[StemCellResearch]

Hello All,
Been on here a while now and figured I should start a thread about my ‘budget rebuild’ as I like to call it. I bought a 1986 Ford Bronco XLT 6 cyl, 4.9L, Auto. I currently reside in Las Vegas, but this truck is not from here and it shows. Good amount of rust damage to tackle. The JYs out here are full of good broncos for parts, and I like to go often. I am currently out of work since going into heart failure, but that just means I have more time to work on my truck :beer. I finally have the time, but now I don't have the money:doh0715: I will do my best to post pictures and keep this updated.
Here is the truck:

Upcoming plans:
• Reupholster door panels
• Replace passenger front fender
• Replace dash
• Replace worn out front seats
• Sound deaden cab w/ Peel and Seal
• Replace horn
• New stereo and speakers
• Replace tailgate window wiring
• A/C doesn’t work, compressor short cycles. Probably leaked refrigerant out and tripping off on low pressure
o I need to get hold of a vacuum pump to evacuate the system, a/c gauges to try to charge it, and see what happens.
• New door panel retainers
• Passenger window switch goes down but not up-Check wiring continuity
• Repair floorpan rust-weld in new metal
• Replace worn out weatherstripping

 

[StemCellResearch]

New fender

Bought a new fender from JC Whitney instead of the JY for some odd reason. I guess I felt like paying 10x too much lol.
Old removed:

Old and new:

New fender on:

She is beautiful lol. Had to bang the radiator core support back into shape, this thing was definitely hit on this side. Headlight bezels and everything were messed up, I replaced them with some from a JY real cheap.

 

[StemCellResearch]

Door panel restoration

Sorry, I am trying to back track and catch up on all the work I did to post on here so you can see it from start to finish. I recovered one door panel a while back, but left the other one until this week. When I went to autozone, they had discontinued the spray paint color I was using, but luckily they had two cans in back. whew! I painted, reupholstered, and cleaned up all the panels. Just waiting on new retainer clips from autozone which should be in next week. 25 year old plastic clips break easily lol. I also need to go get a pop rivet gun to install the inner weatherstripping. I hate that design. Here are some pics of the panels, although I won't be able to put them in until next week.
Before:

After:

Side by side comparison:

Cleaned up the door, ready for sound dampening:

Peel and Seal applied:

Nasty map pockets, I cleaned a small spot so you can see the difference:

I also tightened up the elastic on the back to make them like new:

Gacknar did an extremely similar recovery, but he did not reupholster the fabric:
http://www.fullsizebronco.com/forum/showthread.php?t=190104

New door window weatherstripping also installed while the doors are torn apart

 

[StemCellResearch]

Ahhhhhhh!!!!!

So I started gutting the interior and I found something almost as scary as rust.....

A black widow just chilling under a panel :smash

I hope she didn't lay eggs

 

[StemCellResearch]

Old security sticker on tailgate window, what a coincidence lol

 

[JKossarides]

Welcome Officially to FSB ~ :thumbup

Wow you'll be interested to know that you're now an instant member of the "porno red" interior club like so many of us here....lol lol.....:rofl:

Great pics, good job getting right in and fixing it up.

Best DIY sources:

FSB ~ "search" tool above
Haynes Repair Manual
www.broncolinks.com
FSB member El Kabong's "baba loohey's favorite FSB links" and questions
FSB member Steve83's tech album, click on his black Bronco to take you to it then scroll.

Enjoy! :beer

 

[StemCellResearch]

you call that rust? lol your truck is in pretty decent shape, sure wish the ones out here were so clean. good job getting started on your restore, those panels sure do look great. :rockon

Just wait until I post pics of my rusted through firewalls. I can put my arm through them lol

 

[StemCellResearch]

Slow progress

Gutted the rest of the interior today. Took me half a can of PB and a 24" breaker bar, but all those stubborn bolts are out. Nowhere left for any deadly spiders to hide now. Pics of the progress:

Passenger seat out:

Center console gone:

What the carpet should look like:

Front empty, dirty carpet:

Small area cleaned:

Blue Coral, never used it before this, but works great. Make sure to do a test area first though:

Not prefect, but a great improvement:

Carpet out:

Passenger side floorpan issues:

Drivers side, soon to be a Flintstone-mobile:

Junk in the truck:

A little help:

Empty, found more rust:

New belt:

Cleaned up, ready for paint tomorrow:

About 4 full pans full of rust:

Tomorrow I plan on cleaning and painting the rear interior panels, cleaning the carpet, and getting new front seats. I leave for NY for a week tomorrow night, so gonna be a few days before another update. Any advice, tips, or input would be great! Not sure how to tackle the floor pans, so advice needed. Thanks for looking!
:beer

 

[dagamore]

looks good,

but you might need to run its the cops!

