Ewwwwe!!!! I can’t wait!!!

 

Guess I'll get story time started.

I was not looking for a Bronco! I'm sure some others can relate, one way or another.

I had wanted a "matching" 4wd shortbed dentside to go with my '77 2wd shortbed F100. I saw a post on a FB classifieds group for a rough, multicolored '78 Bronco and the seller only wanted $800. I thought it over and I figured a Bronco would be better than to buy yet another single cab truck that can't fit everybody since I had a family with 3 small kids. I also figured it must be a real turd for $800, but I wanted to check it out anyway.

I took a look at it after I got off work in the morning. The guy was not a Ford guy and didn't seem to know much about the Bronco other than some general things. He also tried to cover things up by spray painting over the rusty floorboards and covering them with rubber mats, things like that. Despite everything that was wrong with it, I still saw enough potential in the Bronco and we settled on $700. However, I told him I'd come back later in the day to pick it up. He gave me the title, I gave him the cash, and I told him to leave the keys in the Bronco while it was parked at his house.

At the time I already had two vehicles of my own and this was going to be vehicle number three. I have a bad habit of picking up multiple projects. I purposely picked up the Bronco when it was dark out and then I drove it home and parked it in front of my house, came inside, and went to bed. The next morning my wife notices this old, multicolored Bronco sitting out front and she looks at me and exclaims "That better not be your mojon sitting out there!!!". For those who don't know Spanish, which I don't and I had to ask her what that meant, mojon is slang for a huge sh*t. I laughed my ass off and said yes it was and that the name fit the Bronco, so I was going to call it that from then on.

Here are the pics from the FB post for my mojon.


I don't know if you can see it very well, but there's fruit of some sort (maybe grapes) all over the hood. I'm assuming the acidity of the fruit ate into the rust a bit, because there were light colored spots all over the hood where they were sitting. They're still there to this day. lol. Also, for some reason there's a spot that resembles the state of Louisiana sitting between the O and R on the hood. Coincidental I'm sure.

You can see here where the rubber floor has been pulled up and the entire floor was spray painted black. I saw a can of black spray paint behind the front seats when I got in for a test drive.

I was suspicious of the floors, but my suspicion was confirmed when I asked him if he had any more pics of the Bronco and he, I'm assuming by accident, sent me this "before" pic of the floor before he painted it and before tossing a towel over the tore up driver's seat. I still bought it, so... whatever!

 

Howdy all!

I owned my Bronco for 7 months before I first laid eyes on it in person. This was both a gift and a bit of a curse at the time, but you have to risk it for the biscuit, or something, right?

I was looking specifically for a Bronco, having owned a 95 white and blue XLT previously. I had sold it along with a ton of other stuff because I'd joined the Marines. I'd always wanted one, and once I'd had one, I couldn't not have one. So once I'd graduated boot camp and combat training, I started searching for a decent-bodied Bronco right away. I've always been comfortable fumbling my way through wrenching on mechanical stuff, but wanted nothing to do with body work, so my only requirements (foreshadowing) were finding a Bronco that had a body with zero rust and for a reasonable (<5k) price tag.

I was in Florida at the time. Nothing turned up locally. I expanded my search to include my home state and places where I had family. After 8 or so months of keeping my nose to the ground, this one popped up in Idaho. It checked all boxes on my too-short list of requirements, so I called my family to take a look.

I got called back and was told everything looks great on it! And it seems mechanically sound and ready to go. This seemed too good to be true, but far be it from me to let such an amazing deal slip away. I did that once on a MKIV Supra, never again! He'll take $4k? Sold! I got everything squared away with my credit union in a completely other state, get a check cut and sent to my family in Idaho, and voila, I'm the proud new owner of a 1996 Bronco Eddie Bauer. This is the first picture of the Bronco under new ownership, shortly after everything was a done deal, circa February 2014.

My own eyeballs wouldn't lay themselves on the hide of the Bronco for another 7 months. Meanwhile, the Bronco was put to proper work on my parents' property. It's a good thing, too, because my amazing deal would turn out to be a lot less amazing. The entire drivetrain save the engine required work. The transmission was throwing a CEL and was inspected, repaired, flushed, and reassembled. The rear differential required work, one of the rear axles, the brakes, a hub in the front end... my parents were a great help in getting the Bronco to the necessary shops to get it road worthy so I could make my second high-risk decision with it - fly in to get it, pack my stuff in a trailer, and tow with it across the country.

 

Beautiful rig. A steal at $4,500

 

This is going to be a good month!

 

So the whole thing with my Bronco, especially that it was as beat up as it was, was that I intended on using it as a mostly off road vehicle and camping rig. I figured if I ever banged it up off road that I wouldn't feel bad about it compared to having a freshly painted rig getting dented up.


Here I am introducing my truck to his new, somehow bigger and smaller at the same time, pal.

The Bronco appeared to have the OG wheels on it. They had some worn 31's on them. So, like every new Bronco owner, one of the first things I did was research what size of tire I could fit on a 78/79 Bronco without lifting it. The general consensus was that you could fit 35's, so I did what I did with my truck when I wanted to try out some 20's on it and I went about finding some cheap, used 35" tires to test that theory out.

I found a guy that was selling some used, and mismatched, 35's on some aftermarket 17" rims off of his Dodge 1500 for a couple hundred bucks. I went to his house with the Bronco and checked them out. I went as far as to take off one of my front wheels and mount one of his to see how things cleared while turning from lock to lock. Things looked good, so I brought them home.

