What have you done to your Bronco today?

[nvrstuk]

I’ve been eyeing those let us know how they work out? Easy install?

Trying to be gentle here but these are best for light duty street use with not very tall tires. I have a good friend down the highway who put his on for a temporary 5 day vacation with us at the RdUp in the sand in Oregon. They could not prevent axle wrap and the first real hill and the axle wrap was so severe the ujoint grenaded. The brackets are bent from the torque transfer, yes- bent. He is going with a 4 link soon but sometimes you can't do it all as fast as you want.

 

[JeepGuy]

Yesterday went pretty good. Drained the fuel tank without taking a shower in gas this time. I'm learning with age... lol... Used some tank repair putty around the sending portion of the fuel sending unit and let that sit all day. Finished up a little body work on the inner fender well to make room for the steering shaft. 4x4x2 steering box and WCB plate moved it just enough out of position to make the shaft hit the fender well. It's good now. Not pretty, but it's in there and painted. Steering shaft installed so now the IDIDIT column and steering box are connected.

Moved onto filling the power steering pump reservoir and began letting that saturate and leak down into the box. The power steer pump is brand new (I've learned that doesn't really guarantee anything anymore) and I have no idea about the condition of the seals in the power steer box. Fixed a couple quick leaks, just loose hoses that I forgot about, then left it over night. No new leaks visible.

Today I'll fire it up and add power to the pump to really start moving fluid. I've been spinning the pump by hand with the fluid in there to try and prime it in a way, but it hasn't spun yet under power. Should be interesting.

Hope fully I get to adding shims to the hood so it fits right, then on to nut and bolt check of all the suspension today. I'd also like to try to get the front alignment as close as possible with the good ol' yard stick and tape measure technique.

 

[nvrstuk]

Important to prime/bleed the ps system correctly.

Use PSC tech tips for bleeding ps system.

Works great unless you have a hyd assist cyl then you might have additional steps

 

[EPB72]

First drive since 2007. After 7 years of redo

 

[Comemonday71]

I’ve been eyeing those let us know how they work out? Easy install?

Hey davisjstone! Installation of those traction bars catfan makes was pretty straight forward. Hardest part was drilling the four holes into the rear leaf spring holder. Instructions included were decent. You may have already looked at but there is a pretty good discussion about catfan’s product and traction bars in general: https://classicbroncos.com/forums/threads/traction-bar-options.326389/

If you are doing some hard core wheeling you may want to take into account nvrstuk’s critique. His snow wheeling escapades burning up that 91 octane are legendary. For me with a fresh 347, toploader four speed, truetrac and 33’s I felt that the catfan traction bars made good sense with what I’ve got……A Bronco that screams car shows and cars and coffee….80% pavement and 20% off. Good Luck!

 

[Comemonday71]

View attachment 940265 View attachment 940265 First drive since 2007. After 7 years of redo

Congratulations on your first drive since 2007! Must feel great to be back in the saddle!! Nice lemons by the way!!

 

[davisjstone]

Hey davisjstone! Installation of those traction bars catfan makes was pretty straight forward. Hardest part was drilling the four holes into the rear leaf spring holder. Instructions included were decent. You may have already looked at but there is a pretty good discussion about catfan’s product and traction bars in general: https://classicbroncos.com/forums/threads/traction-bar-options.326389/

If you are doing some hard core wheeling you may want to take into account nvrstuk’s critique. His snow wheeling escapades burning up that 91 octane are legendary. For me with a fresh 347, toploader four speed, truetrac and 33’s I felt that the catfan traction bars made good sense with what I’ve got……A Bronco that screams car shows and cars and coffee….80% pavement and 20% off. Good Luck!

Appreciate the insight. I’ve seen the other thread. I’m running a fresh warmed up 351, 4r70w, 4.56 with 33’s and only street driven. No hard core wheeling like @nvrstuk. Torque tamer bolt on seems good but $$$, and I can’t weld so trap wrap isn’t great option either.

