74 EB Sandrunner under development

[El Jefe]

looks like someone got a plasma cutter for an early Xmas???

looking good Scott...

 

[sstlaure]

How will the bumper ends look if you lift the body and slide the panels in? Will they follow the new shape of the body side or will it look goofy? I guess what I'm wondering is how close to the bumper does the panel start it's flare out? You know if you screw around lifting the body and the bumper dosen't look right you'll be redoing it anyway, might as well make it easy on yourself and just lop off the end of the bumper and redo it.


Brewchief;D

It will look fine. The flare in the bodysides ends at the tail-section/quarter panel vertical seam (like on a steel Bronco body), so the bumper shape fits the body regardless.

Even if I do lop the ends off, if I TIG them back on I can make them look like they were never removed.

looks like someone got a plasma cutter for an early Xmas???

looking good Scott...

No Plasma cutter for me....if you're talking about the lightbar, that's purely 4 1/2" Angle grinder and hole saw fabrication. Crude but effective.

 

[68ford]

im a little confused, they dont go all the way around the tail light to near the tail gate area? in the pics on the site it looks like they include the taillight area?

how do they tell you to mount them? i like them but, it would be nice if they mounted to the quarter panel and didnt go all the way around the taillight and inside or around the door opening. would be cool to mount them with dzues tabs and be able to remove them quickly.

mine is almost done, when are you going to come out to the west coast? you and the guy with the green one need to experience glamis sand dunes ;D

http://waynesbronco.shutterfly.com/343?size=All&startIndex=0

cant wait to drive it, you must feel the same about yours huh?

 

[sstlaure]

The panels do wrap around the tail light section, but the front edge does not go into the door jam.

I would think you could easily run some rubber welting around the perimeter of the part for a finished edge and create dzus mounts for them fairly easily. I have planned on glassing them in, but I may even end up going the dzus route. (I'd do the rears similar to the mounts I did for the front fenders.) That way if I mess anything up it's just dropping a new panel onto the truck rather than replacing the whole side of the tub and repainting.

The problem I have is my bumpers wrap tight around the current body so I can't fit the panel through the gap between the bumper/body. (You can see it in the pic) The rear bumper is welded in permanent as a part of the rear suspension (shackle hanger mount)

I was looking at it last night and I might just shorten the ends of the bumper so they don't wrap around as far and re-cap them. It's not like I'm going to rock-crawl this thing.

Saying I can't wait to drive this thing is an understatement. Coming up on 6.5 years of ownership and I've never driven it, I forsee a couple more years before it's on the road. Ugh.

With High's now in the teens for the next week, no work in the garage for me right now. I hate it when my hands freeze to my tools.

 

[57baja]

Figured I'd join the fray of projects shown on the website. Here are some picks of my 74 I bought for $4500 from Utah. Full glass body, rebuilt 302, little or no rust on the frame. What a steal. Let me know what you think. It'll be set up as a sandrunner with King Bypass shocks and air bumpstops (~14" vertical axle travel F/R)

I think that's sweet.I'm not quite done with my build but I mainly wanted to use it at pismo dunes so I wouldn't trash it here at the local wheelin area.If I had another bronco just for sand running I would eliminate front pumpkin and make it a straight tube set up like a mail jeep but still put on the good susp. to retain good ride and steering system.Then cut off the front end use 1 piece fiberglass set up and ditch transfer case because it won't have 4wd. Build a screamin efi small block and roost.I would keep the parts to go back to 4wd and a spare front axle. I think power to weight would be good but some people might think that's crazy and ask why not save the bronco and build a sandrail. Just a crazy idea because me and my wife bought a $47,000 sandrail with LS1 and all the crazy susp. and it broke on all of 4 trips. A big waste of money yeah it could do wheelies, jump but you couldn't drive it anywhere but the dunes maybe desert if you prefer but I don't care how much you spend anything can break.Never waste your money unless your rich on a high dollar sandrail. Bronco, jeep, or bikes/quads are just as much fun have fun at the dunes in your bronco;D

 

[sstlaure]

The inspiration for this truck is my friend's EB - It was in Sandsports a couple of years back. It's just as fast and capable as the high-travel rails (in my opinion) There are plenty of those here at Silver Lake, but the only 1 here that we feel is truly cool is a hand-built one a guy here in Michigan designed. The others are nice, but they're all basically the same.

http://www.sandsports.net/BackIssues/pages/15JulyAugCover.htm

 

[sstlaure]

Finally have bodysides placed on body

Well....spring has sprung in Michigan (as soon as I type this 6" of white stuff will drop I'm sure)

I finally got some time to lop the ends off of my rear bumper and start the fitment process of these bodysides from WCB.

