6/8/02 - Started on the centech install, I ripped out all the old wires and I have the new wires routed for the most part. I still have a bunch of work to do before it is finished. Also I discovered that the pressure line adapter that I got from Napa for the Napa power steering pump was too small. I order one ($8) from BCbroncos.com to be sure I got the right one this time. Total spent $8
5/26/02 - Finally got some work done on the old steed. I picked up a new solinoid at Napa and I mounted my battery cutoff switch. I made a bracket for the switch out of some sheetmetal from an old AST 486 case. It fit perfectly and was galvanized so I used it. I rivited the bracket to frontside of the core in between the radiator and battery. This allows the switch to be flipped without out opening the hood which I thought was a good safety feature. All the battery cables were replaced and smeared with dielectric greasy. I went overkill on the will just because Frank had gave me a bunch of pre-cut/pre-crimped wire that were just the right lengths. The damn body ground is 2/0 gauge and nothing less than 2 gauge everywhere else. I discovered the starter was toasted from the last event in November. I replaced it with a $30 model from autozone. Also when I need to replace the brake pads I plan to use Rebestos Brute Stop #BD50M. I heard they make a difference. Total Spend $56. $30 starter, $16 soloinoid, $10 various connectors and wires.
11/27/01 - Finally pulled the windshield off the parts bronco. Pain in the ass. I need to drill out about 40 spot welds and use a hammer and fat screw driver to pry it out.
10/18/01 - Huh pain in the ass. The starter solinoid got stuck on again resulting in the engine cranking with no key in the ignition. No more crappy $5 dollar solinoids no more. I checked into the Napa and Ford one's. $16 and $36 respectively, no thanks. I found a spare solinoid in my parts box so I'll try that one. If it doesn't work I'll break down and buy the expensive one. As a safety procaution I picked up a heavy duty battery switch from JC Whitney for $23 and a 18 circuit fuse block to play with later for $21. The switch handles 1,000 amp max load at 6-36 volts. I also bought the parts for the saginaw PS pump. Got it from Napa. Its little. The pump was $99 + $27 core and the fitting was $8.59.
9/26/01 - Well I finally got the gasket and oil seals for my rear axle. The install was pretty easy. Upon closer inspection I know that the passenger side bearing and oil seal had been replace in the past. The bearing said china on it and the seal was different than the driver side. After the test drive the nasty mechanical didn't go away which make me believe its in the transfer case. It sounds like a bad bearing I just have to find it.
9/25/01 - What a pain old vehicles can be. After confusing all the local autoparts stores I call ford and got the part numbers for the carrier gasket C7TZ4036B and bearing oil seals C9UZ1177A which are both for the Ford 9" rear end. Of course Ford doesn't stock or make those parts anymore.
9/24/01 - Got the whole rear axles apart. My axles appear to be orginal and there are 28 spline. These also used ball bearings rather than tapered bearings. Which is one more good reason to go with warn full floaters after. The axles appear to be in great shape, no twisted splines or anything. When I removed the third member it looked to be in pretty good shape. A few or the teeth on the ring gear had some rust on them. That fact and the color (brownish) of the gear lube leads me to believe I had a little water in the rear end. Upon inspection of the axle ball bearings and third member everything appears to be fine mechanically which makes me worry, where's the nasty drive line noise comming from. Oh good news on the alternator. I hosed down the engine compartment to get all the mud out and now the alternator appear to work fine again. Its pushing 14.1 V like it used to and not squealing anymore. I'll still likely upgrade it someday to a 130+ amp model but its good to know I don't have to yet.
