My '69 Bronco

[hannibal61577]

Thanks guys! Workin' on this Bronco has been a lot of fun so far ;D

Great job on the build, how did you attach the windshield hinge to the cowl? Looks like you welded it to the windshield frame? Thanks and keep up the good work, I like lots of pics!

The hinge was already welded to the cowl when I got it. It appears in great shape, so I didn't bother to replace it. The PO drilled out the spot welds between the hinge and the frame. I just lined up the windshield, clamped it and then welded it back together. I took my time and it went together a lot easier than I expected.

Looking good, you are doing a nice job. Do yourself a favor and put some sealent, seam sealer or whatever, along with the rubber gasket on the windshield frame or it will leak at some point. I always seal up the outside of the hinge with seam sealer before I paint which stops leaks and prevents rust in the future. Keep up the good wrk youll be driving it before long.

Awesome, I will do that. I was wondering about putting some sealant in there. Thanks for the advice!

 

[mattyq17]

Thanks Hannibal, do you have any pics of how and where the welds are on the hinge to cowl? Dont know if I am going to weld it on or screw it to the cowl. Thanks again

 

[hannibal61577]

Thanks Hannibal, do you have any pics of how and where the welds are on the hinge to cowl? Dont know if I am going to weld it on or screw it to the cowl. Thanks again

I'm pretty sure it's just spot welded to the cowl. I have to lay the windshield back down probably this weekend to do some more work, I can get some closer pics for you then. I can just scuff up an area with sandpaper then circle the spot welds with a black marker so you can get an idea of how they attached it.

Doug

 

[mattyq17]

Thanks again Doug that would be great if its not too much work
Matt

 

[hannibal61577]

Thanks again Doug that would be great if its not too much work
Matt

Not at all, Matt. Here are a couple pics I snapped today. I put a dot in the center of each weld with a permanent marker. I don't know if this is the original hinge or if it had been replaced at some point. It appears that they just kinda went willy-nilly with the welds, but they seem to be in groups of two or three. These pics are from the driver's side, seemed to be more welds towards the passenger side.

Hope these help

 

[mattyq17]

Thank you again!

 

[Stutsmo]

Your Bronco is looking pretty good! Its been about a month..... any updates?

 

[hannibal61577]

Your Bronco is looking pretty good! Its been about a month..... any updates?

Thanks!! Unfortunately, no, no updates. We went away for a week at Thanksgiving and then the day after we got home, I ended up with strep throat and pink eye and that wiped me out pretty good. On top of that, my project budget took a pretty good hit. I've also been doing some work on my other project so it's ready for the trails first thing in the spring.

I have seals to bolt the hard top in place on the Bronco, just a few odds and ends to do before that. Way too cold to paint, so that has to wait until the spring. The windshield frame is nearly ready for glass, just have to buy that and the seal, but like I said, budget took a hit so parts will be slower in coming. I also have to put the passenger door back together. Plenty to keep me busy, just need some time. We're travelling for Christmas, too, so everything is going to have to wait until after the holidays. Excuses, excuses.....

The best I've done lately is start her up, pull out of the garage and let her warm up pretty good. Sure wish I had some progress to report!!

 

[J-man]

keep up the great work

 

[hannibal61577]

Got a windshield now!

For the first time since I've owned it, my Bronco has a windshield in it! Got the glass from Early Bronco Specialties right here in Boise. The windshield installation video from Wild Horses was great!

Here is the glass ready to install - seal on the glass and rope installed:

My buddy helped me put this in. Before we started, we watched the Wild Horses video again that showed installation. I joked that they did it in less than 7 minutes, so it should only take us 10 minutes or so. Honest to God, it did. I expected a serious @$$ pain and an hour of work. It went in so easy, I couldn't believe it.

I've got a couple issues here, one is the driver's door upper frame:

And, I don't think the picture shows it very well, but the Bronco started leaning to the drivers side in the front. I made sure it's not a low tire, but other than that, I guess something with suspension

 

[bigpitbull]

I have the same issue with the top of my passenger door. I'm curious as what to do about this..

 

[hannibal61577]

I have the same issue with the top of my passenger door. I'm curious as what to do about this..

Hmmm...funny that I never bothered to post an update - I thought I did. I did end up fixing that window frame. I'll have to go through my pics and see what I have and post some up.

Basically, there were some welds where the upper window frame attaches to the main part of the door that didn't appear to be from the factory. I carefully ground those away and moved the upper frame in to where it should be. Then I tacked it back in place with the MIG.

