Any love for a Bronco build?

[Mustang-junky]

This my build thread for my 1979 bronco. Stable mate for my 1979 mustang. I haven't done much with the mustang laity, been focused on moving along with this bronco. It looked like this when I got it.




Not too bad, a little rust in the drivers side quarter.

Then there is the floor. Well, what was left of it.







The whole floor was junk. I cut it all and tossed it out except for a little bit around the transfer case shifter area.



Subframe was shot too, so that also when. I just kept a little bit that went under the front seats. Then built a new subframe from 2 x 3" box tubing. With the bronco frame still under it.



Rockers were both gone too. I ran a length of 1 x 2" box tubing inside the rocker. Should add a good deal of strengh.









Then out with the frame. Because it had rot holed in it too.



Like my lovely pile of bronco bits on the floor? I have a wheelbarrow full of rust pieces of bronco. The tires I am going to run are in this pic too. ProComp 40 x 13.5 17"



Bronco frame with my donor truck behind it.




Jess

[Fearnot]

Love me some Bronco! Looks like a very ambitious build for sure. You do great looking work!

[ZephyrEFI]

Super cool! I love the color!

[danco86]

I'd be all over following this. I love Broncos. And this is one major undertaking. We don't see rust like that around here. Following.

[Broncojunkie]

I'm not a big fan.

(Following!)

[brianj]

Love to see the build. I will say, though, you are a masochist. Holy crap the rust. You have done the hardest part already, but damn.

[grabbergreen84]

Your thread title is a dumb question, here.

That is a sweet dent-side Bronco! What engine, 400?

That donor truck actually looks nice! Is it badly rusted underneath or something? Frankly, I think the donor truck might be worth saving too. (I had a 2WD F150 just like it...more seller's remorse.)

[JTurbo]

Got to love living in the rust belt. Excellent work. Look forward to more updates.....

[webestang]

Sweet stuff! Bronco's ROCK!

[homer302]

Holy rust Batman. You have some mad skills sir. That is terrific progress. But not living up there myself, I just don't understand why it would not be cheaper to buy one from the dry western US and pay the $700 to ship it. You guys are certainly a dedicated bunch up there though! Can't fault you for having that much dedication to repair something.

[Mustang-junky]

Your thread title is a dumb question, here.

That is a sweet dent-side Bronco! What engine, 400?

That donor truck actually looks nice! Is it badly rusted underneath or something? Frankly, I think the donor truck might be worth saving too. (I had a 2WD F150 just like it...more seller's remorse.)

The bronco came with a 460 swapped into it. One of its redeeming qualities. The f-350 was my brothers, it needed many of the areas patched as the bronco, just not as extensive. Plus when it was done it would be just a '87 ford truck. More useful than the bronco, but nowhere as cool looking. I love the look of the 78-79 broncos and full sized ford trucks.

Jess

[Mustang-junky]

Holy rust Batman. You have some mad skills sir. That is terrific progress. But not living up there myself, I just don't understand why it would not be cheaper to buy one from the dry western US and pay the $700 to ship it. You guys are certainly a dedicated bunch up there though! Can't fault you for having that much dedication to repair something.

Cheaper is not always better. The journey not the destination, bla bla bla. Stock and "normal" is not what I do I guess.

I have been holding back on you'all. Got more done.

Donor truck was a 1987 F-350 diesel, I really don't like diesels. It gave up its frame with axles and the floor of its bed. The bed floor will replace the back of my bronco. I grabbed the fuel filler too, because, surprise, mine was rotted out.

I am going to keep the F-350's leaf sprung front Dana 60 set-up, Rear is a Sterling 10.25". 4.10 gears.

I had to cut the frame down in two places because I couldn't get all 28" out in one place. 21" out behind where the cab used to mount, and 7" up near the transfer case. I sandblasted and ground down the frame as much as I reasonable could, from the back up to the motor mounts. Then I brushed on a rust converter and painted it in Rustolium Hammertone.



I used sections of the frame that I removed to box in the areas where I made my cuts.





Motor under the plastic is the 460 that was in my bronco when I got it. I used L&L diesel to 460 swap brackets and mounts to bolt it into the truck frame.



Time to put the frame under the bronco for the first time.



Doing this all by myself can sometimes be a challenge, my Jeep was wiling to help give a push. You can see in this picture also that I have replaced the front floor pans and body mounts. Both the pans and mounts were junk on both sides.



I had to move the front body mounts for the frame ahead 6 1/4" to mate up with the bronco mounts. I moved them forward and up a bit.



Brackets are bolted with an extra piece on top to support the top of the bracket. Then I added a few welds just for my piece of mind. Haven't cleaned up the welds of painted any of it yet.



I have the front body mounts bolted down. Next up is doing all the rest, three more sets. Plenty more things to do after that too.

