Project: 76, Orange Special Decor

[gnsteam]

Woke up before everyone else in my house this morning and spent the Early morning hours reading through your whole build thread. This is a great read, all the way from when you first bought it up until now. All the distractions like other hobbies, building houses and all the other projects that go along with it. Then eventually getting back to the Bronco as your main focus of interest. Just goes to show that there are more people a lot like myself out there. I enjoyed the first few hours of my day catching up on the story of your Bronco. Keep up the good work and I am going to follow along to see how it turns out.

Thank you for the kind words. I’m glad you enjoyed reading through my build. Many more posts to come. I’m expecting January to be a busy month making progress on the build.

Again thanks for watching and Happy Holidays.

Fred

 

[gnsteam]

Happy new year everyone. I had to work overtime both days this weekend but I did manage to get a little done on the 76. I clean all the grunge off the steering box and Dana 20. I will be sending the steering box out for rebuild but I’m going to go through the Dana 20 myself. I pressed the old ball joints out of the front knuckles. And I also got the new front, leaf spring hangers positioned and bolted to the frame. I will remove them and clean up the frame more before welding.

My next project will be reinforcement of the frame at the steering box. The frame in that area is in good shape but that area is a weak point on our Broncos. Especially when running larger tires.

 

[gnsteam]

This week I had a blessing in disguise. I was asked to work the evening shift this week and maybe next week to cover for co-works out on Covid. Thus this is giving me more time in the garage and the freedom to take items to the welding shop.

So far this week. I fabricated the parts to reinforce the mount area on the frame where the power steering box mounts. I used 1/4" CRS for the plates. I am not going to replace the factory installed internal frame supports. Because my frame is in good shape and I will not be hard core rock crawling. I have an appointment next Wednesday to have the frame reinforcements and the new front leaf spring hanger welded up. Then the frame will be ready for blasting and paint. I also took the rear 9" to the weld shop and had the new spring perches weld onto the rear 9". A few more items to test fit on the 9" and then the 9" and dana 44 will be ready for blasting and paint.

 

[JeffG]

Great progress! I'm thinking most Bronco owners have lists in their head for various upgrades and changes. I have had an item on my list for years that I haven't gotten around to doing and that is removing the 9", cutting off the leaf spring perches and welding on new ones for an optimum angle on the yoke.

Maybe 2022 will be my year.

 

[gnsteam]

Hi Jeff, yes I have a list in my head as well. If I wrote it down I would just loose the list. So as I move along I try to remember all the great mods and ideas I’ve seen from all the greats on this site.

 

[Teal68]

Looking great! I like those perches!

 

[gnsteam]

Its been very cold this week, so not much work in the garage. But I did manage to take the frame to the welding shop yesterday. Where they welded up the new leaf spring hangers and the reinforcement plates at the power steering mounting point. Sorry no new pictures, man it’s cold again today. Sometime next week, I will be picking up the rebuilt 5.0.

 

[gnsteam]

Today I picked up the rebuilt 4R70W, from a local rebuilder. The transmission basically a stock rebuild with higher quality parts and fitted with the AA adaptors tail shaft and new housing. Going to mate up to the Dana 20. Which I will try to rebuild myself. Tomorrow is another milestone. I will be picking up the 96, 5.0 from the engine shop.

 

[gnsteam]

Monday afternoon I picked up the rebuilt 96, 5.0 from the builder. Kent did a great job. The motor had 228000 miles on it. Once tore down and inspected it was in great shape. However it did have to bored and honed. The rebuild is a stock rebuild other than the Comp Cams, K35-349-8 cam, complete valve train kit.
Here is a short list of other things done by the shop.
Line hone main bearing bores
Surface block
Balance complete
Surface head
Valve job
Machine valve guides
Recondition connecting rods
Surface intake manifold
Machine valve spring seats for duel springs.
Install cam bearings and freeze plugs
Assemble engine complete and paint.

Quite a ways to go before first start. But relieved to have this step behind me. Now to get focused on frame and drive train clean up and paint. So reassembly can began.

 

[stupidboy]

Woke up before everyone else in my house this morning and spent the Early morning hours reading through your whole build thread. This is a great read, all the way from when you first bought it up until now. All the distractions like other hobbies, building houses and all the other projects that go along with it. Then eventually getting back to the Bronco as your main focus of interest. Just goes to show that there are more people a lot like myself out there. I enjoyed the first few hours of my day catching up on the story of your Bronco. Keep up the good work and I am going to follow along to see how it turns out.

I'm with him, just did the same thing. Great work you're doing keep it up. I would have a hard time painting it if that is the original paint, probably would keep it more like Scoops Patina Build. But either way your bronco is in great shape.

 

[gnsteam]

I'm with him, just did the same thing. Great work you're doing keep it up. I would have a hard time painting it if that is the original paint, probably would keep it more like Scoops Patina Build. But either way your bronco is in great shape.