Let me start by saying the tub on my truck is hardly ideal with many problems, so I expect these bodysides to be a challenge to fit.

Overall, the bodysides are very nice hand laid glass, some waviness in the panels, but overall nothing a skim coat of filler and some elbow grease won't cure.

2 areas where the fit isn't good for my tub (could very well be the tub's fault - OLD Mallotte tub w/o tailgate.)

1) At the top bodyline in the doorjam
2) At the top corner of the taillight section to where the tailgate would be.

I'm now thinking I'm going to section these and just glass in the bodyside forward of the taillight section line. - #1 above I can just adjust where I mount the door inserts, #2 will be taken care of as I'm eliminating the taillight section.

Overall I love the bodysides and they were well worth the wait.

 

[Devin]

Looks good. You will probably be the only one to notice any errors in those.

 

[Heus33]

That looks amazing!!! I've been wondering when you were going to get these mounted up. I see you have your body panels pinned, are you planning the same for the rear fenders as well?

 

[sstlaure]

I want the panels to fit real tight so I'm going to cut off the taillight section and glass the flares into the body. I'm also going to glass in the gap between the new and old bodysides to give it a nice finished look. This will also bond the 2 pieces together 360° around the bodyside so it should be good and strong.

 

[Heus33]

Ahhh so THATS why you've been filling my head with fiberglass work!

 

[DRBRONCO69]

Your truck is looking really trick! I can't wait to see it run the dunes! It'll be pretty cool to watch two EB sand runners!

 

[sstlaure]

Ahhh so THATS why you've been filling my head with fiberglass work!

I gotta have someone suffering along with me.....Fiberglass work sucks.

Pulled the cage from the truck this weekend with the help of a couple of friends so I can finish weld the bottoms of all of the joints. First time it's been out in probably 4 years. I'll post some pics of the cage later.

The truck looks real funny with nothing above the bodyline.

 

[sstlaure]

Well.....I gave up trying to glass the bodysides in. I'm going to dzus fasten them & create a structure similar to the front fenders. I'll need to create a flange along the front edge of the bodyside to create a nice margin between the insert/bodyside & I'll do some work at the rear corner to clean up the gap caused by my old Mallote body.

Currently working on getting them mounted up. I've got all of the reinforcement plates installed on the driver side this past weekend and I'm starting to create the mounts on the stock body.....Pics coming soon.

 

[csangster]

Well.....I gave up trying to glass the bodysides in. I'm going to dzus fasten them & create a structure similar to the front fenders. I'll need to create a flange along the front edge of the bodyside to create a nice margin between the insert/bodyside & I'll do some work at the rear corner to clean up the gap caused by my old Mallote body.

Currently working on getting them mounted up. I've got all of the reinforcement plates installed on the driver side this past weekend and I'm starting to create the mounts on the stock body.....Pics coming soon.

It will be nice to be able to remove almost all of your body panels to get access to anything during maintenance/repair. I love those dzus fasteners.

Looking forward to the pictures,
Chris

 

[grant_71]

So you will have her up and running this weekend at Broncorama right?

 

[sstlaure]

haha.....very funny Grant. I considered bringing it out, but it's too much of a pain to get it there....Maybe next year it will be close enough for an unveiling. Right now there is way too much unfinished for me to make the effort.

I may be there with my kids for a little bit, maybe not. The wife is out of town, so I've got daddy-duty.

 

[bluegt1987]

any updates????

 

[sstlaure]

Been busy with work launching the new Taurus. Hoping to make some progress this weekend.

 

[sstlaure]

Progress on mounting the bodysides - starting with the driver's side

• Inner/outer reinforcement plates installed on bodysides
• Mount on top surface of body completed (x3) - these will be bolted for security
• Starting to layout the mounts on the side of the body itself