F8 LUBR Build Thread

[JefeAZ]

My Father and I are making progress on our 1974 Bronco restoration so I figured its time to start a thread and fully document our project. This will be called the F8 LUBR Build. For those who dont already know what LUBR means it is "Left Uncut" or "Lifted Uncut Bronco." We will not be cutting the rear fenders and will leave it how it originally came from Ford. F8 is the paint we decided to use which comes from the new Hellcat/Demon. As you will see later in this thread we made some tweaks to the paint so it is ONE OF A KIND! As of today, 7/3/18, we are 2 weeks away from primer so buckle up!

First a little bit of a back story. My car addiction began about 28 years ago when my Uncle took me for a ride in his NAF Cobra. I hopped out and hit my leg on the extremely hot side pipes and I was hooked! Crying, but hooked.

Fast forward to 2009, I had been thru 5 Mustangs but always wanted a truck or SUV. I originally wanted a Land Rover Defender 90 but then I came across some old Baja Bronco videos and decided that was the route to go. We began scouring Craigslist, this website, and eBay for about 2 years. I bid on a few but missed out on some solid projects under $4K, really kicking myself now of course. We had found a pretty rough one in Texas and were making plans to fly out and see it when I hopped on here and find a for sale thread with the AZ location tag

I find out he's only 30 minutes from me so I head over on a Saturday and there it is idling in front of his house. We chat for a few minutes and he tosses me the keys and tells me to take it for a spin. This was my first time sitting in a Bronco and Im grinning from ear to ear!

I head back and tell him I love it but I want my Dad to come check it out as well since this is going to be our project. We head back over the following weekend and luckily he still has it. We take it for another spin and after the first turn he looks at me and says, "this is ours!" We load up several boxes of parts, hop on the frontage road and take it up to 65mph only to realize we need gas. Stopped at the gas station and 2 people immediately comment, "Nice Bronco!"

After doing some research it was originally a limestone poly green wagon from Houston but when he purchased it, it was a red half cab.

He removed the body from the frame and installed new body bushings, disc brakes up front, new tires/wheels, built a front bumper, moved the glovebox over on the dash for the new cage and did a 2.5" suspension lift with new coils/leafs. He then took the bulkhead back out, found a hardtop and converted it back to a wagon. He had a local engine shop tear down the original 302, hone and rebuild it as well as the C4 trans, and Dana 20 transfer case. He did a frame off restoration and we will be going even further:

A new cage

New soft top

At its new forever home

I did not plan on having 2 yellow cars, I just couldn't pass up the Bronco! Plus the Cobra was a beast. If you have not experienced a pullied 03/04 Cobra you need to!

Now if you want to skip all the fun and see it being painted, click here you cheaters: Paint Day!!!!

If not continue on...

 

[JefeAZ]

Got it up on our 4 post lift to check out the undercarriage and what needs attention. A few typical leaks but nothing that prevented me from driving it to work that Friday!

Picked up some bigger tires/wheels on Craiglist:

Swapped out the 2.5" lift for a 3.5" Deaver coil lift, added an adjustable track bar, drop pitman arm and welded a track bar riser onto the axle. I sold the cage, hard top, soft top, bumpers and a ton of small parts to buy more parts:

Old 2.5" Duff springs vs the new 3.5" Deaver coils. Much smoother ride but added body roll. Need to research sway bars now!

Some light trail running 10 minutes from the house to flex out the new suspension:

In 2014 the starter motor went out on me. Towed it home and ordered a high torque mini starter. 2021 update: this is the one and only time the Bronco stranded me:

Drove to Phoenix to meet up with Bronco Driver magazine editor Mike aka Greaseball. He sold me this this custom built 8 point family roll cage:

After looking at hundreds of wheel options we decided on these 16" Black Rock Yuma's:

Picked up some new BFGs in 265/75/16. Basically a 32x10.50. Notice the new plate:

Called up Mike Wiley at Protofab and ordered a set of his Rock Solid plate bumpers. Bolted the bumpers on, threw the cage in, pulled the gas tanks, sold the Beard seats and this is where we stopped driving it in Sept 2017:

 

[bronkenn]

Don't stop now. Just popped some popcorn. Ken

 

[JefeAZ]

I started the Classic Broncos of Tucson group on Facebook and made it a mission to track down every Bronco owner near me. We held our first event in the garage and I tricked them(with beer and food) into working on my Bronco!

We dropped the rear end and moved the rear axle back 1", added 1 leaf back into the pack(2 were removed), checked driveshaft angles and length, and cleaned up all of the wheel studs rather than replacing.

We also installed new Bilstein 5100s on all 4 corners.

Installed some Bronco script valve covers

I recently picked up a 2015 Hellcat as a daily driver. 707HP, what a car! My Grandpa supervising the Bronco work

Found some 2005 Mustang seats at a junkyard, bought a fold and tumble from Toms and a Rampage center console off Amazon

The fronts sit very low, recline and tilt so I can get in the back from both sides. Bought the Wildhorses seat box that we will weld in and I will mount an amp under it for the speakers.

Bought some fiberglass interior quarter panels and already had aluminum door panels.

I tried finding matching material to the fold n tumble and its impossible. So I took them all down to a local upholstery shop who wrapped them in two tone waterproof vinyl. It feels and looks like leather though. Colors are old whiskey and briarwood

I didn't want to permanently screw the side panels on so I picked up thin neodymium magnets that hold them on nice and strong. You can pull the panels off and hide tools/parts in the rear quarters

I had the upholstery shop cut a few inches off the front seat head rests and put new foam in all of them

Matching door panels

 

[JefeAZ]

I sent the original speedometer out to Kevin at Classy Gauges who did a fantastic job on the restoration.

It got a full rebuild which is not cheap! New speedometer head unit, all gauges done in brushed aluminum, chromed bezel, new odometer drum, turn signal/high beam lenses, LED lights and added a Bronco script emblem. We also asked that the mileage be kept the same

Ordered a Bronco Design fiberglass mid rise hood. This is a 2 piece hood with steel reinforcements and we will be using hood struts instead of pins or the prop rod. We will also be filling in and smoothing those vent openings

The underside is finished like the original hood but has much more clearance.

On the dashboard the prior owner had moved the glove box over to clear the old roll cage plus he added holes for gauges and switches we were not going to use. After pulling the dashboard off and seeing the welds we decided the old dash was beyond repair and we ordered a Bronco Hut Dash.

You can order them blank or with the cluster and glove box holes already cut out.

Plus they come with defroster vents already welded in

Found my first bit of rust behind the speedo up near the cowl. We will be cutting out and replacing this later in the build. You can also see the original Limestone Poly Green

Ordered a Kenwood double din stereo(DDX795) that has bluetooth, CD, AM/FM, USB, Pandora, etc. Also allows for a backup camera. Ive been playing around with the orientation and I think this is going to work best

 

[Cortez]

Saweet! Thanks for the pictorial- can’t wait to see the final paint soon. Keep at it.

 

[No Hay]

Looking good Jefe. Getting close!

Pretty cool Uncle with the Cobra to set the hook ;D

 

[sprdv1]

Nice garage area... Lots of good work on that boss.

 

[JefeAZ]

About to start the body tear down

Removed the windshield frame, tailgate, grill and fenders and sent them to a blaster. The front clip came off easily in one piece

You can see the original limestone poly green here as well as a horrible undercoating job

No rust or hidden damage on anything so we put some primer on

The blaster also has a fab shop so I brought the ProtoFab plate bumper to him for some prerunner style hoop ideas. I just thought it was a little too plain up front:

Also had them blast the silver powdercoating off the roll cage and add upper and lower seat belt bungs for 3 point belts. All primered and ready for raptorliner

Did the Alice turn signal mod which utilizes pre '69 turn signals that sit flush in the grill. So much cleaner than the stock '74 lenses

Unloading back at home

 

[rydog1130]

Looks Good jeff! Cant wait till the parts go back on it!

 

[JefeAZ]

Sent a bunch of pieces to CB member rydog1130 at www.lubr4x4.com to blast and powdercoat satin silver to match the door handles, mirrors and wipers. He did an awesome job and even tracked down an automatic column shift handle which don't pop up for sale often!

We started sanding down the rest of the body to save on labor costs. That was a tough, messy job with 2 small orbital sanders. Never again! After a few weekends of sanding we discovered 2 different yellows, then red as well as the original limestone poly green

I had a SEMA quality restorer(Bonzer Customs) over to roll the rear fenders for some more tire clearance. He wound up doing it by hand which was amazing to watch. I was really hoping we could have had him do our paint/body work but I was not too surprised at his bid. Little did I know he would introduce me to our painter a few weeks later

Here you can see the unfinished sharp edge that it had before. That is now completely tucked up so it won't slash the tires like it has in the past

More sanding

So close to the end and still not finding any rust Did I just jinx it?

