Intro and '66 Resto-mod

[jbregar]

Finally joined up here, amazed it took me so long to stumble across this site.

I'm a Colorado native, was born and grew up in Pueblo, moved to Greeley then Denver when I graduated from college. Spent 8 years in the Denver area and then moved back to Pueblo West when I got a job as an assistant professor at CSU-Pueblo.

My Bronco is an early 1966 (August 1965 production date) that was originally a half cab. It came to me pretty ugly, but through a year or two of work and some frame-off resto, it's looking better. Still isn't on the road yet, though.

Here's what it looked like when I brought it home:



There was no engine, the top had taken a tumble in a wind storm and it had the worst hood scoop I've ever seen and a HUGE hole under that in the hood, but it was mine. :)

The frame was pretty hacked up and had the worst POS engine mounts I've ever seen, so I made the decision to replace the frame. Got a 1971 frame with Duff double shock hoops already installed and powder coated for $150. Also snagged an UGLY D44 and refurb'd it for the front axle.

Engine is a 1973 (I think) 302 that got some freshening up. Transmission is an NV3550 5-speed and the t-case is the stock D20.



Here it is after we put the body back on the frame after body work:



It has fenders and a grille on there, but I had a really busy summer last summer so it sat for a while. This summer, I'm back on it and ended up with a 1997 Explorer 5.0L motor that I'm swapping out for the 73 carb 302. It's currently on an engine stand in my garage while it's being cleaned up and having all the stuff that's hard to do after dropping it in replaced. Installing it will probably require quite a lot of technical assistance, so I hope you guys are ready. :)

Hopefully, it'll be on the road sometime late summer/early fall. It's not my daily driver, so I can take my time.

Speaking of, anyone know of a good painter in Colorado Springs or Pueblo that isn't going to charge me an arm and a leg for a decent (but doesn't have to be show-quality) paint job?

[Viperwolf1]

Looking good. What did you do with that 16" wheel?

[Kinder]

Wow, amazing progress, welcome.

[Badlands]

A resurrection! Real great job. Love those half cabs!

[Rox Crusher]

Wholly crap what a transformation.

Who cares what you did with the wheel........I wanna know if you sent tht hood scoop back to Mad Max ?

[Justin]

Wow, you're off to a great start! I'll be excited to see how it progresses. Welcome!

[jbregar]

The wheels are all sitting out behind my workshop/garage as is the old hood and it's associated scoop.

Anyone who wants to is welcome to come over and take stuff out of my scrap pile.

The original windshield frame is there, as is a pretty beat up eyebrow grille, a beat up fender, the aforementioned scoop-a-licious hood, the original top (which is pretty beat up, but has all three pieces of glass intact), I think there's an original 3-speed. Oh, and the original frame (which I'm keeping for VIN verification purposes, but you're welcome to strip it of it's brackets and such).

I already gave the stock Dana 30 to casadejohnson (I think) about two years ago.

Thanks for the kind words all, it's been a learning experience, but I wanted an EB when I was in high school and almost ended up with one, but it didn't work out.

Engine porn (test fitting the new valve covers and headers):



Now... painters? :)

[cwin74]

Welcome! That half cab is looking good.

[jbregar]

Well, it probably won't be a half cab when I'm done with it. Need the back-end space for camping.

[Entourage]

Really nice truck. It will be fun to see the progress. Beautiful motor. Have you decided on a color for the Bronco?

[Jesus_man]

Welcome to the club!! Cool to see another CO native here and some additions to the southern crew. Nice rig!

[jbregar]

Right now I'm trying to decide between a few colors...

Actual EB colors: Prairie Yellow, Chrome Yellow or Medium Lime Poly

Not EB at all: Blazing Copper (200x Ford/Mazda color), Rescue Green (late model Jeep), and the blue they use on the Raptor.

I'm certainly taking suggestions. :)

I'd like to keep the top wimbledon white and the grille I'd want to be either Argent Silver or Wimbledon white depending on the body color.

If I did Rescue Green, I'd pretty much have to paint the top black or gunmetal... which'd make the truck a little warm inside during the summer. All the rest will look good with white, I think. I love Rescue Green, but it's one of those colors that photographs horribly. Some guy on Pirate4x4 was selling a rescue green EB and all of his pics looked gold/green.

Interior is black. Flares are black (tho they can be painted), bumpers are Protofab Rock Solid in black.

I'm leaning slightly towards Blazing Copper because there's already a nice yellow one running around Pueblo and the copper looks great with black flares/bumpers and a white top... but I'm teetering about five ways.

[jbregar]

Also, spent a bit of time last night pulling the old motor out of the Bronco's engine bay with my strong friend from China (Harbor Freight engine crane). Now that it's out of the way, I'm going to do a bit of firewall cutting and install the AC/heater bulkhead and cut the hold for the computer connector.

My pilot bushing is on order from Advance Adapters and I ordered the little doohicky bracket to mount the clutch equalizer bar on a late model 5.0 from CJ Pony Parts (the Wild Horses one looked a little ugly and required drilling out the threads in my engine block, so I figured for another $20 I'll get the nicer one), so that'll give me some time before I can drop in the new motor anyway.

Other stuff is on the way... new diaphragm-style pressure plate, flywheel from an 89 F150 w/ a stick, reman A9L compatible computer, all kinds of sensors, a new distributor, hoses, blah blah blah.

Old motor (which I'll hopefully be selling soon):



Ready to swallow the new one:



Now, anyone want to help me out when it all comes in and it's time to get it fired up? I'm an EFI n00b.

[Booger]

Welcome to the club. It looks like your headed in the right direction with the build. Good to see another native. Looks great so far. I believe it will look sweet painted Bronze.

