[raleigh]

Wow, first in!

Most of you know my Bronco I think, my name is Dave and I bought it in July of
2011, drove it while I fixed some mechanical issues and made it a bit more trail
friendly. Then in January of 2012 I decided to make a project out of it. The details
of the project were still up in the air at that time but it came together nicely I think.

I hope you all enjoy my pics and god luck to all the contestants!

Think I will start off with a nice before and after then start in on the progression
of the Bronco with some newer shots mixed in.

The day I first bought her

And how she sits today

 

[raleigh]

First things first, it's a Bronco with no AC, the top had to come off!

Drove it stock for about a month or so, the gold wheels were a big hit [/sarcasm] lol

Worked on getting it more reliable since it was my daily driver at the time.
Resealed the top end and replaced the badly worn valve guide seals.

New oil pan gasket since this thing sat for a few years all the seals were dried up and leaking.

 

[raleigh]

It is at the top of the page, just scroll up to the top.

 

[raleigh]

This thread needs more pictures from the contestants before I pass my vote.

GET CRACKIN' LADIES and/or GENTLEMEN!


_

Patience man, it's a long month!

Here ya go, maybe this will tide you over til tomorrow.
Installed a new CB this weekend, had it tuned and is outputting 35 watts, pretty decent!

 

[raleigh]

The grill and bumper were a bit messed up and I have never liked chrome all that much
so I found a nice grill shell and bumper and painted them grey.

Then I snatched up a 4 barrel intake and carb to wake the old tired 351 up a bit

Added a small tach and painted the bezels grey also, the wood trim was not to my liking

 

[raleigh]

Soon after this I found a set of cheap 33" tires, they fit well with no lift but
I got bored of that pretty quickly so I ordered a 6" lift from JBG, up it went!

Wish I had gotten more pics of the lift going in but I had to install in the street and had to
get it done as quick as possible.

Needed some step to climb in after the lift, but being on a budget I needed to get creative.
Cut 2 lengths of chain to 18" and drilled a couple holes, presto!

Found a set of 37" Super Swampers in Idaho falls which was about 4 hours away, so it was road trip time!
This was the first long trip with the Bronco, I was a bit worried but it made the trip with flying colors.

 

[raleigh]

Took the Bronco on it's first trail ride since the restoration today, what a blast!
I forgot how much fun these trips are.
We drove almost 100 miles today about 70 of it on dirt.
It was me and a couple of friends, one in his 66 Bronco and the other in his 70 F100 2wd.
He did very well considering it was 2wd, had to take a couple of bypasses but he hung in there.

Stopped at this old Saloon for lunch, real good burgers

My favorite pic of the day

Took the opportunity to climb a little hill, I got a pick at the top, my buddy has a few pics of the climb, I will post those when I get them.

After lunch we follow a power line road to an old dry lake bed

Ran along the tracks for a while, train went by at that time, kids went nuts over that

I got more pics to post later, internet is being slow right now

 

[raleigh]

Here are the rest of the pics from yesterday's trip

These are from the bottom of the hill, it was a steep little trail to the top

We stopped on the powerline road to air down one of the trucks that met us half way

This was before the trail started, airing down the tires, the Bronco is still clean lol

Back to the build pics tomorrow!

 

[raleigh]

Okay guys, back to the build, or atleast what I call the Old Bronco Pics...

The very first excursion I took the Bronco on, what a blast that was. One of the best camping trip I have ever been on.

One of the wedges on the rear axle broke causing a nasty axle wrap which broke the rear u joint, spent about 45 minutes securing the rear axle and removing the rear drive line, pulled out in front wheel drive!

The final destination was definitely worth it though

Needless to say I had make to a change to the rear lift, shackle flip time, didn't get any pics pf that as it was a rush job to get my daily driver at the time back on the road. :twak
I did a shackle flip with an ORD Zero Rate to recenter the axle, no issues after that.

 

[raleigh]

Nice looking rig Nick!

Good to see we are all in now, this is going to be on helluva good month.

