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My second Bronco... Crawler build...

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Mountain Ram

Mountain Ram

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Recovering Masshole
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Abingdon, VA
OH yea... demo is still progress!!! Got to tear it apart to build it back :cool:

Overall it looks like it's solid - I've seen a lot worse! For what you are going to do with it I think you've picked a good one.

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

Floors shouldn't be too difficult- not looking for a show winner. The rockers are getting cut out anyway.

I think I caught the rear fender seam just in time. It looks like all the seam sealer was coming out and there was some light rust in there, but no rot.
 
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Mountain Ram

Mountain Ram

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Drove it put of the garage yesterday to pressure was the stinky mud out of it...

Headed to the garage shortly to cut out the inner fender and core support... The passenger side would take a lot of work to clean and repair. Have not decided if I will narrow or not...

Had to put it in 4x4 to get out of the grass with he slicks on it... Then the fuel pedal stuck to the floor. Good times!

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Mountain Ram

Mountain Ram

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Under the knife... Or sawzall and air chisel!! The air chisel was made for sheet metal teardown! No going back now, but I did find that the bottom of the core support was pretty rotted and the passenger inner fender was held on with tiny little rivets.



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Mountain Ram

Mountain Ram

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Some more PO goodness...%) I guess they just had to use the early model non hydraulic steering box. Frame is hacked- will have to fill this in and work around it... %)

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blazinchuck

Bronco Guru
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Jul 14, 2005
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heck of a great start!!!! i love tearing down and mentally building it as ya go lol.... keep pics coming!!!
 
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Mountain Ram

Mountain Ram

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Thanks NGA & Chuck... Love the moral support! Wife thinks I have made another mess, but she says the '75 motor build turned out pretty well, so she is giving me enough slack... Probably to hang myself!!

Front axle is coming out tonight. I will start with it.

How much stretch is too much stretch? I think I am wide open with this now... ;D
 
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Mountain Ram

Mountain Ram

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Wack it in half and go 10", that will give you the same wheelbase as a 1955 Thunderbird!!!%)%)%)

Too much bodywork for me! I can cut out the fenders, but adding in material... Not so much!

For a crawler- I want the tires as far out on the corners as possible.
 
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Mountain Ram

Mountain Ram

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This Bronco had an HP D60 up front and a PO had welded the radius arm mounts on the axle. And they were way off pushing pinion upward at a bad angle. Fortunately for me- whoever did it, sucks at welding. These came off fairly easy.

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How the truck is sitting now


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tasker

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all knowing of nothing
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DON'T BE RAGGING on my handy work! :cool:
 

SC74

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Where was the tractor three point link? Good thing he sucked at welding because those c's could have been a b*tch!!
 
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Mountain Ram

Mountain Ram

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Where was the tractor three point link? Good thing he sucked at welding because those c's could have been a b*tch!!

That was the axle end of the track bar- nice stuff. I was worried about the wedges. I basically made a couple cuts on each weld an whacked them with a hammer- off they came.
 

SC74

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Back to how long.....

How long did you say your ram is.... Like 120+? I'm 102" and wish it was longer. I'dike to be 110ish ... Some of the other stretched bruggys I have wheeled with fall between that 108 and 112 mark and its amazing the difference (not to mention they all run sticky tires too). KB's rigs are all longer like in the 120 range.

Without doing some body work stretching, 106-108 is going to be your max by just pushing axles out. I moved rear only 10" back and may have another inch or two before it would be outside of my bumper. Consider in the rear losing your tail light housing to go that far though which led me to narrowing the tailgate and ending up with my unusual rear quarters. Also when you go to moving the rear you'll lose that under bed fuel tank space. I know you want a back seat so you'll have to get creative with space for a fuel cell, back seat, and tool storage.

One of my biggest regrets is not moving the front forward. One of my upgrades will be moving it 6-8" forward and full hydro, but that might make the tires stuck past the bumper which will create some major grill and fender trimming.
 
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Mountain Ram

Mountain Ram

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My ram is 120-121". It was worked really well- wheelbase makes a positive difference more often than not. The truck is just too wide and too tall. I love KB's big rig, but I think I want to be about 110-112".

I have been reading your build post by post... And I like the 10" rear stretch. My truck currently has a fuel cell in the bed and I have no need for a rear seat at the moment... Just maybe down the road for the kids. I wonder if a stand up Jeep tank and pump would work behind a rear seat...

As for the front, I have full hydro now, so the only thing I am looking at is how much of the grille would be cut out- either full width or narrowed. If I could work out a triangulated 4 link- I won't even have the track bar to limit me.
 
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Mountain Ram

Mountain Ram

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Recovering Masshole
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Got some more work done yesterday. Finished getting all the fiberglass off the floors and started digging out the rot...

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broncoitis

Bronco Guru
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Jul 23, 2010
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4,449
Good lookin find you have there! Should be a good trail truck for sure.

As for the stretch, if I were building a bronco strictly for that purpose I would put that axles at the point where the leading edge of the tire was just past the front and rear of the Bronco in the front and back. I would also narrow the front and back to improve the view. The ultimate goal would be no breakover angle in the front or rear.

Should be a fun project and looking forward to seeing it come along. ;D
 
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Mountain Ram

Mountain Ram

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Recovering Masshole
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Got the D60 front sandblasted and prime red this weekend. I have an Artec truss & ram mount on order. It will get disassembled this week and will be the first thing done for the rig.
 

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