A Bronco for My Girl

[Past_Miner]

It's a new year and time for a new build!

I picked up a '76 wagon a couple of years ago while I was finishing up a build for my son in anticipation of starting one for my daughter. That first build took a couple of extra years to finish so I'm a little behind on this one. Along the way we got distracted with a camper build too so time just got away.

The plan for this one is for a more street friendly daily driver that still has enough capability to get off the road now and then. There will be a few more creature comforts as well.

The basic build will be:

- 3.5" total lift rolling on 33 inch tires
- 1998 Explorer 5.0 with the matching 4R70W and the stock D20
- Four wheel disk brakes powered by hydroboost
- Limited slip front and rear
- Full insulation and carpet to keep things quiet and warm

Here are a few shots of the rig when we brought it home. The PO had some ambitions to fill all of the body seams on the whole truck with bondo, so the first order of business will be to reverse that and get the body repaired. The donor is in the driveway too so there will be more to see soon.

 

[Crush]

What is holding those flares on?

 

[Past_Miner]

What is holding those flares on?

I'm pretty sure they are riveted and the heads are smoothed over with bondo. I will take a picture from behind the fender and let you know.

 

[Past_Miner]

The Donor

My daughter and my youngest son spent a few days with me over the holidays and we started pulling the donor apart. It is a 1998 5.0 Explorer XLT with 166K on the odometer. This thing was extremely cheap at a small dealer in Salt Lake City about a year ago when we picked it up.

Aside from a little rough paint this truck was really too nice to tear apart, but....

 

[sprdv1]

Nice. Congrats Dad. I know she will appreciate that a lot

 

[stupidboy]

OMG, Will you adopt me???? LOL

 

[broncoitis]

Looking forward to seeing this progress! Your shop is pretty sweet. ;D

 

[Past_Miner]

Just for the record, those flares are pop riveted to the fenders and covered in bondo.

There was a little mishap with one of the fenders while trying to get the bronco in the shop.

 

[Past_Miner]

Sometime between when we parked the Bronco last year and this week the left rear wheel became locked up. We weren't able to drive it at all so we drug it in front of the shop with my Bronco and then pushed it into the bay. The wheel was really locked up. After a couple of hours of messing with the brake drum I was finally able to get it off and found a bunch of broken springs inside. At least it rolls now.

 

[Past_Miner]

The Tear Down Started Today

Amazingly, almost every bolt came right out without a fight. I only had to cut a few in the driver side front door post. The bondo in the body seams cracked clean too. The fenders have a lot of filler on them but the grill is pristine.

 

[Past_Miner]

After getting the grill and fenders off I went around and looked for all of the normal rust spots. The rockers are solid as are the inner fenders. The striker posts are good and the passenger front post is too. The floors are in good shape. The passenger floor panel and the driver side front door post look like the only panels that need replacement. This tub should be fairly easy to clean up.

 

[Past_Miner]

I didn't get a lot done last weekend but I was able to finish stripping the tub. This is by far the most complete Bronco I have ever owned. The wiring harness doesn't appear to have been cut into at all. It even has an almost completely intact firewall insulation piece. I've honestly never seen one that wasn't mostly missing. I found a little more rust on the back of the passenger and driver side floors after I peeled up the remnants of the rubber mat. I still think the only pieces I need to replace will be the passenger side floor and the driver side door post. Hopefully I can start on that next weekend.

I got a shipment of new parts that should be more than enough to repair the tub too. I guess there's nothing but lack of motivation stopping me.

 

[stupidboy]

All men are not created equal! Get-r-done

 

[sprdv1]

Making great progress on that man. Keep it up

 

[Past_Miner]

All men are not created equal! Get-r-done

Pat, I read this at work yesterday afternoon and I thought "I guess he's right".

So, I tried hard today

 

[Past_Miner]

I replaced the driver side door post today without removing the rocker panel, which is pretty much pristine. I wasn't sure this was even possible and I will tell everyone now that it really isn't very easy either. I will show you all how I did it just in case it helps anyone else.

I started drilling our spot welds and grinding away on things and I realized that I ruined the last windshield I had by welding too close. So I got out the rope and pulled the glass. I also pulled the wiper motor and mechanism. As I said earlier, I have never had a Bronco this complete. It looks like all of the various brackets and wiring guards for the wiper cover are here too.

 

[Past_Miner]

Driver Door Post

I always start these posts by getting out the wire wheel and scrubbing the paint off of the spot welds so I can see them. Maybe its my bad eyesight but it always helps me see them so I can try to get the spot weld drill in the right place.

 

[Past_Miner]

I wasn't sure if the whole post was bad or if I could just replace the front panel. I only considered this because I wasn't sure I could replace the post without also pulling the rocker off so I started by cutting as much of the front panel off as I could. After looking at the bottom section of the back of the post I decided I wanted a complete replacement.

I started drilling spot welds on the flange at the back of the post and at the cowl. I had a very hard time separating the post flange from the kick panel. I was able to spread the pieces apart but not break the welds so got out my grinder with a cutoff wheel to finish cutting out the welds. I got a little carried away and trashed the kick panel so I spent a couple of hours welding that back together.

I also shook the captured nuts for the door straps off during this episode. Luckily, I keep a box of square weld nuts of just about every size around for this sort of thing. McMaster-Carr is our friend.

If you leave the rocker in place you have to cut the post off above the top of the rocker and kind of whittle away at the pieces behind the rocker with cut-off wheels. I spent a lot of time cutting the back of the post from the kick panel behind the rocker. All I can say here is that you need to go slow and keep at it. I finally bought some 6" cut-off wheels and put them on my 4 1/2" grinder. I had to take the guard off (I mean, it was there, really) to fit the wheel. This is my disclaimer: Remove the guard at your own risk. Just because I did it does not mean I condone it. I am not responsible for any injuries anyone else receives from these actions.

For the record, I cut the knuckle on my index finger with that big wheel right through my glove.

 

[Past_Miner]

I moved to the front flange after I fixed the kick panel. This one came off a little better and I was able to remove it without much trouble. The rocker was full of dirt and wasp nests. I cleaned it the best I could with a scraper and shop vac. The post is welded to the outer cowl panel at the top front of the post. When I cut the weld I got into the outer cowl panel and had to weld that up too. I didn't take a good picture of the repair but you can kind of see it in the last pic.

It takes a little patience to work the post into position with the rocker in place. You have to spend some time getting the flange on the door side to line up and to get the bottom of the post in the right position in the rocker. I probably spent an hour just tapping the post around and prying the flanges into alignment. I finally got it close to where I wanted it and started mounting it with self-tapping screws. The screws help to get the final tweaks made.

 

[Past_Miner]

I spent a lot of time with my body hammers, self tapping screws and a propane torch flattening out the flanges and making sure the panels are compressed together as much as possible. I drilled holes for spot welds in the post for the front flange and in the kick panel for the back flange. There are a couple of tabs under the cowl that you need to weld.

Once the post was mounted and screwed down I started around the panel and welded all of the holes closed. Then I pulled the screws and welded the screw holes closed. I ground everything flat and went around the whole thing with the body hammers and the torch again to close everything up the best I could. This will all get sealed up with seam sealer after the tub is blasted and primered. For now, it will sit like it is.

The one thing that you can't do when putting the post in without removing the rocker is spot weld the section of flange that is behind the rocker. I plan to drill holes from the back side of the inner rocker with a spot weld drill and pull the flange in with screws after I take the body off and put it on the rotisserie. I will try to remember to take some pictures.