The third weekend was the most productive. Because of the Beer Bug i actually got off early Thursday afternoon and was not expecting to be working at all the following week.
In the process of removing the dash, the column, brake pedal and gas pedal all had to come out. This of course opened my eyes and made me suddenly aware that the PO had also coated the inside of the engine compartment in that same bedliner crap! The bedliner made removing nuts and bolts fun. Because it covers the heads and threads, I was not able to get the tools onto the nuts and bolts until I figured out that the trusty old map gas torch made things easier. I had to torch the bedliner to make it soft and then press, force, or sometime beat the sockets onto the bolt/nut to get them loose. FUN STUFF!
At this point, this is where everything when way sideways. The Snowball grows a little... This is where I decided that I couldn’t do a proper color change on this Bronco with the engine bay covered in bedliner, would just be a complete waste of time, and I couldn’t allow all this work to be a half-assed waste of time on my dads dream truck.
SO… the decision was made to pull the body off so I could get all that bedliner off the inside of the engine compartment. Yep, BIG mistake! I started the process of pulling the body. I started by removing wires that connected the engine to the body, then the fenders which were held in place by a few bolts and MORE BEDLINER! The insides of the front fenders and the front wheel wells were coated in black nasty-ness. Everything that I could get off came off. Fenders, hood, wires, windshield frame doors, yada yada yada…
Friday morning, I pulled the body off using a little frame thing that I made to keep the body stiffened up. I probably could have done a better job of the lifting frame thing but it worked with the little effort I put into it.
I also built a little 2x3 inch tube body cart. I built the cart to hold the body solidly, I also wanted the body to be square on the cart and bolted down so that I could install the quarters while the body is on the cart. I went about the basic frame of the body cart as if I was building a low buck street rod frame. I took measurements off the frame and built body mounts in the proper locations. Big castor wheels so I could move it easily around the shop.
I wheeled the chassis down to my other shop, 4 doors down in the same building. While using the forklift to move the chassis, I kept hearing some funny jingling noises. I got the chassis down to the other shop and parked the forklift. Walking back to the first shop I found a nice neat row of 1 ½ fender washers leading all the way back. In total, there were 12 washers on the ground and 6 more on the frame. These were placed on the driver side radiator support. UH OH! This can mean only one thing, the frame is bent. I tried my best to measure the frame horn heights and frame diagonals, but there is an engine in the way. The only thing that I could really figure out is that the left front frame horn appeared to be down about an inch. There was a small buckle right below the steering box and there was a spot on the frame in the same area that looked like the PO had somehow managed to chain the frame down and used a bottle jack to try and correct the problem. The only thing is that the bottle just appears to have just made a dent in the frame.
Later this day I went wild and stripped the chassis down to bare frame. I took it to my buddies shop (his dad owns a body shop with a computer frame rack) and expected to drop the frame off. He would not accept the frame for any work because it was so nasty with oil and completely coated with a thick layer of…. YOU GUESSED IT! BEDLINER! ARG.
I spent Saturday morning cleaning the frame up so I could drop it off at the body shop Monday morning.
I spent Sunday morning getting the body square on the cart and bolting it down securely. Whilst bolting the body to the cart I figured out that the front radiator support mounts did not line up with where they should have been bolted to on the cart. Taking a closer look at the front radiator support and the inner fenders, I figured out that the accident that caused the frame tweak also messed up the front inner support structures.
Also just for giggles I decided to bolt the doors back on just to see if i tweaked the body at all with the forklift and while bolting it down. in the process i stripped out one of the A pillar / door hing pillar hinge screw plate bolt holes. The upper plate. Now i gotta replace the the door hinge pillar! YAY ME!
The snowball continues to grow.
Monday (Yesterday) with the body bolted down, I decided that with the front inner structures messed up and coated in bedliner, It would be better to just replace the front inner sheet metal parts. I broke out the drill and the spot weld drill bits and went wild on the front of the Bronco. I removed everything from the firewall forward.
I also went crazy with the oscillating multi-tool and scraped about 80% of the bedliner off the front of the firewall. I also removed the driver side lower quarter panel, fuel filler panels, and started removing all of the quarter panels and parts.
With the frame at the frame shop and the front of the bronco removed, I started in on removing the bedliner material from the inside. I got about 80% of all that removed. I kind of just ignored the parts I know that I am replacing as there is no need to clean those up just to toss in the crap pile.
I also called WH and Tom’s and ordered a bunch of parts. I still need to order a few more parts, mostly misc. pieces that I will need to fill in the blanks once it starts getting tech screwed back together. All these parts should have been delivered today or maybe tomorrow. I am working this week, thank goodness. I need the $$ but I would also like to get more done to the bronco. Bitter sweet so to speak. Gotta pay bills, real life interferes with my fun a little too much sometimes.
-Izzy
