Project: Rockin' Horse

[Scoop]

Great start Derek! Will you get it all done for K2 this year?

 

[TAWL_BOY]

Planning on it.

I hope to be done by Big Meats Run in Disney, OK in March.

If I had a shop, I'd be done in a week. But the city is over a year behind on their drainage project.

Plus getting geared up to attend and vend at KOH in a few weeks has taken a lot of my time.

 

[Dusty]

Plus getting geared up to attend and vend at KOH in a few weeks has taken a lot of my time.

Hope to run into you out there. I'll be there all week!

 

[TAWL_BOY]

I had a blast wrapping the body lift up.

Got some good weather over the weekend. Driver side went pretty easy.
But I had to torch off some off the captive nut plate on the mount right behind passenger seat.
Made a mess.

But now, my real build can begin. I also made some room in the garage to work on the thing.
I need to wire up a plug for my welder and plasma.


Definitely gained more than an inch.

 

[TAWL_BOY]

Getting ready for KOH kept me busy, and then all the sales that followed, plus we signed up some new dealers from the event.

But I finally yanked the tank, rear axle, and started cutting off the factory brackets.

 

[Scoop]

Will you have it done in time to make the Round Up this year? ;D

 

[TAWL_BOY]

I could honestly knock out the basic fab work in a few days. But I still haven't bought my struts and a few other parts.

Business has sky rocketed in the last several months and I've just doubled my inventory. So, at this moment, I don't have the available funds.

But if business stays constant, we'll be building 9" with 60 outers up front, building a motor, and getting a new tow rig in the fairly near future.

 

[TAWL_BOY]

The LEBC Round Up was inspiring to really get to work on this thing.

I ordered my rear axle to have equal length shafts so I would only need one spare, as opposed to having a centered pinion.

The one down side it made a mounting upper links slightly more complication, but I figured it out.

 

[DrLathrop]

What width did you order for your rear axle? Did Ruff Stuff assemble everything?

 

[TAWL_BOY]

I believe it's 65"WMS.

Ruffstuff send it to me with everything but axle shafts.

 

[sprdv1]

OCBR is just around the corner..

 

[TAWL_BOY]

I've got too many things going on to make it. I'm bummed.

But I have been working on the Bronco when it's not too stupid hot in the garage.

Figured out my frame mounts, from Ruffstuff.

I had the links from my old mud truck layin' around. 2x.25 DOM so I shortened them.

I first mocked up the links with PVC.


This is not quite full bump.
I'm going to have to cut hole in the bed floor to clear the upper link mounts on the axle.

 

[TAWL_BOY]

I got in my Wildhorses Gorilla Warflares and started figuring out placement.

It'll be awhile before I mount them.

This is all to give clearance for a 39-40" tire with a 5" rear stretch.

My high-tech mock up tire.

t's a true 40" diameter to make sure I'll have plenty of clearance.

I've been dreading cutting out my wheel tubs because of the 1/4" thick layer of bedliner.
I would've much preferred breaking out the plasma.






I will be making new wheel tubs spraying them and I'll probably rivet them in.
I would prefer to weld in new ones, but the bedliner poses a problem.

I'm going to have to cut the back legs off my cage and move the mounting feet all the way back to have room for the new larger tubs.

 

[TAWL_BOY]

I had thrown in my BC blank dash right before the OCBR 2 years ago, and just wiped it down with some WD40.

I finally yanked it out and treated it with some OSPHO and cut the holes for my switch panel and glovebox



Then I gave it a good coat of epoxy primer.


I was having to turn my front speakers way down because I was getting a rattle from the dash. Adding the switch panel and dash will probably help, but I had a free sample of Stinger Roadkill Stealth mat laying around.

So I put it in the important spots to deaden the vibrations.

(I don't stock the stuff, but if some of y'all were interested I could probably get it for a good deal.)

Gave the dash a coating of Plastidip Daytona Yellow and assembled.


I left my painted scrap of Bronco at the house and I should've went with standard Yellow.
When I'm done with all my bodywork, I'm going to Plastidip the entire Bronco and I'll probably redo the dash with the sprayable stuff out of the gallon for a better finish and change the color to the brighter yellow.

 

[Galt72]

Very nice, whats that glove box door from ?

 

[TAWL_BOY]

It's a custom boat glovebox, made out of Starboard.

I found a place that makes them in a bunch of different dimensions.

I felt if fits the rest of my dash better than other options.

 

[TAWL_BOY]

Link to gloveboxes:
http://www.boatoutfitters.com/custom-boat-glove-box

 

[TAWL_BOY]

Installed the dash and staged some accessory pics


I had to notch out the bedfloor, just a bit, to achieve the full bump I was going for.


It got it right where I want it.


The inside line is the tire, and the upper line is the outside of the flare.

 

[TAWL_BOY]

So....these came in.


14" STX

But I'm so busy getting ready for the Off Road Expo in Pomona, I haven't had a chance to touch the Bronco.

We'll have smokin' deals on full audio packages at the expo.
The better we do there, the more bling parts I'll be buying from all the other great vendors there.

https://www.facebook.com/OffRoadExpo?fref=ts

But when we get back, it's game on.

 

[TAWL_BOY]

The expo went great and we had a lot of fun. It was great meeting some of y'all.

We spent an extra day in CA to relax and checked out Universal Studios.
Then we drove for two days and I've been trying to catch back up and get organized.

I finally messed with the Bronco again.

First I cut out the driver's side wheel well.
I hate taking a skinny wheel to the bedliner...makes a mess.

Test fit the TMR Strut towers.



Using the RuffStuff sidemount shock brackets


-I had to space them that in to be able to fit the nitrogen fill on the schrader with the caliper on.
Then I thought about turning the shaft of the shock around 180 degrees and problem solved. I'll move them back out some.

To keep my mounting angles in check(everywhere I read about 5-7* on the struts) I looked at using the front TMR Shock towers but the were a hair to tall.


So I'm just gonna notch the rear towers to be similar to the fronts and tilt outward some.

-plus this will make it a little easier to fit some kind of a bench seat in the back.

But know I'm waiting on consumables for the plasma. I'd been telling myself to order more for awhile now.