coby
Jr. Member
All ya'll that are married will get this. When ya get yourself a new fishin' pole....well, your wife gets a new pair of shoes. When ya git yerself a shiney new long gun....well..your wife gets herself a shiney peice o' rock to wear around her neck. And when ya spend a boatload o' money on your Bronco....she gets what she wants.
Hence the name of my build thread. I bet she's gonna look great. (My wife will too!)
Hi, I'm Coby, and I used to be a Bronco guy.
For those that don't know, a while back I had a bronco and I did a buncha stuff to it and beat the livin' piss outta it, (even had Petersen's do a feature on it years back... at Old Article ) but that was then and this is now. At one point I ditched the first wife, and started a real career, and sold my bronco to fine young man here on Classic Broncos. This was back around the turn of the century. I made a buck or two along the way and now I've gone and bought the Black Cloud back (the name of my rig, so named for the parts that would mysteriously shatter once i started pressin' on the long skinny pedal). However, the years haven't been super kind, and I wanted more anyway, so I'm making some changes.
I'm going to list the details of the build as we go and take a bunch of pics. Pics will be in multiple galleries, over at:
Black Cloud Boob Job Pics
New galleries will be added constantly as we go through the build, so if you're interested check often. And if you want specific pics of anything shoot me a note here and I'll get some shots.
Current Bronco:
1973, no top, no doors, exoskeleton and 37" IROKs on H1 double beadlocks.
Motor:
450hp/550ftlb 423ci stroker Windsor, full roller, with Twisted Wedge heads and Trick Flow intake, and multiport SEFI with an EECTuner.
Tranny:
Level 3 modified 700R4
Tcase:
4:1 Atlas
Axles:
Rear braced 9" big bearing with True High9 and a Detroit, 4.88s.
Deaver springs, axle wrap link
Front stock dana 44 housing with ARB and mangled spindle bolts on one side
BC Broncos coils, high falutin' 16" race shock, Twister Wristed Radius arm, flexes great
Buncha other custom stuff....there ain't much on this rig that hasn't been modified a few times, like most.
The Goal:
Bigger meats....42" for general trail use and 40" stickies for true crawlin.
Lots of flex, and the ability to go FAST. I love speed. I've dragraced this rig before and done well. I've gotten 10 feet of air under the tires. I freakin' LOVE dry riverbeds. I hate having to go slow.
I want to keep it fullsized....EB's are small to begin with and this won't be a competition rig...I'm still going to haul the dog and the campin' gear.
What's going in it (i.e.....the porn list of changes for this build)
Front and rear Spidertrax 609 axles, with the F450 unit bearings, and 50deg of steering angle.
TrueHigh9 Mega9's.....5.40 gearing, and ARB's front and rear
King coilovers all the way around. King airbumps all the way around.
Stretch the front forward and the rear rearward. Wheelbase between 104" and 108".
New suspension linkages front and rear.
New fuel cell.
New exoskeleton/rollcage.
New bumpers; cut the frame at the motor mounts forward and at the rear body mounts backwards and fab subframes.
New windshield of speedglass integrated into the cage.
New Mastercraft seats, with lumbar support and heat.
New air pump electronics.
New lights
New winch
Full hydro steering from Howe; rock racing oriented
Wilwood brakes; 14" rotors
buncha body work to get rid of a decade of rust and a few dents here 'n there, and some old school flames and half nekkid chickies painted in various places before the Exo goes on.
I've got lots of design decisions to make. I've made a few already. I welcome any input so let the comments fly if you feel the urge and you're not too bored. I've always learned a ton from all the bright boys 'n girls out there and it ain't gonna stop anytime soon. I'll be starting separate questions in this thread in individual posts.
Another thing I'm planning on doing is laying out all the costs as I go. Lots of folks don't do that and that's a shame. I see this a lot with finances, which is part of what I do during the day and I'm not fond of it there either. The more folks know, the better. The first post I'll make in the thread after this one will be a list of costs to date and I'll keep it updated.
I'm having Aaron Brucker of Brucker Brothers do a lions share of the fab work. He's a long time friend and he was around with me back in the day and he's a hellova fabricator.
Ah, man, I LOVE this stuff!!!
Last edited:
