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'79 Bronco with SHTF Plans

62K views 298 replies 43 participants last post by  BikerPepe` 
#1 ·
I finally found my first Bronco. Its '79 that was mis-listed on craigslist as an '84. The owner asked to make an offer after I saw it. So I made an appointment to take a look at it on Saturday but I was pretty sure I was going to do what I had to snag it.

Backstory was that he just wanted it off his property. He has owned his land in Lakeside, CA for 30 years. Had a tenant who rented a part of his house for a few years who had to split town in a hurry and said to keep the Bronco. That was 6 years ago according to him; judging by the '06 registration on the plates, it could be 10 years. He just wanted it gone and said that a little more than his cost to get a lien title on it and it was mine.

Now, its rough. But not, kind of. It has no doors and no top. Needs glass for the back window. Its been sitting outside for those 6 years in the elements and ran when parked. But I see potential. Short term plans are to get it transferred into my name, winch it out and onto a trailer, then drive it up to a friend's house who has many acres to put it. I will pay him and his landlord $30 a month until I get my BMW project driving, reliable and the 4Runner sold. This may take several months. Then I can get it running and over to my house where I can get to wrenching on it.

Plans are:
  • Flat desert tan paint job
  • New-to-me top
  • New-to-me doors and glass
  • 6BT or 4BT paired with a zf5
  • Wheel

Think I did pretty good for $300?















Gonna need floorboards. Not too worried about that.






















Many layers of paint on this thing.


















 
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#6 ·
Appears to have been quite a looker back in it's hay day. All that chrome and dress up on the motor. It has some old school gumbo mudders and an odd looking set of drop brackets for the RA's. Whats up with the buttons over there by the glove box?

How about that Willy's parked beside it?
 
#11 ·
Yeah that Willys is for sale too. Not sure how much he wants for it. I'll ask and get a price.

I do think that it was a good looking truck. It was definitely set up to play though. I know so little about it unfortunately, I wish I could tell you about the buttons at the glove box or anything about the weird drop brackets too.
 
#7 ·
Looks pretty damn good! How do the fenders look underneath the fender flares?
 
#20 ·
And believe it or not, I secured that $200 '78. I will get down there and look at it and see if it is in better shape than the '79. The '78 looks to have a lot of body filler on it where the '79 doesn't. Oh and the '78 won't have a motor in it either.

Preliminary parts I am going to pull are:
  • Complete Doors
  • Hardtop
  • Tailgate with glass
  • Dash (nicer shape than mine)
  • Looks to be a lot nicer seat
  • Wheels and tires
  • Chrome trim around windows
  • C6
  • Transfer case

Now, the wife doesn't know about the second Bronco. Gonna have to keep that on the down low until it shows up in the driveway.
 
#25 ·
Ok, to set expectations for everyone on a time line:
  • '79 Owner is going to file lien sale on Saturday (that takes 30 days) so that means the earliest I could take posession of it is 09/17/16
  • I was planning on picking up the '78 this Friday but the motor is not pulled yet
  • I plan on picking up the '78 in two weekends 09/03/16
  • In the mean time, I need to get a set of crappy ass wheels and tires that hold air because between the two of them, only 3 tires hold air. Haha!

The delay works great for me because that gives me some time to get my BMW motor in. I am very close to that being drivable. Really, just figure out some power steering stuff and pray it goes in the first time. New exhaust bolts and then get a flowmaster or something for the exhaust.
 
#27 ·
Haha true. I do feel good about it.

One thing that's for sure is that there is no way I am going to be able to smog this biatch. LOL! Long tube headers, aftermarket Holley on it. Probably deleted everything under the hood. No catalytic converter either. So this thing is going to go straight to diesel before its on the road. I really hope my friend's friend at the DMV pulls through for me!
 
#30 ·
Even having to wait a month you scored a sweet deal on the 79. The 78 sounds like another deal. The 78 I bought for $200 had been stripped by two guys before I got to it but I still got enough parts from it to get my money worth. I say pull what you want, what you think you need, and then put it back on Craigslist for $200 and get your money back out of it. That should help with the money for building the 79. Looking forward to your updates.
 
#31 ·
You got the right idea. That's what I plan on doing.