Going through my pics I realize that I never actually took a pic of the Bronco before I started messing with things. Here's a pic I took halfway through changing the wheels.

Then I took my dogs and we went across the canyon here (Snake River Canyon) and I messed around with the Bronco to see how the tires fit.

I ended up with a little rubbing on the radius arms, one of the shocks, and a slight rub in the rear when the tires were stuffed. I guess all the mud and grease the PO left on the Bronco was good for something.

Later on I used the info I gathered from my used 35's and rims to help make a decision on new wheels. The used wheels had too much backspacing for a 35x12.50 tire, which is why it was rubbing at full lock. The used 35's I had weren't good for much more than rollers at that point, so I ended up sending them to the trash, but I repurposed the rims and put them on my 2wd truck after removing the black plastidip job the PO put on them. I wasn't digging the 20's that I had been trying out on my truck anymore and 17's were a good fit and didn't rub with 29" tires.

Mickey Thompson had a sale going on at the time I was looking at wheels, so I went with some Classic 3 15x8's with less backspacing (3 5/8") than the used rims I picked up and got some new Deegan 38 35x12.50r15 tires. I ordered them online and I helped the UPS guy roll them up to my porch when they showed up. The sale was good enough that I decided to buy a set of 5, so I could have a matching spare.

Mounted up and ready to go.

It was a while before I got the spare mounted as the Bronco was missing the hardware to hold a spare on, but once I was able to find a set in the junkyard I got it mounted up.

 

Since money was scarce, I chose to focus on the mechanical side of the house. The plan was to fly in, pack a trailer, and drive the Bronco and my things to my first duty station. What could go wrong? At this point, pretty much all mechanical systems had been touched in some way, so I told myself it should be good.

I flew in on some leave to visit with my family and to get my things squared away. I finally saw the Bronco for the first time in person. The body was straight and there didn't appear to be any rust, as expected, but the paint and clear coat appeared faded, worn, and needing work. The clear didn't seem spotty or worn-through fortunately, so my dad and I washed, buffed, polished, waxed, and detailed the Bronco to see what life we could breath into her skin. As it turned out, a lot! You can even make out the factory painted-on pinstriping, though it's faded.

We got my stuff loaded up in a UHaul. My Vulcan got the same restorative treatment as the Bronco just before being packed up with the rest of my things into the trailer. It was a bit of a tetris game, fitting a motorcycle in the center while weighting it correctly so as not to put too much weight on the tongue, and packing the rest of my belongings around it. After it was all said and done, the trailer weighed in around 3,500 pounds, if memory serves. Shouldn't be a problem for the Bronco, given the tow rating of 5,000+ that I googled. After my dad and I check all the fluids were topped off, tire pressure is good, and nothing is outstanding, I was ready to hit the road.

Only a few hours from home, driving through the Rockies, and I notice the engine temperature starting to get a bit high. "But why? Everything should be fine! The whole drivetrain has been gone over!" I lamented as I pulled off to the nearest gas station at the top of a long uphill pull. She only appeared to really be getting warm on uphill stints, but not so hot as to spike the gauge. I couldn't really afford the time to break down on this trip as I had a deadline to arrive by, so I wanted to head off any issues before they got big. "I won't be going anywhere until I track down this problem and fix it!" Spoiler, I wasn't able to track it down or fix it. The only symptom I had was heat and coolant appearing to be overflowing from the overflow reservoir... and not in small amounts, either.

Since I couldn't, I decided to buy extra radiator fluid from the gas station and carry on, promising myself to check and top it off every so often. The rest of the trip went relatively well. I even clocked 17mpg on the 5.8l while crossing Nebraska. Must have been a good tailwind and lots of flat land. I never saw anything near 17mpg ever again.

There were a lot of interesting things I got to see, but this isn't a road trip thread. I can claim my Bronco has had a tank aim at it, though!

After a few days, I arrived in Maryland at my first (and last) duty station. The odd coolant leak I wouldn't see arise ever again after I got out of the Rockies. In fact, I wouldn't even track down why that was an issue until many months after coming to MD while trying to install new headlights in my Bronco, but that's a story for next time!

 

Since money was scarce, I chose to focus on the mechanical side of the house. The plan was to fly in, pack a trailer, and drive the Bronco and my things to my first duty station. What could go wrong? At this point, pretty much all mechanical systems had been touched in some way, so I told myself it should be good.

I flew in on some leave to visit with my family and to get my things squared away. I finally saw the Bronco for the first time in person. The body was straight and there didn't appear to be any rust, as expected, but the paint and clear coat appeared faded, worn, and needing work. The clear didn't seem spotty or worn-through fortunately, so my dad and I washed, buffed, polished, waxed, and detailed the Bronco to see what life we could breath into her skin. As it turned out, a lot! You can even make out the factory painted-on pinstriping, though it's faded.

We got my stuff loaded up in a UHaul. My Vulcan got the same restorative treatment as the Bronco just before being packed up with the rest of my things into the trailer. It was a bit of a tetris game, fitting a motorcycle in the center while weighting it correctly so as not to put too much weight on the tongue, and packing the rest of my belongings around it. After it was all said and done, the trailer weighed in around 3,500 pounds, if memory serves. Shouldn't be a problem for the Bronco, given the tow rating of 5,000+ that I googled. After my dad and I check all the fluids were topped off, tire pressure is good, and nothing is outstanding, I was ready to hit the road.

