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Rat Bronco Crawler

GloNDark

Full Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2007
Messages
394
I had a bunch of pm's asking me about my 70 Bronco that I have posted a few pics of in the What did you do today thread. Figured I'd put it all in one place here for anyone interested.

I bought this as a partially done project in June of 2022. I've built a few 69's and had a 73" Bronco for a long time. When I saw this thing pop up, I had to have it. I originally wanted to finish the body and paint it the original Yucatan Gold color but as soon as I saw it in person I knew I had to leave it. This is a purpose built rock crawler, extreme trail rig so why not leave the patina.

Original for sale thread:
https://classicbroncos.com/forums/threads/1970-bronco-rat-crawler-project.315813/

I contacted Paul, we talked for a long time and I sent him a deposit and worked out shipping from TN to NV.

The full spec list is HUGE, so here is the shortlist

Original 302, Rebuilt, Aluminum heads and intake, explorer front dress, Holley sniper, Vintage air conditioning, dual batteries, Wilwood Hydroboost
3.5 Springs up front with 2.5 leaves in the back, Ruffstuff perches, Wildhorse Shackles, Bilstein 7100 Shocks.
4.88 Gears, Disc brakes front and rear, ARBS front and rear with Yukon Shafts
NP435 Transmission, Dana 20, Tom Woods Driveshafts, BC Broncos 23 gallon tank
Full rear wire with American Autowire, LEDS inside, outside, everywhere.
38x13.50r18 Nitto Trail Grapplers on 17x9 Trail Ready hard rock beadlocks.

Still to do:
Armorgeddon rear corners that I just got from Wildhorse4x4
Clean up the rockbars
Build a spare tire carrier on the rear bumper

Day it showed up:
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GloNDark

GloNDark

Full Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2007
Messages
394
After almost running myself over, since the shippers winch only pulled in and would not let out and the Bronco had no brakes. I got in the shop and pulled all the parts boxes out of it and put some 37" ridge grapplers on from my Megacab (Winter tires for my dodge)

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GloNDark

GloNDark

Full Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2007
Messages
394
Picked up a Holley sniper kit from Tom's offroad. I'm still on the fence about it. I have a local guy who is going to do a proper tune on it and I'm hoping that solves my last few issues. Also ordered some Bailie Bilt bumpers for it.
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GloNDark

GloNDark

Full Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2007
Messages
394
Finally had it running, driving......except no seats. No problem when you need to measure for shocks. Ordered some Bilstein 7100's from Wildhorse4x4

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GloNDark

GloNDark

Full Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2007
Messages
394
Up next finish the interior. I picked up a Parchment seat kit and foam kit from Wildhorse4x4 on the way back from taking my girlfriend to Santa Cruz for her birthday. I stripped all the seats down, cleaned and painted them. Did the backseat myself and realized I was out gunned on the front seats so I dropped them off at a local upholstery guy to do.
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GloNDark

GloNDark

Full Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2007
Messages
394
Finally decided on wheels and tires. Picked up some Trailready hard rocks 17x9 and went big and put some 38x13.50r17 Nitto Trail Grapplers on it. Over kill, yes. Did I trim alot? Yes, yes I did.

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GloNDark

GloNDark

Full Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2007
Messages
394
Latest update was the throw out bearing crapped the bed and I was taking my Daughter to Disneyland so I had a buddy take it in at his shop and get the NP435 swap completed. Turns out someone along the way mismatched the flywheel that was for a basket type clutch setup with a diaphragm clutch setup and that combined with a mismatch on the throw bearing/fork caused the throw out bearing to come out in several pieces.

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1969

Contributor
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Joined
Feb 28, 2022
Messages
753
Very cool build. I am doing something similar with leaving the body looking old but everything else will be re-done.
 
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Joined
Mar 17, 2010
Messages
15
I love this! Looks like you got one heck of a deal too! Looking forward to checking in on this one 😎
 
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GloNDark

GloNDark

Full Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2007
Messages
394
Some updates. Couldn't figure out what I wanted to do with the rear bumpstops. I saw these from Ruffstuff and they worked out pretty damn good I think

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GloNDark

GloNDark

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Joined
Aug 22, 2007
Messages
394
Also got the radio, speakers and Gear Banger installed. Next up, paint the gear banger.
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GloNDark

GloNDark

Full Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2007
Messages
394
I have been looking for a way to preserve the patina. Read about boiled linseed oil, or a bunch of other stinky things. Ran into a guy with a sweet rat rod at the gas station and he told me about Sweet Patina "The Sauce" ordered some up and pretty happy with it. Makes the colors more vibrant, takes away that chalkiness to what paint I have left and if buffs down to a pretty decent satin finish. Not quite as matte as I would like but it's acceptable. Oh and it smells awesome too


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DirtDonk

Contributor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Nov 3, 2003
Messages
49,025
Coming along great! Thanks for the tip on the patina preserver.
Pretty cool little item from Ruff Stuff too. A company full of pretty cool little items.
I hadn’t seen that one, so thanks for that as well.
If it was cast it might break off, but looks like it’s machined steel so it should be pretty strong.
I might worry about it, breaking a U-bolt, but that would probably take a pretty good hit before that happened.
 
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GloNDark

GloNDark

Full Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2007
Messages
394
I was thinking the same thing about breaking a ubolt but agree it would take a serious hit to make that happen. I'm going to check the ubolt torque regularly just to make sure and I plan on carrying a couple spare ubolts in my trail kit "just in case" hahaha

Just about ready for the roundup next week. Some wiring to clean up and then load her up and go.
 

DirtDonk

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Nov 3, 2003
Messages
49,025
Can’t wait to check it out in person.
Spare u-bolts is a great idea. Good to have on hand “for the other person” when they break. 😉😁😎
Normally you absolutely have to worry about a 1/2” U-bolt when used hard and being under extra stress. For modestly modified Broncos and normal use, they are perfectly fine.
For 9/16 u-bolts things quite a bit less worrisome. Pretty stout stuff.
At 5/8 diameter, u-bolts are close to unbreakable under most conditions. Not truly bombproof, but pretty darn close!

We need to check with some of the heavier users here, like Yeller, and nvrstk and maybe James Roney to get some first-hand experiences. See if any of them have ever busted one. And if so, what size they were.
 

Yeller

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Mar 27, 2012
Messages
6,759
Loc.
Rogers County Oklahoma
Hahaha Paul called me out😂

ubolts rarely are an issue. 9/16/14mm are stock on a lot of super duty diesel pickups with the factory lift blocks, so I have little concern of breaking them. I’ve run 1/2”, 9/16”, 5/8” and 3/4”. Never broken any of them, nor have I seen them broken. However I have seen the ubolt plates fail and the axle pads collapse causing some spectacular failures, at that point was it the chicken or the egg….. who knows lol

I will say 1/2” scare me some, I’ve seen them loose, but again chicken or the egg…. 9/16” and larger do not and have never seen an issue directly because of them.
 
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