I picked up the parts truck on Saturday. The exterior is rough. The doors aren't great and the top is pretty weathered. But I am still way ahead! The interior (no pics yet) is in great shape. It has 30" tires on it. Hahahahaha!



And its home for the time being.






FYI, the BMW is running down the road. I still have some work to do on it, but damn, its fast. This truck will sit for the next few weeks and I will update this thread when I get moving on pulling parts off.
 
#32 ·
damn, looks like a nice score

the body doesn't look all rusted to hell, looks amazingly solid
around me, a 5 yr old truck has gaping rust holes so a 38 yr old one is all but returned to earth
need some more pics!
your parts truck looks a million times more solid than my driver !
 
#33 ·
It was a nice score. I still did good even after tonight's bonehead move of closing the tailgate with the glass out. :smilie_slap

Anywho, my 540i is running and driving pretty well so far. I am chasing down one oil leak, need to do suspension and focus on cosmetics next. But, the fact that it is running means that I can begin to pull parts off the 78. All I did this evening is clean the truck out some, confirm that the tailgate regulator and window glass go up and down with 12v (18v from my drill battery) and then proceed to break the glass. Fuuuu!!! :doh0715:

But, here are some pics.

Driver's door panel (ok shape).


Unknown bench seat


Rear bench seat


Shot to the rear of the bottom of the top


Tailgate glass went down after I pulled the panel and put 18v to it




Some UNLV chick's clothes and books were in the back


All emptied out


Shot of the condition of the top. Its fair, needs some love but will work for my purposes.


And the fail of the evening.


At least I will have the lock mechanism and regulator to harvest. I will pull the whole tailgate though in case the 79 has tons of rust in it. This one doesn't at all it seems.

:banghead
 
#35 ·
Started to get stuff pulled off the parts truck. Turns out it is a 79, not a 78.











And while working on cleaning up the truck I made a discovery under the bench seat.


:rofl:

I still have to pull the C6 and NP205 along with the ignition lock cylinder. Then I can get it rolled on out of here. I want to keep the wheels and tires so I guess I will have to see how the junk yard will take it.
 
#37 ·
Man, that body looks awfully nice to send to the scrapyard. Perhaps you could put it up for cheap on the local Craigslist and you get it out of your driveway while someone gets what looks like a pretty decent tub and front clip.
 
#42 ·
Current owner of the truck texted me to let me know that the paperwork is done and it can be sold to me. So I have to hurry to get rid of the parts truck. Plan is to get it on Saturday afternoon.

EDIT a day later: Plan is to get it on Saturday between 3-4. I am going to need to get the old tires off and put the ones on my parts truck on it so it can roll. Oh, a can of RAID would be good too.

I have to bust my hump this week and get the C6 and the np205 out of the parts truck. No one wants it so far so its going to go to the scrapper. Sorry folks.
 
#43 ·
Alright. Two nights ago I wrestled with the np205 and got it out of the parts truck. Its heavy. But not that horrible. I would imagine installing it is worse. The worst part was the caked on desert that someone drove over and never washed. That junk was everywhere.



The gear oil looked pretty fresh. Glad to see that.


Here is the floor in the parts truck. Really clean. Too bad there is some cancer in the roofline.


Finally surrendered. It didn't come down on the jack that way. I dead lifted it on there.


I also threw the parts truck on craigslist for free and within a couple of hours got it committed to someone in Poway. He is going to get the C6 that's left in it and he is going to have to either get me some wheels and tires or he gets his own set. I pushed back picking up the other truck until next Saturday. It works out best for the both of us. I will take pictures of the process of me getting it out of it's current spot but trust me, its going to be a fiasco.
 
#44 ·
I also threw the parts truck on craigslist for free and within a couple of hours got it committed to someone in Poway. He is going to get the C6 that's left in it and he is going to have to either get me some wheels and tires or he gets his own set.
You, good sir, have earned a honking big gem in your crown of kickassedness.

Great job on the progress!
 
#48 ·
Got it. And it was a challenge.

Oh lord. Where do I start? From the top I suppose.

Day started out at 9am gathering the tools I would need to get the tires changed on the Bronco in order to get it to roll. Buddy Mike rolls on over about 9:15am and we head over to another friend's house to grab his 97 F-350 4X2 Powerstroke dually which should be more than capable of towing the Bronco out of its spot and up to Oceanside. By 9:30am we head out to U-Haul to rent a tow-dolly because there is no way we are getting a flat bed up the hill its located and make it around a tight corner to head back down after we are hooked up.

