Hellwig 68 Bronco Project

[Bknaus]

That can't be the only new picture ??? We love pictures!

Looking good.

I'll get some more for you don't worry. Lately I was busy going up to Sierra Trek on Fordyce Trail in the Sierras so the Bronco got ignored. Here's some pics of that for you...

It's beautiful up there and in my opinion harder than Rubicon. They had a DJ and a full bar and a pretty legit raffle. There were some solid EBs I checked out too. All the proceeds go to Cal4Wheel Drive so a good cause.

I did the river run where we went from the end of the trail backwards through the last 3 winch hills, crossed the river and then came back. One guy blew up the bearings in his D60 and there were three broken TJs (driveshaft, tie rod, drag link) but I rode with the VP of Cal4 in his YJ and we didn't have a problem. My highlight was watching Big Mike from Marlin Crawler put his Toyota in triple low (511:1) and get out of the vehicle and let it go up Winch Hill 5 without him in it.

Full Album of Pics Here

Meadow Lake where we camped (end of the trail) and our F250

Flexed out ice cream truck

Sweet backhalfed, exoed Dodge

 

[DirtDonk]

Used to work the Trek vendor area for years. Been awhile since I've been though, and glad to see it back up at Meadow lake.

And I totally agree that it feels harder than the Rubicon. Some pretty touchy sections for sure.

Glad you got to go, and had a good time.

Paul

 

[Bknaus]

Well, took some pictures of our axles and progress there. Currie Enterprises made us some awesome stuff!

Currie front axle housing with 3.25"x3/8" wall tubing and 1 ton knuckes

Currie rear axle housing with 3.5"x3/8" wall tubes and 1 ton outers

Our front Currie third member with 4.86 gears and ARB locker

 

[Bknaus]

Our original plan was to set up the suspension the old fashioned way with the frame, finding center line, designing brackets, etc but while we wait for the frame it seems like SEMA is just around the corner so we decided to try something new for us to speed up the process. We measured our axles with our CMM and then using data from that and both Currie and Art Morrison we designed our brackets, are having them laser cut and will get them tacked into place before we even have the frame in hand. We'll see how it works out!

Measuring the rear axle with our Faro arm

Rear axle measured with the Faro arm

Rear axle with bracketry for the sway bar, coil overs and four link

Front axle measured with the Faro arm

Front axle with bracketry for the coil overs and radius arms

 

[Pa PITT]

Holly SMOKE at the toys. Cool and a nice one to start with.

 

[pilot21]

Updates?

 

[Bknaus]

Updates?

Yes sir. For the suspensions we received the Art Morrison frame, have all our brackets being laser cut right now, have all the links with their Johnny Joints, have our Fox coil overs, etc so it's almost assembly time. We're just waiting on the laser cut brackets to show up in a couple days to start putting the suspension together.

For the drivetrain, our Atlas t-case and everything else including motor mounts are here and ready. The one thing we need are some shorter bolts from Ford since our 5.0 was set up for a manual and we're going auto. The flex plate is just a little skinnier than the flywheel so when those show up tomorrow we should be able to bolt everything in and measure for drive shafts.

I'll try to take some pictures of all the new goodies tomorrow. We basically have 2-1/2 weeks to get everything assembled to leave us enough time to tear it apart, finish weld it all, paint it and then have it together for SEMA so expect a lot of updates and not much sleep from us in the following few weeks...

 

[Bknaus]

We got our frame in from Art Morrison. It came with most of our bracketry already welded in place and is really a piece of art.

Taking it our of the crate

All ready for suspension and drivetrain

Skid plate

Rear coilover mounts

Front coilover mounts

Stack-o-dimes on the link brackets

We also have our front radius arms and rear links for our 4 link with some huge Johnny Joints

Front radius arms

Rear 4 link

Begin overtime run to make SEMA!

 

[Calvengeance]

This is awesome stuff.

 

[mattyq17]

Looking good from one Cal Poly alumni to another! ;D

 

[Bknaus]

Looking good from one Cal Poly alumni to another! ;D

Go Mustangs!

We got the engine, transmission and t-case in yesterday. We're running the crate Ford Racing Coyote 5.0, a 6r80 out of a wrecked 2011 F150, Tumblin Automotive's adapter and the Advanced Adapters 2 speed 3.0:1 Atlas transfer case. We may mess with the clocking on the transfer case some more to see what looks best for driveshaft angles and cross member clearance and we're finalizing the tranny mount but otherwise everything worked out.

Engine went in first

Motor mounts

To increase clearance to the passenger side shock mount we swapped out the factory Ford header (bottom) with an aftermarket header (top)

The whole package

There are more pics in this album

 

[Chief Master Sergeant]

This is awesome! Subscribing and not sure how I missed this until today.

 

[Bknaus]

Some more progress.

Figuring out the final location for everything on the front radius arms, checking brackets, ride height, pinion angles, driveshaft angles, oil pan clearance, etc

We were a little anxious about oil pan clearance but after some inital cycling we should be fine. We raised ride height ~1" just to be on the safe side.

PSC steering box fit like a glove. The high pressure lines for the hydraulic assist are close to the alternator pulley but we replaced the PSC fittings with some swivel 90 degree fittings and made everything clear.

The rear's just waiting for the final ride height numbers from the front so we can start setting it up. It looks good so far.

 

[broncobsession]

So incredible! Droooool.

 

[Bknaus]

Some motivation for the Bronco, we found a lot of sweet old ads/brochures that are in an album HERE and our favorites are below.

This is what we're building, a tough V8 Bronco, it's even our Bronco's original color!

There are more HERE

 

[motoman]

Very very exciting!!!!

 

[Archbronco]

Appreciate the detail. Is the AM frame the same dimensions as a stock frame?

 

[Bknaus]

Appreciate the detail. Is the AM frame the same dimensions as a stock frame?

The Art Morrison frame is about 5" wider than stock which I am so grateful for every time I go out and work on this. Those EB frames are NARROW (and I know I'm preaching to the choir on this forum). It does still come with body mounts that pick up all the stock locations on the original body.

 

[toddz69]

The Art Morrison frame is about 5" wider than stock which I am so grateful for every time I go out and work on this. Those EB frames are NARROW (and I know I'm preaching to the choir on this forum). It does still come with body mounts that pick up all the stock locations on the original body.

Is your AM frame the same as the one ICON is using?

Todd Z.

 

[Bknaus]

Is your AM frame the same as the one ICON is using?

Todd Z.

Both frames are made by Art Morrison and very similiar with just a few small differerences