build thread from the wind tunnel

[Colorado75bronc]

Looks good Chad! Looking forward to seeing yours come together


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[Gunnibronco]

Thanks!

Made some progress this weekend. Not as much as I'd have liked, but everything is working out right, and that is worth the extra time.

Did a little grinding & fitting, then blasted the front suspension with some black paint.

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Got the radius arm brackets welded to the frame. I did add a little angle to the bracket, pointed the radius arms at the axle C's. There is very little strain on the new misalignment bushing.

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Finally, got the ZF bolted to the back of the motor. Due to my -1/2" body lift, I had to do a *little* cutting. Looks like I'll have to cut more the floor out between the seats just to clear the tcase. I'll build a new tunnel cover to clear it all. I had to pull the passenger side header off to fit the trans, looks like the collector flange is going to hit the starter "hump" on the ZF bellhousing. It was super close on my NP435, now I don't think its going to clear. I feel it was clocked incorrectly, there are lots of other ways it could have been welded on, and it wouldn't have been a problem.

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I need to put the heater box back in and see how it clears the shifter.

I should get to test fit the Atlas this week or maybe next, before hunting season. Due to time constraints/winter, I will probably clock the Atlas low, just to get things installed & running. I think.

[Justin]

I'd be tempted to clock it flat now, just to not have to pull it apart again.

[Gunnibronco]

Without a body lift, I'd have to lift the driver seat about 2". I was thinking about it, but its not going to happen.

The only extra work to clock it flat later is pulling the t-case, and maybe reworking the ZF crossmember. Front driveshaft will change a little, but with the high pinion, the angle & length won't change that much.

[Justin]

Ah, I didn't realize it would mean lifting the drivers seat. I haven't looked at it, but thought it just meant floorboard mods behind the seat.

[Gunnibronco]

Ah, I didn't realize it would mean lifting the drivers seat. I haven't looked at it, but thought it just meant floorboard mods behind the seat.

Yep, its right under the seat. I realized that when I pulled the NP435/D20 & started measuring. What I didn't realize is how high up the trans & case sit. The ZF barely fit, it might look like I cut out more than necessary. But really I tried to fit it about 10 times, cutting a little more each time, before it fit together. With any less floor removed the trans was at too much angle to get the trans to slide into the clutch/pilot bushing. The one piece case & bellhousing really make it difficult. I don't think you could do it without a trans jack. A body lift is a VERY good idea. I guess my avatar explains my mindset for this project. Its going to fit without a body lift.

[landshark]

I realize I have a different engine and zf model but I also had issues with the passenger side exhaust flange. I had to grind a half circle groove about 1/4 deep right above the starter to get it to fit. I used a hex button head bolt to get the flange bolted up. (I think it's a button head).

Don't know if it helps but had to grind quite a bit here and there on my zf

[Gunnibronco]

I had to grind a half circle groove about 1/4 deep right above the starter to get it to fit.

Don't know if it helps but had to grind quite a bit here and there on my zf

Did you go all the way through the ZF housing? I'm wondering how deep I'm going to have to go.

Pulling the header & the future grinding are once again making me happy I pulled the inner fenders.

I cut a triangular boss off the driver side of the case, just to get it close to the motor.

[landshark]

I will see if I have a picture of what I did but used a die grinder and made a "relief". It's right at a boss above the starter so lots of material there.

I also had to cut the two shifter bolt mounts off the driver side to get my twin sticks to fit. Thank god tthe zf is aluminum.

[Gunnibronco]

Inevitable update:

Its been about a month since I've worked on my truck. Family visits, hunting, butchering, life, etc have eaten up the month of October.

Now, I've decided its time to stop screwing around and get my house remodel done to a point where I can refinance the home. Sadly, I've been remodeling since the economy screwed the pooch, and couldn't get the house refinanced since the rates dropped. Rates are bound to rise sooner or later. I met with a bank and realize that my house isn't that far from being in complete enough to get a good appraisal. So my next month or so will be spent chipping away at house projects, not Bronco projects.

The house remodel has become a real thorn in my side, so getting "finished" (really about 90% finished) will be a great relief. Plus with the house doneish, Bronco time (and '39 Plymouth time ) will be easier to justify.

To be continued.......

[Rox Crusher]

Inevitable update:

Its been about a month since I've worked on my truck. Family visits, hunting, butchering, life, etc have eaten up the month of October.

Now, I've decided its time to stop screwing around and get my house remodel done to a point where I can refinance the home. Sadly, I've been remodeling since the economy screwed the pooch, and couldn't get the house refinanced since the rates dropped. Rates are bound to rise sooner or later. I met with a bank and realize that my house isn't that far from being in complete enough to get a good appraisal. So my next month or so will be spent chipping away at house projects, not Bronco projects.

The house remodel has become a real thorn in my side, so getting "finished" (really about 90% finished) will be a great relief. Plus with the house doneish, Bronco time (and '39 Plymouth time ) will be easier to justify.

To be continued.......

Rates have recently dropped so it's a great time to refinance.

[Gunnibronco]

Finally got to spend a little time getting reacquainted with my Bronco this weekend.

