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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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#115 ·
3/8" gussets for the receiver:


1/4" gussets for the bumper brackets. Probably unnecessary but cant hurt:


...and she's done! :imp








The fender will require some slight trimming for clearance to bumper:


Fitment w/ flare (flare will get trimmed later down the road):


So now that this is done, im gonna take the rest of the week off to get some stuff done around here plus do some cleaning in the garage (its a mess in there after building this thing!), and then next week ill start brainstorming the front bumper :cool:
 
#117 ·
Thanks :thumbup

We coudlve been twins! :toothless


It was close, anyway. Im sorry to say though, she wont be staying blue/white. Single color, something in the vein of Magnetic. Im really hoping to get it painted this summer, but time will tell.
 
#118 ·
Ok, finally, an update!

It took me a little while to decide how i wanted to build the front bumper, then sourcing the material. Since i had to actually buy new steel to build it (i usually buy all my steel from the local scrap steel yard), i decided to have them do a little work for me before i picked it up. Took a little bit of time, but i got a lot of work done on other projects around the house so no big deal.

So anyways, i picked this up about a week ago:



8' of 1/4" plate all bent up :imp Its a 5" leg and an 8" leg, with a 1-3/8" section in the middle. Should be just enough to build what im planning.

Chopped off a piece 43" long:


The 8" leg might seem a bit tall, but as you can see here, its necessary to hide that massive winch:




Because this winch is from a Powerwagon, its got an unusual handle:




My current plan is to modify it to swing over the bumper so i dont have to cut a notch in it, but that wont happen for a little while yet.

Other items of note:
#1, the fairlead on this winch goes on the top of the drum instead of the bottom.
#2, LED light bar!
 
#119 ·
Mocked up a bumper bracket in cardboard:


Plan is to have a shackle mount part of the bracket and pass thru the front plate, like i did on the rear


Final design:


drawn:


cut


...and duplicated! Built them out of 3/8" plate like i did for the rear, which is pretty time consuming!


Welding them to the center plate


Laying out for bumper bolts. Im reusing 3 holes in the frame, plus adding two more




Drilling 1/2" holes in 3/8" plate kind of sucks :toothless


Which gets us to yesterday. Shes officially bolted on!


I can already tell. This thing is gonna be heavy :toothless

Tomorrow im going to start laminating the shackle tabs, to get that done and over with before the bumper gets too heavy to easily move around. Once thats done ill start working on the corners :cool:
 
#122 ·
Thanks guys :thumbup

Considering its a brick nose, i feel like it needs this beefy bulky bumper up front, as opposed to tubing. I think it fits the body lines better. So i guess thats what im building :toothless


So Friday i got a little bit of work done. Made all 4 tabs to laminate the shackle mounts.


I need to pilot them, and then they can be welded up like i did the rears; hopefully Monday. Apparently a month or so ago i forgot to turn the gas bottle off on the mig, so i gotta go get gas tomorrow morning first :doh:

Heres a teaser for the corner:
There will be two more pieces to wrap around the corner , and i think im going to change the shape of this one a bit, as im afraid its going to end up too wide. It does give you a good idea of the look im going for though!


 
#123 ·
I agree, it will be too bulky. I did a taper on mine and then radiused it to follow the wheel opening. Not trying to hijack your thread, just giving you some options.









 
#124 ·
The shape im going for is similar to yours. Ill be adding the angled bottom piece which will taper up into the corners, and will probably cap the ends similarly as well:




Im looking at two additional angled pieces to make that corner (its not going to be rounded like the cardboard appears), altho once i cut that piece friday, it looked a lot bigger in steel than cardboard. Ill probably make them, and then if it looks too big i can always trim them down a bit. 8' is barely enough to make the bumper, so i cant waste any material or ill have to go back to the steel supplier and order more.


Keep im mind, i will be adding a tubular brush guard on top to protect the grill/lightbar.
 
#125 ·
Man, the flu! We both got sick last weekend :zombie:
Thankfully the little guy did not get it.


So really only got the shackle tabs done, nothing else









Both are done now, so ill start working on the corners again on Monday. I do think it needs to be narrowed a bit, i guess we'll find out soon enough!
 
#132 ·
Looks good; I like the cardboard mock up but think the angle should be a little tighter. (raked more towards the back) Either way, it's coming out awesome!

Maybe something more like this?


 
#138 ·
So i tinkered a bit, this is what i came up with. Its very similar to what i had originally, just some minor changes to the corner to tighten it up a bit:

4" across the bottom, the angled pieces taper up to 3"


...and from there tapers again...

...until the corner, which ends at 1".


Pretty tight to the body


The end is capped, and i added a bent piece in the bottom to add rigidity to the corner.


Im pretty happy with this, i think its going to work out well. Now i need to duplicate it on the other side!

I still need to add gussets from the bumper brackets, add a tubular brush guard, mount the light bar, cut the opening for the winch fairlead, and then do an absolute ton of welding!
 
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