Keep'n it Steel. My 69 build

Next was on to front end and fender flares. I had long ago cut out the core support and now wanted to remove the inner fender wheel wells. I cut them out and then ran 1" x 2" box on edge from the door pillars out under the inside edge of the fenders all the way out to the grill. at this time the front end was just hanging there with the core support's body mounts having been removed as well. The body was sitting on a 1 1/2" body lift. So what I did was push the front end down 1 1/4" to the frame and weld in some new body mounting tabs to keep it there. This did 2 things that I wanted to happen. One it closed the gap between the grill and the front bumper that comes with a body lift and two buy pushing the grill down with the door pillars fully braced. It forced the upper portion of the fenders to bulge outward and continue that subtle prerunner front end effect. The new steel fender flair was then grafted on as an extention to the factory flair using heavy 16 gauge. It was also brought back into the inside and welded in. So that the flair is boxed and attached to the 2 x 4 rocker at one end and the 1 x 2 box steel framing at the grill. This makes the fender very strong.

You ARE the Tinman.

The rear flairs came next basically the same deal only there was no factory flair to graft an extension onto and boxing them in meant bringing the steel all the way in to the bed wheel wells. I like that the voids up inside the quarter panels has been closed off. On the drivers side I had to be sure that I didn't make getting the fuel filler necks installed impossible but it wasn't very hard to make that work. Same as the front once those flairs are boxed in back to the body everything becomes incredibly solid. I should note that before closing up the flairs the inside got a healthy coating of etch primer and rubberized coating.

So I have to correct the order I said things had happened. I left out the mod I mad to the pillars after the rockers where in. I think this ended up being a cool mod.
If you look at the pillars front or rear. Inside from the door rubber fang that attaches to the inner kick panel you'll see the raised edge running top to bottom. This is where the pillar sets back a bit to the surface the hinges or on the other side the latch post attaches to. It seemed to me that most if not all the rust I needed to deal with in those pillars was along that edge mostly at the bottom of the pillar. The steel from that raised edge to the outside of the pillars seemed to be in good shape. So rather than cut out the whole pillar I cut down that edge. I then cut down the inside kick panel 2" in from the base of the door rubber fang and removed the whole inside corner from each pillar by connecting those two cuts at each end with a 2" square hole through the floor and clearing some cowling steel from the same 2" square area of the top of the cuts. Now with a large 2" wide top to bottom opening to the inside of the pillars it was easy to address any rust that was happening inside. Then coat inside before using 2": x 2" box steel that ran from the cowl down through the floor and then elbowed out to meet the inside of the 2" x 4" rocker and fully welded to it and the cut edge of pillars and the cut edge of the right and left front kick panels where stitch welded to the new 2 x 2 box tube posts. I should mention that a 2" x 2": post was added to the side of thr tailgate pillars as well. I now had solid u shaped door jabs at the same time I had removed and replaced the steel floor under the seats and raised the area under the passenger seat to be the same as the rest of the bed. The floor support steel under the tub was also replaced with 1" x 4" boxed tube. The ends where notched out for and welded off to the sides of the new 2" x 2" box pillar posts as they passed through the floor and down to the sides for the rockers.This connects the u shaped box steel door jambs together and to the tube floor supports that will eventually be bolted down to the frame. The top of these new integrated steel posts would later tie into and become the legs of my 6 point roll cage.

Lots of work there.. But will be well worth it.. Keep on hammering at it brother..

This is probably a stupid question, would a 74 body bolt into a 69? I have a legal registered 69 that has rust issue,s and a 74 that has registration issue,s but a nice body, would they swap out easily? Or would that be a travesty? Should I just fix the parts that need fixing on the 69 and sell of the parts of the 74?

B59 said:

This is probably a stupid question, would a 74 body bolt into a 69? I have a legal registered 69 that has rust issue,s and a 74 that has registration issue,s but a nice body, would they swap out easily? Or would that be a travesty? Should I just fix the parts that need fixing on the 69 and sell of the parts of the 74?

