My 2021 updates on my 73 - long overdue - FINISHED

[JWMcCrary]

Working on the rock skis. The passenger side is in place and ready to weld on. The rocker and floor had been pushed in and up by the rocker guards I was running so I had to get that pushed back into place. I can't see good enough to weld those so using my smarts and having a friend weld them on as soon as I get the drivers side built and in place. Started on the drivers side, it should be easier, very little rust and was a lot more sturdy. Opening up my flares in front of the rear tire and behind the front tire a little bit, they would rub when flexed before but after this they should be better.

 

[Scoop]

Wow! Lots of progress. Good to get the "little things" taken care of.

 

[JWMcCrary]

Thank the PO of the 351 for using synthetic, thats what my 85,000 mile 5.0 looked like.

Thanks to myself. I built the old motor in 2005, .040 over stroker, 395. Never had anything other than royal purple after breakin

 

[Tiko433]

Coming along nicely! They are going to be nice. I needed your glass buddy went I did mine.

 

[JWMcCrary]

Rock skis are done and welded on. I'm very limited on space, as I'm sure a lot of you deal with the same issue, so doing things a little different since I'm not looking for show quality, just improving. I prepped and painted the rear quarters and windshield frame, I had already painted the tailgate. Decided to go ahead and paint the rear bumper and quarter guards and put the backend together. Used 10-32 stainless hardware for the flares instead of those sheet metal screws. Those warflares are 16 years old. I trimmed some 3 inch plate to fit the top of the rear quarters and painted to match the quarter guards. Gives a more stable footing, a little safer, and helps save the paint when climbing into the back. Nice to open and close the tailgate without snatching and slamming.

 

[bigmuddy]

JW, how do you like the summit paint? I have heard some good and bad about it..

 

[JWMcCrary]

JW, how do you like the summit paint? I have heard some good and bad about it..

Honestly, I'm not a good enough painter that my opinion should matter that much. However, I was able to spray it without any runs, not even one (so far). I grew up helping in my Dad's shop so I've been around it quite a bit but haven't had a paint gun in my hand in 30 years prior to this. I called Gordon Bailie and he was kind enough to spend a few minutes to help me set up the gun. Never used one of these top feed type guns before, and I'm using a cheap gun.
I'm happy with the paint for my use, I have a lot of orange peel that probably wouldn't be acceptable for most but I'm ok with it for my offroad use. If you look up orange peel and the causes the first line states "improper technique" lol. There's a restoration shop close to me that does some high end builds and he showed me a couple that were painted with it and those done by them looked great.

 

[bigmuddy]

Thanks JW. I have a guy that's doing the pain and body work for me.

We had looked at Eastwood but reviews suggested the red would come out PINK! HA!

Looks like summit may be the way to go.

 

[Rustytruck]

Watch out with that British racing green it made all the bolts rattle out on those old MG's.

 

[JWMcCrary]

Been a while since I've updated. The engine is in and running, dash is installed and wiring done with exception to a couple bugs to sort out. Chipped the paint on the windshield hinge by folding it so had to be touched up with a brush after the cage was in. My front fenders and grille were in terrible shape, metal cracked and broken in numerous places, old bondo cracked, etc. The grille had bad welds under thick bondo and was cracking. IF this was a nice street bronco they would have been tossed but I patched them up by bonding pieces of metal behind the cracks/breaks and metal worked then to best of my ability and called them good enough. This bronco had taken a hard hit to the front sometime in it's life. Pic 3 shows an example of one of the patches. Got some green on the fenders and grille and put back on. My painting skills suck but it's a lot better than it was. I don't have any runs but have lots of orange peel, I can live with it as opposed to all the scratches, dings, and touchup paint from before. Still have to get the hood painted, paint the front bumper, few other things but hope to be back rolling by June.

 

[NGABronco]

Nice work, that rig is gonna shine at OCBR!!!!;D;D;D

 

[bigmuddy]

Looking good JW!

 

[JWMcCrary]

Finally got the hood painted and put back on. And the front bumper. Decided to do a little cut and buff on the hood since that's what you are staring at from the drivers seat. The rest of it I'm leaving alone, figure the more paint that's on it the better for offroad.

 

[JWMcCrary]

Since the seats were out I decided to add a subwoofer to my radio setup, hopefully make it a little better and it did. Mounted it under the rear seat and used a RCA cable splitter at my amp under the front passenger seat to connect it. Needs some adjusting but pretty happy with it. Very limited for space in an early Bronco for mounting tunes.

 

[JWMcCrary]

I bought some Procomp led rock lights off ebay, mounted in front of and behind each wheel. Didn't get a close up pic but I made some angle iron brackets for them to where they are positioned pointing down and to where the tire can't get into them. Seem pretty good for the cost.

 

[JWMcCrary]

Part of my rehab was new aluminum beadlocks, I ordered the Trail Ready 15x9 from CCOR on this site, the lead time with covid was pretty long but I got them end of last week. I used to have aluminum wheels on this bronco before going with beadlocks and always liked the look better than the black wheels. Mounted the old school way, knuckle skinning sweat rolling off your nose method, but got it done.

 

[JWMcCrary]

And here is what I'm calling the finish. The only thing from my list in the first post that I didn't do was swap the back seat. I have decided against that, at least for now. I may try that seat in my other bronco first later on. But here she is, my painting and all. Some sunshine and backed away from it does wonders. I hadn't painted anything in about 30 years, and I wasn't good at it then. But it was pretty low cost doing it myself for something I know will get scratched and dinged up playing offroad. I'm very happy with it. I hear a lot of people say "it looks the same", well that was kinda the plan, just fixing a lot of problems and get it all one solid color without all the touchup paint. Other than the hood it was wearing the same paint it had on it when I bought it in 2004.
I took some MEK and went to town on those warflares, cleaned right up for being 16 years old.

 

[JWMcCrary]

So what's the first thing you do with less than a mile on a new engine and rehabbed Bronco.....you head to the offroad park of course. Great day, I didn't baby it, I ran it just like I always did. Temp got up to 220 a couple times on some hill climbs and then came right back down, ran 200-210 most of the day but a few times I saw it drop below 200. It needs some break in time. Had 9 miles on the odometer when I unloaded back at home. Lucky I didn't lose a front driveshaft, I knew it needed replacing, bad slip joint and one of the joints in the CV is sloppy, I knew it but had slipped my mind and didn't have time to fix before Saturday. But it survived the day.
The EFI was still set for the old motor and camshaft but everything was close enough that I was told to just run it and let the computer sort it out. It did improve as the day went along but still needs some tuning. As far as working off idle in the rocks it did very well. In a higher gear (on the street) with a lot of throttle it stumbles, may take a tuner visit to get that out.
No complaints though, I'm very happy with how its running overall.

 

[JWMcCrary]

What better way to put a period at the end of this for now. A good friend made this wooden box and engraved these bourbon glasses for me.
He's not making them to sell due to the Bronco script, but, I'm going to donate 3 sets of them to the raffle at OCBR in September. If you want a chance at a set go register and I'll see you there.

CHEERS !!!!!

 

[bigmuddy]

great rebuild JW, looks nice!

How do you like the blade and bow?