Only a few hours from home, driving through the Rockies, and I notice the engine temperature starting to get a bit high. "But why? Everything should be fine! The whole drivetrain has been gone over!" I lamented as I pulled off to the nearest gas station at the top of a long uphill pull. She only appeared to really be getting warm on uphill stints, but not so hot as to spike the gauge. I couldn't really afford the time to break down on this trip as I had a deadline to arrive by, so I wanted to head off any issues before they got big. "I won't be going anywhere until I track down this problem and fix it!" Spoiler, I wasn't able to track it down or fix it. The only symptom I had was heat and coolant appearing to be overflowing from the overflow reservoir... and not in small amounts, either.

Since I couldn't, I decided to buy extra radiator fluid from the gas station and carry on, promising myself to check and top it off every so often. The rest of the trip went relatively well. I even clocked 17mpg on the 5.8l while crossing Nebraska. Must have been a good tailwind and lots of flat land. I never saw anything near 17mpg ever again.

There were a lot of interesting things I got to see, but this isn't a road trip thread. I can claim my Bronco has had a tank aim at it, though!

After a few days, I arrived in Maryland at my first (and last) duty station. The odd coolant leak I wouldn't see arise ever again after I got out of the Rockies. In fact, I wouldn't even track down why that was an issue until many months after coming to MD while trying to install new headlights in my Bronco, but that's a story for next time!

I feel like a kid getting a bed time story... what happened next!!!

 

I'll try not to dwell too much on the repairs I've done, but I will touch on some things!

I spent quite a while repairing the innards of the tailgate to get the rear window operable. The tailgate was missing the regulator and motor and the harness was cut up. Putting the new rivets into place for the brackets that attach to the window was a bit nerve wracking. It made a very loud bang every time and I thought I was going to break the glass. This video does not do justice to how loud it really was. lol.

I've had to rebuild both drive shafts. The front shaft would sound like you were going up a roller coaster with all the clicking it did when you were in 4wd. That was something I didn't bother to engage before I bought the Bronco!

The heater also wasn't working. Gee, I wonder why.

I took the Bronco through some mud, the kind that would cover the windshield with sheets of muddy water. I was with my wife and about to go through some stuff that was really deep and I wasn't sure how I'd fair, so in preparation I turned on the wipers and my wiper switch disintegrated! Well, she was saved as she didn't want me to get into the middle of the mud and get stuck with her in the Bronco. lol. I later on sourced an intermittent wiper switch and replaced the old 2 speed switch that had fallen apart.

This was also before I had the good wheels and tires on, which was part of the reason I wasn't too sure about going through the deep mud. There wasn't much tread left. I stopped at a gas station and squeegeed the windows as I was driving around looking through mud splatters on my way back to town.

After going through the mud... I noticed my gauge cluster was going on the fritz a little. It wasn't until I was prettying up my gauges that I saw why they were doing what they were doing. My clutch rod was missing the boot that goes on the floorboard and allowed mud to shoot straight up into the Bronco and behind the dash! Who would have thought! I made yet another of my many journeys to the JY and found a replacement printed circuit board.

I also took this time to remove the blue covers for the backlighting that gives the gauge cluster its Ford green/blue glow and replaced them with red LEDs. I just wanted to try things out for fun, because.. red Bronco, red lights, right? I've decided I'm not a big fan of the red, but they are still in there as of right now. At some point I'll replace things with the same LED setup I have in my truck, which is just the factory setup with some nice, white LEDs behind the blue covers.

Everything seemed to run pretty well. I eventually discovered that on any sort of an angle that gas would flood my carb and kill the engine. I'd have to push the clutch in, rev it up to clear out most of the gas, and then try to get things back to level so the damn thing wouldn't try to kill itself. You can see a bit of black smoke in this video as I get towards the top, but you can really hear it run like crap most of the way up once it starts flooding.

And another clip with my kids and my dogs. I'm pretty sure once I started going up the hill that one of my dogs slid back between the front seats and landed in the lap of my kids, which is why you hear screaming. lol.

I had been thinking about the crappy fueling issue I was having while off road and on sort of a whim I ordered up a Sniper master kit. I say it was on sort of a whim, because even after doing a bunch of research on things and making up my mind on what to do (carb vs efi), I really wasn't ready to install it and it sat around for almost a year before I got to it. That was loooong after the warranty was up. lol.

 

@canuckistan97 get your butt in here already.

 

I get lulls in my interest to work on things (especially if I don't have to) and after nearly a year long wait, I finally went and got around to installing my Holley Sniper. This is one of those things where you potentially open a can of worms. In my case, when I was removing my gas tank to modify my sending unit for the EFI, I found I had a huge dent in my skid plate and gas tank and when I removed my gas tank I unleashed a bunch of pin holes that were hidden under the material used to cushion the tank from the skid plate. I ended up ordering a new tank and upgrading the skid plate with a new one from JBG.


Old tank and skid plate going out, new tank and skid plate painted and installed.

Sniper almost finished being installed. The 351M was filthy, but it was sealed and in decent running condition, so I didn't want to open up another can of worms.

I cut a chunk out of the factory skid plate and used it to make a mounting bracket for the fuel pump and filters. I bolted it on in front of the gas tank and behind the rear diff.

I found a set of hedman headers on a 78 Bronco in the junkyard, so I pulled those, had them blasted and had them high temp powder coated. They came out great. I needed an O2 sensor installed in my exhaust for the EFI and my factory exhaust had some exhaust leaks, so I figured why not with the headers I found. I was only into them $140 altogether, so it wasn't a huge investment to try them out.

