"The Racing Bronco" Restoration

[BajaBronco]

those are awesome pictures. Thanks for sharing. Really looks good as is, even, based on the 50th photo. Bring to FFF any way you can.

 

[toddz69]

those are awesome pictures. Thanks for sharing. Really looks good as is, even, based on the 50th photo. Bring to FFF any way you can.

X2 on that! Teardown? That thing doesn't need a teardown - looks great as-is!

Todd Z.

 

[My69Pony]

I agree that it looks great as is, but we want to take it back to the early days. Really it is not in need of a lot of work so we will pull the body off, pull everything off the frame, repaint the light turquoise and put all new bushing and then reassemble the chassis. The body will take a bit of work, there is no rust I have found, but we want to insure the underside of the body gets that same treatment and fresh paint that the outer body will get. My biggest issue will come with the fiberglass fenders and hood. Both have a lot of cracking and spider webbing. We may end up replacing the fenders, but I’m thinking the hood will have to be repaired. The last major hurdle will be the wheels. The original 45 year old tires are on the original 45 year old wheels that are in need of chrome work. I hesitate taking the one of a kind set of tires off the wheels to get them rechromed. That being said, I have a product that I will be testing on some other wheel that will hopefully give us the chrome look we want without taking the tires off. It sounds like a lot of work between now and April, but with Dad and my brother, the job should be done with time to spare. If we can get the Bronco done in a reasonable time frame, I may try to get my XP8 Saleen Explorer ready and bring it along also.
Thanks for the words of encouragement,
Brian

 

[eaglenest66]

This is a cool thread! Enjoying every minute of it! Keep 'em coming. tim

 

[Ohio Bronco 21]

I love the old pictures you have shared with us, thanks. Keep up your progress.
Why is it that all the photos of out west seem to really speak to me lately, maybe I should move. lol

 

[sprdv1]

Very cool!

 

[orangecrush4u]

Yes deff cool photos;D

 

[englewoodcowboy]

Have you taken the wheel/tires to a good tire shop and let them have a look. They may be able to seperate them without damage, specially using the new equipment out there. We have pulled origional tires off of tractors with sledge hammer/spoons and somehow managed not to damage them. If it has been kept in the garage, and they do not have too bad of dry rot, you may be fine.

 

[My69Pony]

Have you taken the wheel/tires to a good tire shop and let them have a look. They may be able to seperate them without damage, specially using the new equipment out there. We have pulled origional tires off of tractors with sledge hammer/spoons and somehow managed not to damage them. If it has been kept in the garage, and they do not have too bad of dry rot, you may be fine.

I may try that; it would be nice to have the wheels rechromed. I'll have to see how things progress, right now the most important thing is to get the body off and the chassis done. Do you have any suggestion of what I might do in preparation? Do I need to treat the tires with something to aid the process?
Thanks for the comments,
Brian

 

[66Bronco]

Hey Brian,

Glad to see you're getting the Bronco ready for FFF. Having gone through the pains of trying to get original rims re-chromed I actually found it cheaper to just buy new rims. There may be price differences depending on where you live but out here in Calif it is very expensive and many places warned me that I'd end up with a brown ring where the center plate butts up against the outer rim. Evidently when new the two pieces are chromed separately (least that's what I've been told).


-Terry

 

[My69Pony]

Great idea, expect I'm trying to keep as much of the original as possible, and the fact that these wheels are 16" diameter and 15" wide. I'm not sure I could even find something close.
Brian

 

[My69Pony]

Ok, so the wait is over, the wrenches finally flew, and fly they did. Dad and two brothers were over of Saturday so we could get as much done as possible. After some initial thoughts on what needed to happen we got right to it and made great progress. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves, but here is a brief idea of what we were able to get done. The day started by removing everything attached to the body and some of the engine. We decided some time ago to leave the roll bar intact to give the body some support so after everything was off, all the wires unhooked, the body bolts remove, the final step was to cut the main hoop of the roll bar where it went through the body. Only the main hoop is mounted to the frame, the front legs are bolted and the rear legs are welded to the body. So with the roll bar cut we rolled the Bronco out of the garage to remove the body. About that same time, two of my sons became available to help so the six of us pulled the body off the frame and on to a trailer. The garage do not have enough room to work on the body and frame at the same time, so the body has been move to the other garage for storage until it can get transported to the body shop. I had planned to do the fame and the body here at home, but time has gone too quickly so the body will be sent out for restoration. Hopefully within the next couple days it will be on its way and we can concentrate on everything left over.
Enjoy some picture
Brian
Picture
Dad and Troy working on the engine x2
Todd working on flare removal
Troy under the dash
Brian cutting the Rollbar

 

[My69Pony]

A few more Pictures

Troy and Brad with the body off
Body preparing to move
Body on its way to the garage
Troy, Todd, Brian, Brad, Brigham and Dad preparing to lift the body x2
Everybody lift

 

[jim3326]

WOW!! A super charged I-6!! That would be fun;D

Jim W.

 

[My69Pony]

Last few for the night

The body now on rollers
Looks kind of short
Todd and Troy pulling hood off Old Blue
Brian with door inserts
Great part storage

Happy looking
Brian

 

[broncosbybart]

Looks like you got a lot done. Just stumbled across this thread. Lots of cool history. Have fun with the build. Should go pretty smoothly. Have a good tire shop look at the wheels and tires. They should be able to get them apart, or at least tell you if they will have issues getting them apart.

 

[kayakersteve]

I just subscribed to this thread - Did it for the history and build of this fine Bronco, but also for the great scenery of the mountains you have there.

The frame cutouts - Were those done to save weight? Seems it would have weakened it as the steel is only 3/16 to begin with, but it obviously was handling hard play in the photos.

 

[dead road]

Looks like an interesting transfer case set-up. Non-married maybe chain drive? Show some close up picts of that.

 

[englewoodcowboy]

The scat shield looks friggin heavy. I would like to see some close ups of the drivetrain. The T case looks to be chain drive????

 

[My69Pony]

I'm not at home right now, and I've got school tonight, but in the next few days I will posting pictures. Yes it is a non-married chain drive. Frame cutouts are for weight savings, along with the trailing arms and the chain drive mount. The Scatter Shield may look heavy, but it is made out of 1/2" to 5/8" reinforced rubber, scatter shield of the time.
Brian