 

[20sNaRanger]

looks great! keep it up!

 

[Gacknar]

Looks good, where did you get the fabric for the door panels?

And is that new lower seat belt from the Junk-Yard?
The plastic is gone on both of mine but I figured I would never find them in the J/Y that where in decent condition.

 

[StemCellResearch]

Looks good, where did you get the fabric for the door panels?

And is that new lower seat belt from the Junk-Yard?
The plastic is gone on both of mine but I figured I would never find them in the J/Y that where in decent condition.

I got the fabric from JoAnn Fabric, but I heard about a local place here that sells a wider variety of upholstery fabric. If you do it, try to get thick heavy duty stuff.
The lower seat belt did come from the JY. It doesnt have cracks, just needed to be cleaned up. I hit them with a thin coat or red today, and they look great. You need them for your 86? Will any color do? Let me know and I can check my yards here if you give me the details of what your looking for and willing to spend. The yards here in vegas have some pretty good stuff.

 

[StemCellResearch]

Day update

Today I started cleaning up a few more parts for paint. Got paint on a few of them. Hit up the JY and traded in my nasty f150 seats in for a near perfect set of stock captain chairs from an 86 bronco :rockon. They are so comfortable, I love having armrests again. Also got a new tailgate access panel since mine was rusted and I just figured this was much easier. Im liking the blue so much it makes me wish I didnt already reupholster my doors red. Anyone want to buy my panels? lol

New seats:

Leaving for NY tonight, so there will be a delay on updates for about a week. Keep the comments and questions coming, I will keep checking

 

[norfolkff05]

Passenger side floorpan issues:

Drivers side, soon to be a Flintstone-mobile:

About 4 full pans full of rust:

so with pics like that, i suppose i can agree that it has a lil rust....just a lil tho. :toothless
as clean as the rest looks, it's sure to be worth the effort!

 

[StemCellResearch]

Back home!

Well, Im back from vacation. Got right back at it today, but I definitely lost some stamina not working on it for over a week. I began cutting out some of the rust from the floorpan today. I also began tearing down the dash, and the more I dig, the more issues I find. So much of the plastic has been broken from the PO tightening screws down too hard and being 26 years old. I found a phantom wire in a harness that has been cut in several spots. I will take pictures tomorrow and try to see if anyone knows what it was from. I am having a tough time getting the gauge cluster out, I cant pull it out far enough to get to the wires behind it. I will try again tomorrow after poking around some more on here. If anyone knows of a really good write up, post a link please. I finished off the day checking the continuity of the speaker wires and labeling them for when I install the new stereo.
Camera isnt cooperating, so I will put up pics tomorrow

 

[StemCellResearch]

Another update, no pics yet. That phantom wire was the original stereo wiring. I yanked all that crappy 18-20 gauge and ran all new 14 gauge wire I had laying around from my speakers a few years ago. Got the new stereo and front speakers installed today. Cleaned the vent ducts out really well. Then spent the last few hours trying to scrape all the damn bumper stickers off. I HATE bumper stickers :banghead

 

[ProZach]

subscribed, interesting build so far

 

[Jasonhughes2009]

Welcome Officially to FSB ~ :thumbup

Wow you'll be interested to know that you're now an instant member of the "porno red" interior club like so many of us here....lol lol.....:rofl:

i've had my newest rig for all of 5 days and im trying to get out of that club as fast as i can! :histerica

but looks good so far man!

 

[Jasonhughes2009]

oh, and i would like more pics of that sunroof please :thumbup

 

[StemCellResearch]

Camera working

Finally, a long awaited update:
Ordered a welder and new angle grinder from Harbor Freight today off the black friday sale, so when that gets delivered, I will hopefully be ready to start welding in floor pan sections.
Since my last update:
The gauges are so hard to see at night due to the low light and dirty components, so I decided to invert the gauge colors to make them brighter. I was slowed down because one of the gauges broke during disassembly(not my fault) and I had to hit the JY this morning for a new one. Gauge cluster has been removed, cleaned, and painted. I will finish final assembly tonight after the final drying.
Cluster coming apart:

Backside coming apart:

Part 1, original:

Part 2, Solid white paint:

Part 3, SLOWLY and CAREFULLY hand painting the details:

I might do a full write up on this if anyone is interested.
Also I began to unbolt the rest of the dash, but I am hung up on one area, maybe someone can give me a hint. I circled in white the area that is hung up. I can see the screw, but it is impossible to get a bit on it:

Thanks for looking! More tomorrow!