Project Tetanus/ the mail order Bronco.

[mustanggarage]

Hello all.  in august of 2018 I bought a 1971 Bronco shaped pile of rust.  I thought it was pretty cool.  I knew very little about Broncos except that I liked them.  I am not new to building cars.  I have had several other projects over the years.  a few mustangs and a jeep etc.  I still have most of them.  I like to build cars more than I like to drive them and I hate selling them lol.  Anyway, I found this bronco on craigslist.  it looked pretty nice in the picture.  It took me a week to be able to get there and look at it and I almost walked away.  it was really too far gone for me to repair.  somebody could have done it I am sure but it was too much for me.  but I was so emotionally invested in it by that point I bought it anyway.  I immediately regretted it and tried to sell it lol but not very hard.  finally I decided I would just throw good money after bad, fix it the way I wanted it and the cost be damned.  So that is why this project became the mail order bronco as I am going to end up replacing nearly everything on this thing by the time I am done.  oh and by the way I looked and can't see any way to edit my signature.  IDK.

 

[mustanggarage]

so the first thing I did was pull it into my shop and tear it apart.

 

[mustanggarage]

I rebuilt the 9 inch and dana 44 axles. KBS coated and powder coated a lot of parts.  new 4.11 gears limited slip diff, and disk brake conversion.  I had to get my Dad out of the nursing home to come over and check my Gear pattern because this is the first time I have ever set up a dana 44 gear set.  I watched a few videos and read Billavistas website a bunch.  ended up ruining some shims and had to buy some more, but I finally got it.

 

[mustanggarage]

I've done a lot more to it since then.  if people do build threads on this site and there is any interest I will add more detail for now I will just drop a couple teaser pics.

 

[miesk5]

Yo mustanggarage,

Welcome to our site & thanks for saving the 71!

Appears that you have progressed nicely.  Continue with the build and I'll move it to https://broncozone.com/forum/9-66-77-early-bronco-tech-support/



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1971 FORD BRONCO SALES BROCHURE @ https://broncograveyard.com/rt-1279-1966-79-ford-sales-brochures.html



Great lics too!

 

Al

 

[mustanggarage]

well shaggy asked me to update my build thread so here goes. Stage 1 is complete now. So I will just try to bring the thread up to date. After I had completely disassembled it. I decided the body was better off just being replaceable.
well I had some vacation days accrued so I decided to head out and pick up my big dose of tetanus gamma globulin. the difference between the tetanus shot which basically helps your immune system form antibodies against tetanus, and tetanus immune globulin is that the gamma globulin is an injection of preformed antibodies. so I hooked up my trailer. (man I love this truck it made this trip a breeze)



and went on a 1150 mile road trip to meet my new best buddy Delco Nick



I got to check out his shop and inventory, it was a fun visit.



then we loaded up the trailer






and I headed home. this was a nice trip. I needed to get away and spend some alone time on the road. My wife who knows me so well was very gracious and let me have this time to just cruise out and pick up a new bronco body. she is the best.

so my project tetanus, is transitioning, (no Bruce Jenner jokes alright) into the mail order bronco project. but this will be a huge boost in getting my Bronco back on the road. granted not much of the original Bronco will remain however lol.

 

[mustanggarage]

we made it home safe and sound. nice road trip. now the next project fix the transmission leak on the jeep so I can get ready to put put the suspension and axles on the frame.

 

[mustanggarage]

some more pics of my new body.





obviously there is some early flash rusting going on around the spot welds. etc. I was not ready to start working on the body really yet. I plan to build up the frame and drivetrain first then work on the body, but I obviously have to do something about this or I will have problems before I am ready so I started working on it today. I started sanding down the spot welds with 80 grit sand paper on a 3 inch sanding disk. then sprayed the floor with epoxy primer/sealer.





tomorrow I will be starting on the engine compartment. I will pull the hood and fenders off and begin working on it. then I will lift it and work on the undercarriage. once I get it all in primer I will store it until I am ready to begin the body phase.

 

[mustanggarage]

then this week I took a few days off to take care of some other family stuff and so I had most of the last two days off. obviously there is some early flash rusting going on around the spot welds. etc. I am not ready to start working on the body really yet. I plan to build up the frame and drivetrain first then work on the body, but I obviously have to do something about this or I will have problems before I am ready so I started working on it today. I started sanding down the spot welds with 80 grit sand paper on a 3 inch sanding disk. then sprayed the floor with epoxy primer/sealer.





tomorrow I will be starting on the engine compartment. I will pull the hood and fenders off and begin working on it. then I will lift it and work on the undercarriage. once I get it all in primer I will store it until I am ready to begin the body phase.

so I started putting my rolling chassis together. this will be nice to free up some space in my garage lol. wild horses premium 1.5 inch lift kit.





and yes, at this point I realized that the emergency brake cables are dedicated driver and passenger side, and of course I got it wrong so I will get to pull that back apart and fix it later smh











I bought an adjustable track bar from tom's bronco parts and I still need to read up on how to adjust that properly I imagine that will have to wait until I have the vehicle assembled and have all the weight on it before I try to dial it in to close. but I am pleased with how it looks so far.

