Nashville - Just bought a '68 Bronco

[utgrad]

I've always loved Early Broncos, so I've been looking for one for a few months. I didn't see many for sale at a reasonable price in my area so I ended up getting one off ebay from up North, which in hindsight was probably a stupid thing to do-both buying of ebay AND getting it from up North. The thing is a rust bucket and has had all kind of floor repairs and fixes to it that didn't show up on the ebay pics. ?:?

Well, it's mine now so I'm gonna do what I can with it. I guess the good is that the tires are new (33" BFG ATs) and it has a new manual steering box and a lift on it-which I'm thinking of lowering because it's pretty high. It also looks to have a Dana 44 front axle-although drum brake. It has a 302 that starts up and runs decent with the 3 on the tree, which I'm not really sure if I'll keep that or not-I might get a Duff floor shifter conversion, but not sure yet.

The frame is rusty but I don't see any holes but who knows what I'll find when I get that cleaned up. Anyway, I don't have any exterior pics yet but I do have these that I took. I'm pretty much planning to take the whole thing apart and see where I am with it. I figured I would start this thread to keep me on task with doing something with this Bronco so it doesn't just sit around my driveway forever, haha.

-Scott

 

[Schreiber]

Lots of good potential there. Good luck!

 

[.94 OR]

Is it just me, or is anyone else smelling a total tear down?

 

[JGbronc]

Welcome to the site!

Look on the bright side, being in the shape it's in, there will be plenty of room for improvement.

 

[broncoitis]

Welcome to the site! No worries, basically all of the sheetmetal is available through the aftermarket vendors. That frame may just clean up better than you think. Like the other said, you have alot of potential there. Good Luck with your build. ;D

 

[Ratch]

Welcome to the site, there are a few of us around Nashville. I will be off work next week, if you would like help looking it over just let me know.
Carl

 

[NY-Bronco]

Welcome dude!! Carl was the first one to look over my rig also. And he performed the first trail fix for me. I still have that piece ;D

 

[stingus]

I'm here in Nashville too. Ratch has helped me on my EB many times so if you can get him to take a look at yours I would recomend it! Holler at me if you need some help when you get started.

 

[utgrad]

Thanks guys! Appreciate the offers of help, I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities to take you up on that with this rig, haha. Well my plan is to start tearing it down this weekend to get the body off the frame. I'll keep ya posted.

 

[sprdv1]

Welcome aboard Scott and Congrats!!!

 

[utgrad]

OK, so I've been working on the Bronco. Basically, it's SUPER rusty-mainly undercarriage and bottom of some of the panels (rear quarter, rockers,fenders), body mounts, surface rust on a lot and rust rot on a decent amount of area, floors are gone but have been replaced with various metals (cobble welded together). It also runs a little weak and has what I think is massive axle wrap or maybe just crazy clutch chatter when going up a hill because I could barely get the thing up my steep driveway it shook so bad! So my plan was to totally restore it, but I really need to find a new tub instead of trying to replace metal because there is just too much to replace on this thing. So my plan is to just make it pretty by painting it on the cheap, rust-proof what I can underneath and just drive it. It's got about 5 layers of paint on it which I've started to scrap off because it's not really on there that good. Looks like the original paint is a white color. The bottom of the tailgate and rear taillight housings/quarter panels are rusted out as well as the front and rear body/frame mounts which I'll probably just weld some big washers onto those. I'll basically try to do what I can to mitigate rust in hopes i will last me a few years while I look for a good tub.

Couple of questions (I included pics in hopes someone could help):

-It looks like a SuperLift lift was added and the rear axle has the springs on top of the axle and there are unused/partially cutoff mounts I was wondering about-these can be seen in the pics showing the rear spring mount.
-There is a long arm coming off the front axle and coming back and attached back into the frame (radius arm?)-it looks like some metal was welded on and the original mount is gone-can you tell from my pics if this is accurate?

 

[utgrad]

Here are some more pics:

 

[Ratch]

[QUOTE=utgrad;1816528]
Couple of questions (I included pics in hopes someone could help):

-It looks like a SuperLift lift was added and the rear axle has the springs on top of the axle and there are unused/partially cutoff mounts I was wondering about-these can be seen in the pics showing the rear spring mount.
-There is a long arm coming off the front axle and coming back and attached back into the frame (radius arm?)-it looks like some metal was welded on and the original mount is gone-can you tell from my pics if this is accurate?[/QUOTE]

Looks like someone had a lot of time, spare metal and a welder. Looks like some kind of gusset was added to the rear spring perch and they made some drop radius arm brackets.

 

[RustyShackelfor]

tub doesnt look that bad.

 

[cannonnum4]

looks like a fun project man

 

[utgrad]

Thanks Ratch for your input. Yeah, looks like a previous owner had extra metal and a welder-and wasn't afraid to use it! They even made custom mounts for the 302 that I'll probably keep because they seem sturdy.

Today I got a lot of paint off-there are about 5 paintjobs on this thing. Using aircraft stripper and razor blades works pretty good I guess considering how many layers of paint are on this thing. Pulled the windshield because it had a large crack.

 

[johnnybgood74]

welcome and congrats!! doesnt look that bad at all to me. i would be taking a close look at the drag link where it connects to the pitman arm. looks like a home made job? atleast ive never seen one like it.

 

[utgrad]

Thanks, I'll look into that drag link...wouldn't want that part to fail yuk.

 

[Steve83]

Don't get discouraged - great Broncos have come from MUCH worse beginnings! Just take your time & don't skip anything. It can be excrutiating, but it'll be worth the wait.

Is it just me, or is anyone else smelling a total tear down?

Is there any other way to begin ownership of an eB? ;D

...the drag link where it connects to the pitman arm. looks like a home made job? atleast ive never seen one like it.

It looks like an original, which is a pretty scary thought, but they were built to be rebuildable.

 

[BajaFresh75]

If you need anything PM me I have a bunch of Broncos and parts. I'm parting out a couple right now and might have some body/tub parts you can have cheap. I have a shop on M'boro Rd and Spence Ln.