Of course, it's easier for me to do that since I can just touch up my paint with some Rustoleum.

 

[hannibal61577]

Here are the pics from when I fixed the driver's door window frame.

Before:

Ground at the welds a little bit where the upper window frame meets the main part of the door:

I was then able to move that window frame in where it should be and then used the MIG welder to weld it in place. Here is how it looks now:

Window rolls up and down a lot easier now, too ;D

 

[ky-resto]

Looking good! Keep up the good work!

 

[hannibal61577]

Looking good! Keep up the good work!

Thank you! Work on the Bronco is almost at a standstill right now

I went out to fire her up the other day and found a dead battery. Battery was brand new last summer. Jumped it and while it was running, threw the meter on the battery: 11.8volts. I took the alternator off and had O'Reillys check it out, they said it was good.

Started probing for voltage around the voltage regulator and I found a real corroded terminal on the regulator. Cleaned that up real good and everything is working well again!

 

[hannibal61577]

Work on my Bronco is nearly at a standstill. For months all I did was go start it up for awhile every couple weeks. About a month ago I tried to start it up after it sat for a longer time than usual - maybe 3 weeks or so. First she puked fuel out of the carb then ran like a dog. I was able to get it to idle after awhile - I never really did anything. I started it up again about a week after and it seemed to run fine.

Now that we have some warm weather, I can do a bit of painting. I had a bunch of big plans for the Bronco this summer like getting the passenger seat reupholstered, rear fender flares, some work to the top and paint that, tail gate repair and painting. But, things will go really slow as I have to rebuild an engine for the Willys this summer - that engine has been putting along since about 1951-2. I will try to post any updates as they come.

Before:

After

 

[hannibal61577]

It has been much too long since I've done any work to the Bronco and even longer since I provided an update. Last work I did to it was in the fall.

I picked up a front bumper, spare tire rim and spare tire bracket and hardware from Early Bronco Specialties. I also rattle canned the top with an off white tractor paint.

Here are a few pics:

The big news is that my early birthday present showed up last week: a new Centech wiring harness. I ran into several wiring bugs that I didn't feel like running down so I took the great advice given to me earlier in this build thread and dropped the hammer on the new harness. So, I guess that will be my summer project ;D

I'd also like to go through the brake system, change all the fluids and tune up the engine then see where it's at from there.

 

[hannibal61577]

A lot can happen in 7 months since I updated this thread. The second half of 2013 was a real b!tch for me, but finally around Christmas I got some time to work on the Bronco a little bit.

Since I'm trying to sell the house, I stuffed the Bronco into a storage unit for a couple months until I got sick of it and brought it back so I could do some work on it. My goal is to get it on the road in the next couple months so I can take it to work and use it around there (I ride a van pool back and forth to work).

I took advantage of some really great cyber week deals and bought all the parts for a tune up, change oil pan and valve cover gaskets and to do the rear brakes. I also still had the new Centech wiring harness in the box from the summer. I took off the week of Christmas and planned to spend all week in the garage working on the Bronco. I even borrowed a heater from a buddy of mine so I could stay comfortable.

I made a valiant effort to get the oil pan off from underneath, but it wasn't having any of it, so I said heck with it and left it. I'll get it off when I pull the engine one day. I replaced the valve covers, changed the oil, put in new plugs, wires, cap, rotor and I sprung for a Pertronix ignition module.

While I was waiting for the Pertronix to arrive, I decided to tackle the wiring harness. When I laid the new harness out on the floor and looked at it, I had second thoughts! Maybe I will put up with whatever is causing the turn signal fuse to blow all the time!!

But, I'm not going to spend $500 for nothing, so I got started. Pulled the old harness and started laying in the new one. Followed the instructions and took it nice and easy and it was actually pretty fun. I had the engine compartment and under dash sections mostly in that first day.

The second day, I got the harness ran to the tanks and rear lights and had all that hooked up and also fished the wires up through for the dome light and wipers. An initial quick test that day proved successful. I stopped short of starting it because I still had to install the Pertronix.

Next day I installed the Pertronix, performed the full test of the new harness and it performed great. I'm really pleased at how quick it starts up now. The only little problem I have right now is with the driver side back up light. It works sometimes and it is the electrical connection in the bucket at the bulb, just need to fix that one of these days.

Some pics

Where to start???!!!

Out with the old

Gone!