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if you have the titles for both, swap body's no problems. will bolt right up without any issues

B59 said:

This is probably a stupid question, would a 74 body bolt into a 69? I have a legal registered 69 that has rust issue,s and a 74 that has registration issue,s but a nice body, would they swap out easily? Or would that be a travesty? Should I just fix the parts that need fixing on the 69 and sell of the parts of the 74?

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That is the perfect scenario.

With an internal frame built into the rockers, pillars, spanning door to door, and extending out to the grill. The tub no longer needed to be supported while off the frame. so I removed the bracing that had been keeping things in place and bolted a piece of unistrut steel to the seat bolt down points in the floor. this allowed me to easily adjust a lifting point that balanced the weight at the center of the tub. I could now lift the tub from an overhead beam using the bronco's wench mounted to it. This actually worked out well in place of a rotisserie. once lifted with the doors off with one finger I could now tilt the tub 90* side to side and 45*+ end to end and lift it high over head as well. Then with tie downs coming from the corners above down to the tub I could secure it to work on it in any orientation I put it in. Most of the time it was just lowered onto a couple of saw horses. I continued the build with the dash and console. My Bronco had never had a dash pad from when I first picked it up and I also had always felt that I would like to be able to reach the dash without having to lean forward from my seat. So in keeping with the idea of the cage being grafted into the body the plan make the dash pad and cage dash cross bar one and the same. I cut the back of my old dash off just in front of the defrost vents and stitch welded it to a pice of 2" x 4" box steel then reinstalled it to the cowl. Now with the cross bar/ dash pad hung in place I built arms that cantilever out from the door pillars to the under side of the 2 x 4 dash bar. these arms supported the dash and had 4 point bolt down pads welded to the ends. I drilled through the holes in the mounting plates up through the dash to another mounting plate on the top of the dash. Cut some 1 3/4" pieces of 1/2" pipe for anti crush spacers between the holes inside the 2 x 4 box dash bolted the dash to the arms and tacked the ends of the anti crush pieces in place on the inside of the steel dash. now the idea was to hang the old dash from under the 2 x 4 dash bar 4 inches further out. but after playing with it a little I soon realized I would need to build a new dash to achieve what I wanted.

bronkenn said:

That is the perfect scenario.

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Yeah, make one right w/what you got...

This is probably a stupid question, would a 74 body bolt into a 69? I have a legal registered 69 that has rust issue,s and a 74 that has registration issue,s but a nice body, would they swap out easily? Or would that be a travesty? Should I just fix the parts that need fixing on the 69 and sell of the parts of the 74?

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I've been Hijacked by B59. WTF?

jonpblewis@yaho said:

I've been Hijacked by B59. WTF?

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It happens brother.. on occasion. forgive and forget? :-X;D

jonpblewis@yaho said:

I've been Hijacked by B59. WTF?

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Sometimes I think people must think they are in another thread when they post. For all I know I may be guilty and don't even know it! Anyhow, keep us posted on your great work!

Yeah I think that's how it happens. lol. For the record I'm not the kind of guy that would ever get upset about something like that. It's just that I subscribed to my thread so I'd know if I should check out what the Bronco Brothers have to say and hopefully get some motivation as I'm over it at this point and want to be done yesterday. What do I read when I log in? Everybody wants me to swap tubs. lol

