says he's just like his dad- a ball of fire who cant sit still for more than 5 minutes :toothless


No real progress on the bronco. Weve been doing some work on my buddies XJ, along with some more work on his brewing stands, and now im working on the floor in the kitchen/foyer. Hopefully ill have a progress update to this thread before xmas.
 
#62 ·
Sub'd. :popc1:
 
#65 ·
WOW that york mount is awesome! I picked up a 210 in a junkyard the other day, mine is a bit easier since I can use the BroncoAir pulley, but I think I am going to make a mount bracket myself. very cool. :thumbup
 
#66 ·
Thanks guys :thumbup

The broncoair stuff is nice; ran it on my 351 and it worked great. While it would fit on this motor, theres no room for the York with the wider 460. Hopefully this bracket works out, time will tell.



Well i promised an update around Xmas, so here it is:

First things first: Reinstalled the brake booster/master on firewall and then removed the steering column in trade for my original column. I also managed to find an 87-91 wheel w/o the cruise buttons which will be going on at a later date



So, then this happened:

Front clip + 42s back on!!!


Truck is so big, the garage door wouldnt open if the hard top was on :toothless



The front clip was inevitable. I needed the 42s on though. Since i want it to be a bit more streetable, last year i bought a set of Bushwacker cut-out flares. But, i dont like the look of the 87-96 flares, so i bought 80-86 instead. Since they technically dont fit, i couldnt follow the directions to install them. So instead i needed the tires on the bronco so i could figure out where the flares actually need to go. So, here we go!


I started at the rear left, because gas filler door.
Cardboard mockup of sheetmetal to be removed:


some rust thats gonna have to go:


Bam! Flare mocked up!


Its impossible to get good pics with this side against the wall.
I have the filler door cut and sitting on my work bench, need to get that reinstalled.


Passenger side installed!


Looks good, i really like the shape of these flares


They just barely cover the tires


With the rear done, i can move on to the front:


This shows the absolute minimal amount of sheetmetal you can remove to install the flares. Its mostly in the corners






Flare mocked up


The corner will get cut off, but not till way later down the road, when i get around to building a front bumper




The money shot: This shows how much more material i can remove w/o impacting the install of the flare. More on this later.


Driver-side cut


Rust: repaired :toothless




So, here's the plan. Once all 4 flares are 'installed', ill then remove them. Plan is to install riv-nuts in the fenders, and use machine screws to hold them in place. I want to be able to easily remove them when i go wheeling. Theyre too expensive to smash on a tree!

So, back to these two pics:

This actually looks like a pretty good amount of room for the 42s. Most of the clearance issues i ever had were at the corners anyway, not at the top.


However, as you can see from this pic, theres lot of more sheet metal i can remove, and still be able to reinstall the flare:


So the plan now is to open the wheel wells up a tad bit more, install riv-nuts and then weld them back together again. My goal is to have a nice open wheel well for wheeling, and then install the flares over top of them for when im not offroad. But before i can cut the wheel wells any further, i need to reinstall the fender liners, and see what i can get away with. Thats why im doing the front first; once i get a final shape to the fronts ill remove the rear flares and do the same. Then the flares can go back in their boxes, and the 42s can come back off, until way later down the road.
 
#69 ·
Progress!

I was trying to install the fender liners to see how i want to finish the cut on the fenders. But, the core support was repaired by the previous owner, and i wasnt thrilled with the job he did, so i said screw it and ordered a new one from LMC. So that delayed me a bit.

Ginormous box!







Old core removed...


...and new one installed!


Modifying the core body mount brackets for tire clearance







While i was waiting for the core support to come, i started on the floorpan repairs

This is the worst spot ont he whole body, already cut out.


This is the next worst spot. Once these two are done, itll just be minor repairs.




Here i have to pause; ive got t-case issues in the 96 that ive got to deal with.
 
#70 ·
SO i pulled the front clip back off. The first cut to the fenders that i made, was the bare minimum to fit the cutoff flares. Now the plan is to remove two more inches, which is about as much as i can remove, and still be able to reinstall the original fender liners. So here we go!

Line drawn, and a whole ton of tabs cut


The process of bending them over begins




All tabs bent, heres roughly what the fender will look like when the flare is removed


after a whole sh*tload of welding & grinding, both fender panels are now rewelded


This shows you how much more material is removed.


Made a template of the new wheel arch, and transferred it to the other side


A ton more cutting, bending and welding!




Finally got some primer on them the other day.


If all goes well ill be able to get the front clip reinstalled sunday, and i can then begin working on the fender liners. Theyre gonna need to be trimmed up a bit now that the wheel well is bigger. I also need to install rivnuts for the flares. Hopefully i can get both done by the end of next week, we'll see!
 
#71 ·
Tragedy!

I was moving the front clip, and bumped into one of my shocks. It fell over and this happened

:doh0715: Guess ive got no excuse now, were upgrading the shocks.

Front clip reinstalled! Wheel well is pretty big now.


I installed the fender liner (Yes its actually bolted into place in this pic). Its gonna need some work if im gonna reuse it!


