Project "BOB - Big Orange Bronco" Wheeling pics addded

[NGABronco]

SC, that thing is looking gooood!!!!

I hope the ratchet straps are temp????;D ;D

I'll post some pics tomorrow, I got wild with the sawzall!!!!

 

[SC74]

SC, that thing is looking gooood!!!!

I hope the ratchet straps are temp????;D ;D

I'll post some pics tomorrow, I got wild with the sawzall!!!!

Thanks Ben. Ratchet Straps are permanent trac bar - that's the new adjustable trac bar! I've just got those on there since the trac bar is not mounted - still have to burn the drop bracket on.

 

[SC74]

Figured out how to fit the explorer PS res. under the hood tonight. I originally had the AC compressor installed but decided to remove it for now - on board air will be a future project as I'm concentrating on just getting it on the trail now. When I add on board air I'll go with an aftermarket res. and mount it somewhere else but for now this worked out perfectly.

I wanted to use the top right bolt for the compressor for the bottom bolt on the reservoir, but the bracket was in the way. The existing bolt hole served nicely for a hole saw center and out it came giving perfect room for the reservoir. Drilled and tapped 2 other holes into the aluminum and it fits like a glove.

 

[SC74]

More loose ends...

I got the trans cross-member notched tonight for the Art Carr shifter. Considering I plan on wheeling the crap out of this truck I wanted to re-inforce the notched area. I cut a 1-3/4 piece of tube in half and put it in the notched area. It's just tacked for now so that I could re-install the cross-member and double check my measurements before welding it for good. All looks good so I should weld it in tomorrow night.

 

[NGABronco]

Looking good Robert!!! Getting all those little loose ends is a real chore!!
I got side tracked rebuilding the basement!!!;D ;D

 

[Jacksoon]

Be careful Robert. Maybe you will be able to stay home when the expected snow gets here tonight.

 

[SC74]

Time for an update - we've gotten a lot done the past several weekends.

Here is a picture of the upper radiator mounts we made. My original plan was to attach the mount tot he tube support, but we had to get it closer to the fan so made these brackets to stretch it out.

 

[SC74]

Lower Radiator Hose

Here are several pictures of how I made the lower cross-over hose. I took a hose with lots of random bends, did some cutting and flipping around, and then used some muffler tubing to connect A to B. It took some trial and error and a couple trips to the muffler shop, but overall I'm happy with how it turned out. I've also got a tab connected to the muffler tubing to the lower angle iron to keep it from moving.

 

[SC74]

Shock Hoops

I wish I had taken pictures of the shock hoops before they were welded on, but here is the finished product. I only plan on running one shock, but we made them so that 2 shocks could be run off of the cage arm. We used 1.5 120 wall.

We also got the hood pin tabs made and welded to the tube support.

 

[SC74]

Mass Air Flow Mount

Since I have no inner fenders we had to come up with a platform to secure the mass air and air filter. We made some tabs off of the shock hoop. Later we ended up adding some Adel clamps on this same platform to route the fuel lines.

 

[Tito]

Looks great, I love your tube front clip!

 

[SC74]

Battery mount

The last thing that we worked on today was a battery mount. I ordered this Optima tray off of e-bay - BlazinChuck recommended it to me.

It did not take long to figure out that there was no room for the battery in the front corner. It was either in the way of the headlight bucket or if I raised it then the alternator was in the way. With the narrowed front end there just wasn't any room to fit it.

The old heater intake place on the cowl looked like a good place - I had to take the wiring harness out from where we had it going through the firewall, but I can move that over. After a little measuring, cutting, and welding.... I like it ;D I'll end up riveting the square frame to the cowl and making a cover to go over the battery all of the water from the hood vent doesn't come in the passenger floor.

 

[joe]

Awesome!

 

[TrailWorthyFab]

I took a several week break from working on the Bronco but got back on it this weekend. I had a near death experience on Friday evening - cutting the tack welds off of the arm brackets with no trac-bar is not a good idea - while I was under the truck it sprung about 1.5 feet to the drivers side and the springs looked like spaghetti noodles. I was cutting the tacks loose so that we could rotate the pinion up some and get a better driveline angle before final welding it.

Yesterday we got the cage weld on brackets burned on for good and the axle back under the truck ;D . Today I played around with the steering to get the angles more parallel. I moved the drag link to the top of the drop pitman arm and tacked a homeade trac-bar riser in place. I've got a stock trac bar in in for now and may even leave it - see no reason why it won't be ok after I do some extra welding on the factor trac bar bracket for extra safety.

I have a concern about the trac bar riser - it sits directly under the frame and there's only 6" between the top of riser and bottom of frame. I see that becoming a problem when I stuff the pass front tire ?:?

Here are a couple pics.

I like this setup. What springs did you go with? What size tires are you running?

Thanks!

Todd

 

[SC74]

I like this setup. What springs did you go with? What size tires are you running?

Thanks!

Todd

I ended up with the Cage 5.5 springs in the front. I've got some Fox 16" coilovers for the rear. The tires are 39.5 Iroks on H1 wheels.

 

[SC74]

Here are a few more pictures. The first pic is a bracket we made to hold the lower crossover pipe in place. The 2nd and 3rd are the finished fuel lines attached to the fuel rails.

 

[SC74]

Coilovers

Here are my "new to me" coilovers. I got these on ebay ... 16" Fox emulsion. The guy had them mounted for mock up but never ran them on the trail. They came with one set of springs but they are too light for what I'll need so still need to buy springs.

 

[phred]

been following the thread for a while. Quality work. Keep the pics coming.

 

[SC74]

Started on the Dash

I went to the garage with plans to only clean and get my tools organized since they've gotten scattered everywhere the past few weekends.

The dash was in the way... where do I put it?.. more like what can I do to it ;D

Needless to say the garage is messier than when I started, but I did get this done. Wiring is not too far away After reversing the glove box and speaker grill, I also cut a piece of sheet metal to fill the ash tray space.

 

[NGABronco]

"I also cut a piece of sheet metal to fill the ash tray space."

Robert, you know I'm a smoker, why did you do that to me????;D ;D