Thought I would sneak in a bonus post before bedtime!
Here is a peek at the next mod, and honestly one of the best decisions I made, Holley TBI

And a preview of tomorrow's post, a fun little wheeling trip

 

[raleigh]

Time for some old trail pics.

Before the rebuild started I wheeled the hell out of the Bronco, most of the trips I didn't get pics of.

This was a trail clean up project, we got about 30 rigs out that day, what a good time

This is a trail network called The Snakes, it was a very popular system. You could drive trails for days up there.

 

[raleigh]

Thanks for the words Pepe, you are one of the biggest enthusiasts of this competition, thanks for helping to keep it alive man.

Now back to the goods!

Went out on one last trip before the tear down began, had a nice little dusting of snow, that made things interesting

Going up a hill with walls on both sides I got a little sideways and broke the adjustable track bar

This was before I decided to do a full resto so I fabbed a drop frame mount, the angles sucked anyhow!

About a month later the tear down began! Originally it was going to be a Bronco body on a 99 Superduty chassis but that fell through
This was the body I found

And the donor chassis

Well this was not to be so I went down a different road.
The beginning stages of the resto were lots of fun lol

 

[raleigh]

I was going to say I was surprised you didn't take the opportunity to throw a locker in while you had it apart.
Now that I am running trails with mine (something I did not think I would be doing lol) I am considering taking out my LSD.
Although it did perform very well last weekend so I will take it out a few more time before deciding.

 

[raleigh]

At this point the real work began.

I picked up the red Bronco body and frame which was in much better shape than the one I had.

Had some rust on the floors

Decided to use the frame from the red one, it was in much better shape, just needed to weld on some frame savers then it was off to powder coat

It is a thing of beauty!!!

Love this pic of the old and the new! You can see the original Bronco being loaded on the trailer for scrap. I stripped everything that was salvageable and sellable.

Axles went to a good home, an Early Bronco build up

And off she goes to Bronco Heaven...

 

[raleigh]

Speaking of axle swaps, I picked up this set of '03 F350 axles for a song

A Sterling 10.5" and Dana 60 combo

Complete with Warn Manual Hub conversion

4 wheel disc brakes, sweet!

Began work on the tub, had to see what the condition was like under the paint

Passenger rear had been smashed pretty good, cut it out and replaced it

Fenders look pretty good

Assembling the frame, getting ready for front suspension to go in

More powder coated parts, pretty!

1 1/4" Heims are BIG!

 

[raleigh]

For the finale of our May FOTM competition last year Cstrike and I met up in Kingman for a few pics, was a good time!

Got a few pics on the way there and home
Route 66!!!

 

[raleigh]

Next up is getting the axles ready to go on the chassis

The front axle mounts are Ballistic Fab 7" split coil spring mounts

Got it all painted black and hung the springs

Now it is time for the rear, nothing real special here, the perches were the in the perfect place just
needed to move the shock mounts to the front of the axle and clean it and paint it
I tore down the spring packs and replaced the 2 leafs in each that were cracked and
replaced the pads, here is a shot of the ORD Zero rates moving the axle back 1.5".

Tiem to start fabbing up the front suspesion, really had fun with this.
The frame side mounts are Ruff Stuff mounts welded to a section of frame I had laying around

I added 2 more bolts to the mounts later, there are also 2 in the flange.

Scored a NOS tailgate for $150!!!

 

[raleigh]

Been sitting on this for a couple days, but since we are teasing here you go...

:goodfinge

 

[raleigh]

Dang Rick, you went all in on this one!
How do you like the Bilsteins? I have the MX6 and like them but I am thinking of relocating the
fronts so I will longer shocks if that happens.

 

[raleigh]

I had a really good time building the suspension on this and I learned a lot in the process.
The arms measure just over 51". The original plan was to 4 link the rear (at some point I will do this still)
and have the links mount back to back in the middle of the frame.
Lower links mocked up, they are 2" .25 wall DOM, BEEF!

Heims for the links

Upper links and Y mounts ready to be welded on

Completed radius arms, love the look of these!

Since the 351 ran well I decided to replace the seals and clean it up and put it back in.

Rolling chassis is almost complete!