Don't know where the original thread went so here is my new thread with updates.

Bronco bought back in 2015 from a gentleman down the street. Was his kids in high school and he was kind enough to sell to me for only $1600. Well debatable if it was kind since the truck was in bad shape.

Side note: this truck was actually flipped by that Marsha lady on the car sharks show. Her companies name was on the title from the PO.


The day I brought her home: looking very much like the OJ bronco


















Cool shots with it next to my dad's old truck on the street. - notice the tires on the f350











Her hanging in the backyard before the fun began











A random shot of my crazy *** lab when she jumped on top of the bronco trying to get a squirrel.... she is like all my ex-gfs..... insane.
















And as she is today. Street legal (so the city won't complain about it being on the street), winch bumper installed, winch installed, 2.5 inch lift finished, water pump, tune-up, new door latch cables, new front brakes, new front brake lines, complete rebuilt front end, dumped flowmaster exhaust. I can go on..... Still under $3500 total for the project so far but not including my labor.

 

Still to do:

Herculiner camper top to match bumper
herculiner back bumper to match front bumper? - maybe... I don't want to paint chrome...
Pull interior and herculiner the interior
find a cheap upholstery shop to make front seats waterproof and re-upholstery rear bench to match.
Take to alignment shop to get camber right. Just did a driveway alignment for now.
& more I am sure of it.

Original plans that have been scrapped:
Solid axle swap (still have the dana 44 axle from a 78 bronco out at my family farm in a barn, hopefully on the next project (if I can ever find the time with work)).
Soft top (sold on craigslist for more than I paid for it off bronco graveyard)

If I decide to really finish it out I will weld in those new body panels to replace the rust spots and herculiner the whole outside (not in black though probably grey)

 

Looking good! So nice and clean underneath. And you said it was in rough shape. Lol.

Jess

 

Haha nice and clean after I cleaned it and painted it while I was down there redoing the whole suspension. I still have some cleaning and painting to do down there as well as some more spray on bed liner on the undercarriage of the body.

I haven't listed half the drivetrain stuff I had to fix to get it street legal. It's been in the backyard a year until recently. Front end was gone (I literally replaced with a donor axle from a parts truck the radius arms were deformedl), brakes sticking, vacuum leak(s), needed a tune up, etc. you know the normal stuff! Still need to drop the tranny pain and flush it and install a new filter to finish changing all fluids in the drive train.

 

Nice job I like your dog and your dads truck too.
Hey bud what did the previous owner do to kill a TTB and radius arms? Just curious if he was reenacting Dukes of Hazard stunts or something.

 

If you do the Herculiner on the inside I saw on YouTube a guy spraying an insulator on, he went the same route but the spray on insulator helped with noise and vibration. Might be something to look into.

So, what's OJ driving these days if you got his rig?

 

Being from the Northeast I guess I have a different opinion of what rough looks like. Pictures of what my rough looks like.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...nco-build.html

I always thought that if someone were to get a car hauler and buy up a bunch of rust free southern cars, they could make a ton of money selling them to people tired of dealing with rust in rust prone areas. $500 car down south = an $2500 car around here.

Adds to the challenge I guess. Good luck with your build.

Jess

 

lizardskin is the way to go from what i hear

 

I don't think it was my PO but his PO. From the invoices I found in the truck when I bought it. The bronco started its first 160K or so with a lady in Houston, Texas. It does not look like the front end was touched until that flipper Marsha lady got the truck. When I got the bronco home I noticed one of the radius arm brackets was pretty much new (still had sticker on it from ford house) and both sides had new bushings. When I got the TTB out I realized why. I guess on the drivers side the radius arm bushing must have deteriorated completely and that radius arm was banging metal on metal with the bracket. So the threaded end was bent and deformed. At that point I decided to just pull the other TTB from the parts truck since the TTB I pulled out of this one still had auto hubs, the brake calipers had pretty much no life left on them, pivot beam bushings were real bad but not metal on metal yet, all steering was shot pitman arm to wheels. I was going to disable the ABS anyways so I didn't care if I was putting in a TTB with out it (the front axle in it now is from a non-abs 4x4 OBS). I could have just swapped out the radius arm on the one side but since the parts truck had less miles on it I figured that axle would be better for me in long run.

Interesting. Do you have any ideal what insulator it was? I would be down since I gotta do all the prep work for the herculiner anyways, I wouldn't mind spending a little extra $$$ to make it that much sweeter.

Last I heard OJ in still in prison from that robbery. If I remember right he is up for parole in a few years.

Yeah. Definitely all relative. Down here in the south this truck would be considered rough rust wise but up north this truck would be a dream/cake walk to repair.

 

These came highly recommended. Not sure if anyone has heard of them. - Ford Seat Covers - Wet Okole Hawaii

 

Oh and I ponied up the $$$ for the rear pre-runner bronco bumper off Bronco Graveyard. I just got the bare bones one without tire rack or gas can rack (was still more than I should have spent at $500 before shipping). Just going to herculiner it with the camper top and call it good on exterior for now.

Also ordered some solenoids for my winch. Seems some are out since it won't retract under power only extend.

Its at the alignment shop right now. Not getting them to align it yet (going to do some trail riding first) but to double check my lift work, install the sway bar (I was having issues getting the old bushings to come out) and put in the 2nd bolt in one of the drop brackets I was having issues getting my drill to go in straight.

My list to complete before next weekend (have plans to go out to the family land with a buddy who has a wrangler).
1. do rear brakes (still sticking sometimes)
2. fix winch (since one of us will get stuck)
3. need to put anti-freeze in since winter/fall is here. So going to flush the coolant system a couple more times until what comes out looks better. Been running a flush through it last couple months since PO had ran some stop leak and messed up the rad (already had to replace radiator and flush the system once).
4. put on my new locking hub on drivers side. Already put it on passenger side during TTB install.

 

12 Inch LED light bar installed.




Tie rod flip. Metal sleeves from bronco graveyard. 7 degree reamer was $60 shipped not cheap...
Before:



After:


Later that day stuck in a creek. My buddies and I ended up crawling over the hood over to dry dirt since we didn't have rubber boots with us. Good thing its a steel body bronco.

 

I love those broncos there is one down the road that supposedly hs a bad head gasket I think its a water pump but in any case I am going to see what I can trade the old lady for it,,,, maybe a few yard mows or some remodeling

 

I would pick one up while they are still cheap look at how over priced the 70 model ones are now. This one has been a lot of work but a lot of fun and I have been daily driving it until recently (and I own a 2012 F150 FX4 and I still like to drive the bronco to work, did I mention its so easy to park and pull a U-turn in). You can do a compression test and would only take 30 mins to see if it is a head gasket (leak down test is not a for sure). If water pump them be gentle with bolts, use heat, go 1/2 turn back, 1/4 turn forward, and take your sweet time and use PB blaster. Worse case - which I ran into on this bronco. Got all the bolts out and got to the last one and it broke, pull timing chain cover, drill and tap if easy out or pliers wont get it.

If your not going to daily drive it, and if you own a home with a garage, and don't mind some restrictions (not as bad as hagarty or grundy). I recently switched only this truck over to Safeco's (Liberty Mutual sister company) Classic Car insurance. Allows up to 4000 miles a year, agreed value of 5K, $500 deductible and it carries full coverage with comp and collision for only $20 a month (in my case yours will vary, I do have a couple wrecks but no moving violations on my record so heck yours might be cheaper).

All this said. If you don't know how to do some repairs and maintenance on your own then don't buy one since these are not easy to figure out issues out with when things are going sideways.