Chuck's Bronco Project - Tan and Black Rebuild

[bluwave]

Hi everyone,

I've been following this forum for a few years, and I would to say I truly appreciate the wealth of knowledge that this community shares. Honestly, I couldn't have tackled a tenth of this project without the threads on this forum. I purchased my 1967 EB almost 2 years ago without really knowing the ins and outs of old broncos. I've always owned boats and land rovers, so I've had my fair share of time behind a wrench. That said, there was definitely a little bit of a learning curve. This bronco had a lot of work done to it already, but I wanted to repair the shortcuts taken by the previous owner. The dash was my first big project or so I thought.

Here are some shots of how the dash looked like originally. I knew the original dash was probably shot if they used a steel sheet to cover it up.

First step was removing the cover, and as I suspected, the original dash was in pretty rough shape. Also, I flipped the diamond plate door panels around and painted them black. I'm not a huge fan of diamond plate.

After removing aftermarket insultation, I found that the windshield cowling support was completely shot.

I don't really think this was a safety issue, but something I wanted to fix while I had the roll cage off and dash apart. I cut a 2" piece of 16ga steel 48" the length of the cowling and sanded everything down.

This was my first time welding.... I knew the material was pretty thin so I decided to make a lot of tack welds instead of running a long bead.

At this point I opened pandora's box, so I decided to rewire the truck.

I purchased a donor dash on ebay and welded the holes shut. I like to look of the clean original dash.

Added some primer.

I had pretty good results with the 2k clear from amazon

Time to install the new dash.

I think I talked myself into painting the floor with tint-able Raptor liner so I removed the rubber floor cover.

The gauges work after rewiring the truck

This truck has a few original parts, so I want to replace some steering components and add disc brakes. During the planning phase, I noticed the 15's that came with the truck wouldn't work with Tom's disc brake kit, so I picked up some 17's on the FB marketplace for a decent price.

Black Rhino Arsenal 17's

My supervisor. More to come.

 

[DirtDonk]

A great start, to both the Bronco and the discussion thread!
Thanks for joining in and showing us what you’ve been doing.

Can’t wait to see the rest unfold.

 

[BronCowie]

Gotta love the "Pandora's Box" phenomenon, reference the re-wire need. Great job and love the dog shot cooling off under the Bronco!!!

 

[sprdv1]

Nicely done sir

 

[sprdv1]

Can’t wait to see the rest unfold.

for dang sure....

 

[PDQ]

I gotta say, I love the color combo....

How in the heck did you get that out with out taking the cage out and/or column down??

I see the radio hole welded up, what are looking to use as your audio set up?

 

[bluwave]

I gotta say, I love the color combo....

How in the heck did you get that out with out taking the cage out and/or column down??

I see the radio hole welded up, what are looking to use as your audio set up?

Haha, thanks man. I like your color combo. I had to move the cage, but it was pretty easy to unbolt and slide back. The column didn't get in the way after I moved the cage.

The center console has a cutout for a single din radio, but I'm still trying to figure out the best speaker layout. I'd like to make some custom panels for the door so I don't have to do any cutting.

I'm guessing the previous owner hit a rock, because the drag link has a serious bend. I replaced the track bar and coil cups to beef things up so I might as well replace that.

 

[sprdv1]

Good looking ride for sure. got to figure out a stereo myself if I ever can get away from this work crap lol

 

[bluwave]

I added the Tom's brake kit a couple of weeks ago and it made a huge difference. I'm pretty sure the original drums up front were shot.

I'd say these bearings were about to be toast.

The axle shafts looked pretty rough, so I cleaned them up and added a zinc coating. No one will ever see this, but I'm a little ocd.

I got the booster in but the master cylinder started to flash rust the next day. I'll have to clean this up, treat it, and protect it with some POR. I wish I would have coated this before installing.

The new brakes look awesome and the performance increase was well worth the money. Shops around Charleston, SC wanted $2,500-3,000 to install which is just crazy.

Found a guy on Facebook selling interior kits for $380.00 shipped. I thought this was too good to be true but the guy shipped them and said to Paypal him after I received them.

The next item on the list is Windshield Wipers and stereo. More to come.

 

[chuckyb]

Looks good. Nice job on the dash. You will have no regrets about adding the disc brakes and the tintable raptorliner.

 

[DirtDonk]

When you go to order your steering link, the bent part is the tie-rod. The draglink is the shorter one that goes up to the steering box.
The difference won’t matter if you’re replacing at all, but if you decide just to replace the bent one it’d be a bummer to receive the wrong one!
You may already know that and have just been a quick typo, but I wanted to make sure.

Looks like the truck is lifted as well. Have you been driving it much?
How does it steer?
Reason I ask is because the angles on your track bar and drag link look pretty steep. There are no drop brackets or arms installed, and the steeper the angle the more funky the steering.
So if you have more than 2 1/2 inches of lift I would add those two components to your list.

 

[sprdv1]

I added the Tom's brake kit a couple of weeks ago and it made a huge difference. I'm pretty sure the original drums up front were shot.

I'd say these bearings were about to be toast.

The axle shafts looked pretty rough, so I cleaned them up and added a zinc coating. No one will ever see this, but I'm a little ocd.

I got the booster in but the master cylinder started to flash rust the next day. I'll have to clean this up, treat it, and protect it with some POR. I wish I would have coated this before installing.

The new brakes look awesome and the performance increase was well worth the money. Shops around Charleston, SC wanted $2,500-3,000 to install which is just crazy.

Found a guy on Facebook selling interior kits for $380.00 shipped. I thought this was too good to be true but the guy shipped them and said to Paypal him after I received them.

The next item on the list is Windshield Wipers and stereo. More to come.

Awesome..

 

[sprdv1]

Looks good. Nice job on the dash. You will have no regrets about adding the disc brakes and the tintable raptorliner.

Definitely not.. great adds