Project Pretty in Pink - It Made it to SOB!!! See Pg 17!

[Tito]

Yeah, i am a little anxious to get past the disassembly phase and onto the actual build part...the ability to actually see constructive progress is motivating. I am hoping to be done by the end of summer but depending on funds, we'll see. If I sell my truck I will get it done in the next couple months (cash flow) but used cars don't sell too well with all the good deals on the new ones. Anyways, frame looked awesome after the sandblasting, made me feel real good to be at the absolute last step of disassembly;D no more bolt to break or dirty parts to fumble with, all new and clean stuff! The wife will be real happy about that SOB 10 is my ultimate goal for completion...drive the fam out for the weekend in the new EB.

 

[Tito]

Alright, today I por'd it on...got 2 coats of por15 on the frame and accessories today and am going to topcoat them tomorrow. Man that stuff is SHINY!!!!! It is pretty cool looking and very easy to apply. I ended up putting the 2 coats on and only used half a quart...I don't know if that is typical but I definitely bought too much . Its okay though I will use it on the bottom, etc but still have leftover. The stuff goes a loooonnnnggg ways.

I feel like I have a brand new frame off the assembly line!!! The Cage hoops look real nice on the frame too. I scuffed them up and etch primed them then just por'd over them at the same time as the rest of the frame...worked well.

Hoops look grey in the pic but they are black.

 

[Tito]

Still making progress in the wet NW...

Sandblasted my axle housings so I can por15 them tomorrow.

Opened up the front to verify my gearing and check them out...BEAUTIFUL and 45/11 so 4.09 gears.

Dropped off my front coils to get powdercoated a nice shimmery pink...the Cage silver wasn't bad but there was a lot of contaminates in the coating so I figured I may as well add a little spark to the suspension. Should have them back by the end of the week, hopefully some pics too. Anyone in the Portland area needing a powdercoater Bret Blakely 503-658-1660..great guy with very reasonable prices. He's just off of 212 around the corner from my house.

Dropped off my C4 and D20 at O.C. Transmission, they were recommended by a buddy up here. Having them go through and rebuild and inspect them along with a shift kit for the C4. Hopefully have them back by the end of the week.
Everything looked pretty good when I took them out...clean fluid, nice shafts....just want to have everything new or rebuilt while I have it all apart.

 

[Tito]

Well the fam and I went to Cali for a week...I of course didn't think about the 40th in VV and scheduled my vacation for the week before...dumb dumb dumb. Anyways we had a blast got to stop by Wild Horses and picked up my Track Bar Riser. I love going by WH, they have a beautiful clean showroom and good folks behind the counter, they even gave my son a free shirt.

Got back on Monday and got some progress done...
Cage 3.5 springs powdercoated white with a gold fleck (little bit of bling)

Installed the rear suspension (gotta flip It I put the double wrap to the back (didn't think it would clear in the front and the eye to center measurements were the same) Not sure if it matters but I will flip em.

My buddy Robert from OC helped weld on my Riser...that is one heavy duty bracket!!! I ended up going to the hospital with welder flash at 3am. My right eye was burning like mad, thought I got a metal shard in but it was from the high heat welding. That sucked.

Drilled out the knuckes for the stonecrusher steering, gotta figure out how to clear my rims, I have 16s on there and if I go TRO I got all kinds of clearance issues. I am going to 17s later but I figure it must be my rim's backspacing or something, anyway havent put much thought into it yet.

Put the front end back together with the new coils and all new bushing, looks great.

Installed new extended brake lines this afternoon.

Its coming together nicely, I pick up my C4 and D20 with twin stick tomorrow and the next step will be to put the drive train on and flip those rear springs.

 

[Flash69]

Its getting fun now aint it. Nice Job.

 

[crawln68]

Looks great! Keep up the awesome work.

 

[Madgyver]

Drilled out the knuckes for the stonecrusher steering, gotta figure out how to clear my rims, I have 16s on there and if I go TRO I got all kinds of clearance issues. I am going to 17s later but I figure it must be my rim's backspacing or something, anyway havent put much thought into it yet.

You'll need 1.25" or 1.50" wheel spacers to clear the TRO. 1" spacers will work if you trim down the studs a little.

I have 17"s and 77 knuckles with the TRO conversion with Chevy 1 ton ends and it still had an interference with the edge of the wheel and the big TREs.
it might not be as bad with your because I see you have Heims...

 

[Tito]

Maybe I'll just put some 20's on it and call it done

 

[swa0330]

Me, and the fam and the Diesel bronco will be there in about a month and a half (June 22nd or so). That's what I love about everyone I know around the NW at this point, they all are friends and help each other just because... Around here, you practically gotta sign your life over to get anyone to help you wrench. I don't have the most wicked arsenal of tools, but I am completing my frame off this month, so I can share plenty with you. I already have a house in NE (around Sandy blvd and 72nd). Have a good garage and Bronco Sport and I are planning on doing a lot of wrenching once I get there. PM me or stay in touch. BTW, I will be at SOB and have a place rented in Tierra del Mar, so anyone reading this plan to hang out at Sand Lake and come by for suds later on if you want.

 

[Tito]

I am in Clackamas area, Let me know when you get in town, I'll bring the beer and you can show me around your Diesel. If you need any help unpacking or anything either gimme a shout, I'd be glad to help.

 

[rubberneck]

wow.. por15 looks great ...


I thought the gun metal grey color looked really good. I know it was really black. but I thought it looked good grey.

 

[Tito]

Alright I am still working on my project, just havent had a lot of time since the wife went back to work but I have accomplished a few things....

