Build a Bronco in 10 Days

Build a Bronco in 10 Days !

I'm in the middle of a rebuild of my 1973 Bronco. The body is being replaced with a tubular chassis that will have Bronco sheet metal hung back on the outside.

The project began in mid March when I pulled the body off. Several things have come up which have delayed the project, but I'm still aiming to get a trailable Bronco by the Memorial Day trail ride in Jellico, TN with the Trailkeepers Foundation.


This is my what it looked like before the project began. The body was pretty rusty and I had beat it up pretty good over the last few years.	The beginning of the deconstruction.	Pulling the body off with a fork lift.

Other Mods

I did a couple mods before I started on the body. First we pulled off the radius arms and modified the passenger side arm with a hinge to make it a wristed arm. We also pulled the rear diff out to find why I had 45 degrees of backlash. Turned out it was all in the Detroit locker and that it was normal. Changed an axle seal and the pinion seal and yoke while we had it apart. Replace the tranny pan because it was bashed in and was leaking pretty bad. Going to install an ARB in the front, but not yet finished. I've got an open front end right now.. Literally! No diff. :-) Also need to change an axle bearing and a ball joint while it's apart.

DAY 1

Ok, Day 1 was really a few days spread over a couple weeks. But, I wanted a nice round number of days to name this web page. :-) 2 x 4, .25" wall square tubing was used to build the rock rails and the supports for the rock rails.

This was the first rock rail we did. I really didn't like how far the supports stuck out. It looks like it will get hung up on something pretty easy. For the other side we cut it back about another 1.5". We'll have to come back and trim this side later.

DAY 2

Wednesday, May 14

I was going to base the main hoop of the cage off of the rock rails, but after taking some measurements off the old body it was clear the main hoop needed to be a few inches behind the rock rails.

We bent up some supports and welded them in behind the rock rails. This should be pretty strong since we ran a bead of weld all the way down the back of the rock rails, but we'll probably still put another tube in from where the main hoop of the cage is going to attach to a point lower on the frame to act as a gusset.

Once the supports were on (the inner tube), I did some measuring to see how much room that was going to give me inside. I measured 43" for the width of the main hoop. I started thinking about it and realized how narrow that was going to be. My seats are 20" wide. That would have left 3". I don't want to be that cozy with my passenger. :-) I decided I wanted to go a little wider, so we bent up another tube and put it next to the first one. I really like how it turned out. It looks good, should be a lot stronger and it gave me another 3.5" of width.

DAY 3

Thursday, May 15

Built the main hoop. Most of the time was getting familiar with how to do multiple bends and get everything to line up right.

DAY 4

Friday, May 16

Made most of the rear end. Everything in rear is done except for the down pipes from the main hoop and the shock mounts.

The rear end went thru several design changes as we were building it as things didn't work out. In the end I think the design turned out awesome. I couldn't have planned it to look this good.

DAY 5

Saturday, May 17

Started the front part of the main cage. Got the front hoops in, the tubes above and below the windshield and the tubes across the door openings.

The door opening somehow turned out huge. I think we put the main hoop in too far back. Once we put in the tubes across the door openings I think it improved the look of it. When we eventually get some sheet metal in we'll take it up to where the door opening tubes angle down. That should really help with the looks.

We'll probably go back up to the shop later tonight to do more to the cage. Had to take a break to watch the Winston.

DAY 6

Sunday, May 18

Saturday night after the Winston we did get back to the shop, but all we did was the spreader bar. I planned on putting in 2 spreader bars, but with as narrow as the cage is now it would have put one of them too close to my head.

Sunday we started with the down bars from the main hoop down to the rear.

Next we moved on to the front of the cage. I planned on 2 U sections of tube, one following the hood line, and one in front of the radiator. We ran into the same problem as we did in back.. We couldn't get the vertical U narrow enough to meet the front of the horizontal U and still keep it on the frame rails, so we did the same thing as in back. We leaned the U back to meet the back of the bends, then added in support bars in front. I think it looks pretty good and matches the back.

Next it's on to shock supports and the floor board.

DAY 7

Monday, May 19

Not much done today. Got the seat supports and seats in.

INTERMISSION

You may have noticed the lack of updates here. We had trouble getting the ARB in. We need to set up the pinion again...It was not shimmed right or something and was moving in and out. It made us miss our goal of getting the Bronco drivable by the Memorial day ride.

So.. The goal is still to get it done in 10 work days.. there's just going to be a week or so of intermission :-)

DAY 8&9

Saturday May 30, and Sunday June 1

With the deadline gone, we're taking our time now. We'll probably take 20-25 days now. This weekend we worked on the floor structure.

We wanted to get a nice structure support the painted aluminum I'll use for the floor. The floor will be riveted to the supports. We also got the main floor cut to shape and ready to go in.

Got the shifter connected up and mocked into place. Cabling was a little tricky.. had to run it between the twinsticks and thru the middle of the xfer case linkage. It should survive with a little electrical tape around it where it might rub on the linkage.

DAY 10

Monday, June 2

Painted the frame with POR15. It's a paint formulated to protect from rust. It actually cures with moisture, so moisture actually makes it harder rather than breaking it down and penetrating it.

DAY 11

Tuesday, June 3

Made the front shock mounts. I had planned on running a 2nd 1.75" tube below the main one to mount the shock to, but after getting the shock in place I realized the upper mounting point was going to need to be closer to the main tube. We fabbed the mounts up from .25" plate.

DAY 12

Wednesday, June 4

Made the rear shock mounts and got all the shocks mounted. We also made new lower shock mounts on the axle. We moved the mount to the front of the axle to get more clearance from the brake caliper. Putting it on the front should also help with spring wrap since it would be trying to compress the shock as the pinion tries to come up and the shock has more resistance in compression.

We did a little forced articulation (lifting with a hoist, while holding the other side down with a fork lift), and the shocks are no longer my limiting factor. I've got a couple inches to spare in both directions. My main limit to articulation right now is I don't have enough weight in the back to keep the tire on the ground. 15 gallons of gas and my spare tire and tools should help.

DAY 13

Thursday, June 5

We ripped the rag joint in the steering column because it was loose, the column wasn't mounted and we were using it to turn the wheels as we moved the Bronco around. We found a new rag joint and got it installed. Then we put the seat back in, got the wheel to a comfortable position and made a mount for it off the the lower cross bar. It still needs one more support at the firewall, but it's much more stable now.

DAY 14

Friday, June 6

Found a way to make the stock brake pedal work. Made supports for the brake pedal. Made supports for the gas pedal.

DAY 15

Saturday, June 7

Installed the gas pedal and brake pedals. Put on extra steering column supports. Made the tubing to frame up the firewall. Installed a bunch of extra gussets. Put in cross bar for 4pt seat belts. Painted! Spent all night painting. The sun was coming up when I got home!

DAY 16

Sunday, June 8

Plumbed up the brake system, installed line locks, installed new tranny pan. Put the radiator back in. Started planning out the electrical system.

DAY 17

Wednesday, June 11

My friend made a really slick dash panel and got it mounted. We wired up the key, hooked up the fuel system and wired the pump. It now starts and stopps off the key! It's not charging though. I'll need to study the wiring diagrams more.

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