On the road again 1/6/11 - 1971 big green machine build thread

[mavman427]

How's it going everybody, thought I would use my first post to start a build thread. About a year ago, I bought a 1971 Bronco to begin playing around with. As it always seems to turn out, it ended up needing a lot more work than I initially thought. Anyway, here are some specs and pictures of it:

1971 Ford Bronco
302 2V
3 on the Tree (converted to 3 on the floor by a previous owner)
3:54:1 Dana 44 Trac-Lok. front axle
3:50:1 9" ford rear end (large bearing)
4-wheel manual drum brakes (brutal!)
Manual steering
Koenig PTO Winch/Front Bumper

There is some rust on the hard top rain gutters, on the inner fender apron, and in the floors. A previous owner took the liberty of welding some plate on top of the rusty floors.

The goal of this build will be to get a decent looking street/trail rig that is dependable and can perform on and off the trail. It won't be a show truck or a rock crawler, more like a driver with good offroad capabilities.

Here's what I eventually want to do to this Bronco:
-Custom PTO winch/front bumper
-Ebay heavy duty rear bumper
-Power steering (from 75-76 Bronco)
-Front disc brakes (from 75-76 Bronco)
-Tom's Bronco Parts Brake Booster and Master Cylinder
-Rear ARB air locker
-3.5" Lift Wildhorses Leaf Springs
-3.5" Lift Wildhorses Rock Crawler Coil Springs
-1" body lift
-Rear "helper" airbags
-315/75/R16 Firestone Destination M/T's
-Warflares
-Custom shocks (need to run some Matlab simulations on this and optimize the shocks)
-4R70W automatic transmission
-Extreme gearing/output shaft for Dana 20 transfer case
-Custom hand-built wiring harness
-HID Xenon Front Lighting


Without further ado, here are some pictures of the Bronco in the condition I received it.

 

[sprdv1]

Welcome man... So I assume you are going to Cut it..?

 

[Scrapper_MV]

Welcome to the addiction. I say cut it if thats what you like.

 

[BroncoProject]

Welcome. Looks like you do have some work to do but I don't know that is a bad thing.

 

[mavman427]

Yeah, I'm seriously thinking about cutting it. I don't like hacking apart stock vehicles, but since previous owners have already had their way with it, I won't feel too guilty!

I just don't think big enough tires can be fit on uncut Broncos without major rubbing.

 

[mavman427]

Just ordered a bunch of parts from Wildhorses! Took advantage of the black friday sale they had going. I'm going with a 3.5" suspension lift with 1" body lift. Picked up 11-pack rear leafs with extreme hardware, rock crawler coils, hood shocks, and a set of warflares.

Next step is to remove dash, fix any cowl leaks and possibly floorboards, repaint dash, rhino line floor, and start making a custom wiring harness. Wish me luck!

Here's a picture of the ridiculously hacked up wiring harness that I removed. It included about 20 ft of extension cord that somebody wired into the harness, about 100 wire nuts, lots of cut wires, and other miscellaneous goodies.

 

[sprdv1]

That mess looks vaguely familiar.... lol

 

[mavman427]

Finally moved the project cars around today and pushed the Bronco into the garage. Now I can actually get something done on it even though it is dark and freezing cold by the time I get off work. Here are a couple pictures from today.

 

[sprdv1]

Get a good heater..

 

[Ohio Bronco 21]

This should be a fun build. Good start.

 

[mavman427]

Installed a pair of wildhorses hood shocks today. Pretty easy install and they work great. I can finally get rid of the piece of wood I was keeping in the engine compartment as a hood prop!

 

[mavman427]

Put in new 3-1/2" lift leaf springs over the past few days. Ended up taking a lot longer than it should have. Also installed new urethane bushings and Wildhorses Extreme U-bolts and plate. Looks pretty good.

The more I get into this, the more tempting it is to do a total teardown and redo everything. I just don't have the space or time to pull that off right now though. Plus, I would actually like to get this out and wheel it a little. The only problem is that everything I look at is messed up and the project keeps snowballing.

If you look close, you can see my custom Flowmaster (swiss cheese series) muffler in this pic.

Looks like the 3.5" lift rear springs are pretty much as advertised as there is a visible rake with 2.5" lift coils in the front. I'm impressed with how flexy they seem, should be a good all-around spring.

 

[redneck0372]

hey mav what size tires do you have on right now and what size do you plan on running and can you post a pic of how the rear sits right now with the tire in it

 

[JC]

The only problem is that everything I look at is messed up and the project keeps snowballing.

I think all of us are in touch with that emotion!

Looks like you're off to a good start!

 

[mavman427]

hey mav what size tires do you have on right now and what size do you plan on running and can you post a pic of how the rear sits right now with the tire in it

Right now it has some old crusty 30x9.5's on it. I plan to run 315/75/R16 Firestone Destination M/T's on this eventually. I also have a 1" body lift, just have to install it.

Here area couple pics of the rear, can't get a good pic of how it is sitting as it's sitting in a 1 car garage and space is very tight.

 

[mavman427]

I've spent the past couple of months designing my new wiring harness and gathering parts. The harness is finally just about completely designed and I have most of the parts. So today I broke the hard top loose and removed the dash. The hard top is rusted out beyond belief, don't know if it is even salvageable. I'm thinking about going with a soft top anyway, so that might be the way to go.

Hard top broken loose, propped up with 2"x2"

Big time rust in hard top

Interior shot with dash removed...I miss the prairie yellow factory color. Maybe someday I'll do a full restoration and get it back to this color.

Here's a pic of the dash removed.

 

[mavman427]

Went down to AutoZone today and picked up the Chevy heater blower motor and fan. I'm going to rebuild my heater box and do the blower motor upgrade while I have the dash torn apart. Fired up the stock blower to compare to the new one and it sounded like a small animal was dying in there, always a good sign. Played around with the defroster flap and 2 pencils and a walnut-sized rock came out of the heater box. Amazing.

 

[br0nc0xrapt0r]

whats the third shift knob for PTO?

 

[mavman427]

Yeah, PTO shifter.

 

[mavman427]

Working on the glove box relocation mod to the dash so it will clear the roll cage. I also made a cut between the speaker louver and glove box so I didn't have to redrill holes, etc. for the glove box latch. Would have made more progress tonight, but after one tack I realized the battery in my welding helmet was completely dead .

This is what it looked like when the cut-off wheel stopped spinning.

Here it is all clamped up, ready for welding.