9/19/01- Looking into the Napa Saginaw poer steering kit. here is some controvseie on the list on what the right part number is. One guys says its 20-6860 which is $65 at napa w/ no core. I would then need a $42 bracket from All 4 Fun to install it. Then I may also need a pully GM#934430150 6.655 for $21.70. However there is supposedly a kit with the bracket and pump but some people say the kit is not a saginaw pump but a f250 pump. The price for the 20-6244 kit is $99 + $27 core charge. Michael Kupec has a write up on it here. Since this is confusing I'll likely go down to Napa to take a look at there books and see if the picture matches. Also bronco ohio has a good write up on it
9/17/01 - Checked the fluid on the transfer case and transmission and there were no signs of water. I also replaced the 13x2 FMS are filter. It was hard to find. The Napa part number is 2116 and it crosses with AC Delco A355C, Fram CA324A, Motorcraft FA612A, Purolator A50831, Wix 42116
9/4/01 - I finally had a chance to take a closer look at the bronco carnage after returning from Europe and I'm a little more relieved. The engine runs at 190 warmed up and oil pressure seems maybe a little low but the 20-40 most of the time. The oil is nice and clean. I took it for a drive down to the lights and back and the mechanical nasty noises that I can hear only happen at 10+ mph so I'm pretty sure that it is driveline related. In fact from the sound of it I think I have some water in my transfer case since I was in water that was over its breathing hole. It could also be the rear end since the nice thin coating of mud everywhere makes it really easy to see fluid leaks and I appear to be leaking a little fluid from the pinion seal on the rear end. That doesn't worry me too much since I plan to swap in that posi third member. I have one tire that does hold air well but I have the road hazard from NTB so that should be able to take care of that.
8/19/01 - Wahoo gas station parking lot repairs. See trail log.
8/6/01 - I was all set to pick up an electric fuel pump to help solve my starting problems. I went down to R&D speed to pick one out and they suggested that it was my fuel mixture that was the problem. They came out took a listen and tuned the right adjuster out about 2 1/2 turns from middle and the left 2 1/2 turns in from middle. It did sound a little smoother and seemed to start up very quickly. The real test will be how it starts tomorrow morning when the engine is cold. Started pulling the steering wheel apart so I could change the turn signal hardware since it almost never cancels. I got almost everthing off until I got stuck and realized that I need a special tool to pull the steering wheel mount out.. Guess I'll pick one up at VIP tomorrow. Also checked on starters $40 - $50 depending one which one it is. I'll need to pull it first to find out which one I have.
8/2/01 - Installed the BC Broncos radiator guard. Easy install. The mounting kit is one time use though so, the Derale part number is 13001 in case I ever need to put it on another radiator. Installed Tuffy center console. I needed to createsome spacers to clear the stock seatbelt bolts. I cut two 8" lengths of 1" square tubing. The postition of the rear bolts were about threeinches back from the seat belt bolts. This allowed from the rear bolt to gothrough a body crossmember and for the front bolt to clear the transfer case.
7/21/01 - Repair work to the winshield frame. See write up
6/26/01 - The hack job that I have called mounting brakets for my driver side recaro seats needed an over haul. Because the seats I was using where base off metric measurements and I was mounting to the body and did not have a welder it made the project a little tricky.
6/17/01 - Finally swapped in the spare output shaft. Using grease to hold the roller bearing in place while installing it worked great. The bolts for the bearing retainer were all torque to 30lb. I filled up my NP435 tranny with 7 pints of Mobil One 75W-90 synthetic gear oil and the Dana 20 was filled with 2.75 pints of Valvoline VR-1 (sp?) SAE 50 oil. After an intial drive around the parking lot it feels fine.
6/14/01 - Finally getting around to working with the Dana 20 swap. rather swaping the whole case I've decided to just swap the output shafts. So far so goodI've removed the output shaft assembly. As 20+ list members informed me (thanks EBML,EBE,and ECBR) I am using wheel bear grease to hold the needle bearings in place while I do the swap. I did also call about 15 local tranny shops and welding shops to see if I could get the out shaft reharded like Jack O'Brian does in his rebuilds. All of the were clueless to were I could have that done. So I plan to just swap it in a pray it doesn't break. I'm strongly considering the $350 wild horses output shaft to avoid breaking one of these again. I also inspected the rear drive shaft from my parts bronco and it going to need some tlc before it useable. I also got in my tuffy console the other day. Its pretty nice and I cant wait to get it installed. One more damn bronco key for the key ring though.
