Project: 76, Orange Special Decor

[gnsteam]

Thanks guys. I'm hoping to have it back on the road no later than Super Celebration 2023. But going to try hard to make SC Colorado 2022. And yes, I plan to keep it and pass it along to my kids and the grandchildren.

 

[Scotty]

I'm curious about your paint plans. I too have a '76 Sport Décor, Tangerine/Cayan Red only uncut with a white top and a lot more rust.

I assume you're keeping the color and Sport stripe. Will you use the vinyl stripe or have it masked and painted in?

 

[gnsteam]

I'm curious about your paint plans. I too have a '76 Sport Décor, Tangerine/Cayan Red only uncut with a white top and a lot more rust.

I assume you're keeping the color and Sport stripe. Will you use the vinyl stripe or have it masked and painted in?

Hi Scotty,

It will be painted factory Cayan Red and the Decor stripe will be painted white. I'm not going with vinyl. My build is a restomod but I'm trying to keep it original looking as possible.

P.S. It will remain cut as well.

 

[JeffG]

What a job to be the person who names a paint color! What should we call this... Orange. No, how about Cayan Red?

Love the build and I am dreaming of the day I have the same wheel and tire combination on mine.

Are you going to cut the front? I have always preferred the look of flares on front and back, especially if the back is black or white. If it were mine, I would go front and rear flares painted body color.

 

[gnsteam]

What a job to be the person who names a paint color! What should we call this... Orange. No, how about Cayan Red?

Love the build and I am dreaming of the day I have the same wheel and tire combination on mine.

Are you going to cut the front? I have always preferred the look of flares on front and back, especially if the back is black or white. If it were mine, I would go front and rear flares painted body color.

Hey Jeff,

I guess you could say this orange has a little red hue to it. But still looks orange to me.;D

It was an easy decision to pick these wheels. My first Bronco was an all white 77 Ranger with ET aluminum slots. I'm so glad they are still available, because a classic vehicle deserves a classic wheel.

Yes I will be cutting the front. I have a full set of fiberglass flairs from Bronco Design. Which will be adorned with Cayan...Orange...Red.;D

 

[DirtDonk]

If you haven't already, now would be a great time to document the VIN on the frame and see if you have one in all the usual locations, or just the one behind the front spring/shock mount.

You may have said already, but are you going to paint or powder coat the frame?

Paul

 

[sprdv1]

Definitely won't hurt to do that...

 

[gnsteam]

If you haven't already, now would be a great time to document the VIN on the frame and see if you have one in all the usual locations, or just the one behind the front spring/shock mount.

You may have said already, but are you going to paint or powder coat the frame?

Paul

No, I have not looked for the VIN on the frame. I need to remember to do that next time I work on it.

I'm not sure but leaning toward powder coat, because a local shop is running a special after Thanksgiving through to Christmas. $450 sandblasted and painted. Not sure if I could have it sandblasted and paint it myself for less. And I would have to deal with the mess.

 

[gnsteam]

Not a lot of progress in the last week. But I did manage to build a pair of axle stands to place the axles upon a rolling work bench. Sure beats working of the floor on jack stands and much more stable. The Dana 44 is completely torn down. Tomorrow night I will tear down the 9” rear end.

 

[gnsteam]

Thursday was such a nice day, for December 2nd, 75 and sunny. So I took the afternoon off to work on the Bronco frame. I needed to remove the damaged passenger side, front leaf spring hanger. The new replacement hangers from Wild Horses are a little different style than the factory hangers. So I removed both passenger and driver hangers. Wasn't to difficult, just grind off the rivet heads to the back support of the hanger. Then grind away the welds on either side of the hanger. As you can see in the photos. The passenger hanger had an egged out hole at the back side and a washer welded to the outer side a quick fix. A previous owner must have driven it around with a loose spring hanger bolt, causing the damage.

 

[gnsteam]

Sunday afternoon I worked on the 9" rear. Disassembling the drum brakes and removing the axles. I didn't have time to remove the carrier but I cracked it open to let the gear oil drain out. I also loaded up the old 302. My engine builder offered to take it off my hand for a little credit toward my 5.0 rebuild. The 5.0 should be ready to pick up in a couple weeks.

 

[JeffG]

Looking good and you are making some good progress too. Having the new engine almost back is great. Doesn't always work out that smoothly, so crossing my fingers that the painter is as prompt as the engine builder.

 

[JeffG]

I meant to comment on the D44 tear down. Are you changing gears etc in it? If not, I hope you marked or took a picture of the orientation and L/R on the bearings caps.

 

[gnsteam]

Hi Jeff, Yes I am upgrading to 4:56 gears, Chromoly axles and an ARB locker. And yes I did make the bearing caps and took a lot of pictures. This is my first attempt at rebuilding axles. Luckily, I have a couple buddies that have, to guide me through.

 

[sprdv1]

Hi Jeff, Yes I am upgrading to 4:56 gears, Chromoly axles and an ARB locker. And yes I did make the bearing caps and took a lot of pictures. This is my first attempt at rebuilding axles. Luckily, I have a couple buddies that have, to guide me through.

That damn sure helps.. good luck brother

 

[gnsteam]

Been pretty quite in the garage lately, with the holidays approaching. But I did manage a stop at the engine builder to drop off some additional parts for him to blast, paint and mount. The 5.0 will be ready to pick up after the first. I also got the call to drop off the 4R70W for rebuild. It should be finished sometime in January. As for work here in the garage. I did manage to remove the 9 inch carrier and clean up the axle housing. Carrier is still hanging from the engine hoist over a drip pan, awaiting cleaning and tear down. Well back to cleaning house! Family starts arriving next weekend.

You all have a wonderful holiday!

 

[gnsteam]

Got out to the garage last night, and continued cleaning the 9" housing and taking apart the carrier. For curiosity, I checked the backlash before tear down and found it to be at .014. I think the factory specification calls out .007-.010. Correct me if I'm wrong. The gears and bearings look to be in good shape with 93K on them. All will be replaced with an ARB and 4:56 gears.

All was going well until I got to aggressive with the chisel while removing the pinion seal at the pinion housing. I broke the edge of the housing where the seal presses into. Chipped away about 3/4 inch of the edge. So I may have to find a replacement. Other wise every thing else looks great and cleaned up well.

Well this ends the work for 2021. Have a great Holidays everyone.

Fred

 

[gnsteam]

I went to Auto Zone to return a Pitman arm puller. And they finally received this pair of M2 Machine, Auto Zone Broncos. A nice surprise.

 

[gnsteam]

Well I wasn't expecting to post another day of progress this year. Because we leave for San Jose in the morning. My first grand child's, first birthday is on the 28th. Can't wait to see her, my daughter and son in law.

Yesterday was another amazingly warm day, and I somehow found myself free to do what ever. So I ground off the old 9" spring perches. So that I can rotated the rear axle to get the proper pinion angle. Earlier this year, I did some measurements with the new suspension in place and found that I had a pinion angle of 8-9 degree. Doing some research on the forum. I found several examples of Broncos with 2.5-3.5 lifts, needing 6 degree of shim to correct the pinion angle. So I'm going to go ahead and set the new perches 6 degree forward of the old ones. It should get me closer than where it is now and I can shim from there if needed.

And today Christmas came early. I received a package from EFI Guy. The 5.0 harness and ECU, looks fantastic. Garry sure does do us a great service. Thank you Garry.

Have a great Christmas everyone!

P.S. I picked up a couple more toys today.

 

[Stutsmo]

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.