Headers as I found them, after they were coated, and then installed on the Bronco.

Sniper up and running! This was the first start with the Sniper and I'm pretty sure it was in the spring, you can see the manifold air temp (MAT) is 43, so it was pretty cold outside. You can also see the default tach goes up to 20k! lmao. I had to dial that back down to 5-6k for it to be usable at all.

Here's a video of me attempting to be a little adventurous with the Bronco post-efi install. I had brought my wife in an attempt to see how interested she'd be in going to Moab with me for the Bronco Safari Invasion that members on FSB do (we didn't make it there). I don't think she enjoys it as much as I do. It looks scarier inside than it does from the outside and this was pretty mild! You'll also notice that the Bronco doesn't run like crap when it's pointed towards the sky!

 

"What is that? What the F*** is that?!" Gunny Hartford, Full Metal Jacket

Cardboard. Cardboard is what the f*** that is. Not just one layer, but two layers of cardboard. On this day, I learned that when you live in a cold-ass climate, and you don't have a properly working thermostat or the time or money to spare for a new one, it's known practice to stuff some cardboard in front of your radiator to allow your engine to get up to temperature. After I got done ripping all of that cardboard out, suddenly my engine runs on the low end of the temperature gauge and never goes over halfway again! I don't know for a fact that is the issue that caused my coolant to overflow, but after this I had taken two or three more cross-country trips in the Bronco and never had the issue again.

The only reason I caught sight of this cardboard was because I'd finally decided to start doing upgrade work on my Bronco.

As it turns out, doing anything with the headlights on a Bronco is a massive pain in the ol' keister. Just to get to all the mounting points for both sides required removing the battery, battery tray, and fluid reservoir for the radiator fluid and windshield fluid. While I was in there I decided to throw in a new window fluid pump and reservoir, because I was fairly certain mine was leaking and the pump lock ring was rusted and gone.

The halogens inside and out were old and dim, so I decided on a lighting upgrade. LEDs everywhere I could possibly get them except for the headlights. At the time, after a bunch of research, I found that HIDs were brighter and better than LEDs, so I went that route. I was able to get a hold of @TCM GLX and he hooked me up with a set of smoked LED tail lights, projector headlights, and an interior LED kit. I specifically wanted projectors as I hate being blinded by other people's LEDs or HIDs on big lifted trucks in oncoming traffic, so I wasn't going to be that guy.

Besides installing and adjusting the headlights, the rest of it was very straightforward to install, so I won't get into that too much here. But for your viewing pleasure, here are some before and after pictures on how the LED lights stacked up against the old halogens.

I also did the backlights on the dash as well as the glovebox light. I failed to get before and afters of those, though. I attempted the ashtray light, but the lights provided in the kit didn't fit and I didn't care to find an LED small enough to fit there since I never have it open. Someday it might get traded out for auxiliary switches.

I definitely think it was worth the time investment. 5 years later, all of these lights are still running strong. I have traded out the headlights one more time, but still running the same HIDs.

... It sure would be a shame if I weren't able to enjoy those shiny new tail lights for very long, wouldn't it?

 

I was rear-ended. One week after I installed these tail lights I was at a complete stop behind a red light, just minding my own business as one does. Well, this Kia decided it needed to use my Bronco to stop. While traveling at 30mph+. He didn't touch his brakes, I stopped him.

Fortunately, the tire carrier was still on it with a spare attached to it, which absorbed a majority of the impact. This preserved the tailgate glass and function of it, and my tail lights survived.

Red flag #1: The first thing he said when he jumped out of his car is, "Sorry man! I was on my phone."
Red flag #2: The second thing he said after he jumped out is, "Hey, can we not call the cops?"

Being that this happened on base right near the gate, they showed up anyway. Turns out he was uninsured, big no-no on base. Also turns out Air Force command and Air Force legal will defend their airmen tooth and nail, regardless of how wrong they were. After a divorce and monetary hardship sob story, I gave him the benefit of the doubt since we're both servicemembers, and let him pay me in installments to fix my Bronco. After the first payment, I get radio silence. I visit his shop, he's not there and his peers all but tell me to f*** off. So I do a claim with my insurance, what I should have done in the first place. They'll take care of the rest, they say.

More than $3400 in damages. My insurance wants to total it. We work it out so that the estimate for repair comes in lower, around $2800, and I convince them not to total it. That was a close one. I did have to make some concessions such as no new tailgate trim, no new tire carrier, repair and reuse some parts inside the tailgate, and the like.

I discovered the cruise control was broken when I brought the Bronco home after the repairs. I use it quite a bit and I wasn't okay with it being gone. A bunch of research later and it turns out having changed all my brake lights to LED nullified the necessary 12v signal for the cruise control. I changed out the red high mount brake light to be halogen again, leaving the white sides to be LED. Cruise control works and I'm happy.

I also finished installing and aiming the projector headlights just before the accident. I had a lot of issues getting them aimed high enough. Come to find out Tony thought I had a lift on my Bronco, so the projectors were aimed a bit low. Whatever, I went with it. I'm sure I'll lift it eventually, anyways (spoiler: I don't).

I liked the look of these much better. Also, the turn signal light is a switchback light, so when all lights are on, they are white, and when signaling, they alternate between white and orange which is pretty neat. The black and chrome was a good contrast for me, as I enjoy chrome but in tastful amounts, and I don't enjoy the blacked-out look usually.

Also included in the top 10 things I don't enjoy: criminals that hit my Bronco intentionally while trying to escape the scene of a crime.