 

[mustanggarage]

I am just still slowly spinning my wheels. waiting on some parts to finish rebuilding the transfer case.


I got all the parts from wild horses but I am waiting on a piece from Novak and a new gear from another supplier. anyway I have it all torn down so I might as well post up a few pictures.


I am going to be switching to a 5 speed so I removed the transfer case and left the adapter and duff floor shifter in place. hopefully someone will need one someday, or it may just be added to the junk I take to the scrap yard.



then you get to clean off years worth of grease, and dirt. I didn't want it to get all over so I used the little wading pool I sit out for my dogs when its hot out. I will have to get them a new one this summer or my wife may be upset lol.





I took some pictures as I tore it down but nothing everyone hasn't seen before. I used the video from matts garage, and the site from billavista as well as a couple other resources. taking stuff apart is easy.


then more cleaning,


then I painted it with eastwood rust encapsulator and a top coat of vht engine paint gloss black


I discovered when doing the inspection that the front output gear was not in the best condition so I ordered a new one from Oconee offroad http://www.oconeeoffroad.com/





once I get all my parts I will get to try to put it all back together.

 

[mustanggarage]

I got the rest of my parts in last night and spent several hours putting the t-case back together. man I struggled to get those stupid ****** washers to stay stuck to the side of the case long enough to squeeze that intermediate shaft in. I thought keeping the needle bearings from falling out would be the hard part . but I did finally get it. I replaced the front out put gear with a new one due to excessive wear. I put a novak front bearing cover on it and got it set up with the proper shims this is a nice piece.



then getting that stupid intermediate gear in. I used a zip tie around the gear to give me something to hold onto, and I ended up starting the shaft into the case just enough to give the rear ****** bearing something to ride on, and I used a 7/8 socket for the front and that finally allowed me to get it all together without one of those stupid washers falling down into the case.



then the wild horses extreme assembled rear output shaft and there billet cover, that looks nice too I think. it is just sitting on there for now. I will wait until I get the adapter for the new transmission before I button that up for good.

but I think it is a nice improvement and will look good between the frame,

 

[mustanggarage]

My conference was great.




the day after we got back, we got dumped on.


I had to spend most of the day sunday plowing and scooping snow lol. but I
spent a lot of time while I was gone planning and scheming.

I also got my crate engine from summit delivered. I was going to wait until next month and do the engine and transmission at the same time, but I decided to spread it out a bit. I am embarrassed to say I did not build this engine. I have built several but this time looking at the cost of parts and materials, My Dad found this blue print engines 408 stroker on summit racing with all the stuff I wanted 425 hp 455 ft lbs tq already dyno'd for about the same as it would cost me to build it. so I decided I didn't need to build it this time.






of course it comes with a front sump oilpan no intake,and I already bought my explorer serpentine conversion from sandman. so I needed to do some work on it.
first I got it out of the box and onto the engine stand. I decided to drop the intake on it temporarily so I could use my engine lift plates to get it out. that worked fine



so first I pulled the oil pan and timing cover off. pulled the oil pump and replaced the oil pump drive shaft with an ARP version, new gasket, and installed the oil pump pickup I removed the fuel pump eccentric and torqued the timing gear back on, then put a new seal in the front cover and installed it with my damper dudes 28 oz imbalance explorer harmonic balancer, I like to install the balancer before tightening down the timing cover to allow the front seal to center itself hopefully preventing leakage. and then , test fit the pan, then installed the wild horses pan with a nice one piece gasket. and a wix oil filter.



I also planned to replace the valve covers once it is in the vehicle, and I wanted to see what it was going to look like so I went ahead and pulled them. checked the rockers and valve springs etc. over. everything looked great so I put my guide bolts in, when I had temporarily installed the intake manifold I checked the front and rear "china walls" and they both looked good, very little gap so I put a nice thick bead of rtv on and dropped the intake into position. then my new valve covers. I plan to put the old ones back in when I put the body back on to keep from scratching these up, but I wanted to see what it was going to look like. then I put the throttle bodies and the air cleaner on temporarily. I think it looks awesome. can't wait to see it running.

