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I originally inquired about an excellent condition 1970 Ford Bronco Wagon that I had seen around my home town of Blissfield, MI. It was owned by Brian Duckworth who had brought it back with him from Washington State where he had purchased it 2 years prior. For a mere $1,500 I took it home, but it was far from where it needed to be to hang with the heavily modified Jeeps that frequent trails of northern Michigan and the Silver Lake sand dunes. The truck was a daily driver for almost a year until a rollover initiated a complete ground up restoration with all of the work done by none other than myself.

Stripping the truck to the ground and removing all of the factory shock mounts making room for the our SuperFlex© front and rear shock hoops began the project. Investigating the frame I found that it was perfectly square and had little rust to speak of.

The radius arm mounts were then moved back 8" to accommodate the custom radius arms which are Rancho 80-96 IFS arms with 79 F150 C-cups securely welded in place with an integrated 7 degrees of caster to allow the use of rubber radius arm bushings and causing the springs to sit level.

Everything was then sand blasted and coated with POR15 the newest in industrial rust preventative coatings which is available at Jeff's. Up front is a factory 1976 power disc Dana44, housing 5.13 gears and a new Trac-Loc limited slip diff. with Spicer heavy duty 297 series axle shafts. Steering is controlled by a JBG 4" drop pitman arm and an adjustable drag link, while axle location is with a drop trac bar bracket and a Superlift adjustable trak bar.

The rear axle is a 1977 non-banjo housing reinforced with a Competition Engineering housing brace. GM caliper weld on brackets were used to install custom disc brakes aiding it's stopping ability. Inside are Currie 31 spline heavy duty axles being fed by a Detroit Locker with the HD spring and 5.13 gears. Also there are center mount kicker shocks to fight axle wrap and assist damping ability.

The rebuilt T-shift transfer case is attached to a B&M C4 with a full manual reverse pattern valve body and tweaked internals, while gear selection is controlled by a B&M Pro Ratchet shifter. Exhaust is controlled by Jeff's revolutionary new Ultra Flow V8 headers and 2 chamber 3" race series flowmaster mufflers.

Power is supplied courtesy a 1995 5.0 liter HO motor with an F303 Motorsport roller cam, milled and ported aluminum Trick Flow Twisted Wedge heads and a D.U.I. ignition system. There is an 11:1 351 Windsor up my sleeve just itching for a home in my toy ;)

Rollover protection is supplied by a custom 6 point roll cage and RCI bucket seats with RCI 5 point safety harnesses. The rear is protected with a rear PreRunner bumper and a trailer hitch to take the my Jet Ski to the lake on sunny afternoons. Protection from the sun is provided by a Kayline sunshade and a Kayline soft top when it's raining.

The custom aluminum dash has a full compliment of Autometer liquid filled Pro-Comp gauges and an Autometer Pro-Comp Memory Tach. For steering control there is a Grant steering wheel attached to a rebuilt 77 column and an original 77 Saginaw power steering box rebuilt to OEM specifications through JBG.

Front end protection is supplied by JBG's PreRunner winch bumper housing a Warn M6000 winch and 4 165 watt KC Daylighters. On top of the engine is a ProFlow 3" fiberglass cowl induction hood and AutoFab poly hood pins.

The Superflex 5.5" rear 11 pack leaf springs are dampened by Doetsch Tech Pre Runner series shocks riding on 15"X10" American Racing rims and 35"X16.5" Super Swamper Boggers. The all steel body was painted with PPG Ford Chrome Yellow Acrylic Enamel then cut for Bushwacker Duraflex fender flares.

• This Bobtail is a proud member of the Jeff's Bronco Graveyard fleet.
• See it featured in 2000 by Rick Shandley at Carparts.com
• Ken Brubaker of OffRoad Magazine considered it the "Most Functional 4X4" at the Spring 4-Wheel Drive Jamboree Nationals.
• Here are pictures of my unfortunate roll over at the dunes on 4th of July 2000, more pictures of the restoration and a complete feature on it's ongoing resurrection.
• Here is a collection of images and details from before the original restoration.

Specifications