Sam P. 71 Bronco Tub rebuild.

[broncobsession]

Looks great. I'll be moving up to Coralville soon. Would love to see the bronco.

 

[sp71eb]

Well here are some frame pictures for ya. I did all of the frame work at at a friends shop. I put a rebuild trac loc in the rear and a low mile used trac loc in the front. Everything is new or rebuilt on the frame. I cleaned up the frame and coated it with por15. The lift is a 3.5 from Bronco Graveyard. The tires are 33/12.50/15 Goodyear Duratracs. All of the fuel and brake lines are stainless. I also threw in a picture of the bronco in its former glory.

 

[sp71eb]

Started on the front clip today and found that the upper braces welded onto the dynacorn radiator support are not welded on correctly. Good thing that my inner fenders had them welded on them already, I just cut off the ones on the rad support and got everything fit up. I then realized that I have 2 left wheel wells and no right one. So I got everything fit up for now and will get as much of it welded up as I can this weekend minus the right wheel well. I also got the rear section of my exhaust cut and tacked in place.

 

[HELLFIRE]

Man this shop you work in sucks so bad. I'm not jealous at all.

PS. Im sending my Bronco to you for body work. haha

 

[sp71eb]

Exhausted

Well as usual I didn't get near as much done this weekend as I had hoped. I am kind of getting burnt out on replacing body panels on the Bronco so I decided to get my exhaust welded up. It went pretty smoothly and came out pretty good. I bought the BC Bronco 2 into 1 kit for stock manifolds, 2 flex pipes, a magnaflow 2 into 1 muffler and a universal 3 inch exhaust section. I had to shorten the back section around the axle and got it all welded up. I'm not great with a tig welder but am glad to say I welded it up all myself. I wanted to run the exhaust out of the back and not just let the pipes stop under the truck like lots of people do. I put the hood on and got the front clip close to being ready to weld up. Sorry for some of the shaky pictures, I drink too much coffee and energy drinks.

 

[sp71eb]

Today I spent some more time fitting the front clip parts. I had to tweak the fenders where they bolt to the inner aprons. If they are left as is the fenders sit about 1/4" inside the and that will not work. I welded on the radiator support mounts and are almost ready to start welding up the rest of the front clip. I also decided to fit my JB Fab twin sticks so I can get the cover plate made for the trans tunnel.

 

[73azbronco]

This is pure workshop porn and should be restricted to age 21 and over.


Well done sir.

Two questions, did you do anything to prep the frame before POR application, and anything other than straight POR?

What tranny is that and what body lift?

I'm at the frame mod stage, trying to determine if I want POR, or two stage with hefty additives for chemical resistance. On a frame would you recommend self etching primer, then filler primer, or just a good primer before the paint? Frame will be ground of weld B-B's, somewhat smoothed but not concourse level, then media blasted before paint.

 

[sp71eb]

This is pure workshop porn and should be restricted to age 21 and over.


Well done sir.

Two questions, did you do anything to prep the frame before POR application, and anything other than straight POR?

What tranny is that and what body lift?

I'm at the frame mod stage, trying to determine if I want POR, or two stage with hefty additives for chemical resistance. On a frame would you recommend self etching primer, then filler primer, or just a good primer before the paint? Frame will be ground of weld B-B's, somewhat smoothed but not concourse level, then media blasted before paint.

1. My frame wasn't beautiful being from Iowa so I just hit it with a wire wheel and cleaned it up the best I could then used por15 metal ready and then the por15 its self. I will say it is hard as a rock and has held up pretty well to dropping stuff on it and fitting parts. If your frame is going to be really clean and blasted I would get the Eastwood chassis black 2k paint. A friend of mine did the frame for his 4runner with it and it turned out really nice and seems to be pretty durable. If you get the kit it comes with epoxy primer to put on the bare metal before the paint itself.

2. The trans is a NP435 (at this point I wish it was a NV3550) And I have no body lift and that is why the tunnel is modified. The truck only has a 3 1/2 suspension lift from Broncograveyard.

 

[Dbarnes72]

Great work. I've got a question also....I'm fitting up my front clip and find that if I try to set the core support in more straight up and down, it hits the front body mount. If I match the core support more with the front line of the inner fender (greater angle), it's less of a problem. Did you run into this also? Also, the front mount bracket location ends up being up from the bottom of the core support a quarter inch or so if left to fall naturally. I may have got the inner fender welded on a little too angled but the OEM fender seems to follow it pretty well. Any thoughts here? Thanks

 

[sp71eb]

Great work. I've got a question also....I'm fitting up my front clip and find that if I try to set the core support in more straight up and down, it hits the front body mount. If I match the core support more with the front line of the inner fender (greater angle), it's less of a problem. Did you run into this also? Also, the front mount bracket location ends up being up from the bottom of the core support a quarter inch or so if left to fall naturally. I may have got the inner fender welded on a little too angled but the OEM fender seems to follow it pretty well. Any thoughts here? Thanks

I think the best plan is to get the front inner parts assembled with screws and visegrips. Then fit your fenders and grill. The way I see it is that your grill can only go in one spot and if your hood pin/spring doesn't fit into the grill hole centered then you need to adjust your front inner parts. Also take a tape measure and take a cross measurement of your front end. Go from the rear bolt on one side of the top fender bolts to the front bolt on the other side. This measurement should be the same from side to side and if it is your front end is square. My radiator support does angle as you describe. Your lucky having oem fenders, mine are aftermarket and added to the fight to fit parts on the front end.

