What not to do when fixing a bronco

englewoodcowboy · Sep 22, 2016

I have a 77 in the shop that my customer bought and it was sold to him as being freshly built. It is a disaster to say the least.

When you need to replace the rear floor and it is rotted all the way around, it is not ok to lift the edges of the pans up to solid metal. When you replace a floor pan and you want to do a lap joint, that lap over should not be more that 1/2" not 2 to 3". When you weld in floor pans, less is more when welding. Rosettes done properly are very strong and there is no need to seam weld everything....

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Hopstr · Sep 22, 2016

Wow! That's terrible! I feel sorry for the guy who bought that.

englewoodcowboy · Sep 22, 2016

You and me both... I hate the fact that someone misrepresented this but it is also how I make my living fixing them right. I have no issues with someone who is green and learning their way through but they need to seek help like this wonderful board on doing things right instead of throwing good money after bad. This bronco had all new floor pans and they are being cut out for scrap and new ones will be going back in due to all of the seam welds etc. it is just not cost effective to try and reuse them. We started in today on fixing the passenger side door post, inner kick and rocker panel. I am debating on repairing the striker post or replacing it. Besides the entire new rear floor as well as driver and passenger floor pans, we have already replaced the entire cowl, The doors had so much bondo in the bottoms of them they will also be getting some serious attention in short order. I am hoping to have this one wrapped up and tested and debut it at SC 2017. I will say it will have some unique features and will be a LUBR.

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suckerpunched · Sep 22, 2016

Looks like it's going to be fixed right this go round. poor guy is gonna buy that Bronco twice.

englewoodcowboy · Sep 22, 2016

At least it's new owner is genuinely thrilled to have it made right.

Hopstr · Sep 22, 2016

Almost looks like buying a new fully assembled tub would have been the way to go.

englewoodcowboy · Sep 23, 2016

Hopstr said:
Almost looks like buying a new fully assembled tub would have been the way to go.

It looks like it is expensive but a new tub is 10K Plus the work to make it right..., repairing this one will be a lot cheaper in the long run for him.

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TTTGOWYO · Sep 23, 2016

Wow, that is terrible. At least she found her way to the right set of hands that will fix her right. Side note, I see my grill and dash in the background.

Hurry up and get this and the red one done will ya??

just kidding..

tasker · Sep 23, 2016

look at you go!!! very nice work!!

englewoodcowboy · Sep 23, 2016

TTTGOWYO said:
Wow, that is terrible. At least she found her way to the right set of hands that will fix her right. Side note, I see my grill and dash in the background. Hurry up and get this and the red one done will ya?? just kidding..

We will be into yours before you know it. This bronco was the first in but will not be the first out due to the amount of work it needs. The red bronco will be moving into body next week sometime and paint shortly after that. The longest delay on the red one will be waiting on the BC soft top which had a 10 week delay....

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BoureeOne · Sep 23, 2016

The piece you are using to make the passenger side cowl, where the air vent would have been, level with the drivers side. Is that something you made, or is it available from a vendor?

Master Chief · Sep 23, 2016

This seems like a good thread to ask what you professionals are doing about the factory overlap and the common rot area of the inner fenders shown below in your photo. Is there a special chemical treatment that you use during assembly, or do you simply paint the pieces first?

Nice work by the way.

Roger

englewoodcowboy · Sep 23, 2016

BoureeOne said:
The piece you are using to make the passenger side cowl, where the air vent would have been, level with the drivers side. Is that something you made, or is it available from a vendor?

That is fabricated in house to make room for our A/C package.

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englewoodcowboy · Sep 23, 2016

Master Chief said:
This seems like a good thread to ask what you professionals are doing about the factory overlap and the common rot area of the inner fenders shown below in your photo. Is there a special chemical treatment that you use during assembly, or do you simply paint the pieces first?

Nice work by the way.

Roger

Thank you for the compliment. How I deal with that area is to coat both sides with SEM copper weld through primer. When it is finished, we then seam seal it well. This particular bronco, the inner fenders did not rot, they just had surface rust but the overlaping inner kick panel had rotted away at the floor pan area so I cleaned the loose rust off with a wire wheel then treated it with Ospho to convert the iron oxide to iron phosphate, then did the weld through primer over that.

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Master Chief · Sep 23, 2016

englewoodcowboy said:
Thank you for the compliment. How I deal with that area is to coat both sides with SEM copper weld through primer. When it is finished, we then seam seal it well. This particular bronco, the inner fenders did not rot, they just had surface rust but the overlaping inner kick panel had rotted away at the floor pan area so I cleaned the loose rust off with a wire wheel then treated it with Ospho to convert the iron oxide to iron phosphate, then did the weld through primer over that.

Perfect. I am probably not the only one who ponders what to do to treat this area, so thank you for sharing your knowledge to the masses.

Roger

maup · Sep 23, 2016

Wow nice work...don't have the funds for that right now, but I'll have to keep you all in mind if I ever get around to doing bodywork. The patina look is in anyways haha...

How long does it take to turn one around if you are not having to wait on parts? Mine would need striker posts, floor pans, left and right front fenders, the rest is pretty solid as far as I can tell, but I'm no expert.

englewoodcowboy · Sep 23, 2016

maup said:
Wow nice work...don't have the funds for that right now, but I'll have to keep you all in mind if I ever get around to doing bodywork. The patina look is in anyways haha...

How long does it take to turn one around if you are not having to wait on parts? Mine would need striker posts, floor pans, left and right front fenders, the rest is pretty solid as far as I can tell, but I'm no expert.

It all depends on what is there, what can be worked with and what needs to just be replaced. The one we are working on right now is eating up time because I am having to undo what was previously done so instead of just hitting most spot welds with a cutter and popping them with an air chisel or panel knife I am having to use cut off wheels and grind through lots of seam welds etc. I have a red 76 that is getting front door post repairs, front inner fender walls and raising the cowl to add AC and it will be done and into body for paint sometime Wednesday or Thursday. Right now we are booked out about a year and a half. I have 4 builds here now and another coming in around April. Turn around is reasonable once it is brought into the shop and would be greatly determined by what it needs, what you want us to do etc. A full nut and bolt restoration takes anywhere from 9 months to a year to do.

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maup · Sep 23, 2016

Understandable, each case is different - mine has never been 'fixed' except for the floor pans that are actually just screwed in right now, and someone did some pretty decent work on the rear wheel wells.

Still its nice to know there is a body shop that knows what they are doing within 2 hours of here!

TTTGOWYO · Sep 26, 2016

englewoodcowboy said:
We will be into yours before you know it. This bronco was the first in but will not be the first out due to the amount of work it needs. The red bronco will be moving into body next week sometime and paint shortly after that. The longest delay on the red one will be waiting on the BC soft top which had a 10 week delay....

Oh, Tom, I know. Just giving you a hard time. ;D I am just happy it is there and I can feel great knowing it will be done the right way. I am enjoying watching these other builds as well.

BoureeOne · Sep 26, 2016

englewoodcowboy said:
That is fabricated in house to make room for our A/C package.

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I would be willing to pay for one if want to make another one...

Scott

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