Thanks Pat,

A couple years back, a patina build was my plan. Mostly due to financial reasons and wanting to keep it on the road as much as possible. But now that I have given up an other hobby I was very invested into, and giving up my reservation for a new Bronco Badlands Sasquatch. The wife and I have decided to go all in and build me, an as new as possible, 76 Decor with modern goodies.

Fred

P.S. I've been following your build from day one. I'm so pleased to see that you are back and look forward to seeing the results of your talent.

 

[gnsteam]

A little more work today. I tore down the front hub/rotor assembly. Hubs will get cleaned up to receive new bearing races, wheel studs and rotors. I also started gathering up parts I want to send off for powder coating. The Dana 44 knuckles, caliper mounts and brake shields. Going along with these parts. Will be the frame, Dana 44 housing, 9" housing and Ruff stuff pinion guard. I took the time to make plugs for the axle housings to seal of the housings and protect the bearing surfaces from media blasting and paint. Not sure if I needed to do this, but did it anyway.

 

[DirtDonk]

Not sure if I needed to do this, but did it anyway.

Personally I think the extra effort is always worth it.

 

[gnsteam]

This morning I drop of the frame, axle housings and other miscellaneous parts for powder coating, Boy was this place busy, 6-8 week lead time from the day you drop them off. Oh well, still plenty to do while we wait. So I rolled the body back over to the work side of the garage. So I can work on a few mod to the body, before going off to the restoration shop. I need to cut the ECU mounting hole in the center section of the fire wall. And look at mods to brake peddle assembly and fire wall area for hydro boost mounting.

Stay tuned, more to come.

 

[gnsteam]

Tonights work, dissecting the Dana 20. My first time but thanks to Jason and Joni’s Builds video it went very well. Having only watched their video. I was pleasantly surprised that the later model (76) does not have that difficult snap ring to remove. Tomorrow night I will clean and inspect everything and order a rebuild kit. Any recommendations for the best kit out there?

 

[green61bug]

Tonights work, dissecting the Dana 20. My first time but thanks to Jason and Joni’s Builds video it went very well. Having only watched their video. I was pleasantly surprised that the later model (76) does not have that difficult snap ring to remove. Tomorrow night I will clean and inspect everything and order a rebuild kit. Any recommendations for the best kit out there?

What gets replaced with the rebuild kit? Bearings and Seals? I reckon I will need to dive into mine eventually.

 

[DirtDonk]

There are kits with just about everything, which probably adds up to about 100 parts. Gaskets, seals, main caged ball bearings, loose roller bearings, thrust washers, o-rings for the shift shafts, and other stuff like that.
At least optionally, there are even replacement idler shafts available.

 

[sprdv1]

There are kits with just about everything, which probably adds up to about 100 parts. Gaskets, seals, main caged ball bearings, loose roller bearings, thrust washers, o-rings for the shift shafts, and other stuff like that.
At least optionally, there are even replacement idler shafts available.

yes they do.... just got to do the research

 

[904Bronco]

This morning I drop of the frame, axle housings and other miscellaneous parts for powder coating, Boy was this place busy, 6-8 week lead time from the day you drop them off. Oh well, still plenty to do while we wait. So I rolled the body back over to the work side of the garage. So I can work on a few mod to the body, before going off to the restoration shop. I need to cut the ECU mounting hole in the center section of the fire wall. And look at mods to brake peddle assembly and fire wall area for hydro boost mounting.

Stay tuned, more to come.

Just caught up on your build, nice work so far.
Powder coating... It used to take a week and was $400 just for the frame, blast, Zinc coat, then Satin black final coat. In January of this year it took 3 weeks to get it back and it went up to $600. Some business are busier than snot, like my engine rebuilder, and other are not? Here a motivation picture for you... Keep up the great work. Doug.

 

[gnsteam]

Just caught up on your build, nice work so far.
Powder coating... It used to take a week and was $400 just for the frame, blast, Zinc coat, then Satin black final coat. In January of this year it took 3 weeks to get it back and it went up to $600. Some business are busier than snot, like my engine rebuilder, and other are not? Here a motivation picture for you... Keep up the great work. Doug.

Hi Doug, thanks for the picture of your chassis, looks great. We have three power coat companies that can do large parts. They are all way behind and very close in pricing. The one I chose, Kaiser coatings. Come recommend by other car guys I know. However they do a lot of production coating for local industry. So they fit smaller jobs in as they can. That the reasoning behind the long lead time. They Said I may get lucky with scheduling and get it sooner. As for pricing. The frame is $750 and axles at $200 each. With a few other loose parts, the total came to $1480.

Not having the frame. Forces me to do the not so fun part of cleaning and painting, to keep me busy. Heading out to the shop in a few minutes to continue on the Dana 20 rebuild.