A couple small sections to sand down and then we will be down to bare naked steel! I am still amazed at how solid the body is but its been in Arizona for a very long time

The prior owner used filler in the rear body seams and it obviously cracked but we always wondered if he did that to hide something. Im using a pick to dig out the filler and all of the sudden I hit a piece of metal. I get the sander back out and find this:

Another angle but you can also see the newly rolled fender lips better:

The lower portion of the fender is rotted out but the taillight panel is solid with some surface rust:

 

[JefeAZ]

The following weekend Bonzer calls me up and says he has a friend who does body/paint that wants to see it. Shannon Schierer at Schierer's Customs: https://www.facebook.com/Schierers-Customs-1377781705576575

He looks it over and shows me some of his prior work which was very impressive. He recognizes how much work we have into it and says that we can come to his shop and help with the body/paint. That was huge to us that no other shop offered. So we laid out a build plan and had the Bronco over to him the following weekend.

Tucked away with a '71 429 Torino

He is also helping his neighbor restore a Scout

So we head out the following weekend and get to work sanding the door jams, the cowl and all of the tight spots we didn't have the right tools for:

He welded up every hole in the bedrails as we wanted a smooth finished look:

Adding these sleeves to beef up the weak OEM frame horns:

Found more original green and a teaser of the F8 paint:

POR15 on the fenders, cage and bumpers

Raptorliner done:

 

[JefeAZ]

We cut out the rust in the cowl behind the speedo

and fabbed up some replacement pieces

We also decided to cut out that rusted quarter section and ordered a new fender from CJ Pony Parts:

Spent an entire day scraping and sanding bed liner/paint off the cowl. We were covered from head to toe in black dust:

Then we used this amazing tool to pull a small dent out of the rear taillight cap. It arcs itself to the body and then you use the fulcrum lever to pop dents out:

 

[JefeAZ]

My Dad and I got to weld for the first time. Sealing up the antenna hole on the fender as we will be using a hidden antenna:

Also welded up some grill holes

Filled in and sanded the hood vent openings:

Cut out the fresh air vents:

Bolted the front clip back on with the hood to check fitment/gaps:

Threw the doors back on to check body lines and make adjustments:

Mounted the hood strut brackets and tested out the struts:

One of my favorite photos of the resto so far. Its getting close:

Smoothing out the bedrails and cut the seam line back in by hand:

 

[Dbteak]

very nice work. I remember it gave me big boost when I bolted everything together for a test fit. Can't wait to see it finished. Doug

 

[jperry1290]

Looks nice

 

[sprdv1]

Raptor liner looks good on there.. Making great progress

 

[sykanr0ng]

I have some extremely strong neodymium magnets that will go on the back of the inner panels and Im planning on putting 6.5" speakers in those up front. I wanted to be able to pull the panels back so I can hide tools/parts in the rear sections

You maybe should check with a lawyer first, hidden storage compartments are illegal in at least some states if not the whole country.
Any judge will tell you that ignorance of the law is no excuse and prosecutors no longer care about intent.

 

[Crush]

i think you are being a little paranoid there. broncos came with these panels from the factory and just because you decided to attach them with magnets instead of scres does not mean you should be prosecuted. and yes INTENT is still a factor in prosecution. the have to prove motive and intent of use. so if you carry parts in there then obviously you are not smuggling drugs or other contraband. Most of us carry something behind those panels. cleaning supplies, tools, parts etc.... so I guess by your suggestion we should all take these out and throw away our panels???

 

[JefeAZ]

very nice work. I remember it gave me big boost when I bolted everything together for a test fit. Can't wait to see it finished. Doug

Ha we had the opposite reaction. It was a pain getting it back together because he has been straightening the fenders out. He is not looking forward to putting them back on after paint. We're going to do the fenders separately and then the grill

You and me both. This time next month it should be done!

Looks nice

Thank you!

Raptor liner looks good on there.. Making great progress

Ya we are also raptor lining the insides of the fenders and inside some of the grill to make it less tinny. Also raptor lining the tailgate. I wanted it to match the body but the first deep scratch on there would make me sick.

You maybe should check with a lawyer first, hidden storage compartments are illegal in at least some states if not the whole country.
Any judge will tell you that ignorance of the law is no excuse and prosecutors no longer care about intent.

Strange haha. Its Arizona so I can open carry or conceal carry but Im talking about tool/parts in those side panels