[socofn]

Great looking project. Welcome to the club. I am also in Pueblo County, so we should get together sometime. I am really good at taking things apart, not so good at putting back together but would be willing to lend some comic relief. JP

[jbregar]

Here's the latest.. while the truck was out for paint I decided to get the parts more organized and off of the garage floor.

[jbregar]

On a related note, it's really hard to believe these things eat up almost $800 in rubber (not including the tires).

[landshark]

On a related note, it's really hard to believe these things eat up almost $800 in rubber (not including the tires).

ya tell me about it.. every-time i turn around its $200 for something..

[jbregar]

Update for today. Bronco came home from paint, it looks good... and you can't argue with the bang for the buck.

Anyway, here are a few pics of loading it and bringing it home:









Test fitting the flares:



Also stopped by the fabrication shop where my dash panels are being water jet cut and got a sneak peek at the panels in progress:

[Jesus_man]

Wow that is beautiful!!

[rdanford]

That dash is going to look great! Like the color too

[ClayJ]

Where did you wind up getting the paint done? Did you get the price you were hoping for?

[Booger]

Sweet. Can't wait to see it finished. Love the color.

[Badlands]

That is beautiful! I love that color. Can't wait to see the dash installed and all set up.
Do you have any other modern conveniences you plan to blend in?
Hope to see it one day.

[jbregar]

Thanks guys.

Paint was done by a local guy down here in Pueblo. He'd done a couple of cars for a friend of mine and his pricing is incredibly reasonable. If anyone wants his name/number, shoot me a PM. Great guy.

[jbregar]

Modern conveniences:

- Power windows
- Power door locks
- Push-button RFID start (like my Lexus)
- Power disc front brakes, drum rears
- Power steering
- EFI
- Air conditioning
- Carpet :)
- A LOT of heat/sound shielding
- Backup camera (because I don't want to run over someone's dog or kid or something)
- Modern (i.e.: 1977-vintage) side markers to reduce the chances of getting t-boned
- Power FJ cruiser mirrors

[Badlands]

Modern conveniences:

- Power windows
- Power door locks
- Push-button RFID start (like my Lexus)
- Power disc front brakes, drum rears
- Power steering
- EFI
- Air conditioning
- Carpet :)
- A LOT of heat/sound shielding
- Backup camera (because I don't want to run over someone's dog or kid or something)
- Modern (i.e.: 1977-vintage) side markers to reduce the chances of getting t-boned
- Power FJ cruiser mirrors

Nice. I figured with the high tech dash and label "resto mod" something cool would in store. The guy I bought my motor from was going to do something similar with power everything, leather, navi , air, crate 4.0 Exploder, etc. Something like that would awesome, just like a bare bones primitive restore to original is cool too. Good work!

[jbregar]

Started wiring her up... the Centech harness seems to be pretty simple to put together, but this thing's going to need a lot more than the base Centech offers.





Got the holes for the Centech cut in the firewall (mine's a '66, so there weren't the big 1-3/8" holes that later models have in the firewall) and I also cut the hole for the RJM EFI harness. Tomorrow I'll punch the holes for the BC/Vintage AC/Heater pipe bulkhead.

Question (which I'll post in tech if I don't get much response), where do the wires for the dome light and wiper motor go up into the window frame? There's a hole in the cowl where the windshield frame bolts on, but the windshield frame doesn't have a corresponding hole. That'd be the cleanest as they'd just run up through the hinge.

Dashboard is the Dakota Digital VHX made famous by the ICON Bronco. I love the design of the Dakota with a "brain" box tethered to the actual display with an RJ45 (Ethernet) cable. I think it'll help with wiring it up. I can do the brain box with the dash completely off and then just plug-plug and the gauge cluster is in.

Also ran the cables for the Dakota Digital oil pressure and engine temp sensors. The Dakota "brain" expects 3-wire for oil pressure and two wires for coolant temp, so I figured it's going to be better to just use the Dakota sensors (since I'd be replacing the Ford ones anyway). For the VSS, I'll just use the Motorcraft one so it'll work for both the EFI computer and the Dakota gauges.

I'm modding the RJM harness so the five fuses it uses will be inside of a marine-grade splash-proof fuse panel (12 slot) and not hanging out there on their own. The other 7 fuses will provide power to the upgraded headlight harness (with relays so I get full brightness out my H4 conversions), a small built-in power inverter (just enough to charge a laptop or the like, 300W or so), 12V power points (there'll be one under the hood and one in the rear outside (weatherproof) as well as four inside the cab (three up front, one in the bed), seat heaters and power mirrors with some room to spare.

I'm looking at all the dash wires and cursing myself a little bit for the Carling conversion idea. :) On the other hand, I'll take it slow and get it done and be super happy with the finished product, so...

Next weekend, the engine/trans/t-case go back to their home (hopefully, that's when the muscle aka my brother shows up). Then I'm going to set to work fabbing up a console extension that'll come down from the dashboard over the trans tunnel and hook up with the Tuffy console. Its main purpose is to hide wires behind and to house a double-DIN stereo head unit so I have a display for my backup camera.

Another mod I'm planning is a removable bed platform with storage to smooth out the back for camping. That'll be after it gets on the road, however.

Goal is to be driving this thing by my b-day in late October which is an aggressive timeline, but I need to set myself aggressive goals or I slack.

[Aztec77Bronco]

On mine, the wires just run inside the window frame on the drivers side. Then just dump out behind the dash.

[landshark]

Question (which I'll post in tech if I don't get much response), where do the wires for the dome light and wiper motor go up into the window frame? There's a hole in the cowl where the windshield frame bolts on, but the windshield frame doesn't have a corresponding hole. That'd be the cleanest as they'd just run up through the hinge.

this help?