 

Holy crap this thread is a good read. Keep it comin!

 

I uh... don't have a ton of space where I live and have to park on the street as I have no driveway, so I tend to make the most of my space.

The first time I ever removed my hard top I had some random dude walking by help me lift it off and set it on my truck. I tried to have my wife help me once, but she's maybe 5'1" at the most and not too terribly strong, so that didn't work out.

This was my eventual solution. I figured since I was going to put it on the bed of my truck anyway, that I may as well eliminate the middle man by not going to the ground only to walk over to my truck with the top. I simply got under the top, hunched over and lifted it on my back, and walked it into my truck's bed. Of course, at the time, my truck bed was full of stuff, so that made for a fun walk in order to get into position to set the top down.

Package delivered.

I had had the top off before this, but I think this was the first time I took my kids for a ride when the top was off. And of course the dogs came along as well.

 

Here's a few more problems I encountered and some more upgrades that have been made on my "$700" Bronco. I will say that short of a new, quality paint job, despite how much money I've spent on this thing (a lot, hah...), it will always look like a $700 Bronco.

I had an issue with my rearmost u-joint failing a few times and at one point, exploding. Turned out to be a very worn out yoke.


Exploded u-joint.

Old yoke.

New yoke, New yoke.

My clutch was starting to shudder really bad on take off, so I had the clutch replaced, which cured that. I'm pretty sure that going from 31" tires to 35's with a 3.50 rear end was not being easy on the clutch, so I opted to regear to 4.56 to avoid eating up another clutch sooner than later. And... I figured if I was going to pony up for gears that I might as well go hard and put a locker in. And... if I was going to put a locker in, I might as well put a locker in both axles. I did an insane amount of internal debating on everything, so this (and every other upgrade) wasn't a simple decision like I make it here. lol.


Yukon Grizzly for the D44.

Yukon Grizzly for the Ford 9".

Box of Motive gears and install kits.

I had a shop install these for me, as I'm a thousand percent not equipped or experienced to do that job, and while they were doing the rear I had them install a drain, so I can easily drain the gear oil. They put in a plug and then welded a short length of pipe to protect it a bit from getting hit by rocks and whatnot.

 

I know I've been absent from this but I'll be posting my stuff by the weekend. Been swamped with college and all the other bs happening right now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Kidnapping, hit and run, and brandishing a weapon. These were the acts the aformentioned criminal committed. This is probably the most thankless, most disheartening, and resulted in the most lost faith in humanity, I've ever experienced. Even though all of these things happened with multiple witnesses and reports, no charges were brought against him. And, though it looks trivial, this would be the second time a Marylander would rearrange the backside of my old girl.

Unfortunately I don't have a lot of pictures for this incident, but I do have a hell of a story, so strap in for this crazy, nearly-unbelievable ride. Also, I'm sorry for the wall of text.

I'm minding my own business, have a couple of Army friends in the truck with me, and we're headed back to base. I've got my window down; it's a beautiful day. On this day, of all days, I decide to cut through a neighborhood as a shortcut. I have never before traveled on this road and never will thereafter. Shortly after navigating the second 'traffic-calming' obstacle, I hear before I see an incident that you'd think you would only see in a Hollywood movie. Certainly someone wouldn't - no, couldn't - be so brazen in broad daylight?

High pitched screaming pierced my ears. Not the shrill shrieks of playing kids, mind you, but the kind that makes the blood feel cold and the body immediately pump copious amounts of adrenaline to kickstart the good ol' fight-or-flight. Then I round some cars parked on the side of the road and I see it.

A woman being dragged alongside the passenger side of a car by the driver with a firm fistful of her hair. What in the unholy f**?! This car is being chased by three people on foot, the sole woman of the group screaming for help. As I pass the car, it stops for just a moment. The driver heaves the woman by the hair wholly into the car and guns it.

Fleeing isn't in a Marine's f***ing dictionary. Without a single thought, I rip the absolute shit out of the steering wheel. The Bronco bucks through the tightest U-turn I've ever demanded from her, smack in the middle of this suburban road. Fuel dumps into each cylinder to match the wide open throttle, the tires skip off the curbs of the traffic calmers, and the suspension shrugs off the two speed bumps.

I've caught him. He expected no chase, he's underestimated me, and I've surprised him. No sooner than my front bumper is in front of his as I pass him, I stomp the brakes and come to a halt before him. Don't get out yet, he could hit you - watch how he reacts.

He hit's me. By the time I've come to a stop, there is a sizable gap between us with plenty of opportunity for him to stop. He slows and nearly does. I watch in the rear-view mirror as the emotions play across his face. Anger. Worry. Determination. He starts to go around - there is plenty of space for him to pass - and as I watch, he jerks his steering wheel. The Bronco's rear heaves to the right while the civic dumps debris onto the road and runs. Fury blends with the adrenaline and I'm after him again. Broncos weren't meant for racing, but neither were stock civics, so I'm keeping pace.

Gun. This coward thrusts his arm out of his window and waves a pistol in the air over the roof. I give absolutely and unequivocally zero f***s and this serves to do nothing but solidify my resolve. Then my long-forgotten passengers groan out a plea. Why are we chasing a gunman? Call the police. But the woman's safety! Logic wins out and I slow down while they dial 911. 2001-2003 black Honda Civic 4 door, traveling this direction on this road with this license plate number.

