Up Grades

[mputty11]

My goal is to make it a safe driver.

It's time to start up grading my 68 Bronco. Just some information. Its all original and its just a stock straight six, Dana 30 and Ford 9"rear end. The front and rear axles are going to be rebuilt by a professional. I'd like to up grade the brakes, suspension, body mounts. All of that looks poor.

Any recommendations on the above up grades or where I should start? Anything else I should be thinking about doing?

Thank you Bronco family

Mark

 

[spap]

Disks brakes in the front

 

[rguest3]

Safety First.

Power Brakes, Disc Up Front - You are doing the axles anyway.
Roll Bar - 3-Point Seat Belts
Power Steering - More of a comfort item

Any of the Vendors listed at the top of this page can help with all the upgrades you want / need.

 

[SteveL]

If you're gonna upgrade the motor and tranny or bigger tires the 1" body lift is a nice upgrade instead of just body mounts.

 

[flexmerc]

If you're gonna upgrade the motor and tranny or bigger tires the 1" body lift is a nice upgrade instead of just body mounts.

Id recommend redoing the brake, fuel, transmission lines along with checking high exposed wires and connections, re-terminate where necessary

-Felix

 

[sanndmann3]

Agree with other to do disc brakes 1st. I'd recommend hydroboost over vacuum booster.

 

[73azbronco]

Hate to be stick in mud, just spent 8 years fixing my valve cover oil leak.

Recommend smaller is better. And cheaper. I should not have done 3.5 lift and 2BL. I only needed 1 inch BL and 2 inch SL to fit 35's. But it looks way cool now.

I recommend bushings on springs if they are still good. Should be unless abused. Basically all bushings. New shocks.

What is wrong with axles needing to be redone, that could be simple or thousands. 6 cyl should already get you 4.11 gearing.

I'd leave brakes alone, just replace everything. Drums are fine for stock, when you add an extra 2000lbs of metal and over 30 tires thats when you start needing disks.

Try to keep seats stock, recover refoam and spring sure.

 

[Broncobowsher]

Start by planning the end. What do you want? Do you want V8 power, modern transmission, maybe even an automatic? Plan now before you are redoing fresh work because you made a poor decision up front by not planning.

First upgrade, fix what is wrong.
Next, what is going to go wrong. A lot of this will be all the rubber parts that are 50+ years old now. Fuel lines get hard, modern fuel doesn't do them favors. And don't do the cheap stuff at the local parts store, get some decent barrier hose. Marine fuel hose, Earl's vapor guard, something good.

As for disk brakes, yes on the front and no on the back. Back to that planning thing. If the axles are being rebuilt the brakes have to come off. Do the brakes with the axles or you will be doing them twice. Plan ahead.

What are your plans for driving this? If you are thinking large tires and hard trails with freeway cruising in between, there are a ton of changes that need to be planned for. In town and some back road tooling around on stock sized tires, this will be pretty easy.

Power brakes and power steering sure do make it drive easier. Rebuild the column shifter, the whole steering column actually. A good shifting 3 on the tree is a fun drive in old steel. Floor shift isn't really an upgrade, for a long time it was the fix for a worn out column shifter because column shifter parts didn't exist. But that could be a mute point if you are planning a V8 and 5-speed swap. Or you could loose a couple cylinders and do a Cummins R2.8 engine. That would be a nice non-V8 engine upgrade. Oh the possibilities are endless. But it all starts with a realistic plan.

 

[nickgp]

Brakes, steering, suspension. Remember that from Mr Taylor in HS auto shop! Then worry about how it runs.