5/20/01 - Removed the 3 speed and Dana 20 from my parts bronco. The parts bronco I have, has a rotted body and frame so I didn't really trust it enough to get under it. I instead cut out the tunnel cover and pulled it from the top. I may consider just swapping the output shaft if that can be done with the transfer case in place. If so I may get the output shaft rehardened like Jack O'Brien does on his Dana 20 rebuilds.
5/14/01 - Ordered Dana 20 seal kit, t-case frame mounts, chrome Dana 44 diff cover w/seal, hub tool, j-shift twin stick, and a radiator guard from JBG for like $250.30 total. I also talked to Wild Horses about the rumor of them making a strong Dana 20 output shaft and it turn out they will be. Its stronger and should have more splines. They plan to have it out in about a month however he said the cost would be around $400 ouch.
5/13/01 - Well, the rear output shaft on my Dana 20 just snapped. My Bronco felt a little funny (barely noticeable) driving home last night like it was fighting something, almost like the parking brake was on halfway or something. It must have heated up and weaken it because it snapped after just driving twenty feet in my driveway this morning. I was able to put it in 4WD to put it back in the parking spot. Luckily I have an extra Dana 20 in a parts bronco I picked up a few weeks ago. Here's some pictures...
Pic 1
Pic 2
Pic 3
5/11/01 - Ordered a black, 8" wide, Tuffy deluxe stereo security console in a mass buy. Pretty good deal at $163.80 + shipping.
5/1/01 - Got a quote in the ARB and Warn 31 spline full floating axles. ARB $649 shipped, warn $635 shipped, and labor 10 hours @ $50 per/h = $500. Grand total $1770. Ouch. I still don't really know what I have in the rear axle so I may hold off on this. I also have a posi 3rd member that could drop in for now. Also the other thing that make me want to hold off is that OXtrac the maker of the cable lockers will be making a Dana 44 locker this summer and likely a Ford 9" one next summer. With cable lockers there is just less to go wrong compared to with electric and air with ARBs and the Electric lockers out now are not strong enough. So since I plan to hold off on the big stuff I should replace the rear axle seals before the next offroad run.
4/30/01 - Got my spare American Racing rim today. Cost me $68. Should be able to mount one my old Dunlop Mud Rovers on it but I'll need to have someone balance it. Also I needed to toss a set of 30x9.5x15 tires in order to pass inspection. Some company needs to make wider fender flares.
4/25/01 - Talked with Lou Kiklis about having Warn full floaters and an ARB locker installed. Should be getting back to me in a few days with a price quote.
4/22/01 - Bought a parts bronco off of Shawn Webster. I plan to strip it down for parts. I also got a good extra frame to go with it. I may someday use it for a frame up restoration. Also picked up some brake shoes from napa for $9.99. They went on really quick since I had done the job once already last year. Turns out that the onroad handling problems of my new tires was because NTB had the pressure cranked out to 34psi all around. This results in riding on the centers of the tires. I lowered the pressure down to 26psi and they handled much better and should have better wear as well.
4/21/01 - Turns out my oil leaks were comming from two places, both easy fixes. The first was the valve covers. Almost every bolt was loose. I tighten them all down. I'll pickup a torque wrench later to make sure they are all to spec. The second was the oil gauge line. It had a nice crack in it that I never saw before. It was like they the biggest source of the oil leak. Pick up the line kit at Napa for $8.49. Started some sheetmetal repairs. I noticing that at lot of the body seam in the bed are are rusty. zI'm thinking I may weld in to angled stock all along the wheel wells and around all other bed seams.