They caught him at his workplace, Chili's. He hit me with a car that wasn't his. This isn't the first run-in he's had with the authorities, that family, and his apparent girlfriend he'd dragged along. The family doesn't press charges. The cops don't charge him. Neither I nor my passengers are called to be a witness for any reports or testimonies. His insurance refuses to cover my damages as they've decided I was at fault for the "accident". My insurance covers it and my premium goes up.

Fortunately his car was a lot less sturdy than the Bronco. Some body putty, paint, and a new rear bumper wasn't so expensive that it would total the Bronco, but just barely. Shockingly, besides the intentional damage, nothing else broke on this wild escapade. I decided to treat her right, get her cleaned up, and get her some new shoes.

I try to keep her pristine despite the mechanical issues, the accidents, and a shady, lying, and swindling body-repair business.

 

You need to get into the book writing business man!

 

Hahaha thanks @HarryGnuts, just trying to keep it interesting for the readers! =]

 

It took a while, but I eventually got around to addressing the sloppiness in my steering. When I went for a test drive before I bought the Bronco you could probably turn the wheel 90 degrees in either direction before the wheels would start to move. The Bronco tracked straight and didn't wander, so that made it somewhat bearable to drive, but obviously not safe.


This is what I discovered when I had my then 5 year old daughter crank back and forth on the steering wheel when the Bronco wasn't running.

What the issue appeared to be was a loose pitman arm. The nut holding it on wasn't tight all the way, but it wasn't exactly loose, it wasn't going to fall off that is. I was able to tighten it up with my impact and that eliminated maybe 75% of the slop on its own. Later on I decided to replace all of the steering linkage (tie rods/drag link) and also replaced the steering gear with one from Redhead Steering Gears.

Through the process of removing things, I found a few problems and had to remedy two of them before I could permanently install the new steering gear. One, the frame was cracked around the bolt holes for the steering gear. Two, the factory pitman arm had broken splines. Three, the old steering gear had a cracked sector shaft. The sector shaft being cracked was less of a problem, as I had a new steering gear, and more or less just a hit to my core return ($$).


Here's the frame after I removed the steering gear. Can't really notice any cracks at first glance.

Even after wire wheeling the frame I didn't really see the cracks as they were basically hairlines. I painted the frame black where I had wire wheeled it and at that point they started to stick out and be noticeable. I think the way the light hit it really made things pop. Another forum member was kind enough to point them out when I was posting a pic of how bent my tie rod was.

Here's a shot of one of the broken splines on my pitman arm. There were a few that were broken.

And then here's a pic that Redhead sent me of my cracked sector shaft. It's cracked right along all of the splines. I have my theories, but I'm assuming the pitman arm being so loose and for who knows how long didn't help out the splines or the sector shaft any. You can even see how some of them aren't so straight anymore as well.

I was able to source a replacement pitman arm that had good splines from a local JY. I had a local shop weld the cracks on my frame and weld on a plate to reinforce it as well (no pics of this one unfortunately). Also, in order to get a full core return, I bought the steering gear the replacement pitman arm came off of in order to get a good sector shaft. I pulled the sector shaft and sent it on its own as it saved me probably $30 or so instead of shipping the whole steering gear. Redhead only needed a good shaft as my old box was fine.


Old vs New linkage. It was tweaked just a little.

Redhead in its home.

And the sector shaft I pulled in order to get some more $$ back. Yes, it cost me a little to buy the JY gear and to ship the shaft, but it was a pretty decent net gain compared to how much they kept from my core charge for the bad shaft.

 

@84mudhorse It was nuts, that's for sure.

On an unrelated note, we can't delete our own posts in this thread apparently. So here's my placeholder for accidentally posting my next segment meant to go up tomorrow.

 

Two and a half months for body work to be completed is acceptable, am I right? Guys? No?

Rust is the bane of all Bronco owners everywhere, we all already know. I try to be proactive about any issues that arise out of my Bronco up to and including rust. So when some very small bubbling started happening under the paint on my quarter panels at the edge of my rear wheel wells, I started looking for a body shop that could take care of it, and four other spots of concern, right away.

No one will deal with rust, as it turns out. Of the dozen or so body shops within 25 miles of me that I called and visited, just 2 said they'd be willing to take care of the rust without replacing the entire quarter panel. One looked super shady and had zero reviews. The other had a copious amount of positive yelp reviews, so I went to that one.

I was assured that the rust would be fixed, with warranty, in just 1 week. Wow! That's pretty good! Done deal.

I check with the shop almost every week for the next 9.5 weeks.

• Week 1: No contact. I reach out to the shop and am assured with just a few more days, it'll be complete.
• Week 2: No contact. I reach out and am told the rust is as expected, but it'll be more time.
• Week 4: No contact. I text the owner and am informed a required tool broke, and they are waiting for the new one.
• Week 6: No contact. I text the owner with no response.
• Week 7: No contact. I call the shop. New tool arrived DOA, new one will arrive in 3 days. Job will be done in one week.
• Week 8: No contact. I call the shop. No answer. I text. No answer. I call later in the day. I'm asked if it's my daily, and I reply that it is, as we discussed when I dropped it off. I made it a point that it was, and that I can't afford a rental for weeks. "Oh shit!" It'll be done in 1 week.
• Week 9: I call earlier in the week, apprehensive of more delay. He'll call me back. He doesn't.

I call the next day. I'm chastised for not waiting for a call back. The guy working my truck is out sick, guaranteed it'll be done at the end of the week. Spoiler: It's not.

I call at the end of the week. Apparently, the guy working my truck has a family emergency. And the owner's dog has died.

