golfobx
Sr. Member
Well...i have had a lot of guys telling me to post a build thread, so here is my attempt at just that...title says it all, its going to have a 347 stroker in it, and it takes all my money...so i guess the name works???
The story I was told, which I do believe, the original owner bought the Bronco new in 1969, and shortly thereafter died in Vietnam. The bronco sat in his mothers garage until 2006 with 177 miles on it in Arizona. The guy I bought it from, was the original owners cousin. The guy I got it from was a professional baseball player, turned college coach. He got it in 2006, and took it to a shop and gave them $25,000 to "make it nice". This was how much he knew about the Bronco. He couldn't tell me anything about it, and handed me a bunch of invoices and receipts he had collected through the build, some detailed, some left a lot to be desired. He drove me around doing burnouts, doughnuts, and to his favorite fishing hole...odd way to sell me a classic Bronco, but alas the price was right (very cheap to be honest). To the guys credit, he drove it like a Bronco was intended to be driven. Negatively, he put 30k miles on it, and when I changed the oil after getting it home and it came out as thick black burnt smelling string cheese, I quickly realized that he didn't just not know anything about the Bronco, he also didn't know anything about routine maintenance.
So this is where the journey began. I had a rust free body, with a pile of receipts, painted school bus yellow. The interior had been rhino lined and the yellow paint had been drizzled in as well, making the interior appear as if birds had crapped into the interior for years on end. It had a 3.5in lift, power steering, power brakes. The engine had been significantly modified and it drove decently well, and he had already converted it to a c4.
I drove it for a few months, and problems with lack of maintenance began to rear their head. The tranny went first, followed up with the engine giving me issues. I always hated that school bus yellow paint, so decided I might as well build the Bronco of my dreams.
I am just getting the paint finished now, and then on to painless wiring kit, new fuel system front to rear, 4 wheel disc wilwood brakes (might do hydroboost if the engine doesn't produce ample vacuum, however at this point planning on running a wilwood 1 1/8 bore master cylinder), 35 spline axles, detroit locker in rear, duffs torque tamer and a slew of other small items.
Things I have already done: upgraded to new axles from a later model early bronco to get the dana 44 front and upgraded rear, 4.11 gears, built up a c4 with a 2500 stall converter, had the stroker built and have it in the garage waiting to be dropped in, linex'd the interior after getting the old bed liner out and completely stripped it to bare metal and painted it.
I have received a ton of help on these forums through the past few months, and met a lot of great people. So I want to thank everyone here for advice and kind words. My idea of the bronco of my dreams, might not be what everyone here is into, but I am happy with it.
first set of pictures are from when I got it, i will update pictures as i remember to do so.
The story I was told, which I do believe, the original owner bought the Bronco new in 1969, and shortly thereafter died in Vietnam. The bronco sat in his mothers garage until 2006 with 177 miles on it in Arizona. The guy I bought it from, was the original owners cousin. The guy I got it from was a professional baseball player, turned college coach. He got it in 2006, and took it to a shop and gave them $25,000 to "make it nice". This was how much he knew about the Bronco. He couldn't tell me anything about it, and handed me a bunch of invoices and receipts he had collected through the build, some detailed, some left a lot to be desired. He drove me around doing burnouts, doughnuts, and to his favorite fishing hole...odd way to sell me a classic Bronco, but alas the price was right (very cheap to be honest). To the guys credit, he drove it like a Bronco was intended to be driven. Negatively, he put 30k miles on it, and when I changed the oil after getting it home and it came out as thick black burnt smelling string cheese, I quickly realized that he didn't just not know anything about the Bronco, he also didn't know anything about routine maintenance.
So this is where the journey began. I had a rust free body, with a pile of receipts, painted school bus yellow. The interior had been rhino lined and the yellow paint had been drizzled in as well, making the interior appear as if birds had crapped into the interior for years on end. It had a 3.5in lift, power steering, power brakes. The engine had been significantly modified and it drove decently well, and he had already converted it to a c4.
I drove it for a few months, and problems with lack of maintenance began to rear their head. The tranny went first, followed up with the engine giving me issues. I always hated that school bus yellow paint, so decided I might as well build the Bronco of my dreams.
I am just getting the paint finished now, and then on to painless wiring kit, new fuel system front to rear, 4 wheel disc wilwood brakes (might do hydroboost if the engine doesn't produce ample vacuum, however at this point planning on running a wilwood 1 1/8 bore master cylinder), 35 spline axles, detroit locker in rear, duffs torque tamer and a slew of other small items.
Things I have already done: upgraded to new axles from a later model early bronco to get the dana 44 front and upgraded rear, 4.11 gears, built up a c4 with a 2500 stall converter, had the stroker built and have it in the garage waiting to be dropped in, linex'd the interior after getting the old bed liner out and completely stripped it to bare metal and painted it.
I have received a ton of help on these forums through the past few months, and met a lot of great people. So I want to thank everyone here for advice and kind words. My idea of the bronco of my dreams, might not be what everyone here is into, but I am happy with it.
first set of pictures are from when I got it, i will update pictures as i remember to do so.
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