4/20/01 - Got my new Goodyear Wrangler MT/R tires. $828.72 for mounting, lifetime balance and rotation, and roadhazard warrenty. I figure I'll likely need to get these balanced every 3,000 miles so going through NTB would be worth it. Stuck with the same size as my older Dunlop Mud Rovers, 33x12.5x15. It took between 2 oz. to 5oz. to balance each tire. First impression of them onroad is that I like them. They are quiter than my Dunlops and much less tendency to break traction when taking off on dry pavement. They do feel like they float a little more when I am turning but then again the tread lugs on these are about 3/4" compared to the worn down tread of about 1/4" on the Dunlops. I think I'm going to be very happy with them once I get to play with them offroad. Fast foward to 10:00PM I was geting supplies for my first real trail run tomorrow when I noticed a bit of smoke come up from the hood. When I inspected it closer with a flash light It looked like it was leaking from the valve cover gasket. I really hope the fix is just torqueing down the valve cover bolts. I will wait until daylight before doing anything else.
4/18/01 - What the hell, it snowed today. As I was putting my full softop back on I noticed that there wasn't enought clearence between the windshield from and the door window frame on the driver side. This is probably why the window frame on the previous door cracked. I'll have to remember to put a small shim in there soon. I also need to remember this when I get my new rollcage since it has supports for the windshield frame.
4/17/01 - Had my brakes pressure bled at Sear's. This was the only place in town that could pressure bleed them. I was leaking a little bit of fluid from the area that I flanged new brake lines last fall. He said that the way I flanged the lines (single flange) was not best way to do it which is way I had some pin hole leaks after a few thousand miles. So I may just go thought the whole system wih some pre-made and bent stainless steel double flanged lines from the master cylinder all the way to each wheel. When the guy was checking them out he notice that my rear axle seal on my driver side is leaking a little. Appears to be a small leak so I can put it off until this summer when I upgrade to 31 spline axles. I guess I'll have to avoid river crossing until then too. Also one brake shoe has some heat damage on it from a time that the parking break was set part way and driven on, opps. That should a be a cheap quick job to replace next weekend.
4/14/01 - Installed new smittybuilt cage. Finished up last little bit of the the Kayline fast track. Finished door shims, see write up. Put in new plug wires and spark plugs. Gapped the plugs at 0.050. Wasted a whole bunch of time debugging that fact that I crossed wires 3 and 4 when hooking up the new accel wires. The thing that threw me for a loop was that my 351W has a 302 firing order. This means that my block is a 351W but my camshaft, ignition, and likely heads are likely from the orginal 302.
4/10/01 - Talked to Mike Kirkus about getting one of his roll cages. It seems to be everything that I'm looking for. He wouldn't be able to start it until mid-may but that should be good timing for me. Once I get it I plan to do as much fitting work as I can and the have J's Rod and Custom do all the welding. Also when talking to the owner at J's about my York compressor he suggested that I move the alternator to the driver side so I could install the york upright on the passenger side.
4/8/01 - Started to install my new smittybuilt roll bar. Damn thing is bigger than the old one. The mounting hole didn't matchup to my last roll bar so I will need to drill some new ones. Changed the oil, started to change the plugs and wires. Since I have that duraspark ingition I will need to take it back for one that fit my 77 motor.
4/3/01 - Swaped out the right headlight for a new one. I use to have to smack the old bulb a few times for it to come on.
4/2/01 - Ok I was worried for a bit because I thought I had a '64 351W which never existd. I rechecked the engine S/N again and I do have a 74 engine. Althought the Duraspark igition very likely not native to the '74 bock and the heads could possably be from a different year too.
3/31/01 - Installed Accel cap and rotor. Picked up the new Accel plugs I ordered for $19. Started to install new plugs however they were the wrong size. It looks like it possible that my head are a different year than my 74 351W block. I need to look for the serial number on the head to confirm the year. Either that or my local shop ordered them wrong. Finished up more of the Kayline top install. Update...look like I was off by a decade on the engine block. My block is actually a '64 and not a '74.
3/26/01 - Pick up a set of Accel 8.8mm plug wires and Accel cap and rotor. Total came to $88. The plugs are on order for tomorrow.