ಠ__ಠ​

He offers me a personal vehicle to drive. Very uncomfortable with the idea of being responsible for that, I decline. I ask in the form of a statement to see my Bronco.

No. Work. Has. Been. Done. Not since Week 1 when the quarters were cut open.

Now, I made five very specific repair requests. Only one of them was touched, and only barely started.

90% chance the repairs will be done by the end of the month, more than 2 weeks away. I immediately get extremely suspicious (as if I weren't already), enough to plan on getting screwed and devise counter-plans. I state that I need an updated quote.

It's worth noting that in Maryland, no repair can be completed without the express approval of the owner if the repair is more than 10% the initial quote. This comes into play later.

The next day I ask to pick up the Bronco regardless of its state of disrepair in four days, two of which are the weekend. He promises a five hundred dollar discount if it's not done in 6. I reluctantly accept. Tuesday I stop by and peek through the windows of the garage. It has not been touched. I still have not received an updated quote. I demand it again, and state I will be picking up Thursday, regardless of the state of the Bronco.

I pick up late in the day. It's getting dark. It's snowing. I'm completely fed up at this point. Magically, he claims all work has been completed and hands me an updated quote for the first time. It is 58% higher than the original. In my frustration, anger, and need-induced short-sightedness, I paid with the intent to resolve it later with only a superficial glance at the "repairs". The next day, I look more thoroughly.

Rust under the tailgate and on the rain gutters appears to have been just painted over.

Tape left everywhere from the paintjob as well as clearcoat overspray in many places.

Bubbles in the paint everywhere as well as grooves in the body putty underneath. I put a magnet to the area to make sure there is at least metal under the body putty. These are just the easiest spots to make out on camera.

And no more than one week later, the paint bubbled, burst, and leaked... whatever this is, everywhere, on both quarter panels.

I'm still working through this whole issue. In the meantime, she still helps me get moved, the overhead console dies and I fix that via junkyard diving, the radiator leaks and gets replaced, and I fail at my attempt to rewire my tailgate harness to get more power to the rear window motor.

And the obligatory glamour photo while on a road trip to Ghettysburg.

And though she's still got life in her, she's old. She creaks and groans and sometimes leaks and gets some attitude. At this point, it's probably best to put her to pasture and let her have an easier life. Is it really worth putting all that money into her to make her exactly what I'd like, or wouldn't it be better to just get a newer F150?

 

or wouldn't it be better to just get a newer F150?

 

Yo Impact,
"..., or wouldn't it be better to just get a newer F150?"

 

@Doosenberry Whats the fuel mileage like with the 4.56 and 35's? Cruising RPM?

Thanks!

 

There's not a whole lot of mud around where I live, even when it rains, but on this particular day there was just enough to have a little fun.

I brought my kids with me and they seemed to like it.

At one point I noticed the coolant temp on my Sniper was at about 205*, so I began to freak out a little bit. The 351M always seemed to run cold and would barely break 160*. I thought maybe I hit something, like my radiator, and sprung a leak. I got out and popped the hood to take a peek. Turns out it was just mud caked over everything and it plugged up the radiator a bit.

I think about the highest it got to was 208*, so I drove it back into town and hit up a local car wash, so I could pressure wash things off. After that it did it's usual cold blooded stuff.

I also noticed I had smacked me new skid plate pretty good while having our fun, but it looks like it held up good. Just a little bend and some paint.

On another trip out across the canyon I decided to see what the factory suspension could do as far as flex. This was with the swaybars on as well.

I think that was close to the limits, before the back left wheel wanted to come off the ground anyway.

And some shots from across the canyon. This bridge (Perrine Bridge) is popular for BASE jumpers. Any time the weather is good, you're sure to see at least one out there getting lined up for a jump over the railing. It's also a short distance from where Evel Knievel made his failed jump across the canyon.

If you open this pic up at 100%, you can see the jump he used off to the left in the pic along the horizon. It's very small in the picture. It kinda looks like the beginning of an Egyptian pyramid. Also, if you're wondering how close to the edge I was, I was maybe 5-10 feet from driving off Thelma and Louise style. I'm also not a fan of heights. lol.

 

So while I've had this Bronco it hasn't been my only project. It was actually meant to be like.. my secondary project, though that's clearly changed.

Story time.

I used to have a 2wd long bed '75 F150 with a 460 that had been rebuilt to around 425hp. I really liked the truck and did a lot of stupid things with it, but had always wanted to put the drive train into a short bed truck of a similar year (dentside) as I prefer the short bed trucks. Well, I blew up the engine maybe six months to a year before I came across the short bed '77 F100 that I currently own. Guess I should have been a little nicer to that engine, it was purely abuse and neglect on my part. After that, it sat around for a few years in its broken state while I lived life. I even towed the truck around with me as I had moved a couple of times.

Fast forward. It was time to do something with that truck. I had no interest in keeping it anymore and it was really becoming a rust bucket. I figured I had to save what I could and then finally cut my losses on the thing, I had dragged it around with me from place to place for long enough.

I don't have many pics of that particular truck, but this will give you an idea of what shape it was in.

I decided to dismantle the 460 out of the '75 to see what was savable as I wanted to recreate what I had destroyed. Knowing at the very least some of the internals were destroyed, I picked up a donor 460 out of a mid-80's F250 and I was hoping I would be able to just put the heads off my engine onto the short block of the donor engine out of the F250. Mind you, this was all in an attempt to have another 460 built and put into my F100 and not my Bronco.