U-Haul thinks their tow-dolly is too small (and it would have been tight, very tight). So we head down the road to El Camino Rental where they have the rustiest piece of crap tow-dolly available. But its larger and wider and would make it much easier to load. The guy asks what we are towing and I tell him. He goes to his co-worker and says to make sure to get the longer of the two sets of tow straps to go over the tires because we are towing a Bronco. This is an important detail.

Rolling down the road about 10:30am, it takes us about 45 minutes to get to Lakeside and we arrive at 11:15am.

Even with the video below, its hard to tell how steep this incline is. Plus the asphalt must have been laid about 50 years ago so its slicker than snot.


As we arrived on scene.


First, its hot as crap at about 95. Its dry and we are working in the sun with no shade around. Turns out the old tires were actual 40" Gumbo Mudders that had gone completely flat. My 30" replacements look just silly but at least it rolls.

The next conundrum we have is that the F-350 is almost too wide to get into the entrance of the small pad that the Bronco is located. We manage to get it down though to drop the tow-dolly. The pad opens up a bit to allow other vehicles down the sides once past the entrance. We pull the F-350 up and out of there so Chuck (seller) can get his 76 CJ-7 with a Corvette 383 TPI motor in next to the Willys and Bronco. Why you may ask? Cause the slope of the pad rolls away from the tow-dolly. We had to use a snatch block to winch the Bronco on to the tow-dolly. This process took an hour or so because of various angle issues, the Bronco transfer case being in 4x4 so it was dragging the front end, soft ass dirt, the F-350 being a good dead-man but still getting tipped on three wheels after we hitched it up, etc. A Jeeping neighbor came up the hill to see what was cooking and helped us out. Very nice.

Its at this point that we realize the nuck fut at El Camino Rental totally screwed us. He went and got the smallest straps and we couldn't install the straps over our measly 30" tires and quickly had to improvise. :doh0715: We had to use the two they supplied us (which are the web design that go over the top of the tires) for one side and use the extra tow strap I brought to cinch down the other side. This was going to be a pain in our ass for the whole remainder of the trip.

We went up and finished up the paperwork and complete the sale. Then we head back down to where the action was to get the Bronco out of there after getting hitched up properly. Being there was soft dirt our F-350 being 4X2 and having street tires, we couldn't get it out of there. Chuck went and got his other truck to hook up to the F-350 that was attached to the tow-dolly which held the Bronco (now with transfer case in neutral) to give us a tug up until the F-350 could get some traction. That wasn't so difficult, just another thing to do.

Here it is gone with that nice long drag mark after we got it on the tow dolly. See the Jeep.


Three of the 40" mudders were loaded into the back of the Bronco and the remaining one loaded into the bed of the F-350. This is an important detail. So visually imagine the rear axle of the Bronco on the tow-dolly with three mud tires in the bed with the tail gate seemingly shut. Its a large angle that the nose of the Bronco is pointing down. Well, after we made one of the turns on the way down, the slope of the chip and tar road was so much that the angle of the Bronco's bed was flat if not pointing down some.

Mike and the F-350 began to slide down the long stretch down the hill, I am in the Bronco driving the front end down and standing on the brakes trying to slow things down even just a little. Chuck (standing on his property) and I had been screaming to Mike to get the F-350 to stop, but the rig just kept going. Finally the F-350 gets some traction and the mudders' weight was too much for the Bronco's tail gate and all three of the tires come out shooting off into three different directions. One follows the road all the way down to the bottom where a right turn is and stops there. Another falls out and just flops over the the side of the tow-rig (amen). The other careens off the side of the truck, down a hill, through trees, bush and other obstacles where it settles next to a fence about 150' down. Chuck and I get down to the bottom of the hill and struggle to get it up to the road where Chuck and get his truck and drive the wheel down to the F-350. Its hot, he is old and I have a sinus infection. It just sucked.