3/25/01 - Spent the day with my friend Jan doing repairs to our Broncos. We replaced his T-shifter with a WH twin stick shifter. We fought with trying to installed it without cutting the tunnel cover much but, that was to much of a pain the ass. We finally cut the tunnel cover to give us to room to work and the install went much faster by doing so. Added shims to my lower door hings. I think I used about 3/32 stock to shim the driver side. It closes much better now. The passenger side was a bit more of a challenge because the door post is a bit rusted near the bottom hing. Frank helped fab a oversized shim to strenghten the door post out of 1/8 stock. Looks like it will fit ok but I'll need some longer bolts to install it. Took my hard top off and realized walking it 300 feet throught 2 feet of snow would not be the most fun thing to do so, we flipped it upside down and slid it over the snow like a sled. I put it up on some wood blocks and I'll likely cover it up with a tarp later this week. The install of my new Kayline fast track top went pretty well. I still need to finish the tailgate area later.
3/24/01 - Spring cleaning time, took most of the junk/spare parts out. Rotated and aired up my tire to 26psi all around. Uninstalled a smittybuilt 4 point cage. Took longer that I thought because a lot of the bolts were rusted. My new bolt spitter tool proved to be useful. Check mounting postions for my York pump. It going to be a tight fit any place I put it. I'm not sure If I'll be able to mount it upright even if I do a body lift. If I mount it on the passenger side I will need to reroute a main radiator hose. I did confirm that I will need to change my pully set up in some way in order to fit it. I also check to see if my radiator shroud will fit. It will but I'll have to take the fan off to get it on. I'm still so up in the air about doing a body lift. Also I found out that I had wheel spacers on my front wheel today. Appear to be about 3/8. I assume they were put on because my rims did not have enought backspacing to clear the knuckles.It did start a little quicker this afternoon since it was a little warmer outside. Since took three tries though and for the first ten seconds it was running it didn't sound like it was fireing on all cylinders. Cound be the plugs, I'll check those tomorrow. I think I'll put in new plug wires, cap, and rotor in since it cheap and who knows how old the current ones are. Could use some new plug wire spreaders too.
3/7/01 - I found several options for the reciever. The best one is an insert that turns it into a 2" I.D. for only $12. The problem is that I think I'd need to drill anything I put in it to 3/4 for the pin. I may just have a metal shop make me a 3/4" pin. Also my start I think is begaining to go. I've been looking at generic ones at $60 - $100 or some nice gear reductions models. For the gear reduction models I have two choices Mean Green for $279 at WH or a FMS one for $300 new or $150 rebuilt.
3/6/01 - Wahoo 20" on the ground this morning and it is still snowing. The bronco goes around just fine in it. Things I learned today. 1. Don't buy a cheap tow rope. I had a 5000lb. rated 10' braided tow rope with tow hooks on each end. Pulled the first couple cars out of a light snowbanks just fine but, snapped it as soon as I came to a car that was stuck good. I picked up a 20,000lb. 20' 2" tow strap. However no place to hook it to. 2. I learn that my reciever is an oddball 2.5" size with a 3/4" pin hole. It might be a class 5 reciever. No one local carries this size... bastards
3/1/01 - Got the York compressor in today, heavy SOB. It's a Motorcraft (Ford) version with a V-belt pully with an electric clutch. Next goal is too find or make a mounting bracket that will allow me to mount it upright on the passenger side.
2/26/01 - Bought a 10cu York air compressor from John Foottit, a EMBL member, for $55 shipped. Bought a clutch and non-power brake peddle assemby from Randy of drivenautoparts.com for $23 shipped. The reason I got this is because the power brake peddle I have now is too damn big. I clip the brake with the side of my shoe all the time when using the clutch and I have never done that in any of the other four manual tranmission vehicles that I have owned. This is the first step in getting onboard air. On another note The Detroit true-tarc locker is out of the running for my future plans for a part time locker because it is only designed for up to 33" tire and I may go to 35" someday.
