Project: 76, Orange Special Decor

[gnsteam]

wow that body is in really good shape!! I want it. Tell me again why you're taking it apart?

Hi Pat, your right about this body, I got lucky finding this one. Just the other day, I thought I should just follow Scoop's lead(Scoop's Patina build) and just drop the body back on the frame and preserve it the way it is. With a little clean up and repair to the inner fenders.

 

[JeffG]

Hi Pat, your right about this body, I got lucky finding this one. Just the other day, I thought I should just follow Scoop's lead(Scoop's Patina build) and just drop the body back on the frame and preserve it the way it is. With a little clean up and repair to the inner fenders.

gnsteam.. It is your bronco so you can do whatever you want, but if I had one like this, I would not be painting it. You are doing some great things to it while the tub is off. I would preserve it and do the little clean up as you mention. The paint shop should be able to mix up some samples that would closely match the light patina you have. Spray the engine bay and underneath and enjoy that original paint bronco.

 

[gnsteam]

gnsteam.. It is your bronco so you can do whatever you want, but if I had one like this, I would not be painting it. You are doing some great things to it while the tub is off. I would preserve it and do the little clean up as you mention. The paint shop should be able to mix up some samples that would closely match the light patina you have. Spray the engine bay and underneath and enjoy that original paint bronco.

I keep going back and forth with paint or no paint. And I hear and respect what you guys are saying. But I have another influencer to please as well, the wife. And she's very insistent that she wants it pretty. I also prefer a nice shiny paint job, and if I'm going this far to improve the drivetrain for better drivability. I may as well go all the way. So for now we are moving forward with a full repair and repaint. At least I'm lucky to have a wife that has accepted the reality, of how much it's going to cost.

With the repaint, we will be keeping the original color and the Decor Striping. However the stripes will be painted instead of vinyl. The cut fenders will remain with body color matched, Bronco Design flairs, front and rear. I'm also deleting the auxiliary tank and going to a 23 gallon main with grafted in fuel filler and door, like the 77 models.

 

[JeffG]

I keep going back and forth with paint or no paint. And I hear and respect what you guys are saying. But I have another influencer to please as well, the wife. And she's very insistent that she wants it pretty. I also prefer a nice shiny paint job, and if I'm going this far to improve the drivetrain for better drivability. I may as well go all the way. So for now we are moving forward with a full repair and repaint. At least I'm lucky to have a wife that has accepted the reality, of how much it's going to cost.

With the repaint, we will be keeping the original color and the Decor Striping. However the stripes will be painted instead of vinyl. The cut fenders will remain with body color matched, Bronco Design flairs, front and rear. I'm also deleting the auxiliary tank and going to a 23 gallon main with grafted in fuel filler and door, like the 77 models.

Can your wife talk to my wife? I talk about a re-paint and all I get is looks fine to me. HAHA

Painted on stripes will be awesome! And I love the idea of color matched flares front and rear and the BD ones look like a great fit. I am adding that to my list when I paint my '69 that I have owned since '99. I am my own 'PO' when it comes to paint and other items on my Bronco. Didn't know much about Broncos when I got it and it was painted white by PO in his backyard. I wanted flashy and painted it Yellow using a paint code from a mid-90's Defender 90 that I thought was so cool.

Fast forward to learning more and deciphering my VIN to learn it was originally painted one of my favorite Bronco colors, Boxwood Green! One day she will return to her original color!

 

[gnsteam]

Can your wife talk to my wife? I talk about a re-paint and all I get is looks fine to me. HAHA

Painted on stripes will be awesome! And I love the idea of color matched flares front and rear and the BD ones look like a great fit. I am adding that to my list when I paint my '69 that I have owned since '99. I am my own 'PO' when it comes to paint and other items on my Bronco. Didn't know much about Broncos when I got it and it was painted white by PO in his backyard. I wanted flashy and painted it Yellow using a paint code from a mid-90's Defender 90 that I thought was so cool.

