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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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#231 ·
Cool cool. It is a good feeling to drive it on the street and see people react. I did that this summer in Wildwood NJ while blasting 90s metallica among a sea of brotrucks at a truck show. Representing the old school. Probably should start a thread on it....
 
#233 ·
He's still around, i talked to him about a month ago. I guess no one else is nuts enough to go wheelin with him, so he's impatiently waiting on me :p
He's been doing other things, like car builds & cruise nights with his dad. Considering Ox is old as dirt, you can only imagine how old his dad must be :ROFLMAO:
 
#234 ·
ok, progress update!


out of the tent she comes!


A coworker came by, and helped me install the hard top, and then install/align the tailgate.
Unfortunately i forgot to get a pic of it with the top on out in the sun, so this will have to suffice:


So she's officially back in the garage for winter, and just in time, too! Yesterday it was 56º and sunny, today its raining and 29º. Its about to get cold and snowy, so i got it back in the garage just in time!


Also, i couldnt help myself, so i installed the new headlight/turn signal housings. Shes looking goooood :cool:
 
#236 ·
Do those car dollies work good on the brakes like that? I think it would but was just curious as its a good idea.
Not asking if they damage the rotors, as I do not think that is a real issue here. Asking as in terms of stability when moving truck around and such...
 
#237 ·
Yes and no. They have been working, except the front is too heavy so theyve bowed, which puts the castors at a weird angle so they dont roll too good anymore. One day ill straighten them and add a spine on the bottom so hopefully they dont do it again. The back, i can push it around by myself pretty easily.

Yeah its pretty stable; its been on them basically the entire time the truck has been apart (3 years now!) and you would think the truck is on stands, it doesnt move at all. Its kind of a necessity for me; its the only way to get the truck low enough to get it thru the garage door. 16" wheels with no tires on them might work but would damage the driveway so this was really my only option.
 
#238 ·
Pretty cool idea, could have used that 10 years ago. Is looking great.
What is the plan with the back seat and main hoop cross braces, or
are you just not going to do them?
 
#239 ·
Thinking of removable, using something like this:


Keep it out most of the time, put it in before a wheelin trip. Thats why the seats are back in; im brainstorming a cage while i remodel the 1st floor bathroom (starting that project tomorrow).

I like S&Ws cage, not just cuz it goes thru the dash, but they also do a heavier wall 1.625" bar which would fit in the interior better. Also, theyre only like 30 minutes away so i might bring it to them for the main hoops and do the cross bars & frame tie-ins myself.
 
#240 ·
Thinking of removable, using something like this:


Keep it out most of the time, put it in before a wheelin trip. Thats why the seats are back in; im brainstorming a cage while i remodel the 1st floor bathroom (starting that project tomorrow).

I like S&Ws cage, not just cuz it goes thru the dash, but they also do a heavier wall 1.625" bar which would fit in the interior better. Also, theyre only like 30 minutes away so i might bring it to them for the main hoops and do the cross bars & frame tie-ins myself.
Oh yeah, forgot about those, even though that's what I used on the windshield center bar. :)
Pretty cool that they stayed aligned, even though I trashed one half of the top (and they held up,
so pre-tested for ya............)
 
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#241 ·
Thats good to know!
I was thinking of bolting the cage to the floor, then doing poly mounts underneath to frame tie-ins, and then build sliders at the same time. But, before i do any of that i need to finish remodeling the first floor bathroom. So theres time to figure it all out. For now itll just be little updates, nothing major.
 
#242 · (Edited)
Ok here we go again.

So while rewiring my tailgate, i used a harness from a 90+ bronco so i could upgrade my reverse lights from 1156 to 3156. I also found, completely by accident, that CA Autoparts makes LED taillights for our trucks! Theres 8 versions, i bought one of the smoked variants:



They look pretty good IMO, and the fit & finish is really nice. Definitely seems like a quality part.






installed





And in keeping with my black/gray theme, black fender badges:


 
#243 ·
Bonus update!

Got my 16.5s back from powdercoat.

We did satin black for the drums, and i found a PC color for the ring that matches the bronco's paint almost perfectly:




New inserts from Stazworks:




So......you know i had to mount two of them up ;)





they make 35s look like 235s :LOL:









So....you all know where this is headed.......


















:eek: :cool:

The other two 44s are buried in the corner of the garage, wont be able to get them out till sometime next week. Ill get em mounted up, but i honestly dont think theres enough room to put them on, w/o the roof hitting the rails for the garage door. Probably not going to put them on. Gotta take the front off so i can get back to work under the hood, i just couldnt pass up on the opportunity to check out how it looks!
 
#248 ·
Thanks guys (y)
Weve still got a long way to go, but once in a while its awesome to get a glimpse of the end goal, kinda makes it all worthwhile!
My goal is to have it at the East Coast Bronco RoundUp next year :cool:




I hear ya on the tubing, i debated not doing it but its a necessity to keep the front end from getting all smashed up in our tight trails. It looked huge, right up until i put the 44s on, now it looks tiny! It does look better in person than the pics i think. Probably building an 80s style brush guard off the top of the bumper wouldve looked better for the square nose, but im still happy with how it came out :)
 
#252 ·
I've been busy prepping for winter. Had to clean out the corner of the garage to swap the lawn mower for the snow blower, and swap the lawn tractor's deck out for the snow plow (the 44s were in the way of all this). Today I'll be cleaning up the garage, then I gotta get the plow on and get the snow blower running. Looks like the Mid West is gonna get hammered with snow any day now, which means I'll be here soon too!

Updates are gonna slow down again; now that I'm unofficially ready for winter, my top priority is remodeling the first floor bathroom, which I'm probably gonna start on next week.
 
#256 ·
I know all about impulse buys. Ive got (2) 40" super swampers with like new tread I had to buy just because they were $100 each. Hopefully my shed has been making good use of em lol
 
#257 ·
Yeah these wheels (the 16.5s) have been floating around my basement for maybe 7 years now, so i kinda jumped on the 44s cuz they were cheap and big. Honestly, id probably trade them away for 42s if i could find someone with a good set to fit my wheels as theyd fit the truck much better.
 
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