2/12/01 - Kayline fast trac top came in. Pretty nice. The hardware even looks improved.
2/10/01 - 48 Degrees out today up from the normal 20. Nice day to work outside. Filled in the pin holes in the hardtop rain gutter with clear silicon. Fix the driver door handle, installed an universal battery hold down kit so my optima won't bounce anymore.
2/6/01 - Ahh the big Kayline scare. Kayline, the only good maker of EB soft tops, is going out of business. The only other maker of EB soft tops is Bestop and, I heard their product sucks in comparison. James Duff is already charging $625 because Kayline raised the wholesale price on it last shipments. He said he is expecting the price to go up because another company will take over Kayline and raise the wholesale price. Other dealers have confirmed this as well. Anyway, I was able to jump in and pick up a new fasttrac top and bikini top for $485 and $65 respectively. Kicking myself for not taking advantage of the WH December special for $399. Oh well who knew.
1/25/01 - It fits! The 13"x2" drop base air cleaner is just as tight as the 14"x1" so I plan to get a thin plastic washer and a thin (1/8) nut to hold it down. Also I plan to get a 3"x3"x1/4" piece of foam rubber to stick to the underside of the hood. This should prevent any scratching from going on.
1/24/01 - I've been fighting to find a good air filter that will fit under my hood. First tried a 14" air cleaner with a drop base. Hits the distributer, vacuum hose and fuel line. Tried an offset 14" base which fit but unfortunately it is not a low-profile so the only filter I could fit in was 14"x1" which I realized after only has a surface area of 43.96 sq/in and the stock one was 56.52 sq/in.Also it was such a tight fit that I needed to use a normal nut rather than a wing-nut to bolt down the filter. So I pickup a Ford Motorsport 13"x2" air cleaner with a drop base. This has a surface area of 81.64 sq/in which should not longer choke my engine so badly. It just barely clears the distributer but does. I have a banjo fitting for the fuel line and I plan to pick up a 90 degree fitting for the vacuum hose tonight. I have a good feeling that it will fit. Money wasted: 14" Air cleaner $32, offset base $18. Money hopefully put to good use: 13"x2" Air Cleaner $42, banjo fitting $8, vacuum hose right angle fitting $2.89 from Napa.
12/28/00 - Installed the new Edelbrock carb. The battery was acting up so I just went out and picked up a Optima yellow cap and a new post to solinode wire. With a little tweaking of the carb it started right up for the first time in a month. Also ordered front smittybuilt cage kit from R&D speed shop. Costs $145 battery, $108 cage kit.
12/25/00 - Wahoo got a 48" hi-lift jack for Christmas, I'm going to checking into getting the case and mounts for it soon.
12/4/00 - Ordered new edelbrock performer carb #1405, 600cfm w/manual choke for $178 shipped from carparts.com because it was on sale. If it hadn't been I just would have rebuilt my current one. Also ordered edelbrock off-road needle set from partsamerica.com for $20 shipped.
11/28/00 - Brought the bronco into Portsmouth Ford to have the Warn hubs put in and to troubleshoot my cold starting problems. I had the front bearing are going to be replaced at the same time. The total for that job was $290 ($140 parts, $150 labor) The service manager said that cold starting issue was because the accelerator pump in my carburator.
11/27/00 - Ordered steel braided brake lines from Wild Horses. They connect from the axles to the frame. The front is 5" longer than stock and the rear is 7".Total Cost $80 shipped
11/16/00 - Got a deal on Warn Premium hubs ($38). I may need them soon too since I'm having trouble engaging my bronco into 4WD.
10/30/00 - Finally passed inspection today
10/28/00 - Cut the front fenders with a jigsaw and installed fiberglass fender flares. Used pop rivets to fasten both flares. I cut a little deep on the passenger side so two of the rivets are not anchored in metal but the rest are in tight. I think I'll replace all the sheet metal screws in the rear with rivets later on, so the front and rear match. The centech wire harness came in and it's nice. However after reading over the install directions I think I'm going to hold off installing it until I do a little prep work. I want to replace the light fixtures because the current fixtures still have a few inches of wire each and to do things right I need to replace those too. And since the wiring harness is an all or nothing job I started to just troubleshoot the current wiring so I can get the damn thing to pass inspection being that it the only thing left to do.
