[AbandonedBronco]

It was another two months before he could get back to it, but it was finally getting primed:

Primer on and getting buffed and sanded

And finally some paint!

 

[AbandonedBronco]

And getting put back together:

And finally, with my patience running VERY thin, I get to pick it up.

And back home where it belongs, next to my other toy.

 

[AbandonedBronco]

So, now I have a Bronco with a MUCH more expensive paintjob than I had ever planned on putting on it, but it sure does look amazing! I get lots of compliments, waves, and thumbs ups, which is a lot of fun. I'll just have to be a lot more careful when I'm out camping.

I've also decided to embrace it, and clean the rest of it up.
The front end got all new chrome. The only thing that's still not installed is the top center strip. It's been backordered for months.
They also no longer make the 80 - 81 grill (without the Ford oval) in chrome. So it might be something I have to have a shop do some day.

It might not look like much until you compare the old with the new:

I also replaced the taillights with fresh lenses, which made a huge difference!

While I was out looking for another part, I found this perfectly straight bumper in the junk yard, to replace my ripped and twisted one:

For $50 and a little elbow grease it cleaned up beautifully!

Looking pretty sharp!

 

[SRWillis]

It's a shame all the shoddy work that gets done out there. Looks amazing now though!

A Buckin' Bronco and a Mustang, that's a great pair!

 

[AbandonedBronco]

It really is! Especially when it's work that you can't see, because it's underneath the paint.

They're definitely a fun pair! I have all my needs filled except gas mileage.

 

[robbz28]

Looks awesome, I can’t wait to get mine in paint/body. Does your body guy have a solution for the transition stripe between the two tone? I have searched high and low and can’t find any original color tape and to recreate it with 3M striping is crazy expensive.
Or are you just not worried about that lol. It looks good as it is.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[AbandonedBronco]

I really wanted the two-tone pin striping!
He researched it and said that 3M discontinued the one that matches my paint scheme, so getting it is difficult.

His idea was to pay someone to do it by hand. There's some people who are super good at it.

I'm researching solutions, because I feel it looks a little naked without the striping.

 

[robbz28]

I really wanted the two-tone pin striping!
He researched it and said that 3M discontinued the one that matches my paint scheme, so getting it is difficult.

His idea was to pay someone to do it by hand. There's some people who are super good at it.

I'm researching solutions, because I feel it looks a little naked without the striping.

The colors were buckskin and camel beige

That whole stripe is 7/8" wide, and you can buy a roll of buckskin in 7/8 width (729-06) then purchase the Camel beige in 1/4" width (726-60) the only issue is you can only buy it in 150' roll. Your stripe guy would have to layer the 1/4" on top of the 7/8" stripe and keep it straight...

There are other cheaper stripe out there, and they may be good quality, but i would only trust 3M with this..

 

[AbandonedBronco]

Thanks for the info.

Yeah, it's definitely not cheap!

3M 72906 Scotchcal Striping Tape , Buckskin, 7/8 in x 150 ft

Single stripe pattern for professional use in matching existing stripes or creating original striping designs on vehicles.

pack-n-tape.com

3M 72660 Scotchcal Striping Tape , Camel Beige, 1/4 in x 150 ft

Single stripe pattern for professional use in matching existing stripes or creating original striping designs on vehicles.

pack-n-tape.com

And as they note, it's no longer being manufactured.

Here's a picture of the original.
Yeah, that'd take a steady hand to make sure those stripes lined up with each other.

Are you saying that the 7/8" one is underneath, and the 1/4" one is the two stripes on top of it?

Next question would be what the double stripe along the side is (the straight one up above). Is that the same as the 1/4" Camel Beige?

 

[robbz28]

My upper stripe was painted on originally, I bet that beige in a double 1/8” pattern would look good


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[deadsquiggles]

Despite it taking a lot more time and money then you planned on, it definitely looks like it was worth it. That’s an awesome looking paint job. Glad to see you got your rig back.

 

[AbandonedBronco]

Yeah, here's another closeup. It does look like the upper ones are paint and the lower ones are sticker stripes.

