My backyard build thread

[quikdrummer]

Blurry cell phone pic, but I got a box of parts yesterday

The patient is prepped and ready

 

[.94 OR]

Was there a "spare" tank in that box of parts?

 

[quikdrummer]

Was there a "spare" tank in that box of parts?

Im gonna build a completely overkill skid plate, so hopefully the need will not arise again lol. The new tank seems a little heavier duty anyways

 

[quikdrummer]

Depressed post time

Got the gas tank in finally and threw a few gallons in to test for leaks and whatnot. everything worked fine, fired right up after couple pumps. So after idling around the yard getting up to temp and making sure I had no fuel leaks, I decided to take her for a little cruise since I hadnt driven her in a month. On the way, she was running crazy rich, which she had been during the last trail run. I stopped to adjust a few things, and ended up running out of gas. Called my wife, she met me with the gas can and I headed back home. Got up to around 45 when all of a sudden a loud WHACK and my vision went blue for a second. I had left the goddamn hood pins out and my hood was now floating about 50 feet in the air. It completely shattered the windshield, ripped the fiberglass off the hinges, and actually bent the windshield frame inwards considerably. Thankfully no one got hurt besides my pride and wallet. Needless to say, I am mentally beating myself up still.

Self inflicted carnage:

Surprisingly enough, the hood held up to a steel windshield frame, and a 50+ foot drop to pavement. I dont see any cracks, just some missing paint and a couple marks. And obviously, the holes where the hinges used to mount...

Here you can kinda see the curve in the upper part of the frame

I held up a piece of steel tube to see how far it bent. Its at least a 1/2", maybe more.

So any tips on bending that upper part of the frame back to get new glass in? Im worried that no matter what I do it wont be right and the glass either wont mount at all or it will be tweaked and stressed and crack again. I posted in wanteds looking for a used one, if anyone has one available that would be awesome.

As for the hood, I'll thinking I may get a second set of pins to mount to the firewall for now, or depending on how stressed that back part of the hood is maybe drill some holes and run a piece of flat bar or angle inside it to mount the hinges to?

I need to be wheeling, not fixing stupid shit that is easily preventable

 

[JIMS74]

So any tips on bending that upper part of the frame back to get new glass in?
I had a similar mishap. I used a ratchet strap and made wood frame that made contact with the ends of the windshield frame and was spaced off it about a foot across the top edge, to pull off of.
I would get a 4 or 5 foot piece of flatbar and fiberglass kit and glass the flatbar and the chunks of hood from the hinges back into the hood.

 

[Rymadd]

The hood went up 50 feet? dang! At least it didn't land on somebody else's car, then you would be fixing theirs instead of yours. Sweet bumper BTW

 

[quikdrummer]

Well she's officially pissed off at me.

I went out to get started on the windshield yesterday and while I was removing the bolts to take the frame off my hand slipped and went right into the broken glass. I ended up getting one deep gash about 1 1/2" long on my ring finger.

 

[quikdrummer]

Facelift time for the blue bitch

Windshield frame off

So long, evil glass

Not a pretty piece. If it wasnt $300+ I'd just get a new one...

 

[BRONCONY]

Man that sucks!

 

[quikdrummer]

finally got out of my bronco funk and went and worked on her today. I had been having big problems with the carb leaking fuel again... so i threw a rebuild kit at it.

Also two trail runs back, right after the clutch job and just before I split the gas tank, she got overheated, up to about 280+. I shut her down and let her cool off, ran ok the rest of the day but started feeling a little doggy and seemed to be running rich constantly.

then on the gas tank trip, she was running bad the whole day and spitting bluish smoke on startup and every time I got on it, I figured it was carb related. especially since I had been having to flood her out every time to start, I think the needle seats were leaking.

got everything cleaned up, bolted together and started today and she was running ok but feels real doggy and is spitting continuous bluish exhaust smoke. Its barely noticeable at idle, but as soon as I get on it, it starts spewing and stays spewing, clouds of it. And so I am pretty sure that I fried the rings somewhere along the way between that overheat and now.