Ordered and received my engine, got it custom built locally,
351w: KB pistons, AFR 185's, Crower 15233 Cam, all balanced up, Scorpion roller rockers, Edelbrock Manifold and Carb, Heddman Jet Hots

Rebuilt C4 with Stage 2 shift

Resealed and checked D20

Here are a couple pics of the engine, I threw the headers and air cleaner on for aesthetics. And yes the engine is white So it the tranny and T-case.

 

[Tito]

Well I posted seperately this update, I'll add it to the thread here too for documentation...Alright, I am getting a little excited, got my drivetrain all mounted, 351w with AFR heads, ProComp HEI, Edelbrock goodies, Crower 15233 cam, Scorpion Roller Rockers, Jet Hot Heddmans, HD C4 with shift kit, rebuilt d20, all painted gloss white. Yeah Yeah I know it looks like a cream puff, you are correct, its going to be a Pink Bronco so I figured a little bit of pristine white under the hood and chassis would serve nice.

Everyone loves a little Bronco porn here and there...

 

[Tito]

Well this past weekend I had a chance to get my bed section welded in, took a little bit of time - maybe 2 hours for fit/tack/fit/trim/tack the other night, then went to town yesterday seam welding it all in. I was going to spot weld it in but it just seamed sooooo much easier to seam it in and I wont have to worry about the stupid seam sealer. After I clean up all the booger welds (there are quite a few) it should look real good. The fit was pretty damn nice, JBG extensions and fillers, Tom's bed and wells (I think theat everyone sells the same but JBG is the only place to get the extentions and fillers. Very little trimming necessary, fit nicely. Here is my process...

First I put body mount bolts in and tacked the rear support panel to the frame (keep anything from shifting around)
Everything was all wirewheeled and flapdisc'd (inner fenders, front floor where it meets, rear support, along with everywhere the sheetmetal would meet up)
I sprayed weld thru primer over all these areas (mistake...the stuff sucked and just made for ugly welds - wouldnt do it again - ended up wire wheeling it off everywhere I could)
Decided to do the passenger side first since it didnt have the filler panels.
Clamped in the front and rear extention panels, tacked them in cause I was out of clamps
Slipped the wheel well in to check fitment...
Adjusted a little, made sure the line where the bed went in was flush
Tacked the extensions in again, while a friend was holding the wheel well in place tacked it to the inner fender and the extension panels.
Did the driver side extensions and wheel well - tacked them in
Then fit the filler panels -
Front one took a few hammer blows and shaping - not much - just to make it able to clamp
Rear one was a PITA because of the angle, a number of hammer blows and some sheetmetal screws to sinch it all together, tacked in place.
Again checked the lines to make sure they were clean
Brought the bed section over and slipped it in....fit was perfect - only had to grind off the vertical side where the panel fit over the rear support to make it flush - about an inch, nice!!!!
Clamped it to the extensions - front, sheetmetal screws from on top through the front floor to suck it all together - spot welded
Checked level, tacked the middle of the bed and the rear. The rear cutouts for the body mounts were a little wierd, the driver side was right on, the pass side was off (side to side) by about 1/2 inch - just cut wrong by the factory.
Checked all my gaps, clamped as needed and went to town.
It looks Awesome and was pretty damn easy!!!!

 

[raleigh_bronco]

What did that motor & goodies set you back

You are rolling along man. Keep up the good work and keep us up to date with the pics.

 

[Tito]

Motor - 3500 including the heads
HEI - ebay - $110
Hedmans - $330 to your door (I was going to sell them and get the BC Setup - headers and 2 into 1 - but they are on serious backorder)
Rebuilt C4 with some upgrades and a rebuilt D20 - $650
I think all the bed panels added up to like (bed - 160, wells - 120, fillers - 50, extensions - 80) so $400 before shipping.

 

[Devin]

Man, that is looking pretty sweet. Nice work on the rear floor!

 

[Tito]

1 other thing...The frame was outside for a few days while I was working on the engine/tranny setup and I discovered just what UV sensitive means!!! I had painted the frame with the black por15 then topcoated...problem...its black on black so I had no idea where all I had painted and apparently missed a bunch. So I clean up the frame from all the pollen and dust collection from being outside...yeah I'm out there washing my frame as my neighbors stare at me like a freak. Hey, I'm proud of my black beauty. Well there are all of these matte black sections all over the frame and I was like what the heck...well I quickly realize its areas I missed with the topcoat. So I rolled it back in, scuffed it up (dont know if I really needed to) and put 3 goooooood coats of topcoat on it. It was cool, I wasnt sure if my topcoat would still be usable but I took the plastic wrap off (hint to wrap in plastic instead of putting the cap on - it wont come off later) and swirled it around...well it had a little bit of movement so stuck a screwdriver in there and there was basically a 1/4 in disc of por15 topcoat there, everything under was just fine, gave it a good mix and went to town. That stuff goes a loooong way...1 quart has put on 2 crappy coats and 3 good coats on my frame and axles.

 

[Tito]

Well I wanted to do something different with my side marker lights - I wanted them to have some good chrome and clear lenses. In one of the recent threads, I think the Carlisle thread, someone had used 69 mustang side markers on their Bronco so I bought some off ebay (NOS still available) and mounted them up today to check for fit and make the new mounting holes.

The lense is the same size and takes the Bronco light in it without modification, the only modification is the holes for the bezel. The old holes needed welded shut and new ones a little closer in with an 11/32 bit. The bezels come with nuts that thread onto the posts that fit into the new holes.

 

[z70what]

project is looking awesome man.. keep it up!! you'll be able to locate oil leaks very easy w/ that white motor.. haha.. good work

Luke