And yeah, maybe there's also a 1/8" stripe that could be used for the upper ones.

 

[AbandonedBronco]

Despite it taking a lot more time and money then you planned on, it definitely looks like it was worth it. That’s an awesome looking paint job. Glad to see you got your rig back.

Thanks! I agree, it hurt the wallet a bit, but I know it'll last me a good long time.
And it looks really good!

 

[AbandonedBronco]

Yes, there's a 1/8". I'd probably go that route for the upper stripes.

https://www.dkhardware.com/70206-3m-3m-scotchcal-striping-tape-70206-buckskin-1-8-in-x-40-ft-product-4001792.html

 

[AbandonedBronco]

A couple other small projects that I tackled since I got the Bronco back.

One of the first was the sound system.
When I got this Bronco, it already had a pretty decent amp installed in the back. But, the speakers were blown. So, I put the speakers from my old '81 into this one.
I got those speakers when I was in college back around 2004, and I paid about $80 for all four of them, so they weren't anything special.

It was time for something nice:

It sounds great! There's a slight buzz in the back, but that's coming from the speaker grill itself. I need to get some foam pad to put between the grill and the metal to absorb the vibrations.


Next, I finally got rid of the chain link license plate frames the P.O. put on there, and got some worthy of the Bronco. I really like these!

Next, I was tired of my air filter hitting the A/C box. It didn't touch when sitting still, but was close enough that the flex was just enough to bang it up. There were a few dents in the chrome housing as well as gouges in the A/C box plastic.

I got an offset air filter base. It sits a little lower than the previous one but works really well.

It shifts it over about an inch or so, so now there's plenty of space.

And it's been a few years since I've had a Christmas tree, so it was fun to bring one home this year!

Then it decided to snow on Christmas Eve and all through New Years. And I love driving in the snow.

 

[AbandonedBronco]

I'm always looking to tighten up the steering, and the last part I hadn't touched was the steering shaft. So I decided to install a Borgeson. I went with the one with the vibration dampener to help with off-road harshness.

The dust boot was pretty shot, and the rag joint was gummy and worn out.

Installation was really straight forward. There's a bolt at the top that holds it to the steering wheel shaft and a bolt at the bottom that holds it to the steering box. That's about it.

The top one, you take the nut off, and then tap it out with a hammer. It's held in place with a spring loaded clip. I imagine this is done as a safety measure. If the nut were to vibrate loose and come off, you don't want the bolt just falling out and your steering wheel getting disconnected.

The Borgeson is cut-to-fit, in case you have a lift and need a longer steering shaft. The instructions on measuring it were straight forward.

Cut the excess off, drill the appropriate holes, and put it back together,

Then pop it in and tighten it all down. This removed pretty much all of the remaining slop from my steering:

 

[Jason2215]

Man she looks so good! Lots of big updates!

 

[AbandonedBronco]

Next issue I had been dealing with for a while was my throttle bracket. It "worked" but it didn't work well. I don't know where I got the bracket itself, but it never lined up straight. Also, I had to make my own little bracket to hook the cruise control up with. The issue with the cruise cable is that it was designed for the 302 V8 that was originally in it, which has the throttle at the front of the engine. So the cable wasn't meant to reach over to where I have it. You can see in the bottom right of the picture that the sheath is starting to crack. This also made it pull from an odd angle.

The bracket also liked to wander, since it only had one little tab keeping it aligned. This would often make my throttle stick at around 3 - 5% when I let off the gas. I'd have to go and readjust everything and it'd be good for a bit.

Lastly, the cruise cable was just held on with a zip tie:

I started researching options to replace it. Unfortunately, since I have the 2bbl / 2300 style Sniper, options for aftermarket throttle bracket options are extremely limited. Most everything is for the 4bbl models.

On top of that, I simply can't believe how difficult it is to hook up a cruise control cable to a carburetor! It's almost like no one's ever done it before, and I'm the first.
I researched for weeks on just how to connect a second throttle cable to the carb and there was nothing. When I asked on several carb/Sniper forums, no one had any solid solutions. And those with cruise were using the stock setup that came with it.
I know that the majority of the crowd is racing and such, but cruise control is not exactly something new, so I was baffled.