Got the coil springs installed and the truck back on its own 4 wheels. Looks like I need to cut off my old James Duff shock hoops. I can't really drop a bolt down through the top of the coil bucket, into the retainer. I need to move the upper shock mount forward anyways, to match the lower mount that moved forward with the axle.

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Then I started stripping more off the tub. Since I haven't touched the truck in about 7 months, I had lots of time to add things to the list, because its already apart, you know.

I pulled the roof, driver door, and hood. I also pulled all the body mount bolts, in preparation for new mount bushings & hardware. After new mounts are installed, I'm going to attempt to pull the tub, tailgate opening, and door openings back to square. After things are pulled & braced, I'll redo my door posts, and build a tube front end. I found a pic of a fairly simple front end, that looks doable, with my limited tube bending equipment & skills.

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After the tub is square & the trans & tcase are installed, I'm going to spray Al's Liner HNR (Heat and Noise Reducer), and their bedliner in the inside of the tub. This will require removal of all the 15 year old Herculiner. So I've started scraping the floorboards. I figure this will also make working on the trans tunnel easier.

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[Jesus_man]

Putting down the carpenter hammer in favor of a ball-peen is always nice! Looking forward to watching you gain ground on your bronco again!

[Gunnibronco]

Putting down the carpenter hammer in favor of a ball-peen is always nice! Looking forward to watching you gain ground on your bronco again!

Thanks. Its good to be back. I'm still splitting my time between house projects and the Bronco. I've neglected some basic maintenance & organization projects the last few years, while I worked on the house. I really hadn't expected the house to take this long to finish, now I'm hoping I can get the Bronco running & enjoy it this summer. After getting back into the Bronco, I've realized how far I have to go. I'm worried I might not get to do much with it this summer. We'll see.

[sykanr0ng]

Uh-Oh!

He said those words "because its already apart, you know"

That's how fixing a (insert minor repair here) becomes a full frame off down to bare metal build.

[Gunnibronco]

Uh-Oh!

He said those words "because its already apart, you know"

That's how fixing a (insert minor repair here) becomes a full frame off down to bare metal build.

LOL. Yep.

This will not become any kind of resto. I don't even know if I should be bothering with squaring the tub. But I have to deal with repairing the a-pillar. And I really would like better aligning/sealing doors & tailgate. Reducing rattles & increasing heat retention in the winter would be nice. Plus I do it for a living, so I should at least give it a shot.

Right now my punch list is:
pull gas tank & rear bumper (sounds easy, but isn't-I'll have to build a new rear bumper mount to reinstall it properly)
body mounts
square/align body
add a couple extra crossmembers to the roll cage
repair a-pillar(s)
build tube front end, fender & grill hangers
inner fenders, ?cold air intake
build radiator support
relocate battery to firewall
replace guts of 4x4x2 box & port for future hydraulic assist
build new trackbar & install trackbar riser
install F250 front shock mounts
wire
install new dash & gauges
HNR & bedline tub
install new rear shock mounts & shocks
finish trans & Atlas install
driveshafts

I only added a more structural tube front end & the HNR/bedliner to the list since I stopped working on it last fall. I guess, everything else was already planned. Sigh.

[Gunnibronco]

In addition to a lot of time scraping Herculiner, I've been doing lots of measuring, and crawling around the truck with a flashlight.

Last night, I took a few careful measurements of my friend's unmolested 66 half-cab.

After careful consideration, and lots of head scratching, I realized my truck is F'd up. This is due a theoretical event I'm calling the "Big Bang", that occurred before I owned the truck. The "Big Bang" badly bent both body brace under the driver & passenger's feet. It also caved the body brace under the passenger seat pretty good. It managed to open the distance between the bed rails by 3/4" - 1". It also looks like the passenger door body top/rear corner impacted the top of the "b" pillar and pushed it back into the quarter about 1/4". I can't really expect to fix the amount of problems without major sheetmetal replacment & our frame rack at work. Also, my cage ended up somewhat close to the top on the right side of the truck, and if I move the bedsides to where they belong, the cage will certainly hit the top.

So Opperation "Straighten Up", has been abandoned. Operation "Fix the "a" pillar, get the damn doors on as best as possible, and drive the POS till the wheels fall off" has begun.

The good news is the body is off the mounts, and on 2x4s. The rearmost 4 bodymounts basically fell off the frame when the body was lifted. I only have to Sawzall the 2 under the driver & passenger's feet. So I've got that going for me.

[Jesus_man]

I understand your level of commitment to making it right, but for a trail rig, I think you'll be happier simply getting on the trail where it belongs. Kattywompus body and all.

I think the body of mine will rust and fall off around me, then...truggy time.

[Justin]

Gunni, that sound like a great plan. JD, please don't say the word truggy. It triggers my bronco ADHD and I've shoddy got it under control. Mmmmmm, half cab truggy bronco crawler....

[Gunnibronco]

You guys are both right. I struggled with "why" I was doing the extra work to square things up. When I realized I'd probably have cage fitment issues, it made the choice easy. If I could have done a little pulling/pushing and end up with a better door/tailgate fit, then it would have been worth it. But then I'd probably have gone and bashed it into a boulder and undone everything I worked for. Anyways, onward and upward.