The dash and forward console face was formed from one piece of 18g sheet. I had made a pattern using heavy poster board. Once I had it formed to the shape I was happy with I removed it flattened my template onto the sheet metal and cut it out. Getting the flat sheet metal worked into the shape its template had come from without tweaking it beyond recovery turned out to be very challenging. I almost gave up thinking I would have to cut it into sections and weld it back together but I got lucky. After getting the torch out and applying some heat to the areas that needed to relax things finally push and pulled into place. After working / fighting it into its position and securing it to the tunnel I started making my cutouts for controls. vents, a 7" touch screen head unit, steering shaft, the old gauge cluster, windshield fold down knobs, push button start/stop, etc... When designing the new dash I wanted to retain the classic Bronco feel. So parts of the old dash where grafted into the new. The glove box opening was cut out and welded in as well as the ash tray box. I wasn't sure about the ash tray but that little tilt out box like the glove box door, gauge cluster, and fold down windshield knobs just seemed signature to the classic dash. So I found new homes for them in the remodel and I'm glad I did. The new dash with its old parts I think really helps make it look kinda factory or at least like it belongs in the Bronco. Behind the steering wheel I built a housing for A string of 2" gauges. A few redundant like oil pressure, volts, and temp. Then room for a few more Trans temp & pressure, vacuum, and a tachometer. To offset the gauge pod I added a tube steel grab bar on the passengers side.
Next came a rack that would hold the shiftier s. Twin sticks for the transfer case and a Hurst ratchet shiftier. The twin sticks needed to move back from where the dash console came out and covered the tunnel where the sticks come up through. Rather than the levers rocking forward and back I attached the shiftier handles to slides with linkage that ran to the shift levers behind the dash. So now they move forward and back without rocking. Behind those sits the Hurst for the 4r70w. All three mount to a frame and come up through a chrome grill that fits into the dash and extends out between the seats.

Piece of art right there!

Hell of a work of art This will be a cool one to keep an eye on

With the new dash in place and extended out into the cab almost 5" from where it used to be. Sitting in the seat it felt really good to have it closer. Everything was in arms reach without having to hardly lean forward at all to touch the stereo and other controls. I was really pleased with how it turned out except for one thing. When I hung the doors the sides of the dash now came out and covered the front portion of the interior door panel. It just looked wrong. the way the border of the Trapezoid panel disappeared behind the sides of the dash and the gap between the door and the sides of the dash was large enough to make it seem out of place. This along with some other wishes for how the doors could be sealed my decision to rebuild the inside door panel. the other things I hoped to address with this project where. One I like to drive with my arm resting on top of the door. With the window down that is no problem but with it up there is almost no edge to lay my arm on. Second a while back while gathering some parts to use on this build at the Pick Your Part yard where I was removing a powered radio antenna from a 2007 (I think) Cadillac. Anyways this Cadi had all the factory up grades and I noticed that its door speakers where made by Bose and where housed in really nice bose acoustic boxes. So I grabbed them thinking I could work them into my build someday. I had been disappointed that they ended up being just a little thick to fit down inside the front lower corner of the doors. Other considerations when it came to the doors where the power window actuators I had decided on using held the glass in a carriage that ran up and down a rail centered between the guides the glass slides in. So with all this in mind I started cutting on the inside of the doors.
First I cut out the the trapezoid door panels about a half inch outside the raised bead that creates the border around the interior panel and that was being covered by the new dash. using a pice of 2 1/4" steel pole I cut it in half and spread it open from 1/2 pipe to 1/4 round and then miter cut ends of pieces to create raised frame around the top bottom and latch end of the door just inside from where the original door surface made contact with the rubber door seal and just above the taller floor the seats sit on. The center interior panel i'd cut out earlier was then shortened 4" by cutting out a 4"section and rejoining the halves . Then the new resized panel was located into the rased frame . I set it a little further up and back from it's original location and I also swapped them to move the inside release paddle handle forward from where the panel had moved back to.
The inside door skin in the front lower corners where I wanted the speaker box to go needed some relief cuts made into the corner to allow the box to set in place. once everything was in place I cut patches to fill in the voids and made a flange teardrop ring around the speaker and box port that will hold a speaker grill.

With the dash and inside door skins fabed up. I moved my attention to a new 6 point role cage. My goals for the cage where to have it fit tight to the inside of the hard top when it was on. When the top is off most of the time. I need it to work with a custom bikini top I'm building. I had done a fair amount of thinking about the cage I would like to try and build over the years. The idea I had was to have it look more of an extension of the body. What I think makes the Bronco so pleasing to the eye is its curves and rounded corners offset the over all boxy shape of the tub and top. I decided to achieve that effect the cage steel needed smooth curves and retain the boxy squareness by using rectangular box steel in place of round pipe. bending square tube is not at all the same as pipe.

Woh thats amazing