 

[raleigh_bronco]

Friend of mine gave new bronco floor mats today, front and rear

Where did he find those

 

[56f100bbw]

eBay a few years ago reproduction mats

 

[FordBronc]

Yesterday I put on some 37x12.50x15's with MRW beadlocks.

 

[399strokerEB]

Started tearing into the bronco tonight, got plenty to fix after the road trip. Still need to do a couple small patches before I pull the top and cage.

This was a p.o "fix"

 

[JeepGuy]

Started tearing into the bronco tonight, got plenty to fix after the road trip. Still need to do a couple small patches before I pull the top and cage.

This was a p.o "fix"
View attachment 940328
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That is how it all started for me all those years ago. At the time, I was just going to pull it into the garage to replace the floor pans and tunnel cover. Simple 3 piece patch job....

 

[JeepGuy]

Yesterday was a good day. Got the new Saginaw PS pump and 4x4x2 box all bled in. Other than the occasional burp or overfill of the reservoir, it all appears to be leak free at the moment. I'm sure that will change over time.

Plan for today is add fuel back to the tank and see if my putty fix worked. Little bits at a time.

Also need to decide whether I'm going to cut the Fan Shroud, or the Plastic Fan. During this whole deal I added a 1" body lift which of course caused a clearance issue between the fan and shroud. Well by the time I realized what that clicking noise was the edges of the fan had been chipped off. The shroud is pretty stout and took no damage, but the factory style plastic fan has some custom clearance on each of the blades now. I'm thinking just taking a cut off wheel and cleaning up the tips now that they have been properly customized by the shroud. Or, order a metal one and cut the shroud out about 2" on the bottom have of the circle. We'll see how it all plays out.

 

[hsach]

I sent my tailgate, windshield frame, and grill off to a sand blaster. Grill and tailgate will need some work, grill has some dents but the tailgate needs the bottom replaced. That is happening this week, I had to farm out this work to a local metal fabricator. I don't want to chance screwing up my '67 tailgate and then making the fix much more expensive. I bought a new dent/scratch tailgate that he will transplant the good metal from, the lower replacement panel the vendors sell doesn't come up in front/back enough.

I fixed my passenger fender. There were several spots of rust that needed to be cut out, some of them could be treated, but if I can reach it, new metal is going in! My windshield frame and cowl where it attaches are in amazing shape, I was relieved to find no rust at all. Both frame seals/gaskets were in good shape. For now I put the original seal between the cowl and frame back in. I will replace it with something similar after final paint. I used a new windshield lower frame seal between the hinge. The new one is almost identical to the original one, maybe 1/16th" thinner in width. Lined it up with the old one and cut holes out, it fits great.

 

[Speedrdr]

View attachment 940265 View attachment 940265 First drive since 2007. After 7 years of redo

Wish I had that loaded lemon tree in my yard!

Randy

 

[399strokerEB]

A little more progress, I will say that flux core is not ideal for sheet metal lol.

 

[Speedrdr]

A little more progress, I will say that flux core is not ideal for sheet metal lol.

View attachment 940419

Yeah, my neighbor who has restored an EB informed me that I was going to need a MIG…particularly after he saw my welding with my flux core.
Best major money I spent on the restoration thus far.

Randy

 

[BronCowie]

A MIG and learning how to use it properly helped me tremendously in cleaning up my body.

 

[399strokerEB]

Yeah, my neighbor who has restored an EB informed me that I was going to need a MIG…particularly after he saw my welding with my flux core.
Best major money I spent on the restoration thus far.

Randy

Yeah, I just need to get a bottle of gas and a spool of wire.

 

[Speedrdr]

Yeah, I just need to get a bottle of gas and a spool of wire.

I highly recommend taking some of the floor pan(s) you’re replacing and practicing plug welding and seam welding. Didn’t practice and had to redo stuff.

Randy