[sykanr0ng]

I've started looking at mine the same way.
I want the doors to open and close right and to keep the weather and such outside of it, and the heat inside in the winter.

But spending time on "making it pretty" that I could spend driving it?

[Justin]

I figure that one hard trail will probably change more body alignment than I have the tools to fix. Your situation is a little different, but...

[Kinder]

Being square isn't cool!

[Gunnibronco]

Being square isn't cool!

Then my Bronco is the coolest!

[Gunnibronco]

Ok, body mounts have been replaced with new. That went very well, surprisingly. Four of the mounts were loose and basically fell off when the body was lifted. The 2 under the driver & passenger's feet sawzalled out easily. With a little persuasion from an alignment bar, all the bolts went into place too. My aux heater is mounted on the passenger side rear wheel well, and the hoses made getting the washer and nut on one, a real PITA.

Next, I started on the door pillar. With the weight of the hood & doors off, the door openings both were pretty close to square. Pinch-weld to pinch-weld, the passenger side was a little larger than the driver side, but square. So I figured that was probably good enough, and welded a piece of angle iron across the top of both door openings to lock in the measurement.

I cut off a bunch of the extra crap metal the PO added instead of doing acutal body work. Also cut out some rust from the kick panel. I cleaned up the old door post sheet metal that had been left behind too.

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Plated the rust hole, & made a new door hinge plate & a cage to hold it. Its not pretty, but it will all be covered up soon enough.

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I also have cut the door pillar clear of the horribly installed rocker.

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Since the bottom 2/3 of the door pillar is loose, I needed to hang the door & check fit before rebuilding the missing back half of the pillar. I added a few ratchet straps to firm up the tub, since the weight of the doors would pull the whole cowl/firewall around. I ratcheted from dash to the cage, and the firewall to my shock hoops.

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So the top went back on, and the door was installed. There was no support from the pillar, so I used some more ratchet straps to hang the door. Actually fit pretty well. Its a little too far forward, and a little low. But nothing that can't be adjusted out out. I'll keep pulling on it while installing the new sheetmetal, and see if it will move a little too. The door gaps are so much better than they were before. I had extra weatherstripping added, and still had significant gaps.

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Finally, just to see what would happen, I put a ratchet strap across the tub just behind the door opening & pulled the passenger side in. Surprisingly, the top didn't get any closer to the cage. So I really think I can get it pretty close. I think I'll make some brackets & bolt the body to the cage at the proper width. I'm sure without some extra bracing the bedrails will just bow out again.

[Gunnibronco]

Over the last couple weekends I've got the door post 90% done. It will need welded up at the bottom, once the door is in its final position & I can adjust the rocker to match the door (as best possible).

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I also used a few ratchet straps to pull the bed rails back together. I got them pretty close to the 56" stock measurement. The tailgate & lift gate fit much better. I welded a couple tabs to the bed rails & the roll cage, so I could bolt it together & hopefully keep it square.

Today I cut the front body mounts off the frame, to make room for the tube front clip. Also removed the old James Duff Super Hoops. The hoops interfered with the new adjustable coil towers. I'll be using some F250 shock mounts to replace the JD hoops.

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Finally hung my fenders & grill to take some final measurements before I have the tube bent for the front cage. Now I can also see how the wheels look inside the wheel wells with the new axle location.

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[Gunnibronco]

Haven't gotten as much time on the Bronco as I would have liked. But things are starting to come together.

Since there isn't a tubing bender in the valley that can bend thick wall tube, I was stuck piecing a front clip together from straight pieces. I had a couple 5* 'kinks' put into a couple pieces with an exhaust bender. And, yes, I'm using Sch 40 pipe, not DOM. I just can't justify the price, to protect my radiator. My cage is DOM, whatever.

*Right after I bought the tubing & started my clip, I found out there is a tubing bender in CB.

I started by bolting 2x2 angle to the kick panel & running a horeshoe style hoop from cowl to cowl. It falls just under the fender lips & runs in front of the radiator. The 5* kinks are just in front of the cowl. I used some Ruffstuff bushings to mount it to the frame.

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Added some gussets & cross bars, here is where I stand now.

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I'm planning to add another bar, on each side, from the frame bushing to the upper horseshoe, like this,

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Here we are with fenders & grill temped together, again, again, again, again. Oh, sorry, did I mention I've had my fenders & grill on and off, 1000 times.

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Lots more to go, but it feels good to see a major chunk done, and everything seems to line up nicely.

[Kinder]

I like, especially getting rid of the stock body mounts up front.

[Gunnibronco]

Thanks, I was going to use the stock mounts when I started this & was going to build the clip from 1" square tube. Once I switched to pipe, I couldn't figure an easy way to use them.

Got the lower radiator mounts hung today, cut up & reused the stock ones from my core support. Cut up and reused the upper mounts, but haven't finished mounting them.

I think I'll be lucky to drive it again before September (the 1 year anniversary of tearing it apart).

[Unaweep]

I need to come by and see how your built that sub-frame for the front. I need to build one for mine.

Erik