 

[mustanggarage]

ok this weekend I got my ax 15 kit from wild horses.


so I bolted up the motor mounts and dropped the engine into the frame.

new flywheel and center force clutch. they sent me 5/16 pressure plate bolts, and no one in town had the 3/8 ones I needed so I had to drive 60 miles to Omaha to get some new ones. then I installed the clutch and pressure plate. then I got to use my new tool, magnetic drill press, to drill the new holes to mount the equalizer bar.



then I put the new ax 15 in place.



then instead of pounding the crossmember in place I decided to use my porta power I got from harbor freight to just spread it just enough to get it in without scratching the powdercoating.

 

[mustanggarage]

then I bolted up the transfer case and test fit the shifters. My oldest Daughter Lauren helped out a bit as well.



here are a few completed pics.











now I have to fill them with fluid and measure for driveshafts

 

[mustanggarage]

I mocked up myserpentine kit from sandmann. I got a new flowkooler waterpump from wildhorses, ac compressor from oreilly and it took me a long time and many trials but I finally found a 1 wire 200 amp alternator that will work. I have that all installed and clearances are good. I haven't gotten a belt yet. i am still vacillating on what type of fan I want to use. I think I will probably use the explorer clutch fan.
I also installed my duff ceramic coated long tube headers. started installing them and of course there were lots of things I had to adjust. I had to loosen the motor mounts and adjust the engine a bit because the drivers side header was hitting. I also had to rebend the brake line. and I will need to bend my clutch linkage which means I will probably have to re powder coat it. but in the next couple of weeks I will finish the exhaust install and finish running my fuel lines then I can put the body on the frame. to start figuring all the mods i need to do before paint. I am so looking forward to that.





Oh, and we finished the design of my dash. I initially ordered one from bc broncos with just the glove box cutout. they were backordered. I waited six months then decided to go another route. I heard about a guy named Dan Dillner who has a small business he runs out of his garage after work apparently, building jeep dashes. as some people have noticed I have a jeep and enjoy the jeep forums as well. I know that is heresy but there it is. anyway. I asked him if he would consider branching out into early broncos. I sent him my original dash and a lot of components and we designed the dash exactly the way I want it. I decided I want to keep it as clean and simple as possible. I plan to run a double din stereo in a blank cubby I bought from wild horses. and I am going to mount the ac vents under the dash rather than in it. I love the design and so now he is going to fabricate it and get it sent to me in about a month.

and I got my gauges in as well. I am obviously going to be doing a custom dash.

 

[mustanggarage]

the exhaust is mocked into place. I will not tighten the clamps until I set the body back on and can position how I want the tips, what height and angle etc. now on to running the fuel lines.







everything fit very well. the magnaflow mufflers are a custom order, but I like the sound of magnaflow. and I like the fact they are stainless steel.

slow progress

 

[mustanggarage]

I finished plumbing the fuel lines. I used russell lines ptfe lined braided steel fuel lines to hopefully prevent some of the fuel vapor issues you normally get with regular braided steel fuel lines. I thought about running the vinyl lines like on newer stock vehicles or bending up regular brake lines, but I like the an fuel lines so I decided to go this route. after I had the lines all mocked into place I pulled the fuel tank out and flushed it with some gas to make sure any dirt or other crap was out of it. put it back in place.


then I used my power probe (a great tool I saw Stacey David use back when he was on trucks. It makes it much easier to do this kind of thing lol.) I used the power probe to put power to the fuel pump and flush the fuel lines. once I had flushed all the lines I hooked it up to the throttle body and ran it for a while to see where it leaked. to my surprise I had no leaks.

now I am about to try and mount the body to the frame so I can do all the body mods before pulling it to do the seam sealing and undercoating. I hope to have the body on the frame this weekend.

 

[mustanggarage]

I managed to get the body sitting on the frame temporarily just to do all the modifications I need like fitting the ac system. cutting the fender flares. cutting the hood for the scoop. cutting the floor for the shifters. fitting the dash and the dash cubby. and all the thousand and one other things I need to do before I can pull it back off again to send it off to paint.



of course I had to get my Dad to come over and help me out again.



then I needed another hand to get it bolted down so I had my wife come out and help. and of course the camera hounds had to get in the picture lol. I also decided to stick the fenders and grill on just for a bit to get a picture of what it is going to look like.





gotta love those lines.

 

[mustanggarage]

I also got my new dash in. It looks amazing. i am very happy with it. I am not sure whether I will be using a dashpad or not yet, but it looks good either way.

here are some test fit pictures.

 

[mustanggarage]

Not long after I got to this stage my Dad passed away. It’s been hard finishing it without him but Like the song says, life goes on long after the thrill of living has gone