Officially one of you build - Code name Bronconius the Gentleman

[Mattco]

Ok. Started putting some sheet metal screws in the rear lower quarter today and have the mid section aligned pretty well on the back. A few questions about it.

I'm about 1/16th off with a few sections of it, does this get dressed in with some bondo?

Also, how big of a gap is acceptable?

 

[Mattco]

Bump for help

 

[Mattco]

Alright. Some movement has been rumbling the last week or so.

I got the rear quarter put in and lined up a few days ago. I got the top seam tight but there is just no moving the top of the seam between the taillight and the rear lower quarter.

My helping hands in picking up the panel

I dried in the whole passenger side tonight. I went ahead and put the door and front fender on and got everything mocked up. I'm going out Saturday to mock up the door a little better to double check the rocker alignment with the door and fender before welding.

 

[Mattco]

Alright. Spent about two hours today working on the door and here is what I came away with.

Roughly 1/8" off top to bottom of the door. The striker side is about 1/4" wider than the hinge side so I am going to make a pair of sheet metal shims for the hinges.

I had to shim the back mount about 1/2", the seat mount 0", dash about 3/8" and the front 0". Everything lined up much better so I am going to drop the outer rocker down another 1/8" to match the others and weld it up this week.

 

[Mattco]

Spent the morning welding.

Passenger side is done except a few spot welds to the top of the rear quarter, ran out of welding wire and have to pick up some more.

Time to start cutting the driver side.

 

[broncobsession]

Looks real good. You leaving it uncut?

 

[Mattco]

That's the plan. LUBR riding with a 2.5" bilstein suspension lift and another 1" body lift on 31/10.5s. In the end, this one is going to be my driver and I have been keeping an eye out for something to build into a trail toy.

 

[Mattco]

I finished getting the driver side quarter and cleaned up. I'm waiting for another quart of silver por15 to dress in the backside before closing it up. I went ahead and drilled the spot weld holes in the upper quarter and the door side of the lower quarter and dry fitted it today.

 

[Mattco]

Rest of the drivers side is out now and found some real turd spots.

Started working on repairing the tunnel cover on this side.

I have to pull the parking brake at the least and probably all the pedals so I can start dry fitting the entire drivers side. Hoping to start welding up the week after next.

 

[Mattco]

A little update from the last 8 or 9 months of working long hours, building a new office and tinkering with the bronco on occasion.

I got the passenger side straightened up and ready to go.

I then got the drivers side in and screwed in place and then straightened up.

Then I pulled the roll bar out and cleaned up the floor some and everything looks good underneath.

Now for the challenge, the tailgate. It was in rough shape do I figured I would play with it to see if I could salvage it.

I am pushing to have the bodywork done pretty soon at this point and now some extra questions have arose:

1. What do you do to reinforce the stress tears in the middle of a stock hood? Do you just weld them back and call it done or cut in a small piece of sheet metal/angle iron to help it out?

2. What is a good way to make sure you spot welds are holding really good? This is my shot at it and want to double check myself in the welds before pulling the body off the frame.

3. Should I clean all the old paint off to put down epoxy primer or can I pressure wash all of it and degrease and put it on top of some of the old paint? And should I put anything on top of epoxy primer before giving it to the shop to bed liner the inside and bottom?

 

[broncosbybart]

You have come a long way. Great work!

-I will add some sheet metal behind the hood tears and weld it up

- If you mean the factory spot welds, they hold up fine. Any stress cracks would show in the metal around them.

- Check with your paint supplier to be certain. Southern Polyurethanes epoxy can be bed lined with fantastic results. I would strip and/or blast the old paint off before applying the primer. 3M makes a paint stripping disc. Works well on body panels but does make a big mess. I prefer to use them over soda or chemical stripper. I do all I can with the stripping discs and have a local media blaster use sand on the corners and spots I can't get. He knows what he's doing. I've had no adhesion problems doing it this way and then prepping it right.

 

[Mattco]

I mainly meant my new spot welds. I grew up stick welding thick metal when necessary with zero training so sheet metal wedding is new to me and I don't have good faith in myself on it yet. Is there a good way to check them? I'm using a .035 wire Mig with gas. I pre drilled a ton of holes in the driver side before screwing them in place to save from having to drill in place and/or fill full sheet meal screw holes.

 

[Mattco]

I went through and started welding some of them again today and really had a tough time getting them to burn into the back sheet so I red rolled a few holes to 1/4" and rewelded them and they stuck good. What size holes do people use on the spot welds typically?

 

[eds66bronco]

I usually use a 3/8 bit and fill weld. Try switching to .025 wire for bodywork. You won't burn thru as much. I also use self tappers to hold things together. Start the fill weld in the middle where the screw hole is and work outwards to connect the top sheet to the bottom material.

 

[66horse]

Just found your thread for the first. Great work man. You are going to have a rig to be truly proud of.

 

[Mattco]

Just found your thread for the first. Great work man. You are going to have a rig to be truly proud of.

I appreciate it. It's been a lot of fun so far but it is getting down to sheep money power at this point when I pull the body. Could be worse but it will be worth it at the end.

Before I pull the body, I'm going back on the passenger side and going to drill out some of the spot welds and reweld them.

 

[broncosbybart]

Missed your post. Yep, 1/4" or 3/8" holes work much better for spot welding, to burn into the supporting metal.

 

[Mattco]

Alright. Finally got moving again after about 5500 in parts and counting.

Wilwood front and back coming in hot.

And a bunch of boxes full of a bunch of crap that wasn't cheap.

Leads me to sandblasting the frame and axles.

Sandblasted and Por15'd.

The 9 got blasted and Por'd too with their stainless detail paint on the third member.

The 9 painted and mounted on the new 2.5" suspension.

I got bored and slightly excited when I got my blaster working so I did a bunch of small stuff and painted them too.

A blasted 44 looks kind of nice with nothing on it.

But I painted it anyway.

Working on rebuilding the ends with the new brakes. Honesty not a bad process except I had issues with the hubs. One had an existing crack so I cut it a bit and welded it back. Then I dropped the other one and cracked it in the very end and had to rebuild it.

Not awesome.

The final look after getting mounted up is though. I had to go back and add a different spacer on the lockout hubs after working out the kinks on the second.

Finally sitting on the front two tires for the first time possibly in 2 months.

Brings me my next hiccup. Ordered the wrong bearings for the rear axles, let that be a lesson to you all. Actually check that cause that will cost you money and time.

Had to send back bearings and Wilwood brackets and get new ones. Got the new bearings on and ready to install and found out I had a different brake offset. I should have my new Dutchman axles tomorrow, I hope they work. Dutchman was awesome to deal with, seemed like the knew exactly what I was talking about and needed so hopefully I will be on four wheels this weekend ready to install some brake lines and gas tank.

Figured I would update the thread.

 

[Golfball]

Great build, you have done a ton of work and it looks top notch. What was the story on the blue Bronco sitting next to it when you bought it? Was that the $500 one you referenced? Were these Alabama Broncos?

Keep up the great work and you will be on the road soon.

 

[Mattco]

The blue one was the 500 I referenced and I ended up buying it for 300 a few months ago. The frame is what I'm building on now while the 74 stays on its.

The blue is a 69 half cab that is in really bad shape now body wise.