The truck was towed over to the mechanic I go to a lot. I had them pull the engine and tranny out as cheaply as possible, which is why the radiator support is hacked up, and they plopped that combo in the bed of my F100 for me to take home. I went back later and stripped off a bunch of other parts I felt like saving from the truck and then we sent it off to the scrap yard.

It turns out, among many other things, the condition of the heads wasn't as good as I had hoped. I figured I'd let the machine shop have the final say, as I'm no expert, so I took from the engine what I thought might be borderline salvageable which ended up being the heads and crank. The block was clearly toast.

"Ran when I pulled it." The donor engine I bought turned out to be not that great either and needed machine work to be usable. Things were going so smoothly!... I eventually got word from the machine shop that they would be able to save both the heads and the crank from my old engine. I brought them the short block version of the donor engine I bought, so they could go through and see if the donor block was good. I figured I'd need a little time to figure things out, so I told them I wasn't in a hurry to get things done and that there was no rush. Whenever they get to it they get to it.

Then, one day while I was making the rounds through a local salvage yard, as I'm sure several of us on here do, I spotted what turned out to be a 1970 460 (probably out of a big ol' Lincoln) that had been swapped into a '75 F100 Supercab truck. The early 460's (68-71) have heads with smaller combustion chambers and are higher compression than the later 460's.

I initially just wanted the heads for potential use on a later build, but after I began pulling things apart the engine appeared to be in great condition overall. So, what I ended up doing was pulling that 1970 460 and buying it with the intention of putting it into my F100 and then taking the 460 I was piecing together and putting that into my Bronco. The 460 out of the 80's F250 already had a rear sump oil pan/pickup and exhaust manifold's that would fit the Bronco, so it somehow made sense or should I say I made it make sense.

 

No, no it wouldn't be a better idea to get a newer F150. Of course I'd rather build her; I love the Bronco for nearly every feature it has, and I'm not particularly willing to give all that up.

I would love to regale you all with the multitude of reasons I have for loving the Bronco, and for deciding to spend my savings building it rather than getting into something newer. But it's too much. So here's some of the big ones. Building instead of buying will: cost half as much as buying new, give me precisely what I want, how I want it, pride, and most importantly, I keep my Bronco. If you'd like to know more, feel free to ask!

Now that I've committed to turning my beloved daily into a daily project, what do I want to do? I love the amenities of today, the reliability and mechanics of the past, and technology, so upgrades galore! My initial high-level list of upgrades were:

• Professional-level Sound deadening. Not just some rattle trap, truly go all-out. She's noisy, but doesn't have to be.
• Insulation. AC and heat have to work really hard to keep that much interior space at temp.
• New seats. I prefer something bench-like up front over the captain's chairs.
• Reupholstery. The King Ranch look appeals to me, but not the cost of the material.
• New flooring. My carpet was in pretty bad shape.
• Double Din stereo. Let's get some tech in here and add some nice things like TPMS, forward/rear cameras, GPS, and Android Auto.
• Diesel swap. Of the copious reasons behind this, the big ones are: Better mileage, great towing, great offroad for overlanding, and parts availability.

And I'm off! I can't express enough just how much reasearch and prep and work I put into getting ready for these projects, and then again during them. For more details, feel free to ask or check out my build thread. The next few posts will be seriously lacking in detail because there is so much of it. Anyway, enough of that.. on to the exciting stuff!

I found a 96 F250 at a junkyard near me. It was hit broadside, but in the pictures it looked like it had the 40/20/40 bench seats I wanted in it. I pack my tools and get there the same day since 250's and better are rare in my local yards.

Needles are everywhere among the trash littering the entire floor of this truck. The dash is disgusting with grime, there's duct tape everywhere, and the door panels are practically destroyed. The seats, though, appear in much better shape. I pull on some gloves and with extreme diligence, I spend an hour picking away the trash and take a really good look at the floor before I crawl in to inspect the seats. After some fighting with the rusty bolts, I take home the seats for a whopping $90.

I'm not too worried about the fabric of the seat as I plan to get them reupholstered. Initially I drove hard for King Ranch leather, but it was going to more than double the quote for reupholstering. So I went with something that I liked instead, which is kind of similar. Vinyl for the durability and ease of cleaning, and Terracotta (a porsche pattern) for the King Ranch vibe.

I also researched and came across Sound Deadener Showdown in my sound deadening and insulating searches. What a treasure trove of information (Thanks Don!). I decided to pick up materials. The materials would achieve both sound deadening and insulation simultaneously, two birds with one stone. Luck would have it that his shop was only an hour and a half or so from me, so I stopped in. I got Constrained Layer Damper (CLD) tiles to eliminate panel resonance, Mass-Loaded Vinyl (MLV) for blocking outside noise and insulation, Closed Cell Foam (CCF) to decouple the MLV from the truck's hard surfaces, Hydrophobic Malamine Foam (HMF) for midrange sound deadening and insulation, and some Butyl Rope to stuff in places where two panels might be rattling together.

After getting it home, I tried my hand at the sound deadening process on my tailgate since it was a much smaller area that would require less work to do. It was still pretty involved.

While I was in there, I put up a plastic painter's sheet to prevent water from dripping through the access panel and getting my floor wet. The factory solution was long gone, if it was ever there. Worked like a charm! The deadening, even though just on the tailgate, made a massive difference. It also made the tailgate seat more easily when closing it due to the added mass.

Rather unexpectedly, the perfect gem I'd been looking for over 2 months long suddenly popped up in an area near me. In the middle of all my other projects, I dropped them to go and get it. Then the real challenge began.