10/25/00 - Talked to a rep from ARB about air lockers. Wahoo I can get 'em without needing new axles or having to change my gearing. I found out that I do have 31 spline axles so I wouldn't have to upgrade those. There also is a shop in Nashua that can order and install them. The shop is call Durabuild Transmission and the number is 603-883-1030 ask for Skip. These of course won't be cheap. About $600-$700 for each locker and about $250 per axle for labor according to the ARB rep. Also tack on at least another $200 for an air compressor. The rep said that it could be used for air tools if I had a tank to but that it wasn't made for that. I'll give Durabuild a call on Friday.
10/24/00 - Ordered a BR-10A Bronco Wiring Harness from Centech. Wasn't cheap ($425) but they are supposed to be the best and my wires are in pretty bad shape. A lot of them crack very easy and I've be told that they can be a fire hazard. Also a few of my marker lights some times flicker a bit. So since I plan on keeping this for a while I just bit the bullet and bought it.
10/23/00 - Brought the door lock cylinders to a locksmith and she was able to make keys for them that work fine. Pretty cheap too, $15 for the work and a few dollars more for and extra set of keys.
10/21/00 - Finished making the mounting brackets for the driver's seat. I used a pair of thick L brackets that I cut in half. I brought it in to Stratham tire to get inspected and it failed because of front tires stuck out to wide with my 33x12.5 on 15x10 rims with a 4 inch offset. The rear wheels were the same but were only called borderline because I had the fender flares on the rear quarter panels. I also had a couple of lights out that I didn't notice before. I may just go and get the centech wire kit now to do things right. Also the tech said that I have some air in my brake lines so I need to re-bleed them. But that didn't stop it from passing. I asked about studded snow tires and the guy there suggested Remington XT's. They looked like they had a good bite and came in 31x10.5. He said it would be a bit of a tight fit on 15x10 rims so I'll get opinions from the list.
10/17/00 - Second try on the door locks below with Big AL's ALL Pro. Wrong one again. I plan on checking the door I took off to see what they look like but I think those are not the original door either. I got some good references one local shops from the guys at Big Al's. Atlas some thing down in Dover for sheet metal, Kimble Auto Body just down the street, and an antique car parts dealer in Salem. This will be on my vendor list shortly.
10/15/00 - Finished painting passenger side floor pan. Set both floor pans in with a sheet metal screw. Made sure not to use the screws anywhere near the aux. gas tank. Used bondo on the spots that I had tried to get last week with fiberglass. I should be able to paint over it tomorrow. Created a bracket so I could mount the passenger seat in at two points now. In feels much more solid than before. God Damn Home Depot always seems to have everything but what I need. I need more thick sheet metal to make more brackets for mounting the seats but no one has any.
10/14/00 - Finally got the right e-brake cable in from James Duff. Installing it was a snap since I had the cable loosened. The driver side floor is going to need some more reinforcing then just the overlay I have now. The floorboard flexes a good deal when setting the e-brake. The overlay will do for now and will last at least until next summer. Doing the driver side floor right involves installing the kick panel so I have something solid to weld to on both sides. Started putting in new door lock cylinders in but the new ones I got from Pepboys didn't fit. They were OEM locks for ford but I think they only fit newer ones. Painted the driver side floor board with some black primer.
10/12/00 - Actually put stuff up on my website for the bronco.