Mike took the F-350 and Bronco down the remaining part of the street where it flattens out and we decided to assess the situation. The tow strap situation was ugly and this was the first time we inspected them and they hadn't gone 1/4 of a mile down a hill without coming loose. One of the neighbors is down at the bottom of the hill where we pulled the tow-rig and really urged us to turn the Bronco around. So we did. But that required the neighbor to use his Jeep to pull us off the tow-dolly, up the street, unhook us, let us get about half way around via freewheeling, rehook up, drag the Bronco around, tow us back up the hill a bit to get a run at the tow-dolly. We did it. Got it loaded up properly and strapped down again.

After we got it oriented properly.


The whole time, we had been planning on running up to Alpine to look at a machine for my wife's business but it was 3:30pm and both Mike and I had had our asses kicked at this point. The wife basically conned me into going up there so off we head up to Alpine towing the Bronco. On the way, before the climb up to Alpine on the 8, we feel the transmission of the F-350 slipping a little bit (the thing leaks, everywhere). We pull over to check the tow-dolly and the transmission fluid (not even on the dipstick). We have to adjust the tow straps again, of course. And lo-and-behold, there's a Tractor Supply Company about 100 yards away. We drive up and park the rig so we can get some ATF. I wind up buying a 2 gallon jug of ATF and using half of it to get it on the dipstick. Oil was a bit low too so we topped that up. Secured and ready to roll, we steamed up to Alpine.

We pull over in Palo Verde Ranch to take a look at this machine, shoot the breeze a bit before we head back down the hill towards home (its about 6:30pm when we leave the guy's house). Of course, the tow straps couldn't handle the 10 mile drive so we readjusted them and cinched things up one more time at the guy's house. We decided to stop and get some fast food before heading down the hill. The straps are loose and I notice the back right tire on the Bronco is getting a little low. Mike tries to back up the whole rig a bit and it is abundantly clear that backing up this arrangement is a fool's errand. No matter. We roll out of the parking lot to a gas station where they have air. There is no way we are going into the parking lot so we pull up on the side of the street and the air line barely makes it. Its at this time we decide to go full aggro on the tow straps. We go over the axle instead in hopes they won't get loose anymore. This worked finally.

At the Alpine Carl's Jr. parking lot. First evidence that backing this sucker up was going to blow.


Same same. But different.


Right after we got the tow strap situation corrected and put air in the right rear tire.


Thinking that our troubles had left us behind for the duration, we set out down the 8 towards San Diego and the 15 north. Everything is going smoothly at this point. That is until we both notice smoke coming out of the back right tire of the Bronco. I had been here before and knew exactly what the problem was. Using the brakes to slow us down the hill at Chuck's house broke open the wheel cylinders' rubber and dumped brake fluid onto the shoes. They get soaked up with fluid and then begin to drag on the drum.

So there we are on the 15 at Miramar, we pull over and get to work on pulling the wheel off to gut the drum. Well, its 8:00pm at this point, dark and the drum is hotter than hell. We wait for it to cool down a bit, but decide to relieve ourselves of our finger tips (we wore gloves, but it didn't matter) and get after it. It took screw drivers and crowbars and about a half hour or so to get the drum off the seized up shoe. Finally it comes off and we put the drum back on without the brake gear in it and we are on our way back to Oceanside. We completely forgot to check the condition of the tow straps, but fortunately they were fine.

At 9:15 or so we show up at my house. I live on a hill and the only way to get the Bronco in my drive way is to back into it. Well, after more failed attempts at backing the Bronco in on the tow-dolly, I say screw it. We park up the hill and undo the tow straps and chains. I hop into the Bronco with three brakes, one e-brake, and rotors that have more rust than material on them and prayed for the best. The wife comes out and is paranoid about me driving the Bronco into the house so she gets as many large and heavy objects as she can and lines the front of the garage with them in hopes of slowing me down when I try to freewheel it into the driveway.

Fortunately, Mike was able to rock the Bronco off the tow-dolly and I set off down the hill. I made it, it was about 70% of the position I wanted it in. We unhitched the tow-dolly and Mike pushed the Bronco up the rest of the way to the spot it currently sits.

In the driveway, finally.
[

My buddy Mike next to the bastard that beat on us all day.


And we found this little jerk in the gas tank filler. Just mocking us.


Needless to say, it was about 10pm by the time we were done dicking around with this fiasco.

At any rate: :whiteflag
 
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