First leg is through the passenger side

Under dash section is in

Finally other leg is through the firewall and into the engine compartment

A shot of the Pertronix in the dizzy

My engine is still kind of in unknown condition to me. I haven't gotten around to doing compression or anything like that, but I know it used to take a bit to start. It sat out in the cold for a week after I did this work to it and it rolled over 3 times before it caught and fired right up. I still have to tune in the Holley and perform my final timing and idle adjustments, but a quick run around the block and it ran great.

I'm now in the middle of the doing the rear brakes. I pulled a bone-head move the other night and accidentally threw away the push pins from the wheel cylinder to the brake shoe with the old wheel cylinder. This isn't even my first rodeo with drum brakes and I still pulled that stunt somehow. Hopefully I will have replacements tomorrow and I can get the one side reassembled.

Feels good to be working on the Bronco again ;D

 

[hannibal61577]

Spent some time last weekend and a couple evenings this week getting some more done. First, a couple small projects:

I got the pins for the rear brake from Jon at Early Bronco Specialties here in Boise. That man is a life saver! Once I had those, it didn't take too long to get everything together with new drums.

However, I still don't have that project done because I found the brake hose from frame to axle in rough shape and am currently waiting on that.

I finally finished dressing in the wiring harness in the engine bay with some nice cable clamps.

When I removed my 302 badges to paint the fenders, I ended up breaking one post off each one. I figured that I would try to repair these and it ended up working pretty good. First I drilled a 1/16" hole into the broken post. Then I cut a 6 or 8d finish nail to the correct length. I had to file one end a bit because it was slightly too big to fit in the 1/16" hole. I epoxied it in place with Gorilla Glue epoxy and let it dry for a full day. I sanded and filed the extra epoxy away until the new pin was the right diameter. Both held up fine when I installed them.

The repaired posts:

And the badges back where they belong!

Finally, the larger project of the weekend. The hard top I got was/is in rough shape. However, I like to try to repair things that a lot of people would just throw out. I don't know if somebody rolled the last Bronco this was on or drove a bull dozer over it when it was sitting on the ground or what, but it's pretty crinkled up in the front and has Bondo all over it. It will work for me for now.

Anyway, the bows on the inside were in sad shape:

I got in there with the welder, a drill, angle grinder, hammer and a piece of 2x4 and started getting it back into shape. What a PITA it was! Prop in place, beat it flat, drill a hole, try to spot weld, curse, try to weld again, maybe get it or maybe have to try a third and fourth time and finally get it. I spot welded it every 4-5 inches on both sides of the bow and then also tacked the edges for extra support because I didn't want to see the spots pop off somewhere down the road.

Here it is just getting started:

And the front one done and painted. Functional? Yes. Pretty? No.

And, at long last, both of them done:

I will hopefully have some more time and parts this weekend.

 

[hannibal61577]

Good lord, this rear brake project is one that will just not end!

After I got the hardware replaced and got in under to replace one of the lines from the wheel cylinder in to the tee on the axle, I found the brake hose from frame to axle in rough shape. So I ordered one of those.

When that came in, I figured a couple minutes to replace it. Think again. The fitting wouldn't spin on the brake line, it was all rusted up in there and just twisted the line. I even let it sit for 24 hours with PB blaster. OK, so lets replace that whole line from the proportioning valve back to the rear.

Who the frick put that proportioning valve where they did. Of course the brake booster is in the way as is the engine and the inner fender. I was able to get a wrench in there but rounded the fitting right off. Small vice grips wouldn't do the trick either. No room to get hands or arms down in there, so I finally removed the vacuum booster. That gave me enough room to get a larger pair of vice grips on there after I removed that electrical sensor for the brake light. Finally got it out of there.

Found the fitting at the proportioning valve was larger than the standard 3/16" brake line fitting. Off to the parts store. They didn't have brake lines long enough. Ended up buying 3/16" steel brake tubing in a 25' roll and the proper ends.

I have a double flaring tool, so made my line and so far, have it connected at the proportioning valve. I have everything back in in the engine compartment, but had to remove the brake booster again after the rod went through and ended up on the wrong side of the brake pedal without my knowledge.

So, at 7 o'clock at night, I'm underneath the Bronco with my trusty light that I've been using for months, just trying to get the line back in the clips along the frame and the light burns out. That was the last straw for the day.

Seriously, I must have 10-12 hours on this brake job so far. Nothing has gone right, or at least nothing has been easy. I expected a lot less problems from the brakes than from the wiring harness replacement, but the harness was cake compared to this! Got to love projects. Next garage I have, I need a lift!

This sure ain't my first rodeo when it comes to rusty projects and brakes, but man o man so frustrating.

Can't wait to see what happens when I go to bleed these lines %)

I feel better now that that's all out.