10/8/00 - Patched up the little holes on the rear quarter panels and and passenger rocker panel. Also filled in the hole high on the driver floorboard. Removed the driver side seat without having to remove the aux gas tank. Started to take off the aux tank just to see what was involved. The brackets were easy to remove but the fuel hoses and line would be a pain in the ass. Scraped off some of the rust flakes (which also happen to stay crunchy in milk) of the aux tank skid plate and put it back on. I may want to do this again for when I screw in the new floor boards so I can be sure not to puncture the tank. So the only things left that need fixing to pass inspection is installing the floor panels and last e-brake cable.
10/7/00 - Readjusted passenger side rear brake and the brakes overall perform much better. They felt like they should be working. I was able to free the front brake cable to the point were it appears that I will not have to replace it. James Duff had sent me the wrong rear cable so it looks like I have to wait a bit longer before I can install it. Picked up some fiberglass resin and black primer to be used tomorrow.
9/30/00 - Took the bracket off the old passenger Fiero seat and fitted it to one of the Recaro seats. I had to do a little modification to the bracket to fit it and I had to pick up 8mm x 16mm bolts to screw into the Recaro seat. I could only bolt in one corner of the seat because I will have to drill new holes for the other three corners. Replaced brake shoes, springs, and brake cylinders for rear brakes. During the process I had to cut the brake line from the rear axle back because the lines were ceased up. This turned a two hour job into a day long project. Jan and Frank helped me out on this. We had to flange to some new brake lines a couple of times because metal in the line was very hard and it took us a few tries to get it right so there were no brake leaks and then we bled the brakes. Also installed the driver side parking brake cable. I should be able to install the other e-brake cable next weekend when they finally get delivered. Also figured out that my headlight problem was because of the dimmer switch. Picked up a new dimmer switch for $11 at Napa. The brakes didn't feel as good as there should have, I think the rear disks have to be adjusted. I'll get to this sometime this week. Put the stock shift knob on. Holds tight much better than that stupid 8-ball thing. The set screws that held the 8-ball one sucked. They loosen up after a few shifts.
9/24/00 - Cleaned up hardware on tailgate and passenger door. Removed Passenger seat where the brackets mount to the body was all rusted. scraped the big chunks away and plan to cut away the the rust till is the sheet metal is clean. I can afford to be liberal with this since the new duff floor pan are going to overlay this section. Also it looks like the seat brackets will need to be drilled to fit the Recaro seat I have. One other annoying thing I realized was that the aux fuel tank needs to be removed to remove the drivers seat.
9/22/00 - Ordered replacement kick panels and floorboard for both driver and passenger sides from Jamesduff. Called and got pricing for BFG AT KO 33x12.5R15 for $574 installed from NTB. Total Cost $158
9/16/00 - Replaced Tailgate, driver and passenger side doors with junk-yard parts that were in better shape. I'm Pretty sure the doors came off a 1970 Bronco w VIN#U15GLH20540. The little front triangle window on the drivers side door was reused because the replacement didn't have one.
9/2/00 - rewired driver side headlight electrical harness and bought extra headlight. Installed soft top. Installed after-market shift knob (eight-ball, cheesy but the only thing available). Total Cost $28
8/27/00 debated on going with rear disk conversion instead of doing the brake work. Dave convinced me that the rear drums were already real good ones and that the rear disk would make very little difference and require more mantainance (confirmed later too by looking at bronco chart. The rear shoes are 11x2.25 compared to the small bearing 10x2.50 shoes or 11x1.75 big bearing used in rear ends prior to '76). Ordered brake cables and backing plates from Jeff's bronco Graveyard and picked up brake cylinders, shoes, and a spring kit from Napa. Cost Napa ~$50 , JBG $92 so far. Total Cost $142
8/23/00 had Portsmouth Ford do a safety inspection. They said the bearings needed to be repacked and I needed to replace the front, right and left e-brake cables, both rear brake cylinders, and brake shoes. Cost $60
8/3/00 - Bought from Kieth for $2200. Had 160K on the speedometer and the engine has approx. 8K on it since being rebuilt. He added in a ton of extra parts. Had it tow by AAA back to Portsmouth because the brakes were a little ify and it had been sitting for a year.
Work Done by Previous Owners