Fast forward to learning more and deciphering my VIN to learn it was originally painted one of my favorite Bronco colors, Boxwood Green! One day she will return to her original color!

What has really helped with the wife excepting the cost. Is the crazy prices these old Broncos are bringing. Never before have we owned a vehicle. That we may break even or a profit if we would need to sell.

The flairs are another reason for the full repaint. The rear quarters will need to be replace. The quarter panel cut outs are pretty hacked up by a PO. Not well centered and not the same driver to passenger. And it looks like a couple different flairs may have been used over the years. The openings are to larger to position the new Bronco Design flairs where I want them. So yes I do have the opportunity to go back to uncut, but I prefer the cut look and old school flairs.

Boxwood green! One of my favorites too. Here are a couple pictures I’ve saved. Love this look.

Received good news Friday. The frame and axles are ready to pickup from the powder coat shop. Picking them up Monday.

 

[gnsteam]

Monday afternoon, I picked up the frame, front and rear axles and several other suspension parts from the coating company. I’ve only had time to get the parts home. So no additional pictures at this time. The parts look much better than I expected. The shop did a great job.

 

[gnsteam]

Got some time this evening to take a few pictures of the frame and axles. Fresh from powder coating. There better than I expected. Frames a little water spotted cause it was sprinkling on the trip home.

 

[gnsteam]

I’ve been working on the F250 hydro boost upgrade. Tonight I located and drill the 1 5/8 diameter hole in the firewall for the hydro unit. Then I was able to test fit the unit on the mounting plate. The plate is based on the design by CB member Spaggyroe, which was posted in the thread. “Firewall reinforcement plate”.
Spaggyroe mentioned that the plate, moves the boost unit. Six inches to the driver side. The six inch move will work but if I were to do it over. I would only move it 5 1/2”. Because the boost units large 1 7/8 mounting nut. Enter fears with the brake pedal mounting unit. So I had to notch the mounting unit to clear the nut. I will get post picture of the notched mount. When I take it out again.

Attached is a picture of the push rod end of the unit through the firewall under the cowl. For design sake I moved the break pedal over to the unit location. It looks like the length of the F250 push rod will work with the stock pedal. However I would like to verify that the pedal will be in the proper relaxed (distance from the firewall) position. When I pull back the pedal. The center of the mounting pin is about 7” from the firewall. Is there anyone out there that can get the center distance of the pin to the firewall on a stock power brake set up? I’m trying to avoided having to re-install my stock unit to make that measurement. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[gnsteam]

I posted the brake pedal question, over in the Tech section and received the answer I needed. https://classicbroncos.com/forums/threads/brake-pedal-position-distance-from-firewall.315138

Turn out the pushrod length and the stock Bronco pushrod match exactly the same at 7”. Thanks everyone for the replies.

 

[gnsteam]

Hello everyone. I haven't posted much lately but I have been busy working on the hydro boost brake upgrade. Before the body goes off to the body shop. Now that I have the booster's mounting position worked out. I've been working on the mechanism to actuated the booster. I did not want to alter the existing brake pedal and brake hanger bracket. Also I do not own a welder. So I designed and built a bolt and keyed together assembly, to actuate the hydro booster. With the stock brake pedal in the stock location. A lot of time and effort went into this but I think it came out great. This approach takes a bit of fabrication equipment that most Bronco owner do not have. So I don't expect this design to appeal to everyone. However if your interested, I can provide more detailed information and dimensional drawings to build one. Enjoy the pictures.

 

[gnsteam]

And here are some more pictures with the steering column in place.

 

[DirtDonk]

Nice. Very stout!
I’m glad you showed pictures with the column, because after looking at the first pictures I was going to comment something about how tight the column must fit in there. Not as tight as I thought!

 

[stupidboy]

Impressive, what type of tools are needed for that sort of fabrication?

 

[sprdv1]

And here are some more pictures with the steering column in place.

Nicely done...