Also got my riv-nut tool, so i can start installing the nuts for the flares :cool:


Im gonna start working on the fender liners next i think. Gotta get a game plan going. Currently thinking im gonna roll the seams on the firewall, then trim up the fender liner, and maybe make a piece that will seal the back to he firewall. Dunno yet. Long term use proved the tubbed wheel wells i did last time were a nightmare for shedding heat, so this time i want to make sure i leave as much open space under the hood as i possibly can.
 
#72 ·
So i had some time to play with my rivnut tool. Its actually really easy to use, so ive got about half the rivnuts for the passenger flare installed


Still need to order the final hardware; theyll be 8-32, and i want to use stainless button head screws mainly cuz i think theyll look cool when installed :toothless

I installed the OEM battery tray, it just fits


Same as the bracket for the airbox


So it looks like ive removed as much as you possibly can, to still reuse these brackets :toothless
So the plan is to get some 1x1/8" flat stock and build some brackets to attach sheet metal (or maybe even sheet plastic) to to build inner fenders. But first, i have to finish this:



Started cutting down a ginormous chokecherry tree because its a messy tree thats mostly hollow from years of carpenter ant abuse, and its also where i want to put a shed this summer. So once i get this thing all cut up and the stump ground down ill jump back on the bronco. So many projects, so little time.
 
#73 ·
Digging the work you did on the fenders..s**t ton of work, but they look great.it's giving me some ideas..I'm realizing there's no way around the fact that I'm going to have to pull the fenders and cut a fold mine they just look sloppy the way they are..
 
#74 ·
Ugh its so much work :toothless Im gonna guess ive got 12 hours into the cut & reweld, which actually isnt that bad i dont think.
I used a square and sharpie to draw a rough cut line, and then the fastest way to cut the tabs was actually a grinder since it wont dig in like a sawzall does. Hammer & pliers to bend em all over, and lots of on-the-fly- cutting and grinding to get the tabs right for welding. The Mig makes short work of the job; last time i did this i did it all with my stick welder with 1/16 rod. So much slag to chip!

The fenders will need some cleanup & bondo work prior to paint, but all said and done, i think they came out pretty decent for a 'wheeler.
 
#76 ·
Yeah they're pretty neat. You can get pretty much any size/thread you want, and pretty easy to install.

Last time I ended up adding a whole bunch of holes to the fender liners right in line with the headers to help evacuate heat, I will probably do the same again.
 
#77 ·
I have been planning to use the same nut-serts to install my LUND visor. Since you've just used 'em... how do you think they'll do for the job. I really liked the idea that I could remove and re-install the visor easily if needed for a cracked windshield swap, without causing potential leaks like sheet metal screws or regular rivets would/could.
 
#78 ·
Ive been playing around with em, set a few into a piece of scrap sheet just to see how they work. Drilling the correct hole size is crucial to them holding. But once theyre crimped, there is no chance of ever pulling it through the hole. You can get them in both AL & steel. The AL ones are very easy to crimp, easier than using a pop rivet gun, altho you have to be careful because you can actually rip the threads out of them with the tool while crimping it. The steel ones are harder to crimp of course, but once done, its there forever. The 8-32 riv-nuts im using have ~ 1/4" of thread, so theyll hold far better than i need for a set of fender flares.



This is the crimper i bought:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003TODXQW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Comes with a bunch of dies & riv-nits, but not 8-32; that i bought separate (also from amazon)

Attached is a pic of the backside of one of the 8-32 nuts crimped. Looks good once done. When youre using them, youd think you were threading a screw into a tapped hole not an insert. I love em, im gonna end up using these things everywhere :toothless
 

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#80 ·
well thanks for the feedback. I bought the exact same kit back when I still had the '90 based on a recommendation from @schwim but the LUND visor I picked up turned out to be cracked up pretty badly and when I tried to fiberglass in the cracks, the fiberglass mix I used didn't bond worth a damn, so I never tried to mount it. good to know they're working out so well. I've also been considering using them to mount my "oh sh!t" handles for the little lady. glad to hear the setup was a solid investment. :thumbup sorry for the hijack. :toothless
 
#82 ·
Its been a while, so i thought id update.

Progress is slow.

I put the hood back on, and roughly aligned the front clip, so i could start on the fender liners. Needed to make sure everything was straight before i started cutting into stuff!

I abandoned reusing the original fender liners, as they would require too much work, and put the homebrew sheetmetal brake to work.

Youll note the wheel well is open pretty much right to the battery tray. So the tray will end up being part of the new fender liner.


First thing i did was to make this piece. It bolts to the battery tray, and the firewall. The oddly shaped cutouts are to clear the shock & coil towers.


Next up is this piece. This keys into the battery tray as well.


Here's the rough idea:




I whipped up a third piece, that boxes in the heater box.


That gets us to here. Still a lot of gaps to close, but progress is progress.


Pulled it all out, and started tacking it together




...And where im at today.


This has been a constant evolution. Every time i pull the panels out i make subtle changes to get them to fit better, and there are more changes coming yet. I need to fill in a lot more gaps, and im hoping that when done i wont need that 1x1/8" brace because its a PITA to install. Currently i think ive got 7 more pieces i need to make, to close it all in.

I bought a ton of stainless hardware from Bolt Depot, some of which im using now, and the rest of the hardware is just temp stuff to hold it all together. But the goal is to have one big removable panel, for easy access into the engine bay. Hopefully i can get it to work :toothless
 
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