 

[sp71eb]

Not much new today but I did get my shifter/tunnel cover made. It came out really nice and I think it will look good when it is 100% done. I think I will make it a bolt in part with a gasket so I can have easier access to the top of the transmission and transfer case. I made a template out of cardboard and then bent it out of a chunk of 18 gauge. I used a chunk of angle iron, some visegrips, a few blocks of wood and a deadblow (no need for a brake). Also a buddy of mine had some free time today and went ahead and got some primer on my drivers door.

 

[TwoDalesDad]

Does your wife know where you waste all your free time? It's obvious you sit in the office and watch the game on that big screen TV.....I too would kill to have a shop like that to work in....watch your back......LOL....WOW....IT IS TRUE A GREAT SHOP AND A NICE PIECE OF WORK YOUR PULLIN ON THAT BRONCO...

 

[sp71eb]

Front Clip Welded IN!!!

Well today made some good progress on the front end. I got the entire front end welded up! The resistance welder got a workout, I only had to put 4 mig welds on the whole front end. The broncograveyard radiator support brackets fit really nice and are really solid. Then I got the upper intake back on the engine and she is pretty close to the hood so I will have to figure that out. I put the dash back in so I can get the np435 shifter bent down. I also took an old o2 sensor and cut the protector tube and electrode out so I could use it to mock up a location for my o2 bungs.

 

[sp71eb]

Spent Sunday doing some mock up. I installed my brake booster, steering column, steering shaft, clutch and brake pedal, gas pedal, and throttle cable. I uncoiled the EZwiring harness and got each section of it divided up. I mounted the fuse box to the left of the brake/clutch pedal assy. I plan on running the wiring harness and efi harness prior to paint. I'm going to run the wiring harness in convoluted tubing and terminate it with weatherpac connectors.

 

[66' bronco]

I really like your steering wheel, what brand, style is it and how much was it? Where'd u get it from? Thanks trent

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2

 

[sp71eb]

I really like your steering wheel, what brand, style is it and how much was it? Where'd u get it from? Thanks trent

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2

It is a forever sharp. I think I paid around 135 for the wheel and adapter. It is really nice looking and well built, some people have said they don't like the way the 1/2 wrap feels(the back is part is aluminum with finger grooves). I haven't had the luxury of using mine yet so I can't say for that. They will match the adapter for the wheel to your application.

http://fssteeringwheels.com/

 

[sp71eb]

Here is a combination of what I accomplished yesterday and today. Yesterday I decided to ditch bending the shifter and go with a gear banger or whatever else its called. I spent about 25 bucks total on the setup and I am very happy how it turned out...other than it took about 4 hours to build. Today I had some free time and extended my stock radiator mounts to hold my Champion radiator. I think I am going to install the upper radiator mounts on the front side of the radiator support to make more room for my electric fan. This will wait until I get my condenser for the a/c system.

 

[sp71eb]

Wiring. tedious tedious wiring!

As the title shows I spend all day working with wiring. I got the entire cluster wired up and put two weatherpac connectors on it so It will be easily serviceable. I also took all of the nasty and greasy 24 year old convoluted tubing off the engine harness for my efi conversion. I cleaned the harness up and installed ev6 connectors for my new injectors. I also started on cleaning up the main efi harness and moving some of the plugs to better suited places for the bronc. I made a few nice piles of nasty crusty electrical tape and tubing.

 

[sp71eb]

The main efi harness is now free of nasty greasy old electrical tape and tubing. I also moved some of the wires around. I took the VSS wires and moved them to run with the O2 harness to make for a clean install. I'm sure I will end up moving a few more wires before I am done. I'm glad I took the time to clean up the wiring harness, I wasn't getting continuity through the hego power. Turns out the wire was broken at the end of the fuseable link. Its crazy how time consuming running a wiring harness is and also trying to keep the install as clean as possible.

 

[TPTFPS68]

Well had some free time at work today and got the left side tacked in place. Still need to fit the rocker better and finalize the lower qt. alignment. The taillight pocket had been hit before and I had to bust out the slide hammer to get the inner back into shape. All of the tailgate post welds were broken loose on both sides, I threw about 6 spot welds on each side to keep it from happening again. The left side took some serious head scratching to get everything to fit....and I do this stuff for a living. I'm sure most of what I was fighting was the quality of the aftermarket parts. Hopefully tomorrow I will have some time to get everything welded up so I can move on to the front clip. I also want to say the Vise Grip 18DR seems to be designed to hold the eb rocker panel in place for fitment.

How did you attach your tail light housings? Did you plug weld the housing to rear bedside/post and Pro Spot the edge where it fits to the tailgate? I have thought about using 3M 8115 to hold it on. I have used a lot of 8115 putting my tub together. Figured it would keep the moisture out very good. Very strong also. I have Dynacorn housings as well, with Tom's upper/lower bedsides and wheel tubs. thanks