One step forward, two steps back...

I figure Ill do an oil change and throw some additive in, see if I can reduce it some. Not really in the mood to do a ring job or try to find another 302.

 

[quikdrummer]

Wow it's been a long time since I posted here.

I have done very little to the bronco in the last few months. Missed the stampede, which is nearly inexcusable since I'm an hour away. My garage has been full of other projects and I have been working a lot more than I was last year. She still has no windshield or hood. I got her fired up and ran around the block last week and remembered the engine issues I had. But other than the last few days being insanely windy, it's been perfect wheeling weather and I need to get back out there! I am going to try to get out this weekend, hopefully I will get some pics.

 

[quikdrummer]

Finally put a little time into the bronco today.

I have pretty much decided to leave the glass off. So I did some windshield bars.

She looks terrible with all the missing parts, but I don't care.

And after looking at my hood more and trying to decide how to re-mount it, its become clear that the fiberglass all along the mounting side is completely FUBAR'd. So not sure what my plan is gonna be for that... I will probly just drive it hoodless for a while. Who knows, I may decide to pull the front clip and tube/skin the whole front half. All I know is that I should have some new wheeling pics tomorrow

 

[quikdrummer]

Got her back out on sunday after welding up the engine cage on the blazer.

Windy as hell and no windshield made for a fun ride. Got some poser shots and had a good time.

 

[quikdrummer]

It was time to invest in a winch

X20 10k, on sale at 4wheelparts.

I am thinking i will make a vertical mounting plate, welded to the bumper with some gusseting. Something like this I found on pirate...

Seems most people are just bolting them up horizontally, which would be easier. For now the bumper mounts are just rectangle tube slid into the frame rails and bolted in with grade 8 9/16s. So I probly need to beef that up as well. I could use some feedback before jumping in.

Winch mounting experts: GO.

 

[Prizefighter]

All your pictures are deleted, what's up? Found this thread while doing some searching.

 

[quikdrummer]

Hey it's been years since I posted anything here!

The pic links are all broken probly cuz I used to use photobucket to host the images and I don't have that account anymore.

Biggest thing I added to the bronco was a full set of king remote resi shocks with compression adjust. Damn those are nice. Gotta do bumps now tho, on hard high speed hits with the soft superflex coils they want to bottom out.

Here's a recent poser pic from the Parker race in feb

 

[quikdrummer]

The new shocks. Fronts mounted up to the existing shock hoops, rears are mounted thru the wheel well to the cage which is now tied to the frame and sliders at 4 points. 2.0" remote resis with the compression adjustment knobs. Valved with a flutter stack, soaks up washboard and small hits awesome, but the fronts with the soft coils feels a little soft still in the big hits. For crawling it's perfect but when I have it in the higher speed desert stuff she needs more damping. I'm thinking a decent set of hydraulic bumps is next on the list.

 

[sprdv1]

Looks pretty darn capable...

Hey it's been years since I posted anything here!

The pic links are all broken probly cuz I used to use photobucket to host the images and I don't have that account anymore.

Biggest thing I added to the bronco was a full set of king remote resi shocks with compression adjust. Damn those are nice. Gotta do bumps now tho, on hard high speed hits with the soft superflex coils they want to bottom out.

Here's a recent poser pic from the Parker race in feb

 

[quikdrummer]

Looks pretty darn capable...

Yeah she gets the job done.

Hopefully this year I can finally tackle the transfer case rebuild I've been putting off for oh... around a decade. I want to twin stick it and install Teralow (Teraflex? Whatever the kit that WH and a few other vendors sell) gears for the low range, I have 4.56 gears in the axles with a stock 3 speed and Dana 20. Nowhere near low enough in the real heavy stuff.

 

[quikdrummer]

Got some new toys