 

[gnsteam]

Well I'm now a Covid victim. Tested positive on Wednesday, so its isolation for 5-10 days. So far only a severe headache on the first day and just a little congestion and runny nose. Overall I feel pretty good. So out to the garage to isolate and work on the Bronco. I'm waiting for a couple parts to arrive to finish up the hydro boost project. So I cleaned up the 9" housings and got the bulkhead fitting installed for the ARB. Tomorrow I will start pressing on the bearing and installing gears.

 

[gnsteam]

More work on the 9 inch Sunday. I installed new carrier housing stubs, including, 4 longer ones on the drive side for the mounting of the Duff's torque tamer bracket. Next up I went to install the pinion gear into its housing and to my surprise. The crush sleeve was missing from my rebuild set. So not having the old one or a set of solid pinion preload shims. I tightened the pinion yoke down until I had a little preload on the pinion bearings. Just enough to take out the slop so I could check and set the pinion height in the carrier. Next I pulled the pinion back out of the carrier housing and inserted the ARB carrier with ring gear to check for housing clearance. As stated in the ARB instructions. There was indeed interference at the pilot bearing support and at the casting line on the other side of the carrier. So out came the die grinder. The nice thing about casting is they grind away pretty easy. Once I was happy with the clearance. I cleaned everything up real good and installed the pinion and carrier. The clearance looks good and I was able to achieve the correct backlash at .008". This is just a preliminary set up. I have a solid pinion preload shim set on order. So once I get the pinion preload set up properly. I will go back and recheck all the set up dimensions and run a pattern.

 

[gnsteam]

While waiting for the 9 inch parts. I finished up final fitment of the hydro boost. I original ordered the "new" 13-1860 master cylinder through Amazon. It took three weeks for it to show up, photo 1. Not at all as advertised. So I had to wait a few days for the second one to arrive from a different vendor, photo 2. Because I purchased a remanufactured super duty booster. It does not come with the rod spring assembly that actuates the master cylinder. I found this kit, 129496BH, from Power Brake Sales on eBay for $40. The kit is great and has very detailed instructions for cutting the push rod to length and assembling the unit. I then made a final fitment check of my brake pedal relocation assembly with the brake light switch in place. Good thing I check this, because I found an interference to the brake light switches wiring harness plug. So back into the mill for a little clearance to the short lever of the assembly, last photo. Time to head back out to the garage and see what I can accomplishes today.

 

[gnsteam]

While waiting for a couple parts for the 9" rear. I set it aside and proceeded with the Dana 44 ARB install. Attached will be a few pictures of the housing all cleaned up. And a couple pictures and links to threads I placed in the Bronco Tech section. About relocating the vent tube position for the ARB bulkhead fitting, and a pattern text. Which looks like I achieved a good pattern on the first try.
https://classicbroncos.com/forums/threads/dana-44-arb-bulkhead-fitting-placement.315500/
https://classicbroncos.com/forums/threads/ok-gear-pattern-experts.315504/

 

[gnsteam]

Boy did the month of May pass by quickly. To many distractions, kept me away from working on the Bronco. But this evening, I finally bolted in the ARB carrier into the Dana 44 housing for the last time. This may be the only progress I make for a few more weeks. We are flying out to CA, to help my daughter, son in law and grand daughter, move to Erie CO. It sure will be nice having them closer to home. Just a 7 hour drive instead of 24.

 

[gnsteam]

Hello followers, it's been a few months from my late post. My summer has been very busy, so I haven't had much time to work on the Bronco. However, I did make some progress the last couple of days. I'm still working on the Dana 44 assembly. I installed new ball joints, into the knuckles, then attached them to the axle yoke. Making sure to set the ball joint preload to 25lbs. Then I installed the new chromoly axles with outer seals. Next up was the brake shield, caliper mount and new spindles, in that order. The hubs will go on later this week. They are in the paint both waiting a second coat. Now that the axles are in place. I closed up the pumpkin with a Ruff Stuff differential cover. And if that wasn't enough. I finished the disc brake calipers, rebuild.