Lokar had a custom connector to hook a cruise control cable to the main throttle, but it only came in a full on cruise control cable kit (that cost well over $100), and the parts weren't available separately.

So, I finally decided to just make my own. In the end, I'm super pleased with how it turned out, so I'm glad I did.

Oddly, when I was picking out steel, the thicker bar stock was less expensive than the thinner one, so it's getting a solid, beefy throttle bracket. 😁

First, I wanted the bracket to have two attachment points, since all my previous brackets have been single attachment, and they liked to wiggle and move. Then it needed to go around the Sniper unit. The spot where I'm putting it in the back has a bunch of wires coming out, so it needed some room.

A little bit of shaping, and then leaving room on the right to mount the bracketry for the cables:

Drilled and mounted the vertical bracket for the cable holes. Putting it together for some test fitting:

On the vertical piece, I marked where the throttle linkage connects and then drilled two holes. One for the main throttle and one for the cruise. The tiny hole in the bottom left is for the throttle return spring. Then, cut and shaped it a bit.

Flipped it over and cut and shaped more:

 

[AbandonedBronco]

The fully assembled bracket next to the original bracket:

Installed with the throttle return spring and main throttle cable. It was now another week or two of tracking down how to hook up the cruise cable. But as is, it was SO much better than the original throttle bracket. The pedal is smooth and solid, and the return is snappy and how it should be. Everything lined up perfectly.

100% pleased!

I was using the original cruise unit that came with the Bronco. All I needed to figure out was how to retrofit the cable:

Fortunately, the face unbolts to expose the cable connection, and the housing pulled out with a twist of some pliers.

Next, after searching around on Amazon, I found this fantastic cable for about $10. It has a 90° bend at the end, which is perfect for my setup, and the cable housing was almost twice as long as I needed, so I could cut it to length:

The cable end was a TIGHT fit. I had to grab the cable with pliers to pull, while I pried open the clip with a little flat blade, but in the end it snapped nicely into place.

The 90° bend made it so nice, since it came all the way over from the driver's side fender and was a pretty sharp angle:

 

[AbandonedBronco]

Gotta love the 10 picture limit...

Plenty of cable left over:

I test fit, cut, and then pressed the throttle sleeve into the Cruise Control unit. I thought about gluing it, but after pressing it in, I couldn't get it back out without some serious force, so figured there was no reason.

Got the cable run, last step is hooking it up:

The solution I finally decided on was a long bolt with heim joints. I looked for a very long time for a piece that would allow me to go from a cable to a threaded end, and even contacted a few companies on what they were called, who might carry them, etc. but kept coming up empty handed. It was exhausting! I knew they existed because my previous Lokar throttle connector had one:

After an exhausting search, I finally gave up and just bought another Lokar connector. They're $30, which was a bit much for just the small part I wanted, but I was wasting so much time looking for it. Once I got the pieces I need, I finished hooking it up:

The final issue was that the cables could move laterally. Not a huge issue, but could possibly lead to it not fully returning.

I thought about using nuts to hold it in place, but they would vibrate and just move around. I tried locking nuts, but getting that many locking nuts on and moved around was tedious and difficult to hold things still enough to rotate them.

So, I found a company on Amazon that sells tubing in all different internal diameters. The smaller tubing increased in increments of 0.2mm (6mm, 6.2mm, 6.4mm, etc).
Since the 1/4" bolt I was using has an external diameter of 6.35mm, I bought a tube with a 6.4mm I.D. It was about $10 shipped.

A few quick cuts to the length I needed, and the connections are spaced perfectly. Done!

Probably about $60 total for all the materials, plus my time. About the cost of most brackets you can find online (and WITHOUT provisions for a cruise control cable).
It works beautifully for both the throttle and cruise, so I'm very happy with it!

Last step will be pulling it back off and painting it black to go with the engine.