Jess

[Mustang-junky]

Did the steering shaft. I chopped off the end connected to the truck steering box, sleeved it, and welded it to the steering shaft that came with my bronco. It turned out good, looks like a straighter path than the stock shaft followed. I did screw up a bit and not pay attention to the position of the flange. I forgot that there was a flat on the splines so the shaft only goes in one way. I should be able to get the steering wheel straight later, it's only off about 1/8 turn.



Jess

[2nd chance cobra]

Not sure why these aren't worth more. 2 years of production vs. the 11 years of the previous style.

[roadkill]

The bronco came with a 460 swapped into it. One of its redeeming qualities. The f-350 was my brothers, it needed many of the areas patched as the bronco, just not as extensive. Plus when it was done it would be just a '87 ford truck. More useful than the bronco, but nowhere as cool looking. I love the look of the 78-79 broncos and full sized ford trucks.

Jess

I had a thought some time back about reskinning a '78-'79 Bronco with Bumpside sheetmetal... THAT would be so cool!

[grabbergreen84]

I had a thought some time back about reskinning a '78-'79 Bronco with Bumpside sheetmetal... THAT would be so cool!

Excellent idea!

[Mustang-junky]

I needed some headers, so I decided to make it as complicated as possible. One side of my 180 degree headers pretty much done. Collector isn't welded on yet. I'm waiting to see the position rest of the pipes. Lots of thinking and cutting. First thing to go was trying to keep them all equal length, I tried.



I went with 2" pipes. 1 3/4" would have been much easier.

Got my fuel tank done too. I cut the bottom off of my fuel pick-up and added a 255 lph EFI pump. And added a return line to the tank.



Electrical connections, negative grounds to the fuel pick-up and positive is marked off to the side a bit. I did something similar to this with two of these pumps in a fuel cell. Works good and is really cheap compared to something like an Aeromotive 1000 pump. I didn't think of taking a picture before stuffing the whole deal into the tank so I grabbed a shot through the gas filler hole. You can see the pre-filter sock thing on the end of the pump and the float for the fuel level sender.



Jess

[otracing121]

When I first started reading this my first thought was " man I hope he has a welder ". I see you do and fabrication is in your portfolio for sure. Keep up the great work, can't wait to see more.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Mustang-junky]

My welds aren't that pretty. I'm more of a function over form type of person. Exhaust tubing can be a bit of a pain anyway. Strong first, pretty... Well, it'll be tucked under the body anyway.

Jess

[82gt50]

Any love for a Bronco build? Hell yes!

I had a rare 1982 full size Bronco XLS in blue. The XLS was kind of a Sport model that only lasted a couple of years with blacked out trim and special paint. Mine had the 302 a/t traction-lock axles front and rear and manual locking hubs, captains chairs and a/c. The only thing that rusted out was the bottom of the tailgate even though it was driven on the beach frequently on the Outerbanks.

A picture from the brochure in '82 mine was identical to the blue one in the background. Loved that truck.



Note the black paint around the door windows, I always thought that was kind of weird.

The only thing that broke on the truck was the crankshaft after the thing had over 200k miles on it. Bought a used 83 Mustang 4bbl 5.0L engine and swapped it in.

So for several years I had an 1982 Mustang GT and '82 Bronco XLS. But unlike the Mustang I bought the Bronco used in 1988.

[82gt50]

My welds aren't that pretty. I'm more of a function over form type of person. Exhaust tubing can be a bit of a pain anyway. Strong first, pretty... Well, it'll be tucked under the body anyway.

Jess

Damn fine work sir!

[ukravit]

OUTSTANDING work !!

[Mustang-junky]

Took a long time to get to this point. Still need some more work to them. I have a few more v-bands coming so I can get the headers on and off easier. I had to take the trans mount off and lower the motor and trans assembly down to get them out as they are now. A few more removable pipes should make it an easier job to install them. There are a few strategically placed dimples to clear stuff where needed, mainly the floor, shouldn't affect much.









A bit more welding to do. Adding the extra v-bands. Remove the collectors and make some merge spikes to make the exhaust flow better. Supposedly this type header likes small collectors, the spike will take up some volume inside the collector and fill in the gap between the four pipes. I have plenty of exhaust pipe scraps to make something with. In the last picture the header flanges don't quite line up, this is because the clamps aren't tightened up all the way. Drivers side collector is angled towards the passenger side to avoid the transfer case shifter. The scrap of steel on the flange of the collectors was to hold them together and in place where I wanted them.

I think I will move on to running brake lines while I wait for the other v-bands to be delivered. I think if I can get it mobile before the end of summer I'd be happy. Still have the bulk of the floor to finish, that can wait though.

My driveway sure does look like crap. Lol. Maybe I could win the lotto someday and replace the whole thing.
Jess

[Mavereq]

Great work so far. I'm still working on my bronco.

[Mustang-junky]

That's a lot of flex! I never got into the rock crawling stuff, but I can appreciate a nicely built vehicle.

Jess